Question

I am using Python 3.1 by the way.

I am trying to build a simple GUI using Tkinter – label, text entry field, button on the first row and editable text area with scrollbar to the right and on the bottom of it – on the second row. Please help me fix up the layout. What I have below does not quite work. If I have to use a grid, I will. I wish to keep the code very simple – I want to “sell” Python to some of my coworkers. So, I want to get a somewhat decent look and feel. Suggest better padding if you do not mind. Also, if my variable names, etc. seem weird, then please make a note.

At the same time I want to pretend that this is a throw-away script which I have not spent much time on. Since I am asking for your help, it ain’t so, but they do not need to know ;). So, I do not want to introduce fancy code to create nice borders, etc. I just want something that is visually appealing, clean and simple. If I do not, then my presentation will not achieve its goal.

Thank you, my code is below:

class App:
    def __init__(self, parent):
        frame = Frame(parent)
        self.__setup_gui(frame) # Call Helper
        frame.pack(padx=15, pady=15)
        parent.title('To be changed')

    def __setup_gui(self, frame):

        # First Row
        self.cs_label = Label(frame, text='Change Set: ')
        self.cs_label.pack(side=LEFT, padx=10, pady=10)

        self.cs_val = Entry(frame, width=10)
        self.cs_val.pack(side=LEFT, padx=10, pady=10)

        self.get_button = Button(frame, text='Get', command=self.get_content)
        self.get_button.pack(side=LEFT, padx=10, pady=10)

        # Text area and scrollbar
        self.text_area = Text(frame, height=10, width=50, background='white')
        # Put a scroll bar in the frame
        scroll = Scrollbar(frame)
        self.text_area.configure(yscrollcommand=scroll.set)
        self.text_area.pack(side=TOP)
        scroll.pack(side=RIGHT,fill=Y)

        self.clipboard_var = IntVar()
        self.notepad_var = IntVar()

    def get_content(self):
        print(self.clipboard_var.get())
        print(self.notepad_var.get())

###################################################################################################

if __name__ == '__main__':
    root = Tk()
    app = App(root)
    root.mainloop()

Answer 1

You definitely want the grid manager — Pack only works for a vertical or horizontal stackup by itself. You can use multiple frames to work around it, but I find it’s easier to expand a GUI if you just do it with Grid to start.

Here’s what I’ve worked up real quick based what you said and the code. I reduced/removed the padding — it looked huge for me — and I set up two scrollbars, in a subframe to make the padding work out more easily. Note that to make the horizontal scrollbar useful your Text area needs to have wrap=NONE; otherwise you might as well use the easy ‘ScrolledText’ widget from tkinter.scrolledtext and skip the horizontal scroll bar.

I’ve now reframed things a bit to allow for resize, with a minimum size that shows the top buttons — see the uses of minsize and row/columnconfigure.

BTW, it looks like your variables aren’t being pulled from anywhere — is that intentional?

from tkinter import *

class App:
    def __init__(self, parent):
        self.__setup_gui(parent) # Call Helper
        parent.title('To be changed')

    def __setup_gui(self, parent):

        # First Row
        self.rowframe = Frame(parent)
        self.rowframe.grid()
        self.cs_label = Label(self.rowframe, text='Change Set: ')
        self.cs_label.grid(row=0, column=0, padx=2, pady=2)

        self.cs_val = Entry(self.rowframe, width=10)
        self.cs_val.grid(row=0, column=1, padx=2, pady=2)

        self.get_button = Button(self.rowframe, text='Get', command=self.get_content)
        self.get_button.grid(row=0, column=2, padx=2, pady=2)
        parent.update_idletasks()
        parent.minsize(width=self.rowframe.winfo_width(), height=self.rowframe.winfo_height())

        # Text area and scrollbars
        self.textframe = Frame(parent)
        self.textframe.grid(row=1, columnspan=2, padx=2, pady=2, sticky=N+S+E+W)

        self.hscroll = Scrollbar(self.textframe, orient=HORIZONTAL)
        self.vscroll = Scrollbar(self.textframe)
        self.text_area = Text(self.textframe, height=10, width=50, wrap=NONE, background='white', yscrollcommand=self.vscroll.set, xscrollcommand=self.hscroll.set)
        self.text_area.grid(row=0, column=0, sticky=N+S+E+W)
        self.hscroll.config(command=self.text_area.xview)
        self.hscroll.grid(row=1, column=0, sticky=E+W)
        self.vscroll.config(command=self.text_area.yview)
        self.vscroll.grid(row=0, column=1, sticky=N+S)

        # Row 0 defaults to 0
        parent.rowconfigure(1, weight=1)
        parent.columnconfigure(1, weight=1)

        # Textarea setup
        self.textframe.rowconfigure(0, weight=1)
        self.textframe.columnconfigure(0, weight=1)


        self.clipboard_var = IntVar()
        self.notepad_var = IntVar()

    def get_content(self):
        print(self.clipboard_var.get())
        print(self.notepad_var.get())

###################################################################################################

if __name__ == '__main__':
    root = Tk()
    app = App(root)
    root.mainloop()

Now, all that said…you might get more visual appeal with PyGTK, PyQt, or wxPython, though tkinter coming “standard” is a nice feature.