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

wxPython Application Development Cookbook

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

wxPython Application Development Cookbook

3.5 (6)
By: Cody 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

Adding the main frame

Most applications have some sort of main window that they want to show to allow their users to interact with the software. In wxPython, this window is called a frame. The frame is the main top-level container and the base for building most user interfaces in wxPython. This recipe will show how to create a frame and add it to an application.

How to do it…

You can do this by performing the following steps:

  1. Start by making a subclass of wx.Frame with the following code:
    class MyFrame(wx.Frame):
    def __init__(self, parent, title=""):
        super(MyFrame, self).__init__(parent, title=title)
        
        # Set an application icon
        self.SetIcon(wx.Icon("appIcon.png"))
        
        # Set the panel
        self.panel = wx.Panel(self)
  2. Next, create an instance of the frame and show it using the following code:
    class MyApp(wx.App):
    def OnInit(self):
        self.frame = MyFrame(None, title="Main Frame")
        self.frame.Show()
        return True
  3. Run the script and take a look at what we made:
    How to do it…

How it works…

The Frame class creates a top-level window that can be used to present any number of other controls. A frame can be created without any parent window and will remain in the application until it is dismissed by the user.

In this recipe, we set up a couple of items on the MyFrame class:

  1. We called SetIcon to set the custom application icon on the title bar of the frame. This icon was created from the appIcon.png file, which exists in the same directory as the script.
  2. We created a Panel object and set the frame as its parent object. A panel is a plain rectangular control used to contain other controls and is shown as the rectangular area inside the frame's borders. A panel must have a parent window in order to be created.

Finally, in the App object's OnInit method, we created an instance of the frame specifying the title that we wanted to show in the frame's title bar and then called its Show method to display it on the screen. This recipe can be used as the preparation to create any wxPython application.

There's more…

The wx.Frame constructor has several style flags that can be specified in its constructor to modify its behavior and appearance.

Style flag

Description

wx.DEFAULT_FRAME_STYLE

This flag is a bit mask of all the other flags described in the following sections

wx.MINIMIZE_BOX

This displays the minimize button on the title bar

wx.MAXIMIZE_BOX

This displays the maximize button on the title bar

wx.RESIZE_BORDER

This allows the frame to be resized by the user

wx.CAPTION

This displays a title caption on the frames title bar

wx.CLOSE_BOX

This displays the close button on the title bar

wx.SYSTEM_MENU

This displays a system menu (the menu that appears when clicking on the frame icon on Windows)

wx.CLIP_CHILDREN

This eliminates the flicker caused by background repainting (Windows only)

These style flags can be passed in any combination using a bitwise operator to turn off any of the features that you may not want to provide on all frames. Multiple flags can be combined using a bitwise or operation.

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