Example 1

Summary

The ConsoleMenuHelper uses reflection to find menu items. It then groups them be menu name that is specified in the ConsoleMenuItem attribute.

Reference

See Example 1 to run the code you are looking at in this example.

Step 1: Console

Create a .NET Core console application.

Step 2: Install Nuget

Install the ConsoleMenuHelper Nuget package into your .NET project.

Step 3: Create some menu options

You must implement the IConsoleMenuItem interface and decorate each menu item with the ConsoleMenuItem attribute and specify:

1. Menu name "Hello1" in the example below. Now all classes with "Hello1" are in the same menu.
2. Optional: Add a menu number. If not specified, one will be generated (sorted by ItemText and assigned sequentially)
3. Optional: Add a data string. It will be assigned to the AttributeData property once instantiated.

using System;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using ConsoleMenuHelper;

[ConsoleMenuItem("Hello1", 2)]
public class DeveloperQuestionMenuItem : IConsoleMenuItem
{
   private readonly IPromptHelper _promptHelper;
   public DeveloperQuestionMenuItem(IPromptHelper promptHelper)
   {
      _promptHelper = promptHelper;
   }

   public async Task<ConsoleMenuItemResponse> WorkAsync()
   {
      if (_promptHelper.GetYorN("Are you a developer?"))
      {
         Console.WriteLine("Use the source Luke!");
      }
      else
      {
         Console.WriteLine("Just curious, huh.");
      }

      Console.WriteLine("------------------------------------");

      return await Task.FromResult(new ConsoleMenuItemResponse(false, false));
   }

   public string ItemText => "Ask me a question!";

   /// <summary>Optional data from the attribute.</summary>
   public string AttributeData { get; set; }
}

In this example, a menu item belongs to TWO different menus, Hello1 and Hello2

using System;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using ConsoleMenuHelper;


[ConsoleMenuItem("Hello1", 1)]
[ConsoleMenuItem("Hello2")]
public class WhatIsYourNameMenuItem : IConsoleMenuItem
{
   private readonly IPromptHelper _promptHelper;

   public WhatIsYourNameMenuItem(IPromptHelper promptHelper)
   {
      _promptHelper = promptHelper;
   }

   public async Task<ConsoleMenuItemResponse> WorkAsync()
   {
      string name = _promptHelper.GetText("What's your name?", false, true);

      Console.WriteLine($"Hello, {name}");

      Console.WriteLine("-------------------------------");

      return await Task.FromResult(new ConsoleMenuItemResponse(false, false));
   }

   public string ItemText => "What your name?";

   /// <summary>Optional data from the attribute.</summary>
   public string AttributeData { get; set; }
}

Step 4: Show some menus

Follow these sub-steps

1. Create an instance of ConsoleMenu
2. Optional: Add your dependencies. You don't have to specify any, but if you do you MUST do it before calling AddMenuItemViaReflection
3. Call AddMenuItemViaReflection and specify the assembly that contains your menu items. If it's the console application itself, use Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()
4. Call DisplayMenuAsync with the name of your main menu ("Hello1" below).

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using ConsoleMenuHelper;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration;
using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;

class Program
{
   static async Task Main()
   {
      try
      {
         var menu = new ConsoleMenu();

         menu.AddDependencies(AddMyDependencies);
         menu.AddMenuItemViaReflection(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()); 
      
         await menu.DisplayMenuAsync("Hello1");

         Console.WriteLine("Done!");
      }
      catch (Exception ex)
      {
         Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
         Console.WriteLine(ex.StackTrace);
      }

      Console.WriteLine("Hit enter to exit");
      Console.ReadLine();
   }

   static void AddMyDependencies(IServiceCollection serviceCollection)
   {
      // IConfiguration requires: Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration NuGet package
      // AddJsonFile requires:    Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Json NuGet package
      // https://stackoverflow.com/a/46437144/97803
      var builder = new ConfigurationBuilder()
         .SetBasePath(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())
         .AddJsonFile("appsettings.json");

      IConfiguration config = builder.Build();

      serviceCollection.AddSingleton<IConfiguration>(config);
      serviceCollection.AddTransient<IAustinPowersMenuItem, AustinPowersMenuItem>();

      // Overriding a built in component
      // serviceCollection.AddSingleton<IExitConsoleMenuItem,ExitConsoleOverrideMenuItem>();
   }
}

Notes

• In this example, I'm using IConfiguration and injecting it as a singleton so that my menu items can gain access to things in "appsettings.json"
• You'll notice that I register ONE menu item manually. I did this because I attributed an INTERFACE and I need to specify the concrete class; otherwise, you will get an exception.
• Finally, I show an example of overriding a built in menu item called IExitConsoleMenuItem. It is injected into every menu to give you an option to exit with a value of zero.