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  • Book Overview & Buying wxPython Application Development Cookbook
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wxPython Application Development Cookbook

wxPython Application Development Cookbook

By : Precord
3.5 (6)
Buy this Book
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wxPython Application Development Cookbook

wxPython Application Development Cookbook

3.5 (6)
By: Precord
Buy this Book

Overview of this book

wxPython is a GUI toolkit for the Python programming language built on top of the cross-platform wxWidgets GUI libraries. wxPython provides a powerful set of tools that allow you to quickly and efficiently building applications that can run on a variety of different platforms. Since wxWidgets provides a wrapper around each platform’s native GUI toolkit, the applications built with wxPython will have a native look and feel wherever they are deployed. This book will provide you with the skills to build highly functional and native looking user interfaces for Python applications on multiple operating system environments. By working through the recipes, you will gain insights into and exposure to creating applications using wxPython. With a wide range of topics covered in the book, there are recipes to get the most basic of beginners started in GUI programming as well as tips to help experienced users get more out of their applications. The recipes will take you from the most basic application constructs all the way through to the deployment of complete applications.
Table of Contents (12 chapters)
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Preface
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Preface
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What this book covers
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What you need for this book
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Who this book is for
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Sections
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Conventions
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Reader feedback
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Customer support
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1
1. wxPython Starting Points
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1. wxPython Starting Points
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Introduction
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Creating an application object
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Adding the main frame
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Using bitmaps
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Binding to events
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Understanding the hierarchy of the UI
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Controlling the propagation of events
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Accessing the clipboard
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Supporting drag and drop
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Handling AppleEvents
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2. Common User Controls
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2. Common User Controls
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Introduction
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Starting with the easy button
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Pushing all the buttons
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Offering options with CheckBoxes
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Using TextCtrl
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Processing key events
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Picking dates with DatePickerCtrl
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Exploring menus and shortcuts
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Displaying a context menu
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Working with ToolBars
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Managing UI states
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3. UI Layout and Organization
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3. UI Layout and Organization
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Introduction
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Laying out controls with Sizers
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Controlling layout behavior
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Grouping controls with a StaticBox control
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Creating an automatic wrapping layout
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Using the standard dialog button sizer
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Simplifying the panel layout
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Making dialog layout easy
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Building XML resource-based layouts
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Extending XRC for custom controls
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Advancing your UI with AuiManager
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4. Containers and Advanced Controls
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4. Containers and Advanced Controls
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Introduction
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Adding tabs with the Notebook control
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Enhancing ComboBox with bitmaps
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Configuring properties
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Taking control with FlatNotebook
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Styling text in StyledTextCtrl
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Annotating StyledTextCtrl
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Displaying hierarchical data with TreeCtrl
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Building a system tray application
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Surfing the Web in your app
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5. Data Displays and Grids
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5. Data Displays and Grids
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Introduction
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Displaying lists of data
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Editing data lists
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Implementing a data source
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Getting started with the data grid
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Displaying dynamic data
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Modeling your data
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Displaying your data model
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6. Ways to Notify and Alert
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6. Ways to Notify and Alert
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Introduction
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Showing MessageBox
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Using InfoBar
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Providing extra tips on usage
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Displaying transient notifications
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Making a splash at startup
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Giving busy feedback
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Showing information about your app
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7. Requesting and Retrieving Information
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7. Requesting and Retrieving Information
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Introduction
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Selecting files with FileDialog
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Searching text with FindReplaceDialog
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Filtering through choices
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Retrieving multiple selections
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Using Print dialogs
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Guiding selections with Wizard
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8. User Interface Primitives
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8. User Interface Primitives
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Introduction
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Painting in your UI
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Drawing basic shapes
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Customizing grid labels
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Drawing gradients with GraphicsContext
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Recreating native controls with RendererNative
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9. Creating and Customizing Components
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9. Creating and Customizing Components
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Introduction
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Making your own dialog
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Validating user input
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Interacting with StatusBar
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Providing your own information window
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Creating a managed layout
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Drawing your own list control
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Implementing highlighting in StyledTextCtrl
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Creating a composite control
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Designing an owner-drawn control
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10. Getting Your Application Ready for Release
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10. Getting Your Application Ready for Release
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Introduction
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Storing your configuration with StandardPaths
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Saving the application's state
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Supporting internationalization
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Optimizing for OS X
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Handling errors gracefully
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Embedding your resources
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Distributing an application
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Updating your software
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Index
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Index

Creating an application object

The App object is an object that all wxPython applications must create before any other GUI object. This object creates the application and provides its main event loop, which is used to dispatch events and connect actions in the UI with the actions in your programs.

This recipe will introduce how to create a minimal wxPython application, which will be used as foundation for every other recipe in this book.

How to do it…

Perform the following steps:

  1. Make the script as follows:
    import wx

class MyApp(wx.App):
    def OnInit(self):
        wx.MessageBox("Hello wxPython", "wxApp")
        return True

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app = MyApp(False)
    app.MainLoop()
  2. Run the script and take a look at the result:
    How to do it…

How it works…

There are three things to take note of in this simple application: the first, we created a subclass of the wx.App object; the second, we overrode the OnInit method; and the third, we called the MainLoop method of the application object. These simple steps set up the base for any application.

The OnInit method is called by the application's MainLoop method when it is started and provides an entry point to start up the main logic and user interface of your application. In this example, we just used it to show a simple pop-up dialog box. The application's MainLoop method continues to run until the last window associated with the application is closed. The OnInit method must return true in order to continue the initialization of the MainLoop applications.

The MainLoop method processes and dispatches all the messages that are needed to present the UI and direct messages for user actions initiated with button clicks. When the OK button is clicked on the dialog, it sends a message that is dispatched by the MainLoop method to close the dialog. In this example, once the dialog has returned, OnInit will also return, and there will be no window objects remaining. So, the application's MainLoop method will return as well, and this script will exit.

There's more…

Though generally the wx.App object is created as we did in this example, the class constructor also has four optional keyword arguments that can be used to modify some of its behavior:

  wx.App(redirect=False, filename=None, useBestVisual=False, clearSigInt=True)

The four optional keyword arguments are as follows:

  • redirect: If set to True, stdout is redirected to a debug window
  • filename: If redirect is True and this is not None, then stdout can be redirected to a file specified by this argument
  • useBestVisual: This specifies whether the application should try to use the best visuals provided by the underlying toolkit. (This has no effect on most systems.)
  • clearSigInt: Setting this to True will allow the application to be terminated by pressing Ctrl+C from the command line.

See also

  • The Handling errors gracefully recipe in Chapter 10, Getting Your Application Ready for Release, provides additional information on methods that can be overridden in wx.App.
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wxPython Application Development Cookbook
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