Hi all,

I am working on an interactive CLI app for work to add interactive functionality to a current app we use.

Currently, the way to run it is from the terminal using args, for example:

python3 main.py --arg1 arg1 --arg2 arg2 ...

So I want it to be interactive, meaning that it will look something like:

python3 main.py

>>> enter arg1: 
>>> enter arg2: 
....

The code looks something like this:

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument("-a1", "-arg1", required=True)
parser.add_argument("-a2", "-arg2", required=True)
parser.add_argument("-a2", "-arg2")

args = parser.parse_args()

So, I assume that in order to achieve what I want, I need to be able to add arguments to the parser while the app is already running, and only once all of the required arguments have been passed to the parser, let the app run.

What is the way to achieve this?

I'm working with the Tableau API because I want to automatically be able to update the password for the data connections whenever the passwords change. In the sample script that Tableau has available, they have the following code:

import argparse
import logging

import tableauserverclient as TSC


def main():
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
        description="Update a connection on a datasource or workbook to embed credentials"
    )
    # Common options; please keep those in sync across all samples
    parser.add_argument("--server", "-s", help="server address")
    parser.add_argument("--site", "-S", help="site name")
    parser.add_argument(
        "--token-name",
        "-p",
        help="name of the personal access token used to sign into the server",
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        "--token-value",
        "-v",
        help="value of the personal access token used to sign into the server",
    )
    parser.add_argument(
        "--logging-level",
        "-l",
        choices=["debug", "info", "error"],
        default="error",
        help="desired logging level (set to error by default)",
    )
    # Options specific to this sample
    parser.add_argument("resource_type", choices=["workbook", "datasource"])
    parser.add_argument("resource_id")
    parser.add_argument("connection_id")
    parser.add_argument("datasource_username")
    parser.add_argument("datasource_password")

    args = parser.parse_args()

    # Set logging level based on user input, or error by default
    logging_level = getattr(logging, args.logging_level.upper())
    logging.basicConfig(level=logging_level)

    tableau_auth = TSC.PersonalAccessTokenAuth(
        args.token_name, args.token_value, site_id=args.site
    )
    server = TSC.Server(args.server, use_server_version=True)
    with server.auth.sign_in(tableau_auth):
        endpoint = {"workbook": server.workbooks, "datasource": server.datasources}.get(
            args.resource_type
        )

        update_function = endpoint.update_connection
        resource = endpoint.get_by_id(args.resource_id)
        endpoint.populate_connections(resource)
        connections = list(
            filter(lambda x: x.id == args.connection_id, resource.connections)
        )
        assert len(connections) == 1
        connection = connections[0]
        connection.username = args.datasource_username
        connection.password = args.datasource_password
        connection.embed_password = True
        print(update_function(resource, connection).__dict__)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

When i copy/paste and try to run it in VS Code i get the following error:

error: the following arguments are required: resource_type, resource_id, connection_id, datasource_username, datasource_password

I get the arguments with the -- or - are optional, but how do i go about defining both the optional and required arguments with my own information without using the command line?