hcli-core 0.10.6

An HCLI connector that can be used to expose any CLI expressed through hypertext command line interface (HCLI) semantics.

An HCLI Connector that can be used to expose a REST API with a built-in CLI, via hypertext command line interface (HCLI) semantics.

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HCLI Core implements an HCLI Connector, a type of Service Connector, as a WSGI application and provides a way for developers to expose a service hosted CLI, as a REST API, via HCLI semantics. Such an API exposes a”built-in” CLI that can be interacted with dynamically with any HCLI client. Up to date, in-band, man page style API/CLI documentation is readily available for use to help understand how to interact with the API.

Most, if not all, programming languages have a way to issue shell commands. With the help of a generic HCLI client, such as Huckle [1], APIs that make use of HCLI semantics are readily consumable anywhere via the familiar command line (CLI) mode of operation, and this, without there being a need to write a custom and dedicated CLI to interact with a specific HCLI API.

You can find out more about HCLI on hcli.io [2]

The HCLI Internet-Draft [3] is a work in progress by the author and the current implementation leverages hal+json alongside a static form of ALPS (semantic profile) [4] to help enable widespread cross media-type support.

Help shape HCLI and it’s ecosystem on the discussion list [5] or by raising issues on github!

[1] https://github.com/cometaj2/huckle

[2] http://hcli.io

[3] https://github.com/cometaj2/I-D/tree/master/hcli

[4] http://alps.io

[5] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/huck-hypermedia-unified-cli-with-a-kick

Installation

hcli_core requires a supported version of Python and pip.

You’ll need an WSGI compliant application server to run hcli_core. For example, you can use Green Unicorn (https://gunicorn.org/)

$ pip install gunicorn

Install hcli_core via pip. You can launch gunicorn from anywhere by using “hcli_core path”. You can also look at the hcli_core help file:

$ pip install hcli_core

$ hcli_core help

$ gunicorn –workers=5 –threads=2 -b 127.0.0.1:8000 –chdir `hcli_core path` “hcli_core:connector()”

If you want to load a sample HCLI other than the default, you can try loading the sample hfm (hypertext file manager) HCLI. A folder path to any 3rd party HCLI can be provided in the same way:

$ gunicorn –workers=5 –threads=2 -b 127.0.0.1:8000 –chdir `hcli_core path` “hcli_core:connector(”""`hcli_core sample hfm`”"")”

Curl your new service to understand what is being exposed. The HCLI root URL, to use with an HCLI client, is the cli link relation:

$ curl http://127.0.0.1:8000

Install an HCLI client, for example Huckle (https://github.com/cometaj2/huckle), and access the default sample jsonf CLI exposed by HCLI Core (you may need to restart your terminal to be able to use jsonf by name directly; otherwise you can attempt to source ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc):

$ pip install huckle

$ huckle cli install http://127.0.0.1:8000

$ jsonf help

You can also look at the huckle help file:

$ huckle help

Bugs

• No good handling of control over request and response in cli code which can lead to exceptions and empty response client side.

• The hfm sample HCLI fails disgracefully when copying a remote file name that doesn’t exist (server error).