survey

README

Survey

A library for building interactive prompts. Heavily inspired by the great inquirer.js.

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "gopkg.in/AlecAivazis/survey.v1"
)

// the questions to ask
var qs = []*survey.Question{
    {
        Name:     "name",
        Prompt:   &survey.Input{Message: "What is your name?"},
        Validate: survey.Required,
    },
    {
        Name: "color",
        Prompt: &survey.Select{
            Message: "Choose a color:",
            Options: []string{"red", "blue", "green"},
            Default: "red",
        },
    },
    {
        Name: "age",
        Prompt:   &survey.Input{Message: "How old are you?"},
    },
}

func main() {
    // the answers will be written to this struct
    answers := struct {
        Name          string                  // survey will match the question and field names
        FavoriteColor string `survey:"color"` // or you can tag fields to match a specific name
        Age           int                     // if the types don't match exactly, survey will try to convert for you
    }{}

    // perform the questions
    err := survey.Ask(qs, &answers)
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Println(err.Error())
        return
    }

    fmt.Printf("%s chose %s.", answers.Name, answers.FavoriteColor)
}

Table of Contents

1. Examples
2. Prompts
   1. Input
   2. Password
   3. Confirm
   4. Select
   5. MultiSelect
   6. Editor
3. Validation
   1. Built-in Validators
4. Help Text
   1. Changing the input rune
5. Custom Types
6. Customizing Output
7. Versioning

Examples

Examples can be found in the examples/ directory. Run them to see basic behavior:

go get gopkg.in/AlecAivazis/survey.v1

# ... navigate to the repo in your GOPATH

go run examples/simple.go
go run examples/validation.go

Prompts

Input

name := ""
prompt := &survey.Input{
    Message: "ping",
}
survey.AskOne(prompt, &name, nil)

Password

password := ""
prompt := &survey.Password{
    Message: "Please type your password",
}
survey.AskOne(prompt, &password, nil)

Confirm

name := false
prompt := &survey.Confirm{
    Message: "Do you like pie?",
}
survey.AskOne(prompt, &name, nil)

Select

color := ""
prompt := &survey.Select{
    Message: "Choose a color:",
    Options: []string{"red", "blue", "green"},
}
survey.AskOne(prompt, &color, nil)

By default, the select prompt is limited to showing 7 options at a time and will paginate lists of options longer than that. To increase, you can either change the global survey.PageCount, or set the PageSize field on the prompt:

prompt := &survey.Select{..., PageSize: 10}

MultiSelect

days := []string{}
prompt := &survey.MultiSelect{
    Message: "What days do you prefer:",
    Options: []string{"Sunday", "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday"},
}
survey.AskOne(prompt, &days, nil)

By default, the MultiSelect prompt is limited to showing 7 options at a time and will paginate lists of options longer than that. To increase, you can either change the global survey.PageCount, or set the PageSize field on the prompt:

prompt := &survey.MultiSelect{..., PageSize: 10}

Editor

Launches the user's preferred editor (defined by the $EDITOR environment variable) on a temporary file. Once the user exits their editor, the contents of the temporary file are read in as the result. If neither of those are present, notepad (on Windows) or vim (Linux or Mac) is used.

Validation

Validating individual responses for a particular question can be done by defining a Validate field on the survey.Question to be validated. This function takes an interface{} type and returns an error to show to the user, prompting them for another response:

q := &survey.Question{
    Prompt: &survey.Input{Message: "Hello world validation"},
    Validate: func (val interface{}) error {
        // since we are validating an Input, the assertion will always succeed
        if str, ok := val.(string) ; ok && len(str) > 10 {
            return errors.New("This response cannot be longer than 10 characters.")
        }
    }
}

Built-in Validators

survey comes prepackaged with a few validators to fit common situations. Currently these validators include:

name	valid types	description
Required	any	Rejects zero values of the response type
MinLength(n)	string	Enforces that a response is at least the given length
MaxLength(n)	string	Enforces that a response is no longer than the given length

Help Text

All of the prompts have a Help field which can be defined to provide more information to your users:

&survey.Input{
    Message: "What is your phone number:",
    Help:    "Phone number should include the area code",
}

Changing the input rune

In some situations, ? is a perfectly valid response. To handle this, you can change the rune that survey looks for by setting the HelpInputRune variable in survey/core:

import (
    "gopkg.in/AlecAivazis/survey.v1"
    surveyCore "gopkg.in/AlecAivazis/survey.v1/core"
)

number := ""
prompt := &survey.Input{
    Message: "If you have this need, please give me a reasonable message.",
    Help:    "I couldn't come up with one.",
}

surveyCore.HelpInputRune = '^'

survey.AskOne(prompt, &number, nil)

Custom Types

survey will assign prompt answers to your custom types if they implement this interface:

type settable interface {
    WriteAnswer(field string, value interface{}) error
}

Here is an example how to use them:

type MyValue struct {
    value string
}
func (my *MyValue) WriteAnswer(name string, value interface{}) error {
     my.value = value.(string)
}

myval := MyValue{}
survey.AskOne(
    &survey.Input{
        Message: "Enter something:",
    },
    &myval,
    nil,
)

Customizing Output

Customizing the icons and various parts of survey can easily be done by setting the following variables in survey/core:

name	default	description
ErrorIcon	✘	Before an error
HelpIcon	ⓘ	Before help text
QuestionIcon	?	Before the message of a prompt
SelectFocusIcon	❯	Marks the current focus in Select and MultiSelect prompts
MarkedOptionIcon	◉	Marks a chosen selection in a MultiSelect prompt
UnmarkedOptionIcon	◯	Marks an unselected option in a MultiSelect prompt

Versioning

This project tries to maintain semantic GitHub releases as closely as possible. And relies on gopkg.in to maintain those releasees. Importing v1 of survey could look something like

package main

import "gopkg.in/AlecAivazis/survey.v1"

Documentation

Index

• Variables
• func Ask(qs []*Question, response interface{}) error
• func AskOne(p Prompt, response interface{}, v Validator) error
• func Required(val interface{}) error
• type Confirm
  • func (c *Confirm) Cleanup(val interface{}) error
  • func (c *Confirm) Prompt() (interface{}, error)
• type ConfirmTemplateData
• type Editor
  • func (e *Editor) Cleanup(val interface{}) error
  • func (e *Editor) Prompt() (interface{}, error)
• type EditorTemplateData
• type Input
  • func (i *Input) Cleanup(val interface{}) error
  • func (i *Input) Prompt() (interface{}, error)
• type InputTemplateData
• type MultiSelect
  • func (m *MultiSelect) Cleanup(val interface{}) error
  • func (m *MultiSelect) OnChange(line []rune, pos int, key rune) (newLine []rune, newPos int, ok bool)
  • func (m *MultiSelect) Prompt() (interface{}, error)
• type MultiSelectTemplateData
• type Password
  • func (prompt *Password) Cleanup(val interface{}) error
  • func (p *Password) Prompt() (line interface{}, err error)
• type PasswordTemplateData
• type Prompt
• type Question
• type Select
  • func (s *Select) Cleanup(val interface{}) error
  • func (s *Select) OnChange(line []rune, pos int, key rune) (newLine []rune, newPos int, ok bool)
  • func (s *Select) Prompt() (interface{}, error)
• type SelectTemplateData
• type Validator
  • func ComposeValidators(validators ...Validator) Validator
  • func MaxLength(length int) Validator
  • func MinLength(length int) Validator

Variables

var ConfirmQuestionTemplate = `` /* 497-byte string literal not displayed */

Templates with Color formatting. See Documentation: https://github.com/mgutz/ansi#style-format

var EditorQuestionTemplate = `` /* 559-byte string literal not displayed */

Templates with Color formatting. See Documentation: https://github.com/mgutz/ansi#style-format

var InputQuestionTemplate = `` /* 496-byte string literal not displayed */

Templates with Color formatting. See Documentation: https://github.com/mgutz/ansi#style-format

var MultiSelectQuestionTemplate = `` /* 787-byte string literal not displayed */

var PageSize = 7

PageSize is the default maximum number of items to show in select/multiselect prompts

var PasswordQuestionTemplate = `` /* 318-byte string literal not displayed */

Templates with Color formatting. See Documentation: https://github.com/mgutz/ansi#style-format

var SelectQuestionTemplate = `` /* 647-byte string literal not displayed */

Functions

func Ask

func Ask(qs []*Question, response interface{}) error

Ask performs the prompt loop, asking for validation when appropriate. The response type can be one of two options. If a struct is passed, the answer will be written to the field whose name matches the Name field on the corresponding question. Field types should be something that can be casted from the response type designated in the documentation. Note, a survey tag can also be used to identify a Otherwise, a map[string]interface{} can be passed, responses will be written to the key with the matching name. For example:

qs := []*survey.Question{
	{
		Name:     "name",
		Prompt:   &survey.Input{Message: "What is your name?"},
		Validate: survey.Required,
	},
}

answers := struct{ Name string }{}

err := survey.Ask(qs, &answers)

func AskOne

func AskOne(p Prompt, response interface{}, v Validator) error

AskOne performs the prompt for a single prompt and asks for validation if required. Response types should be something that can be casted from the response type designated in the documentation. For example:

name := ""
prompt := &survey.Input{
	Message: "name",
}

survey.AskOne(prompt, &name, nil)

func Required

func Required(val interface{}) error

Required does not allow an empty value

Types

type Confirm

type Confirm struct {
	core.Renderer
	Message string
	Default bool
	Help    string
}

Confirm is a regular text input that accept yes/no answers. Response type is a bool.

func (*Confirm) Cleanup

func (c *Confirm) Cleanup(val interface{}) error

Cleanup overwrite the line with the finalized formatted version

func (*Confirm) Prompt

func (c *Confirm) Prompt() (interface{}, error)

Prompt prompts the user with a simple text field and expects a reply followed by a carriage return.

likesPie := false
prompt := &survey.Confirm{ Message: "What is your name?" }
survey.AskOne(prompt, &likesPie, nil)

type ConfirmTemplateData

type ConfirmTemplateData struct {
	Confirm
	Answer   string
	ShowHelp bool
}

data available to the templates when processing

type Editor

type Editor struct {
	core.Renderer
	Message string
	Default string
	Help    string
}

Editor launches an instance of the users preferred editor on a temporary file. The editor to use is determined by reading the $VISUAL or $EDITOR environment variables. If neither of those are present, notepad (on Windows) or vim (others) is used. The launch of the editor is triggered by the enter key. Since the response may be long, it will not be echoed as Input does, instead, it print <Received>. Response type is a string.

message := ""
prompt := &survey.Editor{ Message: "What is your commit message?" }
survey.AskOne(prompt, &message, nil)

func (*Editor) Cleanup

func (e *Editor) Cleanup(val interface{}) error

func (*Editor) Prompt

func (e *Editor) Prompt() (interface{}, error)

type EditorTemplateData

type EditorTemplateData struct {
	Editor
	Answer     string
	ShowAnswer bool
	ShowHelp   bool
}

data available to the templates when processing

type Input

type Input struct {
	core.Renderer
	Message string
	Default string
	Help    string
}

Input is a regular text input that prints each character the user types on the screen and accepts the input with the enter key. Response type is a string.

name := ""
prompt := &survey.Input{ Message: "What is your name?" }
survey.AskOne(prompt, &name, nil)

func (*Input) Cleanup

func (i *Input) Cleanup(val interface{}) error

func (*Input) Prompt

func (i *Input) Prompt() (interface{}, error)

type InputTemplateData

type InputTemplateData struct {
	Input
	Answer     string
	ShowAnswer bool
	ShowHelp   bool
}

data available to the templates when processing

type MultiSelect

type MultiSelect struct {
	core.Renderer
	Message  string
	Options  []string
	Default  []string
	Help     string
	PageSize int
	// contains filtered or unexported fields
}

MultiSelect is a prompt that presents a list of various options to the user for them to select using the arrow keys and enter. Response type is a slice of strings.

days := []string{}
prompt := &survey.MultiSelect{
	Message: "What days do you prefer:",
	Options: []string{"Sunday", "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday"},
}
survey.AskOne(prompt, &days, nil)

func (*MultiSelect) Cleanup

func (m *MultiSelect) Cleanup(val interface{}) error

Cleanup removes the options section, and renders the ask like a normal question.

func (*MultiSelect) OnChange

func (m *MultiSelect) OnChange(line []rune, pos int, key rune) (newLine []rune, newPos int, ok bool)

OnChange is called on every keypress.

func (*MultiSelect) Prompt

func (m *MultiSelect) Prompt() (interface{}, error)

type MultiSelectTemplateData

type MultiSelectTemplateData struct {
	MultiSelect
	Answer        string
	ShowAnswer    bool
	Checked       map[string]bool
	SelectedIndex int
	ShowHelp      bool
	PageEntries   []string
}

data available to the templates when processing

type Password

type Password struct {
	core.Renderer
	Message string
	Help    string
}

Password is like a normal Input but the text shows up as *'s and there is no default. Response type is a string.

password := ""
prompt := &survey.Password{ Message: "Please type your password" }
survey.AskOne(prompt, &password, nil)

func (*Password) Cleanup

func (prompt *Password) Cleanup(val interface{}) error

Cleanup hides the string with a fixed number of characters.

func (*Password) Prompt

func (p *Password) Prompt() (line interface{}, err error)

type PasswordTemplateData

type PasswordTemplateData struct {
	Password
	ShowHelp bool
}

type Prompt

type Prompt interface {
	Prompt() (interface{}, error)
	Cleanup(interface{}) error
	Error(error) error
}

Prompt is the primary interface for the objects that can take user input and return a response.

type Question

type Question struct {
	Name     string
	Prompt   Prompt
	Validate Validator
}

Question is the core data structure for a survey questionnaire.

type Select

type Select struct {
	core.Renderer
	Message  string
	Options  []string
	Default  string
	Help     string
	PageSize int
	// contains filtered or unexported fields
}

Select is a prompt that presents a list of various options to the user for them to select using the arrow keys and enter. Response type is a string.

color := ""
prompt := &survey.Select{
	Message: "Choose a color:",
	Options: []string{"red", "blue", "green"},
}
survey.AskOne(prompt, &color, nil)

func (*Select) Cleanup

func (s *Select) Cleanup(val interface{}) error

func (*Select) OnChange

func (s *Select) OnChange(line []rune, pos int, key rune) (newLine []rune, newPos int, ok bool)

OnChange is called on every keypress.

func (*Select) Prompt

func (s *Select) Prompt() (interface{}, error)

type SelectTemplateData

type SelectTemplateData struct {
	Select
	PageEntries   []string
	SelectedIndex int
	Answer        string
	ShowAnswer    bool
	ShowHelp      bool
}

the data available to the templates when processing

type Validator

type Validator func(interface{}) error

Validator is a function passed to a Question after a user has provided a response. If the function returns an error, then the user will be prompted again for another response.

func ComposeValidators

func ComposeValidators(validators ...Validator) Validator

ComposeValidators is a variadic function used to create one validator from many.

func MaxLength

func MaxLength(length int) Validator

MaxLength requires that the string is no longer than the specified value

func MinLength

func MinLength(length int) Validator

MinLength requires that the string is longer or equal in length to the specified value