| Python 3.6.5 Documentation > "tkinter.tix" — Extension widgets for Tk
"tkinter.tix" — Extension widgets for Tk
****************************************
**Source code:** Lib/tkinter/tix.py
Deprecated since version 3.6: This Tk extension is unmaintained and
should not be used in new code. Use "tkinter.ttk" instead.
======================================================================
The "tkinter.tix" (Tk Interface Extension) module provides an
additional rich set of widgets. Although the standard Tk library has
many useful widgets, they are far from complete. The "tkinter.tix"
library provides most of the commonly needed widgets that are missing
from standard Tk: "HList", "ComboBox", "Control" (a.k.a. SpinBox) and
an assortment of scrollable widgets. "tkinter.tix" also includes many
more widgets that are generally useful in a wide range of
applications: "NoteBook", "FileEntry", "PanedWindow", etc; there are
more than 40 of them.
With all these new widgets, you can introduce new interaction
techniques into applications, creating more useful and more intuitive
user interfaces. You can design your application by choosing the most
appropriate widgets to match the special needs of your application and
users.
See also:
Tix Homepage
The home page for "Tix". This includes links to additional
documentation and downloads.
Tix Man Pages
On-line version of the man pages and reference material.
Tix Programming Guide
On-line version of the programmer’s reference material.
Tix Development Applications
Tix applications for development of Tix and Tkinter programs.
Tide applications work under Tk or Tkinter, and include
**TixInspect**, an inspector to remotely modify and debug
Tix/Tk/Tkinter applications.
Using Tix
=========
class tkinter.tix.Tk(screenName=None, baseName=None, className='Tix')
Toplevel widget of Tix which represents mostly the main window of
an application. It has an associated Tcl interpreter.
Classes in the "tkinter.tix" module subclasses the classes in the
"tkinter". The former imports the latter, so to use "tkinter.tix"
with Tkinter, all you need to do is to import one module. In
general, you can just import "tkinter.tix", and replace the
toplevel call to "tkinter.Tk" with "tix.Tk":
from tkinter import tix
from tkinter.constants import *
root = tix.Tk()
To use "tkinter.tix", you must have the Tix widgets installed, usually
alongside your installation of the Tk widgets. To test your
installation, try the following:
from tkinter import tix
root = tix.Tk()
root.tk.eval('package require Tix')
If this fails, you have a Tk installation problem which must be
resolved before proceeding. Use the environment variable "TIX_LIBRARY"
to point to the installed Tix library directory, and make sure you
have the dynamic object library ("tix8183.dll" or "libtix8183.so") in
the same directory that contains your Tk dynamic object library
("tk8183.dll" or "libtk8183.so"). The directory with the dynamic
object library should also have a file called "pkgIndex.tcl" (case
sensitive), which contains the line:
package ifneeded Tix 8.1 [list load "[file join $dir tix8183.dll]" Tix]
Tix Widgets
===========
Tix introduces over 40 widget classes to the "tkinter" repertoire.
Basic Widgets
-------------
class tkinter.tix.Balloon
A Balloon that pops up over a widget to provide help. When the
user moves the cursor inside a widget to which a Balloon widget has
been bound, a small pop-up window with a descriptive message will
be shown on the screen.
class tkinter.tix.ButtonBox
The ButtonBox widget creates a box of buttons, such as is commonly
used for "Ok Cancel".
class tkinter.tix.ComboBox
The ComboBox widget is similar to the combo box control in MS
Windows. The user can select a choice by either typing in the entry
subwidget or selecting from the listbox subwidget.
class tkinter.tix.Control
The Control widget is also known as the "SpinBox" widget. The user
can adjust the value by pressing the two arrow buttons or by
entering the value directly into the entry. The new value will be
checked against the user-defined upper and lower limits.
class tkinter.tix.LabelEntry
The LabelEntry widget packages an entry widget and a label into one
mega widget. It can be used to simplify the creation of “entry-
form” type of interface.
class tkinter.tix.LabelFrame
The LabelFrame widget packages a frame widget and a label into one
mega widget. To create widgets inside a LabelFrame widget, one
creates the new widgets relative to the "frame" subwidget and
manage them inside the "frame" subwidget.
class tkinter.tix.Meter
The Meter widget can be used to show the progress of a background
job which may take a long time to execute.
class tkinter.tix.OptionMenu
The OptionMenu creates a menu button of options.
class tkinter.tix.PopupMenu
The PopupMenu widget can be used as a replacement of the "tk_popup"
command. The advantage of the "Tix" "PopupMenu" widget is it
requires less application code to manipulate.
class tkinter.tix.Select
The Select widget is a container of button subwidgets. It can be
used to provide radio-box or check-box style of selection options
for the user.
class tkinter.tix.StdButtonBox
The StdButtonBox widget is a group of standard buttons for Motif-
like dialog boxes.
File Selectors
--------------
class tkinter.tix.DirList
The DirList widget displays a list view of a directory, its
previous directories and its sub-directories. The user can choose
one of the directories displayed in the list or change to another
directory.
class tkinter.tix.DirTree
The DirTree widget displays a tree view of a directory, its
previous directories and its sub-directories. The user can choose
one of the directories displayed in the list or change to another
directory.
class tkinter.tix.DirSelectDialog
The DirSelectDialog widget presents the directories in the file
system in a dialog window. The user can use this dialog window to
navigate through the file system to select the desired directory.
class tkinter.tix.DirSelectBox
The "DirSelectBox" is similar to the standard Motif(TM) directory-
selection box. It is generally used for the user to choose a
directory. DirSelectBox stores the directories mostly recently
selected into a ComboBox widget so that they can be quickly
selected again.
class tkinter.tix.ExFileSelectBox
The ExFileSelectBox widget is usually embedded in a
tixExFileSelectDialog widget. It provides a convenient method for
the user to select files. The style of the "ExFileSelectBox" widget
is very similar to the standard file dialog on MS Windows 3.1.
class tkinter.tix.FileSelectBox
The FileSelectBox is similar to the standard Motif(TM) file-
selection box. It is generally used for the user to choose a file.
FileSelectBox stores the files mostly recently selected into a
"ComboBox" widget so that they can be quickly selected again.
class tkinter.tix.FileEntry
The FileEntry widget can be used to input a filename. The user can
type in the filename manually. Alternatively, the user can press
the button widget that sits next to the entry, which will bring up
a file selection dialog.
Hierarchical ListBox
--------------------
class tkinter.tix.HList
The HList widget can be used to display any data that have a
hierarchical structure, for example, file system directory trees.
The list entries are indented and connected by branch lines
according to their places in the hierarchy.
class tkinter.tix.CheckList
The CheckList widget displays a list of items to be selected by the
user. CheckList acts similarly to the Tk checkbutton or radiobutton
widgets, except it is capable of handling many more items than
checkbuttons or radiobuttons.
class tkinter.tix.Tree
The Tree widget can be used to display hierarchical data in a tree
form. The user can adjust the view of the tree by opening or
closing parts of the tree.
Tabular ListBox
---------------
class tkinter.tix.TList
The TList widget can be used to display data in a tabular format.
The list entries of a "TList" widget are similar to the entries in
the Tk listbox widget. The main differences are (1) the "TList"
widget can display the list entries in a two dimensional format and
(2) you can use graphical images as well as multiple colors and
fonts for the list entries.
Manager Widgets
---------------
class tkinter.tix.PanedWindow
The PanedWindow widget allows the user to interactively manipulate
the sizes of several panes. The panes can be arranged either
vertically or horizontally. The user changes the sizes of the
panes by dragging the resize handle between two panes.
class tkinter.tix.ListNoteBook
The ListNoteBook widget is very similar to the "TixNoteBook"
widget: it can be used to display many windows in a limited space
using a notebook metaphor. The notebook is divided into a stack of
pages (windows). At one time only one of these pages can be shown.
The user can navigate through these pages by choosing the name of
the desired page in the "hlist" subwidget.
class tkinter.tix.NoteBook
The NoteBook widget can be used to display many windows in a
limited space using a notebook metaphor. The notebook is divided
into a stack of pages. At one time only one of these pages can be
shown. The user can navigate through these pages by choosing the
visual “tabs” at the top of the NoteBook widget.
Image Types
-----------
The "tkinter.tix" module adds:
* pixmap capabilities to all "tkinter.tix" and "tkinter" widgets to
create color images from XPM files.
* Compound image types can be used to create images that consists of
multiple horizontal lines; each line is composed of a series of
items (texts, bitmaps, images or spaces) arranged from left to
right. For example, a compound image can be used to display a bitmap
and a text string simultaneously in a Tk "Button" widget.
Miscellaneous Widgets
---------------------
class tkinter.tix.InputOnly
The InputOnly widgets are to accept inputs from the user, which can
be done with the "bind" command (Unix only).
Form Geometry Manager
---------------------
In addition, "tkinter.tix" augments "tkinter" by providing:
class tkinter.tix.Form
The Form geometry manager based on attachment rules for all Tk
widgets.
Tix Commands
============
class tkinter.tix.tixCommand
The tix commands provide access to miscellaneous elements of
"Tix"’s internal state and the "Tix" application context. Most of
the information manipulated by these methods pertains to the
application as a whole, or to a screen or display, rather than to a
particular window.
To view the current settings, the common usage is:
from tkinter import tix
root = tix.Tk()
print(root.tix_configure())
tixCommand.tix_configure(cnf=None, **kw)
Query or modify the configuration options of the Tix application
context. If no option is specified, returns a dictionary all of the
available options. If option is specified with no value, then the
method returns a list describing the one named option (this list
will be identical to the corresponding sublist of the value
returned if no option is specified). If one or more option-value
pairs are specified, then the method modifies the given option(s)
to have the given value(s); in this case the method returns an
empty string. Option may be any of the configuration options.
tixCommand.tix_cget(option)
Returns the current value of the configuration option given by
*option*. Option may be any of the configuration options.
tixCommand.tix_getbitmap(name)
Locates a bitmap file of the name "name.xpm" or "name" in one of
the bitmap directories (see the "tix_addbitmapdir()" method). By
using "tix_getbitmap()", you can avoid hard coding the pathnames of
the bitmap files in your application. When successful, it returns
the complete pathname of the bitmap file, prefixed with the
character "@". The returned value can be used to configure the
"bitmap" option of the Tk and Tix widgets.
tixCommand.tix_addbitmapdir(directory)
Tix maintains a list of directories under which the
"tix_getimage()" and "tix_getbitmap()" methods will search for
image files. The standard bitmap directory is
"$TIX_LIBRARY/bitmaps". The "tix_addbitmapdir()" method adds
*directory* into this list. By using this method, the image files
of an applications can also be located using the "tix_getimage()"
or "tix_getbitmap()" method.
tixCommand.tix_filedialog([dlgclass])
Returns the file selection dialog that may be shared among
different calls from this application. This method will create a
file selection dialog widget when it is called the first time. This
dialog will be returned by all subsequent calls to
"tix_filedialog()". An optional dlgclass parameter can be passed
as a string to specified what type of file selection dialog widget
is desired. Possible options are "tix", "FileSelectDialog" or
"tixExFileSelectDialog".
tixCommand.tix_getimage(self, name)
Locates an image file of the name "name.xpm", "name.xbm" or
"name.ppm" in one of the bitmap directories (see the
"tix_addbitmapdir()" method above). If more than one file with the
same name (but different extensions) exist, then the image type is
chosen according to the depth of the X display: xbm images are
chosen on monochrome displays and color images are chosen on color
displays. By using "tix_getimage()", you can avoid hard coding the
pathnames of the image files in your application. When successful,
this method returns the name of the newly created image, which can
be used to configure the "image" option of the Tk and Tix widgets.
tixCommand.tix_option_get(name)
Gets the options maintained by the Tix scheme mechanism.
tixCommand.tix_resetoptions(newScheme, newFontSet[, newScmPrio])
Resets the scheme and fontset of the Tix application to *newScheme*
and *newFontSet*, respectively. This affects only those widgets
created after this call. Therefore, it is best to call the
resetoptions method before the creation of any widgets in a Tix
application.
The optional parameter *newScmPrio* can be given to reset the
priority level of the Tk options set by the Tix schemes.
Because of the way Tk handles the X option database, after Tix has
been has imported and inited, it is not possible to reset the color
schemes and font sets using the "tix_config()" method. Instead, the
"tix_resetoptions()" method must be used.
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