JSON Menu

The easiest way to create interactive console menus in Python
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Table of contents

• Table of contents
• Introduction
• Installation
• Import
• How to use
  • Compact version
• Options
  • Custom language
  • Custom theme
• What's included
• Bugs and feature requests
• Contributing
• Creator

Introduction

JSON Menu is a Python library created by Xavi Burgos that lets you create interactive console menus from basic JSON structures. With just a few lines of code, you can build user-friendly interfaces for your Python scripts.

The menu generated by JSON Menu will be displayed as the following example:

┌─────────────────────────────┐
│        My first menu        │
├─────────────────────────────┤
│ 1. My first action          │
│ 2. Submenu                  │
│ 0. Exit                     │
└─────────────────────────────┘

Select an option: 

Installation

To install JSON Menu, you can use the following pip command:

pip install jsonmenu

Alternatively, you can clone the repository from GitHub or download the source code from the releases page and include the jsonmenu.py file in your project.

Import

Once installed, you can import the library in your Python script with the following line:

from jsonmenu import JsonMenu

How to use

To create a menu, you need to define a JSON structure with the following format:

menu_data = [
	{
		"label": "My first action",
		"action": my_function
	},
	{
		"label": "Submenu",
		"submenu": [
			{
				"label": "Option 1",
				"action": custom_function_1
			},
			{
				"label": "Option 2",
				"action": custom_function_2
			}
		]
	}
]

Also, you can add an options dictionary to customize the menu, explained at options section.

custom_options = {
	"theme": "rounded",
	# More options here...
}

Then, you can create the menu with the following code:

jm = JsonMenu("My first menu", menu_data, custom_options)
jm.show()

Compact version

A compact version of the previous code to create and show the menu is the following:

jm = JsonMenu("My first menu", [
	{
		"label": "My first action",
		"action": my_function
	},
	{
		"label": "Submenu",
		"submenu": [
			{
				"label": "Option 1",
				"action": custom_function_1
			},
			{
				"label": "Option 2",
				"action": custom_function_2
			}
		]
	}
], { "theme": "rounded" })
jm.show()

Options

The options dictionary allows you to customize the appearance and behavior of the menu. The following options are available:

Option	Description	Default value	Possible values
back_menu	Previous menu to return when the user selects the 0 option. If not defined, the menu will close.	None	JsonMenu object
clear	Clear the console before showing the menu. This option is useful to avoid cluttering the console with previous outputs.	False	True, False
debug	Show debug information in the console. This option is useful for development and testing. Warnings will not be displayed if clear option is enabled (console is cleared before showing the menu).	False	True, False
width	Width of the menu in characters.	31	int
language	Language of the menu. Also a dictionary could be passed, and the menu will be use the provided custom translations.	en	ar, ca, de, en, es, fr, hi, it, ja, ko, nl, pt, ru, sv, tr, zh, <custom dictionary>
theme	Theme of the menu. Also a dictionary could be passed, and the menu will be use the provided custom theme.	unicode	ascii, unicode, bold, double, rounded, dotted, striped, <custom dictionary>

Custom language

A custom language dictionary can be passed to the language option. The dictionary must contain the following keys:

Key	Description	English value
back	Text for the back option.	Back
exit	Text for the exit option.	Exit
invalid_option	Text for the invalid option message.	Invalid option
select_option	Text for the select option message.	Select an option
press_enter	Text for the press enter to continue message.	Press "Enter" to continue

Custom theme

A custom theme dictionary can be passed to the theme option. The dictionary must contain the following keys:

Key	Description	Unicode value
tl	Top left corner of the menu.	┌
tr	Top right corner of the menu.	┐
cl	Center left corner of the menu.	├
cr	Center right corner of the menu.	┤
bl	Bottom left corner of the menu.	└
br	Bottom right corner of the menu.	┘
h	Horizontal line of the menu.	─
v	Vertical line of the menu.	│

What's included

Within the download you'll find the following directories and files, logically grouping common assets. You'll see something like this:

jsonmenu/
├── jsonmenu
│   ├── __init__.py
│   └── jsonmenu.py
├── setup.py
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
├── LICENSE
└── README.md

Bugs and feature requests

Have a bug or a feature request? Please first read the issue guidelines and search for existing and closed issues. If your problem or idea is not addressed yet, please open a new issue.

Contributing

Please read through our contributing guidelines. Included are directions for opening issues, coding standards, and notes on development.

Creator

Xavier Burgos

• Website: https://xburgos.es/
• GitHub: https://github.com/xavi-burgos99/
• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/xavi-burgos/