elflord

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"The Elflord knows what is undone."

Elflord is a standalone or client/server command-line to-do manager.

Use Elflord as a standalone tool if you spend most of your time in the same place. Or use it as a client/server application if you roam the land. Elflord's server speaks REST so you can make all manner of things prod at it. Elflord stores data using files so it's easy to deploy to cloud services such as Heroku.

Tasks

Each task has a description, category, priority, and ID.

A category is just a word and a priority is just a number: the higher the more important (default is 3).

Usage

When adding a task you can just specify a task description, if you want, or you can optionally specify a category and/or priority.

You can add a task using the a/add/ command.

elflord add Stare into the eyes of seething darkeness. -c personal -p 3

You can list all tasks using the l/ls/list command.

elflord ls

You can list tasks in a category:

elflord ls personal

When you list tasks the ID will be listed and you can use the ID to Do Things.

The ID can be used to Update a task's description, category, or priority. You can update a task using the u/update command.

elflord u 34 priority 2

The ID can also be used to destroy a task. You can update a task using the d/delete command.

elflord delete 5

You can see how many tasks are assigned per category using the c//categories command.

elflord c

Installation

Elflord is installed using npm, as shown below.

npm install -g elflord

Configuration

To configure the Elflord client, enter elflord into the command-line then enter information into the prompts to create a client configuration file. The configuration file will be written to .elflord in your home directory.

To configure the Elflord server, enter elflord-server. The configuration file will be written to .elflord-server in your home directory.

You can specify an arbitrary configuration file, if you want, by running either the client or the server with the -f flag.

Ho ho ho.

Server

If you want to run an Elflord server, start it somewhere by entering elflord-server. You can run it in the "cloud" or in a "sewer".

The server serves to-do items as JSON using a REST-ish interface. Unauthorized access to to-do items can be protected by an optional password. If you want your to-do items to be public, just leave the password blank.

Heroku

The Elflord server runs very easily on Heroku, giving you a free place to host it. First: sign up for an account, install the Heroku CLI tool, and log into your account using the CLI tool. The steps needed to do these things are available online (http://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/node-js).

Once you're set up on Heroku, create a clone of Elflord on your workstation.

cd /some/working/directory
git clone git://github.com/mcantelon/node-elflord.git
cd node-elflord

Next, edit the heroku/config file, changing the password, and commit the change.

git add heroku/config
git commit -m "Changed password."

Finally, create and launch a Heroku app by entering the following commands.

heroku create --stack cedar
git push heroku master
heroku ps:scale web=1
heroku open

Your browser should now open to your Elflord server's new home and you can configure your Elflord client to connect to it.

REST API

List all tasks

Method: GET
Params: password
Path: /tasks
Returns: status, tasks

Example response:

{
  "status": 200,
  "tasks": [{
    "id": 9,
    "category": "work",
    "description": "Update the sacred eye.",
    "priority": 3
  }, {
    "id": 10,
    "category": "home",
    "description": "Buy the pillows.",
    "priority": 3
  }]
}

List categories and number of tasks in each

Method: GET
Params: password
Path: /categories
Returns: status, categories

Example response:

{
  "status": 200,
  "categories": {
    "work": 1,
    "home": 1
  }
}

List tasks in category

Method: GET
Params: password
Path: /categories/<category>
Returns: status, tasks

Example response:

{
  "status": 200,
  "tasks": [{
    "id": 9,
    "category": "work",
    "description": "Update the sacred eye.",
    "priority": 3
  }]
}

Add task

Method: POST
Params: password, description, category (optional), priority (optional)
Path: /tasks
Returns: status, task

Example response:

{
  "status": 200,
  "task": {
    "id": 10,
    "category": "home",
    "description": "Buy the pillows.",
    "priority": 3
  }
}

Update task

Method: PUT
Params: password, description (optional), category (optional), priority (optional)
Path: /tasks/<task ID>
Returns: status, updated

Example response:

{
  "status": 200,
  "updated": 1
}

Delete task

Method: DELETE
Params: password
Path: /tasks/<task ID>
Returns: status, deleted

Example response:

{
  "status": 200,
  "deleted": 1
}

Underpinnings

Elflord uses the "express" and "express-resource" modules for HTTP responses and the "request" module for HTTP requests.

Elflord uses the "dirty" module for storage.

Elflord uses the "optimist" module for command-line option parsing, the "mingy" module for command parsing, and the "commander" module for interactive prompting.