Command

Command in Rust

Command is behavioral design pattern that converts requests or simple operations into objects.

The conversion allows deferred or remote execution of commands, storing command history, etc.

Learn more about Command

In Rust, a command instance should NOT hold a permanent reference to global context, instead the latter should be passed from top to down as a mutable parameter of the “execute” method:

fn execute(&mut self, app: &mut cursive::Cursive) -> bool;

Text Editor: Commands and Undo

Key points:

Each button runs a separate command.
Because a command is represented as an object, it can be pushed into a history array in order to be undone later.
TUI is created with cursive crate.

command.rs: Command Inteface

mod copy;
mod cut;
mod paste;

pub use copy::CopyCommand;
pub use cut::CutCommand;
pub use paste::PasteCommand;

/// Declares a method for executing (and undoing) a command.
///
/// Each command receives an application context to access
/// visual components (e.g. edit view) and a clipboard.
pub trait Command {
    fn execute(&mut self, app: &mut cursive::Cursive) -> bool;
    fn undo(&mut self, app: &mut cursive::Cursive);
}

command/copy.rs: Copy Command

use cursive::{views::EditView, Cursive};

use super::Command;
use crate::AppContext;

#[derive(Default)]
pub struct CopyCommand;

impl Command for CopyCommand {
    fn execute(&mut self, app: &mut Cursive) -> bool {
        let editor = app.find_name::<EditView>("Editor").unwrap();
        let mut context = app.take_user_data::<AppContext>().unwrap();

        context.clipboard = editor.get_content().to_string();

        app.set_user_data(context);
        false
    }

    fn undo(&mut self, _: &mut Cursive) {}
}

command/cut.rs: Cut Command

use cursive::{views::EditView, Cursive};

use super::Command;
use crate::AppContext;

#[derive(Default)]
pub struct CutCommand {
    backup: String,
}

impl Command for CutCommand {
    fn execute(&mut self, app: &mut Cursive) -> bool {
        let mut editor = app.find_name::<EditView>("Editor").unwrap();

        app.with_user_data(|context: &mut AppContext| {
            self.backup = editor.get_content().to_string();
            context.clipboard = self.backup.clone();
            editor.set_content("".to_string());
        });

        true
    }

    fn undo(&mut self, app: &mut Cursive) {
        let mut editor = app.find_name::<EditView>("Editor").unwrap();
        editor.set_content(&self.backup);
    }
}

command/paste.rs: Paste Command

use cursive::{views::EditView, Cursive};

use super::Command;
use crate::AppContext;

#[derive(Default)]
pub struct PasteCommand {
    backup: String,
}

impl Command for PasteCommand {
    fn execute(&mut self, app: &mut Cursive) -> bool {
        let mut editor = app.find_name::<EditView>("Editor").unwrap();

        app.with_user_data(|context: &mut AppContext| {
            self.backup = editor.get_content().to_string();
            editor.set_content(context.clipboard.clone());
        });

        true
    }

    fn undo(&mut self, app: &mut Cursive) {
        let mut editor = app.find_name::<EditView>("Editor").unwrap();
        editor.set_content(&self.backup);
    }
}

main.rs: Client code

mod command;

use cursive::{
    traits::Nameable,
    views::{Dialog, EditView},
    Cursive,
};

use command::{Command, CopyCommand, CutCommand, PasteCommand};

/// An application context to be passed into visual component callbacks.
/// It contains a clipboard and a history of commands to be undone.
#[derive(Default)]
struct AppContext {
    clipboard: String,
    history: Vec<Box<dyn Command>>,
}

fn main() {
    let mut app = cursive::default();

    app.set_user_data(AppContext::default());
    app.add_layer(
        Dialog::around(EditView::default().with_name("Editor"))
            .title("Type and use buttons")
            .button("Copy", |s| execute(s, CopyCommand))
            .button("Cut", |s| execute(s, CutCommand::default()))
            .button("Paste", |s| execute(s, PasteCommand::default()))
            .button("Undo", undo)
            .button("Quit", |s| s.quit()),
    );

    app.run();
}

/// Executes a command and then pushes it to a history array.
fn execute(app: &mut Cursive, mut command: impl Command + 'static) {
    if command.execute(app) {
        app.with_user_data(|context: &mut AppContext| {
            context.history.push(Box::new(command));
        });
    }
}

/// Pops the last command and executes an undo action.
fn undo(app: &mut Cursive) {
    let mut context = app.take_user_data::<AppContext>().unwrap();
    if let Some(mut command) = context.history.pop() {
        command.undo(app)
    }
    app.set_user_data(context);
}

Output

Text Editor screenshot

Command in Other Languages