Ugh custom formatting is painful

PwshSpectreConsole/PwshSpectreConsole.format.ps1xml

@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-<!-- Generated with EZOut 2.0.6: Install-Module EZOut or https://github.com/StartAutomating/EZOut -->
 <Configuration>
   <ViewDefinitions>
     <View>
@@ -12,30 +11,8 @@
             <CustomItem>
               <ExpressionBinding>
                 <ScriptBlock>
-    # Work out if the current object is being piped to another command, there isn't access to the pipeline in the format view script block so it's using a janky regex workaround
-    try {
-        $line = $MyInvocation.Line
-        $start = $MyInvocation.OffsetInLine
-        $lineAfterOffset = $line.SubString($start, ($line.Length - $start))
-        $targetIsInPipeline = $lineAfterOffset | Select-String "^[^;]+?\|"
-        $pipelineSegment = $lineAfterOffset | Select-String "^[^;]+?(;|$)" | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Matches -First 1 | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Value
-        $targetIsPipedToSpectreFunction = $pipelineSegment -match ".*\|.*(Write|Format|Out)-Spectre.*"
-        Write-Debug "Line: $line"
-        Write-Debug "Start: $start"
-        Write-Debug "Line after offset: $lineAfterOffset"
-        Write-Debug "Target is in pipeline: $targetIsInPipeline"
-        Write-Debug "Pipeline segment: $pipelineSegment"
-        Write-Debug "Target is piped to Spectre function: $targetIsPipedToSpectreFunction"
-    } catch {
-        Write-Debug "Failed to discover pipeline state for Spectre.Console.Rendering.Renderable: $_"
-    }
-
-    if ($targetIsInPipeline -and -not $targetIsPipedToSpectreFunction) {
-        $_
-    } else {
-        $_ | Out-SpectreHost
-    }
-</ScriptBlock>
+                  $_ | Out-SpectreHost -CustomItemFormatter
+                </ScriptBlock>
               </ExpressionBinding>
             </CustomItem>
           </CustomEntry>

PwshSpectreConsole/PwshSpectreConsole.psm1

@@ -5,6 +5,18 @@ $script:DefaultValueColor = [Spectre.Console.Color]::Grey
 $script:DefaultTableHeaderColor = [Spectre.Console.Color]::Default
 $script:DefaultTableTextColor = [Spectre.Console.Color]::Default
 
+# For widgets that can be streamed to the console as raw text, prompts/progress widgets do not use this.
+# This allows the terminal to process them as text so they can be dumped like:
+# PS> $widget = "Hello, World!" | Format-SpectrePanel -Title "My Panel" -Color Blue -Expand
+# PS> $widget # uses the default powershell console writer
+# PS> $widget > file.txt # redirects as string data to file
+# PS> $widget | Out-SpectreHost # uses a dedicated console writer that doesn't pad the object like the default formatter
+$script:SpectreConsoleWriter = [System.IO.StringWriter]::new()
+$script:SpectreConsoleOutput = [Spectre.Console.AnsiConsoleOutput]::new($script:SpectreConsoleWriter)
+$script:SpectreConsoleSettings = [Spectre.Console.AnsiConsoleSettings]::new()
+$script:SpectreConsoleSettings.Out = $script:SpectreConsoleOutput
+$script:SpectreConsole = [Spectre.Console.AnsiConsole]::Create($script:SpectreConsoleSettings)
+
 foreach ($directory in @('private', 'public')) {
     Get-ChildItem -Path "$PSScriptRoot\$directory\*.ps1" -Recurse | ForEach-Object {
         . $_.FullName

PwshSpectreConsole/formatting/Spectre.Console.AnsiConsole.format.ps1

@@ -1,26 +1,4 @@
 # TODO - Ask @startautomating how this can be done better
 Write-FormatView -TypeName "Spectre.Console.Rendering.Renderable" -Action {
-    # Work out if the current object is being piped to another command, there isn't access to the pipeline in the format view script block so it's using a janky regex workaround
-    try {
-        $line = $MyInvocation.Line
-        $start = $MyInvocation.OffsetInLine
-        $lineAfterOffset = $line.SubString($start, ($line.Length - $start))
-        $targetIsInPipeline = $lineAfterOffset | Select-String "^[^;]+?\|"
-        $pipelineSegment = $lineAfterOffset | Select-String "^[^;]+?(;|$)" | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Matches -First 1 | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Value
-        $targetIsPipedToSpectreFunction = $pipelineSegment -match ".*\|.*(Write|Format|Out)-Spectre.*"
-        Write-Debug "Line: $line"
-        Write-Debug "Start: $start"
-        Write-Debug "Line after offset: $lineAfterOffset"
-        Write-Debug "Target is in pipeline: $targetIsInPipeline"
-        Write-Debug "Pipeline segment: $pipelineSegment"
-        Write-Debug "Target is piped to Spectre function: $targetIsPipedToSpectreFunction"
-    } catch {
-        Write-Debug "Failed to discover pipeline state for Spectre.Console.Rendering.Renderable: $_"
-    }
-
-    if ($targetIsInPipeline -and -not $targetIsPipedToSpectreFunction) {
-        $_
-    } else {
-        $_ | Out-SpectreHost
-    }
+    $_ | Out-SpectreHost -CustomItemFormatter
 }

PwshSpectreConsole/private/Write-AnsiConsole.ps1

@@ -18,7 +18,21 @@ function Write-AnsiConsole {
     param(
         [Parameter(Mandatory)]
         [RenderableTransformationAttribute()]
-        [object] $RenderableObject
+        [object] $RenderableObject,
+        [switch] $CustomItemFormatter
     )
-    [Spectre.Console.AnsiConsole]::Render($RenderableObject)
+
+    if ($CustomItemFormatter) {
+        # ps1xml CustomItem formatters mangle the output because it uses the last character of the buffer width for itself
+        $script:SpectreConsole.Profile.Width = $Host.UI.RawUI.BufferSize.Width - 1
+    } else {
+        $script:SpectreConsole.Profile.Width = $Host.UI.RawUI.BufferSize.Width
+    }
+
+    $script:SpectreConsole.Write($RenderableObject)
+    $output = $script:SpectreConsoleWriter.ToString()
+
+    $output.ToString().TrimEnd()
+
+    $null = $script:SpectreConsoleWriter.GetStringBuilder().Clear()
 }

PwshSpectreConsole/public/demo/Start-SpectreDemo.ps1

@@ -217,7 +217,7 @@ $(
     Clear-Host
 
     $example = @'
-Get-Module PwshSpectreConsole | Select-Object PrivateData | Format-SpectreJson -Expand
+Get-Module PwshSpectreConsole | Select-Object PrivateData | Format-SpectreJson
 '@
     $example | Write-SpectreExample -Title "Json Data" -Description "Spectre Console can format JSON with syntax highlighting thanks to https://github.com/trackd"
     Invoke-Expression $example

PwshSpectreConsole/public/rendering/Out-SpectreHost.ps1

@@ -12,6 +12,9 @@ function Out-SpectreHost {
     .PARAMETER Data
     The data to write to the console.
 
+    .PARAMETER CustomItemFormatter
+    The default host customitem formatter has some restrictions, it needs to be one char less wide than when outputting to the standard console or it will wrap.
+
     .EXAMPLE
     $table = New-SpectreTable -Data $data
     $table | Out-SpectreHost
@@ -20,18 +23,19 @@ function Out-SpectreHost {
     param (
         [Parameter(ValueFromPipeline, Mandatory)]
         [RenderableTransformationAttribute()]
-        [object] $Data
+        [object] $Data,
+        [switch] $CustomItemFormatter
     )
 
     begin {}
 
     process {
         if ($Data -is [array]) {
             foreach ($dataItem in $Data) {
-                Write-AnsiConsole -RenderableObject $dataItem
+                Write-AnsiConsole -RenderableObject $dataItem -CustomItemFormatter:$CustomItemFormatter
             }
         } else {
-            Write-AnsiConsole -RenderableObject $Data
+            Write-AnsiConsole -RenderableObject $Data -CustomItemFormatter:$CustomItemFormatter
         }
     }