318 lines
8.9 KiB
Markdown
318 lines
8.9 KiB
Markdown
# prompt [](http://travis-ci.org/flatiron/prompt)
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A beautiful command-line prompt for node.js
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## Features
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* prompts the user for input
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* supports validation and defaults
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* hides passwords
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## Usage
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Using prompt is relatively straight forward. There are two core methods you should be aware of: `prompt.get()` and `prompt.addProperties()`. There methods take strings representing property names in addition to objects for complex property validation (and more). There are a number of [examples][0] that you should examine for detailed usage.
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### Getting Basic Prompt Information
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Getting started with `prompt` is easy. Lets take a look at `examples/simple-prompt.js`:
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``` js
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var prompt = require('prompt');
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//
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// Start the prompt
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//
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prompt.start();
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//
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// Get two properties from the user: username and email
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//
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prompt.get(['username', 'email'], function (err, result) {
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//
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// Log the results.
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//
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console.log('Command-line input received:');
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console.log(' username: ' + result.username);
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console.log(' email: ' + result.email);
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});
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```
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This will result in the following command-line output:
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```
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$ node examples/simple-prompt.js
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prompt: username: some-user
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prompt: email: some-user@some-place.org
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Command-line input received:
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username: some-user
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email: some-user@some-place.org
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```
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### Prompting with Validation, Default Values, and More (Complex Properties)
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In addition to prompting the user with simple string prompts, there is a robust API for getting and validating complex information from a command-line prompt. Here's a quick sample:
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``` js
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var schema = {
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properties: {
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name: {
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pattern: /^[a-zA-Z\s\-]+$/,
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message: 'Name must be only letters, spaces, or dashes',
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required: true
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},
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password: {
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hidden: true
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}
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}
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};
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//
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// Start the prompt
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//
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prompt.start();
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//
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// Get two properties from the user: email, password
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//
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prompt.get(schema, function (err, result) {
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//
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// Log the results.
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//
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console.log('Command-line input received:');
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console.log(' name: ' + result.name);
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console.log(' password: ' + result.password);
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});
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```
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Pretty easy right? The output from the above script is:
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```
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$ node examples/property-prompt.js
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prompt: name: nodejitsu000
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error: Invalid input for name
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error: Name must be only letters, spaces, or dashes
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prompt: name: Nodejitsu Inc
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prompt: password:
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Command-line input received:
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name: Nodejitsu Inc
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password: some-password
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```
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## Valid Property Settings
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`prompt` understands JSON-schema with a few extra parameters and uses [revalidator](https://github.com/flatiron/revalidator) for validation.
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Here's an overview of the properties that may be used for validation and prompting controls:
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``` js
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{
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description: 'Enter your password', // Prompt displayed to the user. If not supplied name will be used.
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type: 'string', // Specify the type of input to expect.
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pattern: /^\w+$/, // Regular expression that input must be valid against.
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message: 'Password must be letters', // Warning message to display if validation fails.
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hidden: true, // If true, characters entered will not be output to console.
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default: 'lamepassword', // Default value to use if no value is entered.
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required: true // If true, value entered must be non-empty.
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before: function(value) { return 'v' + value; } // Runs before node-prompt callbacks. It modifies user's input
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}
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```
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Alternatives to `pattern` include `format` and `conform`, as documented in [revalidator](https://github.com/flatiron/revalidator).
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Using `type: 'array'` has some special cases.
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- `description` will not work in the schema if `type: 'array'` is defined.
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- `maxItems` takes precedence over `minItems`.
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- Arrays that do not have `maxItems` defined will require users to `SIGINT` (`^C`) before the array is ended.
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- If `SIGINT` (`^C`) is triggered before `minItems` is met, a validation error will appear. This will require users to `SIGEOF` (`^D`) to end the input.
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For more information on things such as `maxItems` and `minItems`, refer to the [revalidator](https://github.com/flatiron/revalidator) repository.
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### Alternate Validation API:
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Prompt, in addition to iterating over JSON-Schema properties, will also happily iterate over an array of validation objects given an extra 'name' property:
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```js
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var prompt = require('../lib/prompt');
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//
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// Start the prompt
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//
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prompt.start();
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//
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// Get two properties from the user: username and password
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//
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prompt.get([{
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name: 'username',
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required: true
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}, {
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name: 'password',
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hidden: true,
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conform: function (value) {
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return true;
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}
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}], function (err, result) {
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//
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// Log the results.
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//
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console.log('Command-line input received:');
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console.log(' username: ' + result.username);
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console.log(' password: ' + result.password);
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});
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```
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### Backward Compatibility
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Note that, while this structure is similar to that used by prompt 0.1.x, that the object properties use the same names as in JSON-Schema. prompt 0.2.x is backward compatible with prompt 0.1.x except for asynchronous validation.
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### Skipping Prompts
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Sometimes power users may wish to skip promts and specify all data as command line options.
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if a value is set as a property of `prompt.override` prompt will use that instead of
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prompting the user.
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``` js
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//prompt-override.js
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var prompt = require('prompt'),
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optimist = require('optimist')
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//
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// set the overrides
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//
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prompt.override = optimist.argv
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//
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// Start the prompt
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//
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prompt.start();
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//
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// Get two properties from the user: username and email
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//
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prompt.get(['username', 'email'], function (err, result) {
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//
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// Log the results.
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//
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console.log('Command-line input received:');
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console.log(' username: ' + result.username);
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console.log(' email: ' + result.email);
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})
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//: node prompt-override.js --username USER --email EMAIL
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```
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### Adding Properties to an Object
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A common use-case for prompting users for data from the command-line is to extend or create a configuration object that is passed onto the entry-point method for your CLI tool. `prompt` exposes a convenience method for doing just this:
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``` js
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var obj = {
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password: 'lamepassword',
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mindset: 'NY'
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}
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//
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// Log the initial object.
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//
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console.log('Initial object to be extended:');
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console.dir(obj);
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//
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// Add two properties to the empty object: username and email
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//
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prompt.addProperties(obj, ['username', 'email'], function (err) {
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//
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// Log the results.
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//
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console.log('Updated object received:');
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console.dir(obj);
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});
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```
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### Prompt history
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You can use the `prompt.history()` method to get access to previous prompt input.
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``` js
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prompt.get([{
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name: 'name',
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description: 'Your name',
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type: 'string',
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required: true
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}, {
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name: 'surname',
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description: 'Your surname',
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type: 'string',
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required: true,
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message: 'Please dont use the demo credentials',
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conform: function(surname) {
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var name = prompt.history('name').value;
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return (name !== 'John' || surname !== 'Smith');
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}
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}], function(err, results) {
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console.log(results);
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});
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```
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## Customizing your prompt
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Aside from changing `property.message`, you can also change `prompt.message`
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and `prompt.delimiter` to change the appearance of your prompt.
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The basic structure of a prompt is this:
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``` js
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prompt.message + prompt.delimiter + property.message + prompt.delimiter;
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```
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The default `prompt.message` is "prompt," the default `prompt.delimiter` is
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": ", and the default `property.message` is `property.name`.
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Changing these allows you to customize the appearance of your prompts! In
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addition, prompt supports ANSI color codes via the
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[colors module](https://github.com/Marak/colors.js) for custom colors. For a
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very colorful example:
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``` js
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var prompt = require("prompt");
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//
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// Setting these properties customizes the prompt.
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//
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prompt.message = "Question!".rainbow;
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prompt.delimiter = "><".green;
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prompt.start();
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prompt.get({
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properties: {
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name: {
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description: "What is your name?".magenta
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}
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}
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}, function (err, result) {
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console.log("You said your name is: ".cyan + result.name.cyan);
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});
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```
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If you don't want colors, you can set
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```js
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var prompt = require('prompt');
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prompt.colors = false;
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```
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## Installation
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``` bash
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$ [sudo] npm install prompt
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```
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## Running tests
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``` bash
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$ npm test
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```
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#### License: MIT
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#### Author: [Charlie Robbins](http://github.com/indexzero)
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#### Contributors: [Josh Holbrook](http://github.com/jesusabdullah), [Pavan Kumar Sunkara](http://github.com/pksunkara)
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[0]: https://github.com/flatiron/prompt/tree/master/examples
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