ColorizedConsole is a simple, lightwe
8000
ight wrapper for System.Console that adds basic, configurable coloring functionality to your console apps.
-
Complete wrapper for
System.Console, so it can be used as a replacement and you can use the same class for all of your console output. -
Multiplatform -- uses no
DllImportor other external calls. Basically, it has the same platform limitations asSystem.Console. -
Lightweight -- uses no external libraries or NuGet packages. Even the configuration system was custom-built since it's so simple (see below).
ColorizedConsole is available via NuGet.
# Using powershell
Install-Package ColorizedConsole... or...
# Using the .NET CLI
dotnet add package ColorizedConsole... or any of the other ways you can get a NuGet package.
There is one class in the package: ColorEx. It provides three types of colorized text: Debug, Info, and Error. Each is provided in a Write and WriteLine form, and all of them have the same parameters and overloads as the standard Console.Write and Console.WriteLine methods. The colors for all three types are customizable (see below).
WriteDebug
By default, this text is yellow.
ColorizedConsole.ConsoleEx.WriteDebug("some_text");
ColorizedConsole.ConsoleEx.WriteDebugLine("some_text");Example Output:
WriteInfo
By default, this text is green.
ColorizedConsole.ConsoleEx.WriteInfo("some_text");
ColorizedConsole.ConsoleEx.WriteInfoLine("some_text");Example Output:
WriteError
By default, this text is red.
ColorizedConsole.ConsoleEx.WriteError("some_text");
ColorizedConsole.ConsoleEx.WriteErrorLine("some_text");Example Output:
In addition, every overload for Console.Write and Console.WriteLine has a version that supports color. For example:
ColorizedConsole.ConsoleEx.WriteLine(ConsoleColor.Purple, 6);Configuration is supported in three ways: in code, via JSON file, and via environment variables. You may call ConsoleEx.ApplySettings() to reapply configuration, and that method is also called in the static constructor of ConsoleEx.
There is an order of precedence to how settings are applied:
- If environment variables are set, they are used.
- If no environment variables are set, the JSON file is used.
- If no environment variables are set and there is no JSON file, default values are used and are saved as a JSON file.
Note
Mixing and matching JSON and Environment variables is currently not supported. (It may work, but I haven't tested it.) It may be in a future release if there's a need for it. Set everything in one or the other, and any you don't set will fall back to default values.
ConsoleEx exposes three static variables that can be set in your program.
-
DebugColor: Used automatically whenever you callWriteDebugmethods, or may be used in your own code. -
ErrorColor: Used automatically whenever you callWriteErrormethods, or may be used in your own code. -
InfoColor: Used automatically whenever you callWriteInfomethods, or may be used in your own code.
ConsoleEx looks for a JSON file in the same directory called cc.config.json and attempts to parse it to set the three variables mentioned above. The expected format is as follows:
{
"colors": {
"debugColor": "some_ConsoleColor_ToString()",
"errorColor": "some_ConsoleColor_ToString()",
"infoColor": "some_ConsoleColor_ToString()"
}
}If any errors are encountered -- for example, invalid color values or incorrect property values -- the default values of Yellow, Red, and Green are used.
Any values missing from the JSON (not incorrect, just missing) will revert to the default values.
Note
JSON parsing is all or nothing at the moment -- either it succeeds and every value is set, or it fails and every value gets a default value.
ConsoleEx also looks for three environment variables (called "CCDEBUGCOLOR", "CCERRORCOLOR", and "CCINFOCOLOR") in the environment variables and attempts to use the color values there. As with JSON, colors need to match a color in the ConsoleColors enum provided by Microsoft.
If any errors are encountered while parsing the values, default values for the respective variable is used.
Note
You don't have to remember the environment variable names if you're setting them in code. The Settings class provides readonly constants you can use.
Note
Environment variables are parsed one at a time, unlike JSON. Therefore, if one of the three values fails or doesn't exist, it will use the defaults, but the others will work fine.
Want to contribute? Fantastic! I'd be happy for the help to make this even more useful, provided the following project goals are maintained:
-
Complete
System.Consolewrapper including all overloads to allowColorizedConsole.ConsoleExto be a drop-in replacement. -
Multiplatform (as much as the system version is) by not using platform-specific calls such as
DllImport. -
Standalone and lightweight by not being dependent on anything other than the base CLR itself.
You're welcome to request access to the project or fork it and create a PR. Or just contact Merovech. Whatever works for you.
Improvements
- Made
ConsoleExnon-static to support extension methods (all existing methods there are still static, though) - Configuration overhaul
- Replaced file-based configuration via INI file with standard JSON parsing
- Added environment variable support for configuration
- Exposed
ConsoleEx.ApplySettings()so developers can reapply settings outside of the constructor.
- Gave
DebugColor,InfoColor, andErrorColorpublic setters so that developers can change them without needing separate configuration code if they choose- These still default to Yellow, Green, and Red respectively
- Additional unit tests created
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug where foreground color didn't revert correctly in some cases
Initial release
▶️ 1.1.0.0 Release▶️ Implement updated configuration- ✅ JSON config file
- ✅ Environment variables
- ✅ Unit tests for new config functionality
- ✅ Update Readme documentation
- ✅ Update Readme-nuget documentation
- ✅ Update XML documentation
- ❌ Push to Nuget.org
- ✅ Add a wiki
- ✅ Change the NuGet README to a changelog
- ❌ Create a GitHub project so that I don't have to keep maintaining this file
- ❔ Investigate code generation for v2.0
- ❔ Investigate .NET roadmap regarding support for extension methods on static classes