NAME

Term::Form - Read lines from STDIN.

VERSION

Version 0.530

SYNOPSIS

    my $aoa = [
        [ 'name'           ],
        [ 'year'           ],
        [ 'color', 'green' ],
        [ 'city'           ]
    ];

    # Object-oriented interface:

    use Term::Form;

    my $new = Term::Form->new();

    my $line = $new->readline( 'Prompt: ', { default => 'abc' } );

    my $modified_list = $new->fill_form( $aoa );

    # Functional interface:

    use Term::Form qw( read_line fill_form );

    my $line = read_line( 'Prompt: ', { default => 'abc' } );

    my $modified_list = fill_form( $aoa );

DESCRIPTION

readline reads a line from STDIN. As soon as Return is pressed readline returns the read string without the newline character - so no chomp is required.

fill_form reads a list of lines from STDIN.

This module is intended to cope with Unicode (multibyte character/grapheme cluster).

The output is removed after leaving the method, so the user can decide what remains on the screen.

Keys

BackSpace or Ctrl-H: Delete the character behind the cursor.

Delete or Ctrl-D: Delete the character at point.

Ctrl-U: Delete the text backward from the cursor to the beginning of the line.

Ctrl-K: Delete the text from the cursor to the end of the line.

Right-Arrow: Move forward a character.

Left-Arrow: Move back a character.

Home or Ctrl-A: Move to the start of the line.

End or Ctrl-E: Move to the end of the line.

Up-Arrow: in fill_form move up one row, in readline move back 10 characters.

Down-Arrow: in fill_form move down one row, in readline move forward 10 characters.

Ctrl-X: If the input puffer is not empty, the input puffer is cleared, else Ctrl-X returns nothing (undef).

Only in fill_form:

Page-Up or Ctrl-B: Move back one page.

Page-Down or Ctrl-F: Move forward one page.

METHODS

new

The new method returns a Term::Form object.

    my $new = Term::Form->new();

To set the different options it can be passed a reference to a hash as an optional argument.

readline

readline reads a line from STDIN.

    $line = $new->readline( $prompt, [ \%options ] );

The fist argument is the prompt string.

The optional second argument is the default string (see option default) if it is not a reference. If the second argument is a hash-reference, the hash is used to set the different options. The keys/options are

• clear_screen

  If enabled, the screen is cleared before the output.

  0 - clears from the current position to the end of screen

  1 - clears the entire screen

  2 - if show_context is disabled, clears only the current (readline) row. If show_context is enabled behaves like clear_screen where set to 0.

  default: 0

• color

  Enables the support for color and text formatting escape sequences for the prompt string and the info text.

  0 - off

  1 - on

  default: 0

• info

  Expects as is value a string. If set, the string is printed on top of the output of readline.

• default

  Set a initial value of input.

• no_echo

  - if set to 0, the input is echoed on the screen.

  - if set to 1, "*" are displayed instead of the characters.

  - if set to 2, no output is shown apart from the prompt string.

  default: 0

• show_context

  Display the input that does not fit into the "readline" before or after the "readline".

  0 - disable show_context

  1 - enable show_context

  default: 0

• codepage_mapping

  This option has only meaning if the operating system is MSWin32.

  If the OS is MSWin32, Win32::Console::ANSI is used. By default Win32::Console::ANSI converts the characters from Windows code page to DOS code page (the so-called ANSI to OEM conversion). This conversation is disabled by default in Term::Choose but one can enable it by setting this option.

  Setting this option to 1 enables the codepage mapping offered by Win32::Console::ANSI.

  0 - disable automatic codepage mapping (default)

  1 - keep automatic codepage mapping

  default: 0

• hide_cursor

  0 - disabled

  1 - enabled

  default: 1

fill_form

fill_form reads a list of lines from STDIN.

    $new_list = $new->fill_form( $aoa, { prompt => 'Required:' } );

The first argument is a reference to an array of arrays. The arrays have 1 or 2 elements: the first element is the key and the optional second element is the value. The key is used as the prompt string for the "readline", the value is used as the default value for the "readline" (initial value of input).

The optional second argument is a hash-reference. The keys/options are

• clear_screen

  If enabled, the screen is cleared before the output.

  0 - off

  1 - on

  default: 0

• color

  Enables the support for color and text formatting escape sequences for the form-keys, the "back"-string, the "confirm"-string, the info text and the prompt text.

  0 - off

  1 - on

  default: 0

• info

  Expects as is value a string. If set, the string is printed on top of the output of fill_form.

• prompt

  If prompt is set, a main prompt string is shown on top of the output.

  default: undefined

• auto_up

  With auto_up set to 0 or 1 pressing ENTER moves the cursor to the next line (if the cursor is not on the "back" or "confirm" row). If the last row is reached, the cursor jumps to the first data row if ENTER is pressed. While with auto_up set to 0 the cursor loops through the rows until a key other than ENTER is pressed with auto_up set to 1 after one loop an ENTER moves the cursor to the top menu entry ("back") if no other key than ENTER was pressed.

  With auto_up set to 2 an ENTER moves the cursor to the top menu entry (except the cursor is on the "confirm" row).

  If auto_up is set to 0 or 1 the initially cursor position is on the first data row while when set to 2 the initially cursor position is on the first menu entry ("back").

  default: 1

• clear_screen

  If enabled, the screen is cleared before the output.

  default: disabled

• read_only

  Set a form-row to read only.

  Expected value: a reference to an array with the indexes of the rows which should be read only.

  default: empty array

• confirm

  Set the name of the "confirm" menu entry.

  default: Confirm

• back

  Set the name of the "back" menu entry.

  The "back" menu entry can be disabled by setting back to an empty string.

  default: Back

• codepage_mapping

  This option has only meaning if the operating system is MSWin32.

  If the OS is MSWin32, Win32::Console::ANSI is used. By default Win32::Console::ANSI converts the characters from Windows code page to DOS code page (the so-called ANSI to OEM conversion). This conversation is disabled by default in Term::Choose but one can enable it by setting this option.

  Setting this option to 1 enables the codepage mapping offered by Win32::Console::ANSI.

  0 - disable automatic codepage mapping (default)

  1 - keep automatic codepage mapping

  default: 0

• hide_cursor

  0 - disabled

  1 - enabled

  default: 1

To close the form and get the modified list (reference to an array or arrays) as the return value select the "confirm" menu entry. If the "back" menu entry is chosen to close the form, fill_form returns nothing.

REQUIREMENTS

Perl version

Requires Perl version 5.8.3 or greater.

Terminal

It is required a terminal which uses a monospaced font.

Unless the OS is MSWin32 the terminal has to understand ANSI escape sequences.

Encoding layer

It is required to use appropriate I/O encoding layers. If the encoding layer for STDIN doesn't match the terminal's character set, readline will break if a non ascii character is entered.

SUPPORT

You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.

    perldoc Term::Form

AUTHOR

Matthäus Kiem <cuer2s@gmail.com>

CREDITS

Thanks to the Perl-Community.de and the people form stackoverflow for the help.

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2014-2021 Matthäus Kiem.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl 5.10.0. For details, see the full text of the licenses in the file LICENSE.

cpanm Term::Form

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Term::Form