slash-command

A simple slash command parsing module written in JavaScript. In other words, a function that parses a string and returns an object which separates the command keyword(s) from the body of the command.

Example:

slashCommand('/mycommand This is the command body');

slashCommand() returns the following object:

{
  slashcommand: '/mycommand', // command(s) as stated
  command: 'mycommand', // main command name (first in string)
  subcommands: null, // array of subcommands; see below for more info.
  body: 'This is the command body', // the body of the command
  original: '/mycommand This is the command body' // the original string
}

Features

This tiny module abstracts away the string-parsing process: string manipulation, matching regular expressions, mapping arrays, replacing strings, etc.

slash-command takes a string, parses it, and returns an object containing the slash command keywords, subcommands (see below), body, and the original string.

Use cases

slash-command is useful when building:

• chat clients that support slash commands
• CLI-like software
• messaging platform chatbots (e.g. for Slack or HipChat)
• platform-agnostic conversational interfaces and bots (e.g. email, SMS, IRC, etc.)
• Twitter bots, Tumblr bots, etc.

Installation

Installing the slash-command module is as simple as installing any other npm module:

$ npm install slash-command --save

Usage

slash-command exports a single function, so it is quite to use:

var slashCommand = require('slash-command');
/* OR, some ES6 module-loading love: */
import slashCommand from 'slash-command';
 
slashCommand('/tweet This is a tweet.');

slashCommand() returns the following object:

{
  slashcommand: '/tweet', // command(s) as stated
  command: 'tweet', // main command (first in string)
  subcommands: null, // array of all subcommands; null if there are none
  body: 'This is a tweet.', // the body of the command
  original: '/tweet This is a tweet.' // the original string
}
 

Subcommands

Let's suppose there are multiple consecutive slash commands in the string. We could use them!

I call these subcommands, and slash-command supports them very well. It returns all of them in a "subcommands" array inside the result object (in order of appearance; from left to right) so you can do whatever crazy thing you want with them.

var slashCommand = require('slash-command');
/* or, for some ES6 module-loading love */
import slashCommand from 'slash-command';
 
slashCommand('/google/calendar Meeting with Sarah at 6pm.');

slashCommand() returns the following object:

{
  slashcommand: '/google/calendar', // command(s) as stated
  command: 'google', // main command (first in string)
  subcommands: ['calendar'], // array of all subcommands
  body: 'Meeting with Sarah at 6pm.', // the body of the command
  original: '/google/calendar Meeting with Sarah at 6pm.' // the original string
}

Required Parameters:

• string ([string]): The string argument; contains a slash command.

Testing

Want to run the tests? Go ahead and type the following in your terminal/command prompt:

$ npm install
$ npm test

Contributing

Bug Reports & Feature Requests

Something does not work as expected or perhaps you think this module needs a feature? Please open an issue using GitHub's issue tracker.

Developing

Pull Requests (PRs) are welcome. Just make sure you follow the same basic style conventions as the original code.

License

The MIT License (MIT)

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Copyright (c) 2015 Kristian Muñiz [https://krismuniz.com/]