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 are defined as full classes:

[lib/goodnight.rb]

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

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

Tasks are immediately available on the command line for use in workflows:

% tap run -- goodnight moon --: dump
  goodnight moon

% tap run -- load mittens -- load boat -- goodnight -- dump --[0,1][2] --[2][3]
  goodnight mittens
  goodnight boat

configurable …

% tap run -- goodnight moon --message hello --: dump
  hello moon

and documented.

% tap run -T
  sample:
    goodnight   # your basic goodnight moon task
  tap:
    dump        # the default dump task
    load        # the default load task

% 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

Moreover tasks are distributed as gems; simply add a tap.yml file to a gem and tap will automatically discover tasks that have the '::task' resource identifier within the class documentation.

See the Tutorial and Documentation for more information.