Ultimate Guide to CLI Spinners for Your Command Line Interfaces

In today’s fast-paced development environment, providing feedback to the user during CLI operations is crucial. CLI Spinners is a package designed to add spinners to your command-line interfaces, giving users visual feedback during long-running tasks. This comprehensive guide delves into the various APIs available in the cli-spinners package, complete with examples and code snippets.

Installing CLI Spinners

To start using cli-spinners, you first need to install it:

  
    npm install cli-spinners
  

Basic Usage

The basic usage of cli-spinners involves importing the package and using a spinner:

  
    const cliSpinners = require('cli-spinners');
    const spinner = cliSpinners.dots; // You can choose different spinners

    console.log(spinner.frames[0]); // Print the first frame of the spinner
  

API Methods

Here are some useful APIs and their usage:

Spinner Properties

  
    const spinner = cliSpinners.moon;
    console.log(spinner.interval); // Outputs the interval time between frames
    console.log(spinner.frames); // Outputs the array of frames
  

Custom Spinner

  
    const customSpinner = {
      interval: 80,
      frames: ['-', '\\', '|', '/']
    };
    console.log(customSpinner.frames[0]); // Outputs the first frame '-'
  

Practical Application Example

Here is a practical example of how to use cli-spinners in a Node.js application:

  
    const cliSpinners = require('cli-spinners');
    const readline = require('readline');

    const spinner = cliSpinners.dots;
    let frame = 0;

    const interval = setInterval(() => {
      readline.cursorTo(process.stdout, 0);
      process.stdout.write(spinner.frames[frame]);
      frame = (frame + 1) % spinner.frames.length;
    }, spinner.interval);

    // Simulate a task
    setTimeout(() => {
      clearInterval(interval);
      readline.clearLine(process.stdout, 0);
      readline.cursorTo(process.stdout, 0);
      console.log('Task completed!');
    }, 5000);
  

In this example, we use the dots spinner to provide visual feedback during a simulated task. The spinner frames are printed in sequence at the specified interval, and the spinner stops once the task completes.

By mastering cli-spinners, you can significantly enhance the user experience in your command-line applications by offering real-time feedback during long-running processes.

Conclusion

Adding spinners to your command-line interfaces can make a big difference in user experience. With cli-spinners, you have a wide range of spinners to choose from, and you can even create your own custom spinners. Start using cli-spinners today to provide better UI feedback and make your CLI applications more user-friendly.

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