Appi

What is Appi? Appi is short for App information.

The goal is to query your sources for information through one tool; all at once, in groups or individually, highly extensible. Accessible from your favorite shell with easy-to-remeber commands from your keyboard without even touching your mouse.
Because your information sources will be different from mine, go start building your first plugin.

Table of Contents

• Features
• Installation
• Examples
  • Demo
  • Screenshot of multiple results
  • Supported commands
• Plugins
  • Infrastructure
  • Dependency Injection (DI)
  • Example for implementing ISource
  • Example for implementing ResultItemBase
  • Localization
• Up next

Features

• Asynchronously fetch all your sources matching your query
• Easily provide your custom plugin based on pre-built infrastructure classes
• Set up your preferences (e.g. culture, colors, and paths)
• Make use of the given toolset (e.g. for backward navigation)
• Make use of the DI container
• Localized messages und UI

Installation

Choose your desired way:

• Install via NuGet: dotnet tool install --global Appi
• Download binaries from GitHub Releases
• Build on your own
  • Clone repository
  • Restore dependencies
  • Build solution (example plugins will get copied into )

Take a look at the GitHub Releases page for updates and release notes.

Set up your preferences in %AppData%\Appi\preferences.json. This file is expected at the specified location. Any settings inside can be changed:

Setting	Description	Default value
AppDataDirectory	The application directory of Appi. Can be viewed with appi config open command..	%AppData%\Appi\
SourcesFilename	The full filename for the file containing the sources configuration.	%AppData%\Appi\sources.json
UiCulture	The culture Appi is displayed in.	Current UI culture
PageSize	The size of the page.	35
AccentColor	The color of the accent. See all available colors.	Red
Legend.Visible	Value indicating whether the legend is printed or not.	true
Legend.SourceColors	The source colors for the legend. See all available colors.	["SkyBlue", "Magenta", ...]

Examples

Demo

This demo shows the find command searching for st within all active sources (Customers SQLite database, Address MySQL database, User SQL Server database, Demo Assembly, and More), selecting and displaying one user result (UserId and Username - properties based on DetailViewColumnAttribute), goes back, selecting a customer result, and finally taking some action on it (Copy address).
Next actions searches for joh inside the single cust source (alias for customer - can be defined in settings), picks one, and calls its phone number.

Screenshot of multiple results

This screenshot shows the find command searching for e within all active sources (4). This is for demonstration purposes only, do not try to find any logic in it :)

Supported commands

find command (default, can be omitted)

DESCRIPTION: Query all (default) or only the specified sources. USAGE: Appi find <query> [OPTIONS] EXAMPLES: Appi god Appi god -s poetry Appi god -g demo Appi find god Appi find god --source poetry Appi find god --group demo ARGUMENTS: <query> Search for the given query OPTIONS: DEFAULT -h, --help Prints help information -g, --group all Search within a group -s, --source Search within a single source -c, --case-sensitive The query parameter will be case-sensitive

list command

List all your installed sources with Appi list and see how they can be queried using the --source or --group option.

╔══════════════════╤═════════════════════════════════╤════════╤══════════════════════════════╤══════════════════════════════╗ ║ Name │ Description │ Active │ Source alias (-s / --source) │ Group aliases (-g / --group) ║ ╟──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┼────────┼──────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────╢ ║ scraped.txt File │ Contents of the file. │ │ scrapedtxtfile │ ║ ║ Poetry │ by poetrydb.org │ X │ poetry │ demo ║ ║ More │ Non-contextual options │ X │ more │ ║ ║ Demo Assembly │ Returns hard-coded hello world. │ X │ external │ demo ║ ╚══════════════════╧═════════════════════════════════╧════════╧══════════════════════════════╧══════════════════════════════╝

config command

Need to install a your newly created plugin or open the configuration file? Here is how:

DESCRIPTION: Configure Appi. USAGE: Appi config [OPTIONS] <COMMAND> EXAMPLES: Appi config open Appi config allow-libs true Appi config register-lib E:\my-own-appi-plugin.dll OPTIONS: -h, --help Prints help information COMMANDS: open Opens the app's configuration directory allow-libs <allowed: true|false> Allow or disallow external libraries to be loaded register-lib <path> Register a new library which is copied to application directory and registred in sources.json

See an example of the configuration file here.

Plugins

This app is highly extensible by adding own plugins. You can fetch data from any source you can imagine, e. g. from your SharePoint Server, Active Directory or any database.

Just follow these simple steps:

1. Create a .NET 7 class library
2. Add the Appi.Core NuGet package as a dependency
   • PM> Install-Package Appi.Core for plugin development from scratch or
   • PM> Install-Package Appi.Infrastructure for plugin development with pre-built infrastructure like File access, MySQL/MariaDB, SQLite or Microsoft SQL Server
3. Create classes that implement ISource and ResultItemBase (see GitHub examples)
4. Register the new assembly by calling appi config register-lib "pathToAssembly.dll"
   • Use the --copy-only parameter if you are updating your plugin, so that it is not registered again.
   • Use the --register-only parameter if you want to debug your plugin. See details right below.
5. If applicable: change connection string(s) in sources.json (appi config open)

Having trouble developing a plugin?
It should help to clone and open this repository, create your plugin project as described above, and edit your *.csproj as follows:

<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='Debug|AnyCPU'"> <BaseOutputPath>..\..\src\Ui.Appi\bin</BaseOutputPath> </PropertyGroup> <PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='Release|AnyCPU'"> <BaseOutputPath>bin</BaseOutputPath> </PropertyGroup>

That way, your plugin gets copied into the app's directory on debug builds and can therefore be debugged.
Note that your plugin must be registered in the sources.json file, but should only be included once in ..\..\src\Ui.Appi\bin then (not in %AppData%\Appi, too).

Infrastructure

Some infrastructure classes are already provided. Fetching data from your database is as easy as writing the SQL query for it. You can build up from given classes like:

• File (see sources.json after running appi config open and change the path of your text file)
• SQL Server (MSSQL)
• MySQL / MariaDB
• SQLite
• More to come out of the box (want to collaborate?)

Dependency Injection (DI)

You can inject every service into your own plugin that is registered in Program.cs. Examples of custom services are IHandler, IHandlerHelper, IResultStateService<>, ISettingsService, or IPluginService.
Of course you can also use the built-in services like IStringLocalizerFactory, IStringLocalizer<>, ILoggerFactory, ILogger<>, IOtions<>, ... So just define its type in your constructor. In case of multiple constructors, the first one with the most parameters will be chosen.

Example for implementing ISource

The class implementing ISource can have any constructor. The services will be constructed using the DI container. A service will be null if it is not registered.
The ReadAsync() method must pass the FindItemsOptions object which contains the query and returns the found data.
The initial values of the properties are used to create the entry in the sources.json config file when installing your plugin.

using Core.Abstractions; using Core.Models; namespace Infrastructure.ExternalSourceDemo { public class ExternalDemoSource : ISource { private readonly IHandlerHelper _handlerHelper; public string TypeName { get; set; } = typeof(ExternalDemoSource).Name; public string Name { get; set; } = "Demo Assembly"; public string Alias { get; set; } = "external"; public string Description { get; set; } = "Returns hard-coded hello world."; public bool IsActive { get; set; } = true; public int SortOrder { get; set; } = 50; public string? Path { get; set; } public string? Arguments { get; set; } public bool? IsQueryCommand { get; set; } = true; public string[]? Groups { get; set; } = new[] { "demo" }; public ExternalDemoSource(IHandlerHelper handlerHelper) { _handlerHelper = handlerHelper ?? throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(handlerHelper));; } public async Task<IEnumerable<ResultItemBase>> ReadAsync(FindItemsOptions options) { var output = new List<ExternalDemoResult>() { new ExternalDemoResult(_handlerHelper) { Name = "Hello", Description = options?.Query ?? "World" } }; return await Task.FromResult(output); } } }

The example above will create the following entry in sources.json file using the command Appi config register-lib "C:\...\Appi.Infrastructure.ExternalDemoSource.dll":

[ { "TypeName": "ExternalDemoSource", "Name": "Demo Assembly", "Alias": "external", "Groups": [ "demo" ], "Description": "Returns hard-coded hello world.", "IsActive": true, "SortOrder": 50, "Path": null, "Arguments": null, "IsQueryCommand": true } ]

Your source can now be queried using the find command, e. g. Appi god -s external or along with other sources inside the demo group with Appi god -g demo Of course, the file can be edited to your needs afterwards, e. g. to change the alias or group name.

Example for implementing ResultItemBase

This class controls the output of an item by overriding the ToString() method and displays the possible actions with the result of GetActions() method if an item of this source gets selected. You can easily interact with predefined services like using the ClipboardService or ProcessService for most frequent used actions.
By using the DetailViewColumn attribute with generic target type for converting the result to another type (former ResultAttribute) you can define the displayed properties in the output table:

[DetailViewColumn] // no type defaults to `string` public string Title { get; set; } = string.Empty; [DetailViewColumn<string>] public string Lines { get; set; } = string.Empty; [DetailViewColumn<int>] public int LineCount { get; set; }

Make use of IHandlerHelper if you'd like to EscapeMarkup() or use pre-defined actions like Back() or Exit().

using Core.Abstractions; using Core.Attributes; using Core.Models; namespace ExternalSourceDemo { public class ExternalDemoResult : ResultItemBase { private readonly IHandlerHelper _handlerHelper; [DetailViewColumn] public override string Name => base.Name; [DetailViewColumn] public override string Description => _handlerHelper.EscapeMarkup(base.Description); public ExternalDemoResult(IHandlerHelper handlerHelper) { _handlerHelper = handlerHelper ?? throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(handlerHelper)); } public override IEnumerable<ActionItem> GetActions() { var actions = new List<ActionItem> { _handlerHelper.Back(), _handlerHelper.Exit() }; return actions; } public override string ToString() { return $"{Name} {Description}!"; } } }

Localization

Appi is localized (english and german language as of now). If you like, you can contribute additional languages.
Each layer or custom plugin has its own Localization folder and files using the default way of implementing string translations by using IStringLocalizer<T> class. This class is registered in DI container, so you can gain access to it by using DI in your constructor.

Here is an example of implementing localization in your own plugin:

• Inject the service IStringLocalizer<TWHATEVER> into your constructor
• Place the [assembly: RootNamespace("PROJECTNAME")] attribute at the top of your TWHATEVER member
• Create a folder named Localization in your plugin's root
• Create a resx file named as follows: FullNamespaceOfYourTWhateverFile.TWhateverFilename.Locale.resx e.g. Infrastructure.FileDemoExample.FileDemoSource.de.resx
• Use it like this: _customLocalizer["Line"] where Line is the key

[assembly: RootNamespace("FileDemo")] namespace Infrastructure.FileDemoExample { public class FileDemoSource : ISource { // ... private readonly IStringLocalizer<FileDemoSource> _customLocalizer; public FileDemoSource(IStringLocalizer<FileDemoSource> customLocalizer) { _customLocalizer = customLocalizer ?? throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(customLocalizer)); } public override async Task<IEnumerable<ResultItemBase>> ReadAsync(FindItemsOptions options) { // ... } public IServiceCollection AddCustomServices(IServiceCollection services) { return base.AddCustomServices(services); } private FileResult Parse(string row, int rowNumber) { return new FileDemoResult(_customLocalizer) { Id = rowNumber, Name = $"{_customLocalizer["Line"]} {rowNumber}", Description = row }; } } }

Take a further look at the example plugin File Demo Plugin. In this demo there are two localizers injected, one from the apps Infrastructure layer and a custom one.

Up next

• Localized app examples
• Unit tests