Feature suggestion: TamlTool - A command-line tool for interacting with TAML files

[kyrvlasiuk]

It would let users browse and make changes to TAML file from command-line without a need to open a full file for edit.

• It is useful when you need to set particular key and do not need to review the file.
• Useful for detached scenario where, for example, CI/CD pipeline would make changes to a file.
• This is useful for assistive purposes as it helps to focus on one thing at a time and helps to navigate file of any size without a need for file editor.
• Useful for tutorials as changes to a file can be broken down to distinct deterministic steps.

Comment: I know it would help me focus, as I sometimes change the wrong values, but I would like input on whether it would be helpful to somebody else.

I suggest interactive and detached mode.

Take this file.taml for example

name            Example TAML file
version          V1.1
commands
    add     do command
    init      do other command
    start    do more
comment
    this is a first comment
    this is a second comment

Interactive:

to open file in interactive
TamlTool ./file.taml -i
to list all top level keys
file.taml>ls
to list entire file
file.taml>ls -r
to change name
file.taml>post /name This is new name
to get a value
file.taml>get /name
to add value to array
file.taml>post /comment This is a third comment
to change value in array
file.taml>post /comment/1 A first comment
to add value in associative array
file.taml>post /commands/new This is new command
to change value in associative array
file.taml>post /commands/add This is old command
to change context to key
file.taml>cd commands
can be executed in context of document or current context
file.taml/commands> get ./add
file.taml/commands> get /commands/add

In Detached mode command are executed in context of a document.

TamlTool ./file.taml -c post /comment This is detached comment

This would result to a file

name            This is new name
version          V1.1
commands
    add     This is old command
    init      do other command
    start    do more
    new    This is new command
comment
    A first comment
    this is a second comment
    This is a third comment
    This is detached comment

Comment: spaces represent tab as github issue editor does not allow tabbing.

This tool can be implemented as dotnet global tool.

This is just a draft for an idea, but I would like to work on on it, if someone is interested.

[csharpfritz]

This is a pretty neat idea! Happy to assign it to you.

[Stelzi79]

That is a really neat idea. It would very valuable for any project to have a configuration-cli out of the box with Taml that simply checks that the configuration is valid especially when this is enriched with schema definitions.

I would go so far to call the NuGet Package TamlTool and the assembly taml.

I also suggest that when you run taml command without any arguments in a directory that has only one taml file in it to just load that one taml file in interactive mode. I have the assumption that in most cases there is only one taml configuration in a directory but if there are more files than it let's you select which taml to open.

Also down the line I can envision that something like taml new http://path/to/MyFancy.schema.taml could be possible to create a kind of guided wizard to create an initial configuration of an application through special capabilities of schema.

Basically a tool that everything that uses Taml to configure stuff to have out of the box. That would be a really big feature to choose Taml.