All possible interfaces

Apart from the default Mininterface, the base interface the others are fully compatible with, several interfaces exist at mininterface.interfaces.

Ordering

We try to obtain the best interface available. By preference, it is gui , then > tui (textual or at least > text), then the original non-interactive > Mininterface is used. The ensures the program to still work in cron jobs etc.

Getting one

Normally, you get an interface through mininterface.run but if you do not wish to parse CLI and config file, you can invoke one directly through from mininterface.interfaces import *. You may as well use the get_interface function to ensure the interface is available or invoke the program with MININTERFACE_INTERFACE environment variable.

Direct invocation

How to invoke a specific interface directly?

from mininterface.interfaces import TuiInterface

with TuiInterface("My program") as m:
    number = m.ask("Returns number", int)

from mininterface.interfaces import get_interface
m = get_interface()
m.ask("...")

Environment variable MININTERFACE_INTERFACE

From outside, you may override the default interface choice by the environment variable.

$ MININTERFACE_INTERFACE=web program.py

Mininterface

The base interface.

GuiInterface or TkInterface or 'gui'

A tkinter window. It inherits from GuiSettings.

$ MININTERFACE_INTERFACE=gui ./program.py

The code for generating screenshots is taken from the Introduction.

TuiInterface or 'tui'

An interactive terminal. Will try to get TextualInterface and TextInterface as a fallback.

TextualInterface

If textual installed, rich and mouse clickable interface is used.

$ MININTERFACE_INTERFACE=tui ./program.py

TextInterface

Plain text only interface with no dependency as a fallback. The non-interactive session becomes interactive if possible but there is no mouse support. Does not clear whole screen as TextualInterface if it suits better your program flow.

$ MININTERFACE_INTERFACE=text ./program.py

WebInterface or 'web'

Exposed to a web.

You can expose any script to the web by invoking it through the bundled mininterface program.

$ mininterface web ./program.py --port 9997

But still, you have the possibility to invoke the web by preference in the run or get_interface method, direct invocation through importing WebInterface from mininterface.interfaces, or through the environment variable.

$ MININTERFACE_INTERFACE=web ./program.py
Serving './program.py' on http://localhost:64646

Press Ctrl+C to quit

hello = "world"  # This line would run thrice!
with run(interface="web") as m:
    m.form({"one": 1})
    m.form({"two": 2})

ReplInterface

A debug terminal. Invokes a breakpoint after every dialog.