👁 Image
Oakrey.Applications.Terminals 2.0.4

Oakrey.Applications.Terminals

A .NET 10 WPF library for building terminal-like interfaces in MVVM applications. It provides command history, message management, reactive updates, file export, and built-in integration with Oakrey.Log and Oakrey.Telemetry.

Main features

• Command history - navigable history of submitted commands with duplicate deduplication and a configurable capacity (default 20 entries).
• Generic message collection - IMessageCollection<TMessage> backed by a ReplaySubject for reactive change notifications.
• Built-in message types - StringMessage and StringAndDirectionMessage (with Direction) ship out of the box; custom types require only implementing IMessage.
• Sorting and display settings - IMessageViewSettings controls sort order (OldestOnTop / NewestOnTop), displayed message count, and timestamp visibility.
• File export - SaveToFile command writes messages to a .txt file via a standard save dialog with a configurable file name prefix.
• Context menu integration - ContextCommands collection is data-bindable and ships with "Clear" and "Save to file" entries.
• Logging and telemetry - all commands and file operations are traced through Oakrey.Log and Oakrey.Telemetry automatically.

Architecture

classDiagram
 class IMessage {
 +DateTime Timestamp
 }
 class StringMessage {
 +string Message
 +DateTime Timestamp
 }
 class StringAndDirectionMessage {
 +string Message
 +Direction Direction
 +DateTime Timestamp
 }
 class IMessageCollection~TMessage~ {
 +List~TMessage~ Messages
 +AddMessage(TMessage)
 +ClearMessages()
 +Subscribe(IObserver)
 }
 class MessageCollection~TMessage~
 class IMessageViewSettings {
 +SortOrder SortOrder
 +int DisplayedMessages
 +bool ShowTimestamp
 }
 class HistoryViewModel {
 +string Command
 +IStringHistoryProvider History
 +AddCommandToHistory()
 +HistoryUp()
 +HistoryDown()
 +Export() string
 }
 class TerminalViewModel~TMessage~ {
 +ObservableCollection~TMessage~ Messages
 +ObservableCollection~TMessage~ TerminalMessages
 +ObservableCollection~ContextMenuForViewModel~ ContextCommands
 +ICommand SendCommand
 +ICommand ClearMessages
 +ICommand SaveToFile
 #DefaultCommand()*
 #TraceLine(TMessage)*
 +string FilePrefix*
 }

 IMessage <|.. StringMessage
 IMessage <|.. StringAndDirectionMessage
 IMessageCollection <|.. MessageCollection
 HistoryViewModel <|-- TerminalViewModel
 TerminalViewModel o-- IMessageCollection
 TerminalViewModel o-- IMessageViewSettings

Key types

Requirements

• .NET 10 (Windows)
• WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation)

Installation

NuGet Package Manager

Search for Oakrey.Applications.Terminals in Visual Studio under Tools > NuGet Package Manager > Manage NuGet Packages for Solution.

.NET CLI

dotnet add package Oakrey.Applications.Terminals

Package Manager Console

Install-Package Oakrey.Applications.Terminals

Configuration

Inject or create an IMessageViewSettings instance and pass it to your TerminalViewModel subclass:

MessageViewSettings settings = new()
{
 SortOrder = SortOrder.NewestOnTop,
 DisplayedMessages = 200,
 ShowTimestamp = true
};

Example usage

Implement TerminalViewModel<TMessage> to create a concrete terminal:

public sealed class MyTerminalViewModel : TerminalViewModel<StringMessage>
{
 public override string FilePrefix => "my-terminal";

 protected override string TraceLine(StringMessage message)
 => $"[{message.Timestamp:HH:mm:ss}] {message.Message}";

 protected override void DefaultCommand()
 {
 if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(Command))
 {
 return;
 }
 devices.AddMessage(new StringMessage(Command));
 }
}

Bind in XAML:

<ItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding TerminalMessages}">
 <ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
 <DataTemplate>
 <TextBlock Text="{Binding Message}" />
 </DataTemplate>
 </ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
</ItemsControl>

<TextBox Text="{Binding Command, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}" />
<Button Content="Send" Command="{Binding SendCommand}" />
<ContextMenu ItemsSource="{Binding ContextCommands}">
 <ContextMenu.ItemContainerStyle>
 <Style TargetType="MenuItem">
 <Setter Property="Header" Value="{Binding DisplayName}" />
 <Setter Property="Command" Value="{Binding MessageContextMenuCommand}" />
 </Style>
 </ContextMenu.ItemContainerStyle>
</ContextMenu>

Development notes

• TerminalViewModel<TMessage> implements IDisposable. Always dispose instances that are no longer needed to unsubscribe from the reactive pipeline.
• CommandHistory capacity is fixed at 20 entries. Provide a custom IStringHistoryProvider to change this behaviour.
• MessageCollection<TMessage>.ClearMessages() calls messageSubject.OnNext(messages.Last()) after clearing; ensure the collection is non-empty before clearing or guard accordingly in derived code.
• Logging uses Oakrey.Log.LoggerFactory and tracing uses Oakrey.Telemetry.TracingFactory, both resolved by the concrete Type of the ViewModel subclass.

License

MIT - Copyright (c) Oakrey 2016-2025. See LICENSE for details.