Book Image

wxPython Application Development Cookbook

By : Cody Precord
Book Image

wxPython Application Development Cookbook

By: Cody Precord

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.

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wxPython Application Development Cookbook
Cody Precord
Dec, 2015 | 264 pages
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Table of Contents (17 chapters)
wxPython Application Development Cookbook
wxPython Application Development Cookbook
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
wxPython Starting Points
wxPython Starting Points
Introduction
Creating an application object
Adding the main frame
Using bitmaps
Binding to events
Understanding the hierarchy of the UI
Controlling the propagation of events
Accessing the clipboard
Supporting drag and drop
Handling AppleEvents
2
Common User Controls
Common User Controls
Introduction
Starting with the easy button
Pushing all the buttons
Offering options with CheckBoxes
Using TextCtrl
Processing key events
Picking dates with DatePickerCtrl
Exploring menus and shortcuts
Displaying a context menu
Working with ToolBars
Managing UI states
3
UI Layout and Organization
UI Layout and Organization
Introduction
Laying out controls with Sizers
Controlling layout behavior
Grouping controls with a StaticBox control
Creating an automatic wrapping layout
Using the standard dialog button sizer
Simplifying the panel layout
Making dialog layout easy
Building XML resource-based layouts
Extending XRC for custom controls
Advancing your UI with AuiManager
4
Containers and Advanced Controls
Containers and Advanced Controls
Introduction
Adding tabs with the Notebook control
Enhancing ComboBox with bitmaps
Configuring properties
Taking control with FlatNotebook
Styling text in StyledTextCtrl
Annotating StyledTextCtrl
Displaying hierarchical data with TreeCtrl
Building a system tray application
Surfing the Web in your app
5
Data Displays and Grids
Data Displays and Grids
Introduction
Displaying lists of data
Editing data lists
Implementing a data source
Getting started with the data grid
Displaying dynamic data
Modeling your data
Displaying your data model
6
Ways to Notify and Alert
Ways to Notify and Alert
Introduction
Showing MessageBox
Using InfoBar
Providing extra tips on usage
Displaying transient notifications
Making a splash at startup
Giving busy feedback
Showing information about your app
7
Requesting and Retrieving Information
Requesting and Retrieving Information
Introduction
Selecting files with FileDialog
Searching text with FindReplaceDialog
Filtering through choices
Retrieving multiple selections
Using Print dialogs
Guiding selections with Wizard
8
User Interface Primitives
User Interface Primitives
Introduction
Painting in your UI
Drawing basic shapes
Customizing grid labels
Drawing gradients with GraphicsContext
Recreating native controls with RendererNative
9
Creating and Customizing Components
Creating and Customizing Components
Introduction
Making your own dialog
Validating user input
Interacting with StatusBar
Providing your own information window
Creating a managed layout
Drawing your own list control
Implementing highlighting in StyledTextCtrl
Creating a composite control
Designing an owner-drawn control
10
Getting Your Application Ready for Release
Getting Your Application Ready for Release
Introduction
Storing your configuration with StandardPaths
Saving the application's state
Supporting internationalization
Optimizing for OS X
Handling errors gracefully
Embedding your resources
Distributing an application
Updating your software
Index
Index

Designing an owner-drawn control

If you find a need in your UI that can't be filled in just the right way by the controls provided in the wxPython library, you may find that you need to make your own. In the previous chapters of this book, we covered many of the building blocks that we can now look at for ways to leverage and combine to build our own controls. In this recipe, we will build our own container control that has a custom-drawn border and appearance.

Getting ready

Ensure that you have taken a look at Chapter 8, User Interface Primitives, before continuing with this recipe. This recipe will combine the use of DeviceContext and Sizer to create a custom control.

How to do it…

  1. First, we will start by defining a subclass of PyPanel to derive our new control from, as follows:

    class CaptionBox(wx.PyPanel):
    def __init__(self, parent, caption, flag=wx.VERTICAL):
        super(CaptionBox, self).__init__(parent,
                                         style=wx.NO_BORDER)
        self.Label...
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