Commands

In addition to the commands provided by Vapor (like serve, and routes) you can build your own custom commands.

Note

Commands are a great way to script your application with CRON jobs.

Example

To make a custom console command we must first create a new .swift file, import Vapor and Console, and implement the Command protocol.

import Vapor
import Console

final class MyCustomCommand: Command {
    public let id = "my-command"
    public let help = ["This command does things, like foo, and bar."]
    public let console: ConsoleProtocol

    public init(console: ConsoleProtocol) {
        self.console = console
    }

    public func run(arguments: [String]) throws {
        console.print("running custom command...")
    }
}

• The id property is the string you will type in the console to access the command. .build/debug/App command will run the Custom Command.
• The help property is the help message that will give your custom command's users some idea of how to access it.
• The console property is the object passed to your custom command that adheres to the console protocol, allowing manipulation of the console.
• The run method is where you put the logic relating to your command.

Config Initializable

To make our command configurable, conform it to ConfigInitializable

extension MyCustomCommand: ConfigInitializable {
    public convenience init(config: Config) throws {
        let console = try config.resolveConsole()
        self.init(console: console)
    }
}

Add to Droplet

After we work our magic in the Custom Command file, we switch over to our main.swift file and add the custom command to the Droplet like so.

import Vapor

let config = try Config()
try config.addConfigurable(command: MyCustomCommand.init, name: "my-command")

let drop = try Droplet(config)

This allows Vapor access to our custom command and lets it know to display it in the --help section of the program.

Configure

Now that you've made the command configurable, just add it to the commands array in your Config/droplet.json file.

Config/droplet.json

{
    ...,
    "commands": ["my-command"],
    ...,
}

After compiling the application we can run our custom command like so.

vapor run my-command