generate-cli-api-help

What's this?

Given a TypeScript interface be able to:

• print given interface describing each property using TS typing info and jsdoc
• Supports different output formats (markdown, JavaScript string, etc)

Returned text can be used in different parts of user's program, for example, README.md, showHelp() function of CLI, etc. Ideal for small tools that defines its "Options" object in a TS interface.

Ideally, projects should use this tool at build time to build the help strings assets. Using the tool dynamically is possible but but take into account that : this project depends on typescript which is big. If user's app aim is to be small (and perhaps support browser) then using the API directly is a bad idea.

Usage Node.js API

npm install --save generate-cli-api-help

import {printHelp} from 'generate-cli-api-help'

const fileWithInterface = 'src/types.ts' // the .ts file containing the Config / Options interface from which to extract the help usage information
const interfaceName = 'MyAwesomeAppOptions' // The name of the interface with usage / config options
const config = {fileWithInterface, interfaceName}
const addMeToYourCode = printHelp(config)

Usage CLI

npm install -g generate-cli-api-help

generate-cli-api-help --input src/types.ts --interfaceName Options

TODO

• support inheritance

• move to its own repo

• object validation : given a config object and interface validate the input. Validate Optionals. user programs could use us like:

const args = .... // minimist/yargs like object.

validate({input: file.ts, interfaceName: 'Config', validate: args})

Validate optionals but also types and non existent properties ?