Interactive Command Prompts in Laravel: Guide to PromptsForMissingInput

Want to make your Artisan commands more user-friendly? Laravel's PromptsForMissingInput interface turns missing arguments into interactive prompts! Let's explore this elegant feature.

Basic Implementation

Here's how to add interactive prompts to your command:

use Illuminate\Console\Command;
use Illuminate\Contracts\Console\PromptsForMissingInput;

class SendEmails extends Command implements PromptsForMissingInput
{
    protected $signature = 'mail:send {user}';
}

Customizing Prompts

You can customize the prompt messages:

protected function promptForMissingArgumentsUsing(): array
{
    return [
        'user' => 'Which user ID should receive the mail?'
    ];
}

Real-World Example

Here's a practical implementation for a deployment command:

class DeployApplication extends Command implements PromptsForMissingInput
{
    protected $signature = 'deploy 
        {environment} 
        {branch} 
        {--notify=}';

    protected function promptForMissingArgumentsUsing(): array
    {
        return [
            'environment' => [
                'Which environment are you deploying to?',
                'E.g. staging, production'
            ],
            'branch' => fn () => search(
                label: 'Select a branch to deploy:',
                placeholder: 'Type to search branches...',
                options: fn ($value) => $this->getGitBranches($value)
            )
        ];
    }

    private function getGitBranches($search)
    {
        // Simulate Git branch search
        $branches = [
            'main' => 'main',
            'develop' => 'develop',
            'feature/user-auth' => 'feature/user-auth',
            'hotfix/login-fix' => 'hotfix/login-fix'
        ];

        return array_filter($branches, function($branch) use ($search) {
            return str_contains($branch, $search);
        });
    }

    public function handle()
    {
        $environment = $this->argument('environment');
        $branch = $this->argument('branch');

        $this->info("Deploying {$branch} to {$environment}...");

        // Deployment logic here...
    }
}

Usage scenarios:

# With all arguments
php artisan deploy production main

# Without arguments (prompts will appear)
php artisan deploy

Interactive prompts make your commands more user-friendly and help prevent errors from missing arguments.

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