PromptPlus
# PromptPlus
## **Demo Mode**
[](https://www.nuget.org/packages/PromptPlus)
[](https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)
[](https://dotnet.microsoft.com/)
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Demo Mode is a ConsolePlus feature — surfaced automatically through PromptPlus.Console, since
that property is the underlying IConsole — that lets you script keyboard input ahead of time
instead of typing it live. It exists to make recording interactive console apps (GIFs, videos,
screenshots for a README) reliable and repeatable. It is exactly how the demo GIF in
this project’s own README was produced (recorded as video, then converted to GIF —
GitHub’s Markdown renderer does not reliably play a raw <video> tag, but animated GIFs always
autoplay and loop natively).
📖 For the full member-by-member API reference (
DemoModeEnabled,EnqueueText,ScriptedDelayMs, etc.), see ConsolePlus’s Demo Mode guide. This page covers what’s specific to PromptPlus controls.
Table of contents
- Quick example
- The redirected-input guard exception
- Live controls need no scripted keys
- Full runnable sample
Quick example
using PromptPlusLibrary;
PromptPlus.Console.DemoModeEnabled = true;
PromptPlus.Console.ScriptedDelayMs = 180; // typing-effect pacing between keys
// Enqueue immediately before .Run() — Run() only returns after consuming its own Enter,
// so ordering across multiple controls stays correct with no extra synchronization.
PromptPlus.Console.EnqueueText("Fulano", delayMs: 500);
PromptPlus.Console.EnqueueKey(ConsoleKey.Enter, delayMs: 500);
var name = PromptPlus.Controls.Input("Name").Run();
PromptPlus.Console.DemoModeEnabled = false; // back to real keyboard input
Every control consumes scripted keys exactly as if they came from a real keyboard — no control-level
opt-in is needed beyond enabling Demo Mode on PromptPlus.Console and queuing the keys that control
expects.
The redirected-input guard exception
By default, .Run()/.Show() on an interactive control throws InvalidOperationException
immediately when console input is redirected, instead of hanging forever waiting for a key that can
never arrive — see Global Behaviors
and ADR0023 for the full
rationale. That guard now has one exception: it does not fire while DemoModeActive is true
(Demo Mode enabled and a scripted key currently queued), since a scripted key is available
regardless of redirection.
This is what lets AutoDemoSamples (below) drive real interactive controls — Input, Select,
MultiSelect, MaskDate, and more — from a recording pipeline where stdio may well be redirected.
⚠️ The exception is evaluated per key read, not for the whole run.
DemoModeEnabled = truealone does not make a redirected run safe. If the scripted queue runs dry while a control still needs another key, the guard’s normal redirected-input behavior resumes for that read. A script driving a redirected/headless run must queue every key each control needs before letting that control’s.Run()return. See ConsolePlus’s Demo Mode and redirected/headless input.
Live controls need no scripted keys
ProgressBar, Task, MultiTasks, and Timer complete on their own signal (progress reaching 100%,
the wrapped task finishing, the countdown elapsing) — they never wait on a real keystroke, so they run
identically under Demo Mode, redirected input, both, or neither. Nothing needs to be scripted for
them; just run them as usual inside a Demo Mode script.
Full runnable sample
samples/AutoDemoSamples is a complete, runnable console app
that scripts a walkthrough of ten different controls and widgets back to back — Input, Select,
MultiSelect, MaskDate, Input with suggestions (both auto-complete and manual), MultiTasks,
ProgressBar, Slider, and ChartBar. It is the actual source used to record this project’s README
demo GIF: run it, select the terminal window as your recording area during the initial
Console.ReadKey() pause, let it play itself out at a natural typing pace, then convert the
recording to an animated GIF (e.g. with ffmpeg) before embedding it in Markdown.