Wxpython 2.8 Application Development Cookbook

Quickly create robust, reliable, and reusable wxPython applications

• Develop flexible applications in wxPython.
• Create interface translatable applications that will run on Windows, Macintosh OSX, Linux, and other UNIX like environments
• Learn basic and advanced user interface controls.
• Packed with practical, hands-on cookbook recipes and plenty of example code, illustrating the techniques to develop feature rich applications using wxPython.

In Detail

In today's world of desktop applications there is a great amount of incentive to be able to develop applications that can run in more than one environment. Currently there are a handful of options available for cross platform frameworks to develop desktop applications in Python. wxPython is one such cross- platform GUI toolkit for the Python programming language. It allows Python programmers to create programs with a complete, highly functional graphical user interface, simply and easily. wxPython code style has changed quite a bit over the years, and gotten much more Pythonic. The examples you will find in this book are right up to date and reflect this change in style.

This cookbook provides you with the latest recipes to quickly create robust, reliable, and reusable wxPython applications. These recipes will guide you from writing simple, basic wxPython scripts all the way through complex concepts, and also feature various design approaches and techniques in wxPython.

The book starts off by covering a variety of topics from the most basic requirements of a wxPython application to some of the more in depth details of the inner workings of the framework laying the foundation for any wxPython application. It then explains event handling, basic and advanced user interface controls, designing and layout, creating dialogs, components and extending functionality, and so on. We conclude by learning how to build and manage applications for distribution.

For each of the recipes, there is an introductory example, then more advanced examples, and plenty of example code to develop and manage user-friendly applications. For more experienced developers, most recipes also include additional discussion of the solution, allowing you to further customize and enhance the component.

Quickly create robust, reliable, and reusable wxPython applications.

What you will learn from this book

• Set up the wx main frame by adding your own Frame class to the application
• Create two stage widgets by using a three step process
• Set up an event handler, customize, receive and handle events by using custom controls and event propagation
• Create tooltips with rich content and add tooltips to controls
• Retrieve information from users using common Dialogs
• Enhance design and layout, hide and show controls dynamically during runtime by using sizers
• Create a custom XRC resource handler class to use custom widget classes in XRC
• Simplify window layout using the SizedControls library
• Draw basic shapes in a Device Context and draw gradients with ease by using a GraphicsContext
• Design a custom dialog class
• Make multi-threaded wxPython applications
• Capture output from other applications and display it in a wxPython GUI
• Access platform specific application and resource directories using wxStandardPaths
• Embed images into python files using wxPython's embedded image tool and classes
• Add robust exception handling to an application
• Bundle a wxPython application for distribution making your applications interface translatable

Approach

Written in cookbook style, this book offers learning and techniques through recipes. It contains step-by-step instructions for developers who want to build feature-rich desktop applications in wxPython. The book is designed in such a way that you can refer to things chapter by chapter, and read them in no particular order.

Who this book is written for

This book is written for python programmers wanting to develop GUI applications. Basic knowledge of Python is required.