Working with Banners

The BCUtils.Banner and BCUtils.BannerThemes modules provide a comprehensive solution for creating visually appealing startup banners in your Elixir applications.

Features

Two Banner Styles: Choose between simple text banners or elaborate ASCII art banners
Rich Color Themes: 12+ predefined color themes organized by category
Flexible Configuration: Use function parameters or configuration maps
Unicode Support: Full support for emojis and Unicode characters
Type Safety: Comprehensive type specifications and input validation

Quick Start

Basic ASCII Art Banner

BCUtils.Banner.display_banner(
  "MyApp",
  "Event sourcing framework",
  "🚀 Ready for production!"
)

Simple Text Banner

BCUtils.Banner.display_text_banner(
  "DevTools",
  "Development utilities",
  "⚡ Hot reloading enabled"
)

Banner Styles

ASCII Art Banner (`display_banner/6`)

Creates an impressive banner with ASCII art for "BEAM" and "Campus":

             ██████╗ ███████╗ █████╗ ███╗   ███╗
             ██╔══██╗██╔════╝██╔══██╗████╗ ████║
             ██████╔╝█████╗  ███████║██╔████╔██║
             ██╔══██╗██╔══╝  ██╔══██║██║╚██╔╝██║
             ██████╔╝███████╗██║  ██║██║ ╚═╝ ██║
             ╚═════╝ ╚══════╝╚═╝  ╚═╝╚═╝     ╚═╝

       ██████╗ █████╗ ███╗   ███╗██████╗ ██╗   ██╗███████╗
      ██╔════╝██╔══██╗████╗ ████║██╔══██╗██║   ██║██╔════╝
      ██║     ███████║██╔████╔██║██████╔╝██║   ██║███████╗
      ██║     ██╔══██║██║╚██╔╝██║██╔═══╝ ██║   ██║╚════██║
      ╚██████╗██║  ██║██║ ╚═╝ ██║██║     ╚██████╔╝███████║
       ╚═════╝╚═╝  ╚═╝╚═╝     ╚═╝╚═╝      ╚═════╝ ╚══════╝

                         MyApp
                    Event sourcing framework
                        🚀 Ready for production!

Best for: Production applications, demos, important announcements

Text Banner (`display_text_banner/6`)

Creates a cleaner, more minimal banner:

BEAM
Campus

                MyApp
           Event sourcing framework
                 🚀 Ready for production!

Best for: Development environments, simpler displays, space-constrained terminals

Color Themes

Primary Colors

green_on_true_black - Bright green (#00FF00)
cyan_on_true_black - Bright cyan (#00FFFF)
purple_on_true_black - Bright purple/magenta (#FF00FF)

Nature-Inspired Colors

grass_on_true_black - Dark green (#008000)
sky_blue_on_true_black - Sky blue (#87CEEB)
lime_on_true_black - Lime green (#BFFF00)

Sophisticated Colors

indigo_on_true_black - Deep indigo (#4B0082)
lavender_on_true_black - Lavender (#E6E6FA)
violet_on_true_black - Violet (#EE82EE)

Warm Colors

amber_on_true_black - Amber yellow (#FFC107)
orange_on_true_black - Orange (#FFA500)
maroon_on_true_black - Dark red (#800000)

Advanced Usage

Custom Theme Functions

import BCUtils.BannerThemes

BCUtils.Banner.display_banner(
  "CustomApp",
  "Beautifully styled",
  "🎨 Custom colors!",
  &amber_on_true_black/1,     # BEAM in amber
  &violet_on_true_black/1,    # Campus in violet
  &orange_on_true_black/1     # Description in orange
)

Configuration-Based Approach

# Create default configuration
config = BCUtils.Banner.default_config(
  "MyService",
  "Does amazing things",
  "✨ Magic included"
)

# Customize as needed
config = %{config | 
  beam_theme: &BCUtils.BannerThemes.orange_on_true_black/1,
  campus_theme: &BCUtils.BannerThemes.cyan_on_true_black/1
}

# Display the banner
BCUtils.Banner.display_banner_with_config(config)

Dynamic Theme Selection

# Get all available themes
themes = BCUtils.BannerThemes.available_themes()

# Apply a theme dynamically
{:ok, styled_text} = BCUtils.BannerThemes.apply_theme(:sky_blue_on_true_black, "BEAM")
IO.puts(styled_text)

Best Practices

Theme Selection

High Contrast: All themes use true black backgrounds for maximum contrast
Color Categories: Choose themes from the same category for cohesive styling
Environment Specific: Use warmer colors for production, cooler for development

Text Content

Service Names: Keep concise for better formatting
Descriptions: Brief, descriptive phrases work best
Shoutouts: Add personality with emojis and creative messages

Performance

Startup Only: Display banners only during application startup
Terminal Detection: Consider detecting terminal capabilities before showing elaborate banners
Caching: For repeated use, consider caching styled strings

Integration Examples

Phoenix Application

defmodule MyApp.Application do
  use Application

  def start(_type, _args) do
    # Display banner on startup
    BCUtils.Banner.display_banner(
      "MyApp API",
      "RESTful microservice platform", 
      "🌐 Version #{Application.spec(:my_app, :vsn)} ready!"
    )

    children = [
      # ... your children
    ]

    Supervisor.start_link(children, strategy: :one_for_one, name: MyApp.Supervisor)
  end
end

GenServer with Configuration

defmodule MyApp.Worker do
  use GenServer

  def start_link(opts) do
    # Show banner with custom configuration
    banner_config = %{
      service_name: "Background Worker",
      service_description: "Processing queue events",
      shoutout: "⚙️ Worker #{inspect(self())} online",
      beam_theme: &BCUtils.BannerThemes.grass_on_true_black/1,
      campus_theme: &BCUtils.BannerThemes.lime_on_true_black/1,
      description_theme: &BCUtils.BannerThemes.green_on_true_black/1
    }
    
    BCUtils.Banner.display_banner_with_config(banner_config)
    
    GenServer.start_link(__MODULE__, opts, name: __MODULE__)
  end
end

Mix Task

defmodule Mix.Tasks.MyApp.Deploy do
  use Mix.Task

  def run(_args) do
    BCUtils.Banner.display_text_banner(
      "Deployment Task",
      "Deploying to production",
      "🚀 T-minus 3... 2... 1..."
    )
    
    # ... deployment logic
  end
end

Testing

The banner modules include comprehensive test coverage. You can test banner output using ExUnit.CaptureIO:

import ExUnit.CaptureIO

test "banner displays correctly" do
  output = capture_io(fn ->
    BCUtils.Banner.display_banner("Test", "Testing", "✅ Success")
  end)
  
  assert output =~ "Test"
  assert output =~ "Testing" 
  assert output =~ "✅ Success"
end

Terminal Compatibility

Unicode Support: Best experience with terminals supporting Unicode
Color Support: Requires terminals with 24-bit RGB color support
Fallback: Consider implementing fallbacks for limited terminals
Width Considerations: ASCII art is optimized for standard terminal widths (80+ columns)

Contributing

When adding new color themes:

Follow the color_name_on_true_black naming convention
Use RGB values that provide good contrast against black
Add comprehensive documentation with hex color codes
Include the new theme in available_themes/0
Add thorough test coverage

Troubleshooting

Colors Not Displaying

Verify terminal supports 24-bit RGB colors
Check if ANSI escape sequences are enabled
Test with a simpler terminal or different application

ASCII Art Corruption

Ensure terminal width is sufficient (80+ columns recommended)
Verify Unicode support in terminal
Check font rendering of box-drawing characters

Performance Issues

Consider using text banners instead of ASCII art
Cache styled strings for repeated use
Display banners only during startup, not on every request

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