Building elegant console applications with MiniCli
When you are building console applications, languages that come to mind include go, c# or python. Certainly not php, I am here to make a case for using php to build your next CLI using Minicli. It is a dependency-free framework(which makes it lightweight😀) and very fun to use.
In this tutorial, I will be a building a simple CLI called ‘greet’, that returns greetings according to our computer’s local time
Creating a New Application
To create a new minicli app, the only requirement is PHP 8.1+, to check your php version run:
php --version
// your output should look like
PHP 8.1.10 (cli) (built: Aug 30 2022 18:05:49) (ZTS Visual C++ 2019 x64)
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v4.1.10, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
Anything from PHP 8.1.0+ is perfect. Next, we install minicli using composer:
composer create-project --prefer-dist minicli/application greet-cliDon’t forget to replace ‘greet-cli’ with the name of your CLI. Now cd into your new minicli app and you might be bamboozled with all the files and folders. But don’t worry I will explain the important stuff next.
Directory Structure
If you have been following the tutorial so far, your app directory will look like this:
.
├── app
│ └── Command
│ └── Demo
│ ├── DefaultController.php
│ ├── TableController.php
│ └── TestController.php
├── tests
│ ├── Feature
│ │ └── Command
│ │ └── DemoCommandTest.php
│ ├── Helpers.php
│ └── Pest.php
├── vendor/
├── composer.json
├── composer.lock
├── LICENSE
├── minicli
├── phpunit.xml
└── README.mdThe first thing we will talk about is the minicli file, that’s the script that starts up our console application. to try it out run:
./minicli help
// This lists out all the available commands in your app:
Available Commands
demo
└──table
└──test
helpbut what I do is rename this file from ‘minicli’ to the name of my app, which in this case is greet-cli. So in your terminal run:
mv minicli greet-cli
// so now we can run:
./greet-cli help
// and get all the available commands for our greet cliCreating our first command
All commands are in the command folder. Let’s create a new command called ‘greet’. When called it will greet us depending on the local time. First we create a new greet folder under the Command directory by running:
mkdir app/Command/greetNext we create a DefaultController class under our new greet folder like:
touch app/Command/greet/DefaultController.phpThe DefaultController is what minicli looks for anytime the greet command is called. Now let’s add the following to our DefaultController:
<?php
namespace App\Command\greet;
class DefaultController extends \Minicli\Command\CommandController
{
public function handle(): void
{
$this->display("greet command called!");
}
}The handle method contains the main function run by the DefaultController. Now let’s run this command
./greet-cli greet
// response should be
greet command called!
If that was not your response, check the previous steps to see what might have gone wrong. Otherwise, Well done! now let’s add functionality to our command.
So our goal is that greet-cli checks the current local time on our machine and replies with either “Good morning” or “Good afternoon” or “Good evening”. Let’s add the following code to our handle method
public function handle(): void
{
$currentHour = date('H');
if ($currentHour < 12) {
$this->display("Good morning!");
return;
}
if ($currentHour < 16) {
$this->display("Good Afternoon!");
return;
}
$this->display("Good evening");
}Now when we run the greet command it will return a fancy greeting😉
Adding Flags and Parameters
Minicli makes it very easy to add flags to your commands. Let’s add a flag “ — lang” that changes the greetings from English to Spanish. Our handle method will now look like this:
public function handle(): void
{
$currentHour = date('H');
if ($this->hasFlag('lang')) {
if ($currentHour < 12) {
$this->display("buen día!");
return;
}
if ($currentHour < 16) {
$this->display("buenas tardes!");
return;
}
$this->display("buenas noches");
} else {
if ($currentHour < 12) {
$this->display("Good morning!");
return;
}
if ($currentHour < 16) {
$this->display("Good Afternoon!");
return;
}
$this->display("Good evening");
}
}Now run:
./greet-cli greet --lang
// this will return a greeting in spanishNow let’s add a name parameter so it greets us with our name. Our handle method now looks like this:
public function handle(): void
{
$currentHour = date('H');
$name = "";
if ($this->hasParam("name")) {
$name = $this->getParam("name");
}
if ($this->hasFlag('lang')) {
if ($currentHour < 12) {
$this->display("buen día $name!");
return;
}
if ($currentHour < 16) {
$this->display("buenas tardes $name!");
return;
}
$this->display("buenas noches $name!");
} else {
if ($currentHour < 12) {
$this->display("Good morning $name!");
return;
}
if ($currentHour < 16) {
$this->display("Good Afternoon $name!");
return;
}
$this->display("Good evening $name!");
}
}The ‘hasParam’ method checks for the parameter and ‘getParam’ retrieves the parameter. So now we can run:
./greet-cli greet name=Nelson
// and it will greet you with your nameSummary
This is a simple starting point of getting started with minicli. There is still so much you can add to your application. The docs has all you need.
I can’t wait to see what you will build with minicli. Thank you for reading
