PromptPlus

# PromptPlus ## **Global Behaviors** [![NuGet](https://img.shields.io/badge/NuGet-PromptPlus-blue)](https://www.nuget.org/packages/PromptPlus) [![License: MIT](https://img.shields.io/badge/License-MIT-yellow.svg)](https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT) [![.NET](https://img.shields.io/badge/.NET-8%20%7C%209%20%7C%2010-512BD4)](https://dotnet.microsoft.com/)

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PromptPlus has two configuration layers. This page covers Layer 1 — global defaults that apply to every control — and explains how to override them per control.

`IPromptPlusConfig` — Full Property Reference

Set these on PromptPlus.Config before running any controls. Changes take effect for all subsequent .Run() calls.

Text & Formatting

Property	Type	Default	Effect
`SufixAfterPrompt`	`string`	`": "`	Appended after every prompt text
`PrefixExtraInfo`	`string`	`"("`	Prefix for extra-info display
`SuffixExtraInfo`	`string`	`")"`	Suffix for extra-info display
`SecretChar`	`char`	`'#'`	Mask character used by the Secret control
`PromptMaskEdit`	`char`	`'_'`	Placeholder character in MaskEdit controls
`DefaultCulture`	`CultureInfo`	`CultureInfo.CurrentCulture`	Culture for formatting, parsing, and localization
`YesChar`	`char`	`'y'` (culture)	Character accepted as “Yes” in Confirm
`NoChar`	`char`	`'n'` (culture)	Character accepted as “No” in Confirm

Sizes & Widths

Property	Type	Default	Constraints	Effect
`PageSize`	`byte`	`0` (auto)	—	Items per page; `0` = auto from terminal height
`ChartWidth`	`byte`	`80`	10–255	Width of chart bar rendering
`ProgressBarWidth`	`byte`	`40`	10–255	Width of progress bar
`SliderWidth`	`byte`	`30`	10–100	Width of slider bar
`SwitchWidth`	`byte`	`4`	4–10	Width of switch toggle
`MaxLenghtFilterText`	`byte`	`25`	5–50	Max characters in filter input

Control & Abort Behavior

Property	Type	Default	Effect
`EnabledAbortKey`	`bool`	`true`	Enables Esc to abort controls globally
`ShowMessageAbortKey`	`bool`	`true`	Includes the abort-key name in tooltips
`ShowTooltip`	`bool`	`true`	Shows keyboard hints below prompts
`HideAfterFinish`	`bool`	`false`	Erases control UI after the user confirms
`HideOnAbort`	`bool`	`false`	Erases control UI when the user presses Esc, or when the run is cancelled externally (Ctrl+C, or a caller-supplied `CancellationToken`)
`RemoveHandlerCtrlC`	`bool`	`false`	Reserved for future use; currently has no effect

Calendar

Property	Type	Default	Effect
`FirstDayOfWeek`	`DayOfWeek`	`DayOfWeek.Sunday`	First day of week in all calendar controls

Hot Keys

Every hot key is settable (get; set;) except HotKeyAbortKeyPress, which is read-only (see the override section below).

Property	Default key	Settable?	Applies to
`HotKeyAbortKeyPress`	`Esc`	❌ read-only	All controls — abort
`HotKeyTooltip`	`F1`	✅	All controls — cycle tooltip content
`HotKeyTooltipShowHide`	`Ctrl+F1`	✅	All controls — toggle tooltip visibility
`HotKeyInputHistoryView`	`F3`	✅	Input, Secret — show history (Select/MultiSelect only auto-load the last value as `Default`; MaskEdit has no history support at all)
`HotKeyInputPasswordView`	`F2`	✅	Secret — reveal / hide typed text
`HotKeyCalendarSwitchNotes`	`F2`	✅	Calendar — toggle notes display
`HotKeyChartBarSwitchLayout`	`F2`	✅	ChartBar — switch layout
`HotKeyChartBarSwitchLegend`	`F3`	✅	ChartBar — toggle legend
`HotKeyChartBarSwitchOrder`	`F4`	✅	ChartBar — cycle sort order
`HotKeyToggleAll`	`F2`	✅	MultiSelect, TreeMultiSelect, TableMultiSelect, MultiFile — toggle all
`HotKeyFilterAllSelected`	`F3`	✅	MultiSelect, MultiFile, TableMultiSelect — filter to only checked items
`HotKeyToggleFullPath`	`Shift+F3`	✅	File, MultiFile, TreeSelect, TreeMultiSelect — toggle full path

Error logging

When an unhandled exception aborts a control, PromptPlus writes a diagnostic file to:

%LocalAppData%/PromptPlus/PromptPlus.error.log

This is the OS local-application-data folder and resolves correctly on Windows, Linux, and macOS. Writing the log never throws — any failure is silently ignored so it cannot interfere with shutdown.

`HotKey` — Overriding a Shortcut

Use the HotKey struct to reassign any settable hot key. Its constructor is HotKey(ConsoleKey key, bool alt = false, bool ctrl = false, bool shift = false):

using PromptPlusLibrary;
using System;

// Move the history hotkey from F3 to F7
PromptPlus.Config.HotKeyInputHistoryView = new HotKey(ConsoleKey.F7);

// Require Ctrl+L to toggle the tooltip
PromptPlus.Config.HotKeyTooltip = new HotKey(ConsoleKey.L, ctrl: true);

⚠️ HotKeyAbortKeyPress is read-only and always Esc — it cannot be reassigned. To turn the abort key off, set EnabledAbortKey = false (globally) or use .Options(o => o.EnabledAbortKey(false)) per control.

`ToFile()` — Persisting Config to Disk

Write the current PromptPlus.Config state to a JSON file so it is loaded automatically on the next run:

using PromptPlusLibrary;

// Configure
PromptPlus.Config.PageSize = 10;
PromptPlus.Config.HideAfterFinish = true;

// Save to current directory
PromptPlus.Config.ToFile(".");

This writes PromptPlus.config to the specified folder. On the next application startup, PromptPlus looks for this file in the working directory and loads it automatically.

Example PromptPlus.config (JSON):

{
  "PageSize": 10,
  "HideAfterFinish": true,
  "DefaultCulture": "en-US"
}

💡 You only need to include properties you want to override. Missing properties use their built-in defaults.

Per-Control Override — `IControlOptions`

Every control exposes .Options(action) to override global settings for that single instance:

using PromptPlusLibrary;

PromptPlus.Controls
	.Input("Your name")
	.Options(o => o
		.Prompt("Enter your full name")
		.Description("First and last name, please")
		.SufixAfterPrompt(" → ")
		.HideAfterFinish(false)
		.ShowTooltip(true)
		.EnabledAbortKey(false))
	.Run();

Available overrides via `IControlOptions`

Method	What it overrides
`Prompt(text)`	The prompt text shown to the user
`Description(text)`	Optional description line below the prompt
`SufixAfterPrompt(text)`	Text appended after the prompt (overrides global `SufixAfterPrompt`)
`PrefixExtraInfo(text)`	Prefix for extra-info section
`SuffixExtraInfo(text)`	Suffix for extra-info section
`EnabledAbortKey(bool)`	Enable or disable Esc for this control
`ShowMessageAbortKey(bool)`	Show or hide abort-key hint in tooltip
`ShowTooltip(bool)`	Show or hide keyboard hints
`HideAfterFinish(bool)`	Erase control UI after confirmation
`HideOnAbort(bool)`	Erase control UI after Esc

Observable Behaviors — Reference

Behavior	Observable effect
Terminal resize detection	Control re-renders its own area automatically; surrounding output is untouched
Minimum terminal size (80×10)	Control shows a resize prompt and waits — never crashes or corrupts output
Culture isolation	`DefaultCulture` applied only during `.Run()`; thread culture always restored after — even on error
Single-line rendering	Newlines stripped from display; sliding window with `…` when value is too wide; `result.Content` always holds the original full value
History persistence	Last confirmed value saved to disk; pre-loaded on next run; configurable via `IHistoryOptions`
HideAfterFinish	Control UI erased after confirmation; only the final answer line remains
HideOnAbort	Control UI erased when the user presses Esc, or when the run is cancelled externally (Ctrl+C, or a caller-supplied `CancellationToken`)
Ctrl+C handling	Always terminates the process (via ConsolePlus’s `Console.CancelKeyPress` handler) — it is not an internal abort and the control’s `Run()` call never returns. The current control gets a short, bounded grace period to run its own cancellation cleanup first (honoring `HideOnAbort` for interactive controls; Live controls — ProgressBar, Task, MultiTasks, Timer — always clear their frame). `RemoveHandlerCtrlC` is reserved for future use and currently has no effect
Tooltip visibility	`ShowTooltip = true` shows keyboard hints below the prompt
Abort key hint	`ShowMessageAbortKey = true` includes the abort-key name in the tooltip
Auto-initialization	PromptPlus initializes on first access: detects terminal, loads `PromptPlus.config` if present, registers error log hook
Redirected console input	Interactive controls throw `InvalidOperationException` immediately when console input is redirected, instead of hanging forever. `ProgressBar`, `Task`, `MultiTasks`, `Timer` are exempt — they complete on their own signal and run normally under redirected input. Demo Mode is also exempt while active

Running under redirected/non-interactive input

using PromptPlusLibrary;

// Under a redirected console (a file, a pipe, most CI runners), this throws
// InvalidOperationException immediately instead of hanging:
var result = PromptPlus.Controls.Input("Name").Run();

// Live controls have no such restriction — they don't wait on a real keystroke:
var state = PromptPlus.Controls.Task("Working")
    .Action(_ => DoWork())
    .Run();

An interactive control fundamentally needs a real key press to produce a result, and a redirected console has no keyboard input buffer to read one from — a ProgressBar, Task, MultiTasks, or Timer control is the normal way to handle automated/CI scenarios instead. The one opt-out is Demo Mode: while PromptPlus.Console.DemoModeActive is true (enabled and a scripted key is currently queued), this guard does not fire, since a scripted key is available regardless of redirection — see the linked guide for the caveats. See ADR0023 for the full rationale.