How to create CLI application in NodeJS : Command line application in nodejs

Create CLI application in nodejs | idkblogs.com

So let’s dive into the codes and create CLI application in NodeJS:

Create a file name "cliNodeApp.js" and start writing the below codes:

Instantiate the readline module:

 var readline = require(‘readline’);

The above module will help us to create an interface for CLI application.

Instantiate the CLI Module object:

 var cli = {};

In the above code, we are creating a simple object "cli" without any property.

Now create the CLI functions as:

                          cli.processInput = function (str) {
                            str = typeof (str) == ‘string’ && str.trim().length > 0 ? str.trim() : false; 
                            if (str) {
                              var inputs = str.split(‘ ‘); 
                              if (inputs.length >= 3) {
                                var results = 0;
                                inputs.some(function (value) {
                                  if (!isNaN(value)) {
                                    results = results + parseInt(value);
                                  }
                                })          
                                console.log(“\x1b[36m”, ”Total is : ”, results);
                                return true;
                              } else {
                                console.error(“\x1b[31m”, ”Error: Too few parameter”);
                                return false;
                              }
                            }
                          }
                        

Create init script to start the CLI application:

                          cli.init = function () {
                            /* Send the start message to the console in dark blue. */
                            console.log(‘\x1b[33m % s\x1b[0m’, ‘CLI is running’);
                          
                            /* Start the interface */
                            var _interface = readline.createInterface({
                              input: process.stdin,
                              output: process.stdout,
                              prompt: ‘>’
                           })
                          
                          /* Create an initial prompt */
                          _interface.prompt(); // Will wait for input  /* Handle each line of input separately. */
                          _interface.on(‘line’, function (str) {  /* Send to input processor. */
                            cli.processInput(str);  /* re-initialize the prompt afterwards. */
                            _interface.prompt();
                          });
                          }
                          

Now start the script:

cli.init();

Save the app:

Save this application as cliNodeApp.js
Run the application:

node cliNodeApp.js

Congratulations… you have created your CLI application in nodeJs.

Now you can take the idea from this codes and do whatever you want. This would be your basic nodejs CLI application.

Output:

Create CLI application in nodejs | idkblogs.com

Here is the complete code ( Snapshot ):

Create CLI application in nodejs | idkblogs.com

Conclusion:

In this article, we learned about the CLI app and how we can crate a node CLI app.