12.1.10.8.19. Simple UI

This script shows an example how to integrate the user interface simpleExample.ui into itom, connect it with the necessary methods and show it.

Create dialog instance, that represents the user interface. The ui-file is a simple widget that should be embedded in an auto-created window, that itom provides for us (type: ui.TYPEDIALOG).

We want to have an auto-created vertical button bar at the right side (dialogButtonBar = ui.BUTTONBAR_VERTICAL). The button bar should consist of one OK button, therefore its role is AcceptRole.

from itom import ui


mainWin = ui(
    "simpleExample.ui",
    ui.TYPEDIALOG,
    ui.BUTTONBAR_VERTICAL,
    {"AcceptRole": "OK"},
)

First group box: show text of textfield in a message box. Set default text of TextField with name txtMessage.

field = mainWin.txtMessage  # you can get an instance (class uiItem) of any sub-element of your user interface
field["text"] = "hello world"

# the same can be done directly:
mainWin.txtMessage["text"] = "hello world"

Now we want to connect the clicked signal of the button with the method showMessage. How do I know which signal any GUI-element can emit?

Hint

see Qt help -> goto to class corresponding to your element and check the available signals of that class and all inherited classes (QPushButton >> QAbstractPushButton >> QWidget…) Note the name of the signal you want to connect and the argument list (clicked(bool checked = false))

In our case, we want to connect to the clicked signal, its argument can be a boolean argument (optional)

Finally, we connect the clicked-signal without argument (not interesting for us) with a method showMessage This method needs to have the same number of arguments than the signal (here: 0)

def showMessage():
    text = mainWin.txtMessage["text"]
    ui.msgInformation("your text", text, parent=mainWin)


mainWin.btnShowText.connect("clicked()", showMessage)

Second group box: show getDirectory-dialog and print the chosen directory in the text field.

def showGetDirectory():
    directory = ui.getExistingDirectory("chose directory", itom.getCurrentPath(), parent=mainWin)
    if directory is None:
        pass
        # cancel has been clicked
    else:
        mainWin.txtDirectory["text"] = directory


# connect the clicked-signal of toolSelectDir with showGetDirectory
mainWin.toolSelectDir.connect("clicked()", showGetDirectory)

# if txtDirectory has the property 'readOnly' set to true, the button btnReadOnly should be 'checked'.
mainWin.btnReadOnly["checked"] = mainWin.txtDirectory["readOnly"]

# if the button is toggled (check-state is changed), then we want to change the ready-only property.
def btnReadOnlyToggled(checked):
    mainWin.txtDirectory["readOnly"] = checked


mainWin.btnReadOnly.connect("clicked(bool)", btnReadOnlyToggled)

At first, the third group box should be hidden. If the checkbox checkShowThirdExample is clicked, the visibility should change. We have two possibilities:

  • Change visible-property of group3,

  • Use the slot (special, accessible method of any widget, that can be addressed by python) hide or show from group3 (the slots are part of any widget) in order to show or hide the element.

def checkShowThirdExample_clicked(checked):
    # Here: we want to call the slots
    if checked:
        mainWin.group3.call("show")
    else:
        mainWin.group3.call("hide")


mainWin.checkShowThirdExample.connect("clicked(bool)", checkShowThirdExample_clicked)

# initially, hide group3
mainWin.group3.call("hide")

Connect radio-button list with list-box. If you see Qt help for QListWidget, you will see, that there is no slot, that you can use to add items to a listWidget. However, for some special widgets, a selection of public methods is nevertheless accessible in the same way than a slot. In case of a listWidget, this is addItem, addItems. This is used, to add the names of all radio buttons to the list.

listBox = mainWin.listWidget

listBox.call("addItem", mainWin.radio1["text"])
listBox.call("addItems", [mainWin.radio2["text"], mainWin.radio3["text"]])

# let us pre-select the second radio button and the second list item
mainWin.radio2["checked"] = True
listBox["currentRow"] = 1


def listCurrentChanged(row):
    if row == 0:
        mainWin.radio1["checked"] = True
    elif row == 1:
        mainWin.radio2["checked"] = True
    else:
        mainWin.radio3["checked"] = True


# if the current item in the list is changed, the corresponding radio button should be checked
listBox.connect("currentRowChanged(int)", listCurrentChanged)

To show the dialog you have three options:

  • Show dialog in a non-modal form (user can still click something else in itom).

    mainWin.show(0) or mainWin.show()
    
  • Show dialog in a model form (user cannot interact with itom, python script execution stops until dialog has been closed. The return value is the role-number of the button, that has been clicked for closing (AcceptRole:0, RejectRole:1) (see Qt-enum QDialogButtonBox::ButtonRole).

    mainWin.show(1)
    
  • Show dialog in a model form, python script execution continues, you don’t have access to the return value.

    mainWin.show(2)
    
mainWin.show(1)