Book Image

Python GUI programming with Tkinter

By : Alan D. Moore
Book Image

Python GUI programming with Tkinter

By: Alan D. Moore

Overview of this book

Tkinter is a lightweight, portable, and easy-to-use graphical toolkit available in the Python Standard Library, widely used to build Python GUIs due to its simplicity and availability. This book teaches you to design and build graphical user interfaces that are functional, appealing, and user-friendly using the powerful combination of Python and Tkinter. After being introduced to Tkinter, you will be guided step-by-step through the application development process. Over the course of the book, your application will evolve from a simple data-entry form to a complex data management and visualization tool while maintaining a clean and robust design. In addition to building the GUI, you'll learn how to connect to external databases and network resources, test your code to avoid errors, and maximize performance using asynchronous programming. You'll make the most of Tkinter's cross-platform availability by learning how to maintain compatibility, mimic platform-native look and feel, and build executables for deployment across popular computing platforms. By the end of this book, you will have the skills and confidence to design and build powerful high-end GUI applications to solve real-world problems.

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Table of Contents (23 chapters)
Title Page
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Copyright and Credits
Dedication
Dedication
Packt Upsell
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Contributors
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Introduction to Tkinter
Introduction to Tkinter
Introducing Tkinter and Tk
Introducing IDLE
Creating a Tkinter Hello World
Summary
2
Designing GUI Applications with Tkinter
Designing GUI Applications with Tkinter
A problem at ABQ AgriLabs
Documenting specification requirements
Designing the application
Summary
3
Creating Basic Forms with Tkinter and ttk Widgets
Creating Basic Forms with Tkinter and ttk Widgets
Evaluating our technology choices
Exploring Tkinter widgets
Implementing the application
Summary
4
Reducing User Error with Validation and Automation
Reducing User Error with Validation and Automation
Validating user input
Validation in Tkinter
Implementing validated widgets in our form
Automating input
Summary
5
Planning for the Expansion of Our Application
Planning for the Expansion of Our Application
Separating concerns
Structuring our application directory
Splitting our application into multiple files
Using version control software
Summary
6
Creating Menus with Menu and Tkinter Dialogs
Creating Menus with Menu and Tkinter Dialogs
Solving problems in our application
Implementing simple Tkinter dialogs
Designing our menu 
Making our settings work
Summary
7
Navigating Records with Treeview
Navigating Records with Treeview
Implementing read and update in the model
Implementing a record list view
Modifying the record form for read and update
Updating the rest of the application
Summary
8
Improving the Look with Styles and Themes
Improving the Look with Styles and Themes
Working with images in Tkinter
Styling Tkinter widgets
Styling Ttk widgets
Summary
9
Maintaining Cross-Platform Compatibility
Maintaining Cross-Platform Compatibility
Writing cross-platform Python
Writing cross-platform Tkinter
Improving our application's cross-platform compatibility
Summary
10
Creating Automated Tests with unittest
Creating Automated Tests with unittest
Automated testing basics
Testing Tkinter code
Writing tests for our application
Summary
11
Improving Data Storage with SQL
Improving Data Storage with SQL
PostgreSQL
SQL and relational database basics
Modeling relational data
Creating the ABQ database
Integrating SQL into our application
Summary
12
Connecting to the Cloud
Connecting to the Cloud
HTTP using urllib
HTTP using requests
FTP using ftplib
Summary
13
Asynchronous Programming with Thread and Queue
Asynchronous Programming with Thread and Queue
Tkinter's event queue
Running code in the background with threading
Passing messages using a queue
Summary
14
Visualizing Data Using the Canvas Widget
Visualizing Data Using the Canvas Widget
Drawing and animation with Tkinter's Canvas
Creating simple graphs on the canvas
Advanced graphs using Matplotlib and Tkinter
Summary
15
Packaging with setuptools and cx_Freeze
Packaging with setuptools and cx_Freeze
Using setuptools
Using cx_Freeze
Building Windows executables with cx_Freeze
Building macOS executables with cx_Freeze
Summary
Other Books You May Enjoy
Other Books You May Enjoy
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Index
Index

Integrating SQL into our application

Converting our application to a SQL backend will be no small task. The application was built around the assumption of the CSV files, and although we've taken care to separate our concerns, many things are going to need to change.

Let's break down the steps we'll need to take:

  • We'll need to write a SQL model
  • Our Application class will need to use the SQL model
  • The record form will need to be reordered to prioritize our keys, use the new lookups, and autopopulate using the database
  • The record list will need to be adjusted to work with the new data model and primary keys

Along the way, we'll need to fix other bugs or implement some new UI elements as needed. Let's get started!

Creating a new model

We'll start in models.py by importing psycopg2 and DictCursor:

import psycopg2 as pg
from psycopg2.extras import DictCursor

DictCursor will allow us to fetch results in Python dictionary rather than the default tuples, which is easier to work with in our application.

Begin...

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