How to use the CommandLine tool

What is the commandline tool?

The commandline enables developers to easily create or convert existing methods into a commandline argument making the tool very useful for debugging or creating an admin command system.

How it works

In the code snippet bellow you will notice an attribute called [Command("print")] where the string defines the name of the command to use in the commandline to reference the method. (Ensure that the commandline component is in your scene and active as it will only run commands in the scene)

    public void ConsoleLog(object content)
    {
        var textLog = SpawnTextLog();
        textLog.textarea.text = content.ToString();
    }
    
    [Command("print")]
    private void Log(string text)
    {
        ConsoleLog(text);
    }

this command is a default command that comes with the commandline package as well with a default commandline UI as seen below.

Note that single quotes that surrounding the 'Hello World' text. The commandline required center symbols or pattern to determine its type. Let us have a look at all the types you might face and the corresponding commandline representations.

Type	CommandLine Representation Example	Requires Special Symbols	Description
number	0	NO	​type number includes type int, float and double.
string	'hello world'	YES	everything between single quotes are considered a string.
Vector2	0,0	YES	two commas are required to represent the separation between the x and y values
Vector3	0,0,0	YES	three commas are required to represent the separation between the x, y and z values
Quaternions	0,0,0,0	YES	four commas are required to represent the separation between the x, y, z and x values
Random	1-49	YES	​values placed between a dash symbol will create a random number based on the range given where the left side represent the min value and the right side represent the max value
Array or List	15|20	YES	all types above can be places in a array or list by placing them between the straight line symbol

Lets make a more advanced example displaying the use of the string, vector3, array and random types. In this example we want to print text at random points between 0 and 50. First we create our method containing a string and Vector3[] type arguments then add our command attribute on top and bind it to the command point-prints.

    [Command("point-prints")]
    private void LogAtPoints(string text, Vector3[] points)
    {
        foreach (var point in points)
        {
            ConsoleLog($"Printing: {text} at point {point.ToString()}");
        }
    }

let's break down the command and have a look at what each argument meant:

point-prints 'hello there' 0-50,0,2|0,22,10|0,0-20,9 (each argument is separated by a space)

• point-prints: The name of the command linked to our method.

• 'hello there': Type string argument that matches the type in the parameter of the method.

• 0-50,0,2|0,22,10|0,0-20,9: A list or array of type Vector3 that matches the type in the parameter of the method. We also told our commandline that we want to have a random x value at our first element and a random y value at our third element in the array.

How to open the default commandline in playmode

After adding the commandline prefab to the scene you will be able to open or close it by pressing the TAB button.

How to use the default commandline

The default commandline as seen above can be located at Assets > CommandLine > Prefabs look for a prefab called commandline and drag it into your scene.

Controlls:

• Tab: Opens or closes the commandline.

• Arrow Up: Cycle upwards to previous commands typed in the textbox.

• Arrow Down: Cycle downward to previous commands typed in the textbox.

• Drag Mouse: Click and drag the left mouse button to cycle trough the outputs in the text-area below the textbox.

• Enter: Runs the command entered.

• Run Button: Runs the command entered.

• Clear Button: Clears all the logs.

• Close Button: Closes the console.

• Drop Down Arrow: Shows or hides the log section.

How to print to the default console

The default console contains a print command as seen previously in the blog (NOTE: point-prints does not exist with the default commandline)

The default commandline exposes some public methods that can be used to print to the console:

_commandLineUI.ConsoleLog("This is a normal console log");
_commandLineUI.ConsoleLog("This is a custom color console log", Color.cyan);
_commandLineUI.ConsoleLogError("This is a error log");
_commandLineUI.ConsoleLogWarning("This is a warning log");

(NOTE: When a command fails to run an error log will be displayed onto the console)

How to add the commandline to custom UI

The commandline is defined as a singleton so all that is required for the commandline to work is for the component to be placed on the scene and then add this one liner into your custom script. (NOTE: Make sure that the commandline component is in your scene and set and not disabled)

CommandLine.Instance.RunCommand(text);

Conclusion

After reading this blog I hope you will find this tool helpful and useful to your project. This version of the commandline is free and opensource available on the asset store and GitHub