Configuration Editor TUI (ConfigTUI)

Enhancing the experience of editing YAML files, especially when dealing with large files or when using Linux editors, can be a challenging task. To address this, we present "config-tui", a minimalist and intuitive Text User Interface (TUI) tool designed specifically for effortless viewing and editing of YAML files. With its clean and user-friendly interface, config-tui simplifies the process, making YAML file manipulation a breeze.

config-tui: where YAML editing gets a friendly and quirky makeover! We make YAML editing an absolute delight :)

• version: 1.2.5 - [2023-06-13]

Pre-requisites

python >= 3.9
pip >= 20.0.0

Installation

• Copy the folder config-tui to desired folder
• Install pip dependencies:

  pip install -r requirements.txt
  

Usage

python config-tui.py -i [yaml-file-to-be-edited]

• Run this command for more details: python config-tui.py -h
• Tested on:
  • Windows
  • Linux

Todo list

• Edit and Save YAML file
• Ability to search within tree
• Add / remove new items in the yaml
• Preserve comments in the yaml
• Add Word wrap to edit long values
• Maintain positions when keys are edited
• Add support for various configuration types.
  • Currently supports yaml, json and works for toml, ini or any configuration which can be loaded as json

Limitations

• Cannot preserve comments or any decorators on saving a yaml file. Fixed in v1.2

Examples

• Viewing yaml files:
• Save yaml configuration file:

Author

• Prudhvi Ch

Known issues & Fixes

• By default, ConfigTUI has the ability to infer data types and do type conversions. It can be overridden by passing --enable-strict-data-types as a CLI option
• By default, ConfigTUI does not allow to edit key of a nested value. It can be overridden by passing --edit-dict-keys as a CLI option
• For inferring any value as string explicitly, encapsule the value in quotes while modifying

Warning As of v1.2, ConfigTUI can preserve comments but it is not 100% accurate.

Behind-the-scenes of Development

Below are some other tools which I explored and their reason of rejection:

1. pyfx: only view and is limited to linux
2. config-suite: requires defining yaml schema which is not properly documented
3. npyscreen: no proper documentation
4. urwid: does not work with windows
5. curses: requires very minute level coding even for a trivial task
6. gum: wonderful tool but not suited for json/yaml trees
7. tson: no longer maintained and requires golang installation

The choice is Textual which is a rapidly growing popular framework for building TUI apps. Textual adds interactivity to Rich with is an API inspired by modern web development.