Enquirer Editor

A prompt built with enquirer that spawns a temporary editor using the preferred editor ($VISUAL or $EDITOR); it will default to Vim or Notepad. The contents of the editor will be returned once the user saves the file. The content can be validated or altered upon being submitted.

 

Install

npm i enquirer-editor

 

Demonstration

 

Usage

There are two ways to use enquirer-editor — as a standalone prompt or as a plugin for enquirer (which allows the usage of other prompts).

 

Standalone Prompt

// Import the prompt
const EditorPrompt = require('enquirer-editor');

// Create a new instance of the prompt (name not required)
const prompt = new EditorPrompt({
  type: 'editor',
  message: 'Please write a short bio of at least 3 lines',
  initial: 'Start writing!',
  validate: function (response) {
    if (response.split('\n').length < 4) {
      return 'The bio must be at least 3 lines.';
    }
    return true;
  },
});

// Run the prompt
prompt.run()
    .then(console.log)
    .catch(console.error);

 

Plugin Prompt

// Import enquirer and the editor prompt
const Enquirer = require('enquirer');
const EditorPrompt = require('enquirer-editor');

// Create a new instance of enquirer and register the prompt
const enquirer = new Enquirer();
enquirer.register('editor', EditorPrompt);

// Create your questions (name required)
const questions = [
  {
    type: 'editor',
    name: 'bio',
    message: 'Please write a short bio of at least 3 lines',
    initial: 'Start writing!',
    validate: function (response) {
      if (response.split('\n').length < 4) {
        return 'The bio must be at least 3 lines.';
      }
      return true;
    },
  },
];

// Run prompt with your questions
enquirer.prompt(questions)
    .then(console.log)
    .catch(console.error);

 

Prompt Options

option	description	type	default
type	The prompt type (editor)	string
name	The property name for the prompt's output	string
message	The message that will be displayed during the prompt	string	this.type
initial	The initial value for the editor	string	''
validate	A function to validate the submitted output	function
result	A function to alter the submitted output	function

 

Credit

This prompt was designed based off of inquirer's editor prompt and uses the same editor as the prompt-editor package. It works with the latest version of enquirer (v2.3.2).

 

I wrote this for my own personal use but I'm open to feature requests. Feel free to report an issue or request a feature! Thank you for reading. 😄