Tap (Task Application)

A framework for creating configurable, distributable tasks and workflows. Kind of like Rake, kind of like Rails, but geared towards command line applications.

• Rubyforge
• Lighthouse
• Github

Tap Features

• easy configuration, documentation, and testing
• imperative and dependency-based workflows
• command-line execution
• generators
• distribution of task libraries as gems

A quick look

Tasks may be defined as full classes:

[lib/goodnight.rb]

# Goodnight::manifest your basic goodnight moon task
# Says goodnight with a configurable message.
class Goodnight < Tap::Task
  config :message, 'goodnight'           # a goodnight message

  def process(name)
    puts "#{message} #{name}"
  end
end

or in rakish declarations.

[Tapfile]

# ::desc your basic goodnight moon task
# Says goodnight with a configurable message.
Tap.task(:goodnight, :name, :message => 'goodnight') do |task, args|
  puts "#{task.message} #{args.name}"
end

These are immediately available in the command line …

% tap run -T
  goodnight       # your basic goodnight moon task

% tap run -- goodnight moon
    I[23:22:19]          goodnight moon

configurable …

% tap run -- goodnight moon --message hello
    I[23:22:46]              hello moon

and documented.

% tap run -- goodnight --help
Goodnight -- your basic goodnight moon task
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Says goodnight with a configurable message.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
usage: tap run -- goodnight NAME

configurations:
        --message MESSAGE            a goodnight message

options:
    -h, --help                       Print this help
        --name NAME                  Specify a name
        --use FILE                   Loads inputs from file