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Asked: 2026-06-14T10:59:35+00:00

I have written a wxPython application (following documentation) which just about does everything I

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I have written a wxPython application (following documentation) which just about does everything I want it to. It has checkboxes and textlines etc. all the way I want it. The only problem is that I made this as the main frame of my application.

What I really want is to turn this into a widget so that I can instantiate a few of them in my final application frame. However, when I tried to make my widget inherit from wx.Panel rather than wx.Frame and then instantiate one into my Frame class, it collapsed on itself like a neutron star.

Please take a look at my two code examples and see if you know what went wrong.

This is the version where my widget is built directly in the class which inherits from wx.Frame: 

#!/usr/bin/env python

"""
This demo attempts to override the C++ MainLoop and implement it
in Python.
"""

import time
import wx
import serial                
from serial.tools.list_ports import comports

#str1 = '[12:28:14]fxn_name() ***ISCFLAGS***1***0***0***0***3.19***00-1C-FA-F1-00-09-F1-EE***\r\n'
logAll = 1

"""lowBat1 = 0
pir1 = 0
batVolt1 = 0
tamp1 = 0
supervise1 = 0
mac1 = 0"""
######################################################################################
class ETL_test(wx.Frame):
    def __init__(self, parent, id, title):
        wx.Frame.__init__(self, parent, id, title, size=(275, 200))
        self.initGUI()
        self.Bind(wx.EVT_CLOSE, self.OnCloseWindow)
        self.Show()

    def initGUI(self):
        #main container panel for all of the ISC status information
        self.checkBoxPanel = wx.Panel(self,-1,size=(100,200),style= wx.SUNKEN_BORDER)

        self.checkBoxVbox = wx.BoxSizer(wx.VERTICAL)

        #make the three individual checkboxes
        self.superviseCheck = wx.CheckBox(self.checkBoxPanel,-1,'Supervisory Trouble')
        self.pirCheck = wx.CheckBox(self.checkBoxPanel,-1,'PIR Activity')
        self.tamperCheck = wx.CheckBox(self.checkBoxPanel,-1,'Tamper Tripped')

        #make the MAC hbox section
        self.macHbox = wx.BoxSizer(wx.HORIZONTAL)
        self.macLabel = wx.StaticText(self.checkBoxPanel,-1,'MAC ADDR: ')
        macFont1 = wx.Font(10, wx.FONTFAMILY_DEFAULT,wx.FONTSTYLE_NORMAL,wx.FONTWEIGHT_BOLD)
        self.macLabel.SetFont(macFont1)
        macFont2 = wx.Font(10, wx.FONTFAMILY_DEFAULT,wx.FONTSTYLE_NORMAL,wx.FONTWEIGHT_NORMAL)
        self.macAddr = wx.StaticText(self.checkBoxPanel,-1,'001CFAF10009F1EE')
        self.macAddr.SetFont(macFont2)
        self.macHbox.Add(self.macLabel,0,wx.RIGHT,5)
        self.macHbox.Add(self.macAddr,0,0,0)

        #make the low battery hbox section
        self.lowBatCheck = wx.CheckBox(self.checkBoxPanel,-1,'Low Battery Voltage')
        self.batVoltText = wx.StaticText(self.checkBoxPanel,-1, '9.9V')
        self.lowBatHbox = wx.BoxSizer(wx.HORIZONTAL)
        self.lowBatHbox.Add(self.lowBatCheck, 0,wx.RIGHT,20)
        self.lowBatHbox.Add(self.batVoltText, 0,wx.ALL,0)

        #make the pirCount hbox section
        self.pirCountHbox = wx.BoxSizer(wx.HORIZONTAL)
        self.pirCountNumber = 3
        self.pirLabel = wx.StaticText(self.checkBoxPanel,-1,'PIR Count: ')
        self.pirCount = wx.StaticText(self.checkBoxPanel,-1,str(self.pirCountNumber))
        self.pirReset = wx.Button(self.checkBoxPanel,-1,label='Reset PIR Count')
        self.pirCountHbox.Add(self.pirLabel,0,wx.RIGHT,3)
        self.pirCountHbox.Add(self.pirCount,0,wx.RIGHT, 40)
        self.pirCountHbox.Add(self.pirReset,0,wx.ALIGN_RIGHT,0)
        self.pirReset.Bind(wx.EVT_BUTTON,self.resetPIR)

        #add all the parts to the main vbox
        self.checkBoxVbox.Add(self.macHbox,0,wx.ALL,5)
        self.checkBoxVbox.Add(self.superviseCheck,0,wx.ALL,5)
        self.checkBoxVbox.Add(self.lowBatHbox,0,wx.ALL,5)
        self.checkBoxVbox.Add(self.tamperCheck,0,wx.ALL,5)
        self.checkBoxVbox.Add(self.pirCheck,0,wx.ALL,5)
        self.checkBoxVbox.Add(self.pirCountHbox,0,wx.ALL,5)
        self.checkBoxPanel.SetSizer(self.checkBoxVbox)

        #setup the 1 sec timer to update all the data based on the global data
        #self.updateTimer = wx.Timer(self)
        #self.Bind(wx.EVT_TIMER,self.updateData,self.updateTimer)
        #self.updateTimer.Start(500)

    #The event handler for pushing the PIR reset button
    def resetPIR(self,event):
        self.pirCountNumber = 0
        self.pirCount.SetLabel(str(self.pirCountNumber))
        self.Show()

    #The event handler for the 1 sec timer to update the data fields based on last flags msg
##    def updateData(self,event):
##        global batVolt1
##        self.pirCountNumber += 1;
##        self.pirCount.SetLabel(str(self.pirCountNumber))
##        self.batVoltText.SetLabel(str(batVolt1)+'V')

    #The event handler for closing the window
    def OnCloseWindow(self, event):
        app.keepGoing = False
        self.Destroy()
        logFile.close()

    def updateOnSerial(self,flags):
        self.superviseCheck.SetValue(flags[0] == 1)
        self.pirCheck.SetValue(flags[1] == 1)
        if flags[1] == 1:
            self.pirCountNumber += 1
        self.pirCount.SetLabel(str(self.pirCountNumber))
        self.tamperCheck.SetValue(flags[2] == 1)
        self.lowBatCheck.SetValue(flags[3] == 1)
        self.batVoltText.SetLabel(str(flags[4])+'V')
        self.macAddr.SetLabel(str(flags[5]))

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

class MyApp(wx.App):
    def MainLoop(self):
        # Create an event loop and make it active
        evtloop = wx.EventLoop()
        old = wx.EventLoop.GetActive()
        wx.EventLoop.SetActive(evtloop)

        # This outer loop determines when to exit the application
        while self.keepGoing:
            # call_my_code_here()
            line = ser.readline()
            parsedLines = line.split('***')
            global logAll
            if len(parsedLines) > 4 and parsedLines[1] == 'ISCFLAGS': #got a flags msg
                print('Now parsing a ISCFLAGS msg!')
                self.parseFlagsMsg(parsedLines)
                logFile.write(str(line))
            elif logAll > 0 and len(parsedLines) < 2: #logAll is on and it's not a flags msg
                logFile.write(str(line))
            # This inner loop will process any GUI events
            # until there are no more waiting.
            while evtloop.Pending():
                evtloop.Dispatch()

            # Send idle events to idle handlers. 
            # I'll just snooze a little...
            time.sleep(0.10)
            self.ProcessIdle()

        wx.EventLoop.SetActive(old)

    def parseFlagsMsg(self):
        global lowBat1
        global pir1
        global batVolt1
        global tamp1
        global supervise1
        global mac1
        if len(parsedLines) != 10:
            print('ERROR: not enough flag tokens!!')
            return False
        else:
            camID = parsedLines[2];#1,2, or 3
        # TODO: array of testApps... testApp[camID].updateOnSerial()
        # This passes the 4th element through the 8th element
        testApp.updateOnSerial(parsedLines[3:8]) 

    def OnInit(self):
        testApp = ETL_test(None, -1, "Alarm.com 2GIG Image Sensor ETL Test Application")
        testApp.Show(True)
        self.SetTopWindow(testApp)

        self.keepGoing = True
        return True

app = MyApp(False)
logFile = open('C:/Python26/temp/test.txt', 'w')
ser = serial.Serial('com5',115200,timeout=0.01)
app.MainLoop()

And then here is the version where I tried to make it a custom widget and then instantiate one of them in my wx.Frame class:

#!/usr/bin/env python

"""
This demo attempts to override the C++ MainLoop and implement it
in Python.
"""

import time
import wx
import serial                
from serial.tools.list_ports import comports

str1 = '[12:28:14]fxn_name() ***ISCFLAGS***1***0***0***0***3.19***00-1C-FA-F1-00-09-F1-EE***\r\n'
logAll = 1

"""lowBat1 = 0
pir1 = 0
batVolt1 = 0
tamp1 = 0
supervise1 = 0
mac1 = 0"""
#---------------------------------------------------------------------------       
class ISC_status(wx.Panel):
    def __init__(self, parent, id):
        wx.Panel.__init__(self, parent, id, size=(275, 200))
        self.initGUI()
        #self.Bind(wx.EVT_CLOSE, self.OnCloseWindow)
        self.Show()

    def initGUI(self):
        #main container panel for all of the ISC status information
        self.checkBoxPanel = wx.Panel(self,-1,size=(100,200),style= wx.SUNKEN_BORDER)

        self.checkBoxVbox = wx.BoxSizer(wx.VERTICAL)

        #make the three individual checkboxes
        self.superviseCheck = wx.CheckBox(self.checkBoxPanel,-1,'Supervisory Trouble')
        self.pirCheck = wx.CheckBox(self.checkBoxPanel,-1,'PIR Activity')
        self.tamperCheck = wx.CheckBox(self.checkBoxPanel,-1,'Tamper Tripped')

        #make the MAC hbox section
        self.macHbox = wx.BoxSizer(wx.HORIZONTAL)
        self.macLabel = wx.StaticText(self.checkBoxPanel,-1,'MAC ADDR: ')
        macFont1 = wx.Font(10, wx.FONTFAMILY_DEFAULT,wx.FONTSTYLE_NORMAL,wx.FONTWEIGHT_BOLD)
        self.macLabel.SetFont(macFont1)
        macFont2 = wx.Font(10, wx.FONTFAMILY_DEFAULT,wx.FONTSTYLE_NORMAL,wx.FONTWEIGHT_NORMAL)
        self.macAddr = wx.StaticText(self.checkBoxPanel,-1,'001CFAF10009F1EE')
        self.macAddr.SetFont(macFont2)
        self.macHbox.Add(self.macLabel,0,wx.RIGHT,5)
        self.macHbox.Add(self.macAddr,0,0,0)

        #make the low battery hbox section
        self.lowBatCheck = wx.CheckBox(self.checkBoxPanel,-1,'Low Battery Voltage')
        self.batVoltText = wx.StaticText(self.checkBoxPanel,-1, '9.9V')
        self.lowBatHbox = wx.BoxSizer(wx.HORIZONTAL)
        self.lowBatHbox.Add(self.lowBatCheck, 0,wx.RIGHT,20)
        self.lowBatHbox.Add(self.batVoltText, 0,wx.ALL,0)

        #make the pirCount hbox section
        self.pirCountHbox = wx.BoxSizer(wx.HORIZONTAL)
        self.pirCountNumber = 3
        self.pirLabel = wx.StaticText(self.checkBoxPanel,-1,'PIR Count: ')
        self.pirCount = wx.StaticText(self.checkBoxPanel,-1,str(self.pirCountNumber))
        self.pirReset = wx.Button(self.checkBoxPanel,-1,label='Reset PIR Count')
        self.pirCountHbox.Add(self.pirLabel,0,wx.RIGHT,3)
        self.pirCountHbox.Add(self.pirCount,0,wx.RIGHT, 40)
        self.pirCountHbox.Add(self.pirReset,0,wx.ALIGN_RIGHT,0)
        self.pirReset.Bind(wx.EVT_BUTTON,self.resetPIR)

        #add all the parts to the main vbox
        self.checkBoxVbox.Add(self.macHbox,0,wx.ALL,5)
        self.checkBoxVbox.Add(self.superviseCheck,0,wx.ALL,5)
        self.checkBoxVbox.Add(self.lowBatHbox,0,wx.ALL,5)
        self.checkBoxVbox.Add(self.tamperCheck,0,wx.ALL,5)
        self.checkBoxVbox.Add(self.pirCheck,0,wx.ALL,5)
        self.checkBoxVbox.Add(self.pirCountHbox,0,wx.ALL,5)
        self.checkBoxPanel.SetSizer(self.checkBoxVbox)

        #setup the 1 sec timer to update all the data based on the global data
        #self.updateTimer = wx.Timer(self)
        #self.Bind(wx.EVT_TIMER,self.updateData,self.updateTimer)
        #self.updateTimer.Start(500)

    #The event handler for pushing the PIR reset button
    def resetPIR(self,event):
        self.pirCountNumber = 0
        self.pirCount.SetLabel(str(self.pirCountNumber))
        self.Show()

    #The event handler for the 1 sec timer to update the data fields based on last flags msg
##    def updateData(self,event):
##        global batVolt1
##        self.pirCountNumber += 1;
##        self.pirCount.SetLabel(str(self.pirCountNumber))
##        self.batVoltText.SetLabel(str(batVolt1)+'V')



    def updateOnSerial(self,flags):
        self.superviseCheck.SetValue(flags[0] == 1)
        self.pirCheck.SetValue(flags[1] == 1)
        if flags[1] == 1:
            self.pirCountNumber += 1
        self.pirCount.SetLabel(str(self.pirCountNumber))
        self.tamperCheck.SetValue(flags[2] == 1)
        self.lowBatCheck.SetValue(flags[3] == 1)
        self.batVoltText.SetLabel(str(flags[4])+'V')
        self.macAddr.SetLabel(str(flags[5]))
#---------------------------------------------------------------------------
class ETL_test(wx.Frame):
    def __init__(self, parent, id, title):
        wx.Frame.__init__(self, parent, id, title, size=(275, 200))
        self.initGUI()
        self.Bind(wx.EVT_CLOSE, self.OnCloseWindow)
        self.Show()

    def initGUI(self):
        panel = wx.Panel(self)
        ISC1 = ISC_status(self,-1)
        sizer = wx.BoxSizer(wx.VERTICAL)
        sizer.Add(ISC1,1,wx.ALL|wx.EXPAND,5)
        panel.SetSizer(sizer)
        self.Layout()
        self.Show()

    #The event handler for closing the window
    def OnCloseWindow(self, event):
        app.keepGoing = False
        self.Destroy()
        logFile.close()
#---------------------------------------------------------------------------

class MyApp(wx.App):
    def MainLoop(self):
        # Create an event loop and make it active
        evtloop = wx.EventLoop()
        old = wx.EventLoop.GetActive()
        wx.EventLoop.SetActive(evtloop)

        # This outer loop determines when to exit the application
        while self.keepGoing:
            # call_my_code_here()
            line = ser.readline()
            parsedLines = line.split('***')
            global logAll
            if len(parsedLines) > 4 and parsedLines[1] == 'ISCFLAGS': #got a flags msg
                print('Now parsing a ISCFLAGS msg!')
                self.parseFlagsMsg(parsedLines)
                logFile.write(str(line))
            elif logAll > 0 and len(parsedLines) < 2: #logAll is on and it's not a flags msg
                logFile.write(str(line))
            # This inner loop will process any GUI events
            # until there are no more waiting.
            while evtloop.Pending():
                evtloop.Dispatch()

            # Send idle events to idle handlers. 
            # I'll just snooze a little...
            time.sleep(0.10)
            self.ProcessIdle()

        wx.EventLoop.SetActive(old)

    def parseFlagsMsg(self):
        global lowBat1
        global pir1
        global batVolt1
        global tamp1
        global supervise1
        global mac1
        if len(parsedLines) != 10:
            print('ERROR: not enough flag tokens!!')
            return False
        else:
            camID = parsedLines[2];#1,2, or 3
        # TODO: array of testApps... testApp[camID].updateOnSerial()
        # This passes the 4th element through the 8th element
        testApp.updateOnSerial(parsedLines[3:8]) 

    def OnInit(self):
        testApp = ETL_test(None, -1, "Alarm.com 2GIG Image Sensor ETL Test Application")
        testApp.Show(True)
        self.SetTopWindow(testApp)

        self.keepGoing = True
        return True

app = MyApp(False)
logFile = open('C:/Python26/temp/test.txt', 'w')
ser = serial.Serial('com5',115200,timeout=0.01)
app.MainLoop()

To reiterate: the first code sample works basically as I want, but that needs to be a single widget in my eventual program. Why when I try to instantiate that in a class which inherits from wx.Frame does the formatting just disappear and everything is located on top of each other?

Thanks in advance for your help. Let me know if there is any other information I need to provide.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    When you converted your code from the frame to a custom panel, you forgot to remove the extra panel; ISC_status (a wx.Panel) created another panel within and due to lack of additional sizers, the layout was ignored (when the main frame recalculated the layout, it couldn’t reach the inner panel).

    I’ve removed that inner panel (and some functionality to keep it small, sorry) and now it should work the way you want:

    import wx

class ISC_status(wx.Panel):
    def __init__(self, parent, id=wx.ID_ANY):
        wx.Panel.__init__(self, parent, id, style=wx.SUNKEN_BORDER)
        self.initGUI()
# NOTE: remove next line for 'best fit' instead of 275x200
        self.SetMinSize((275, 200))
        self.Layout()
        self.Show()

    def initGUI(self):
# NOTE: here you created an additional (inner) panel
        #main container panel for all of the ISC status information
        sizer = wx.BoxSizer(wx.VERTICAL)
        #make the three individual checkboxes
        self.superviseCheck = wx.CheckBox(self,-1,'Supervisory Trouble')
        self.pirCheck = wx.CheckBox(self,-1,'PIR Activity')
        self.tamperCheck = wx.CheckBox(self,-1,'Tamper Tripped')
        #make the MAC hbox section
        self.macHbox = wx.BoxSizer(wx.HORIZONTAL)
        self.macLabel = wx.StaticText(self,-1,'MAC ADDR: ')
        macFont1 = wx.Font(10, wx.FONTFAMILY_DEFAULT,wx.FONTSTYLE_NORMAL,wx.FONTWEIGHT_BOLD)
        self.macLabel.SetFont(macFont1)
        macFont2 = wx.Font(10, wx.FONTFAMILY_DEFAULT,wx.FONTSTYLE_NORMAL,wx.FONTWEIGHT_NORMAL)
        self.macAddr = wx.StaticText(self,-1,'001CFAF10009F1EE')
        self.macAddr.SetFont(macFont2)
        self.macHbox.Add(self.macLabel,0,wx.RIGHT,5)
        self.macHbox.Add(self.macAddr,0,0,0)
        #make the low battery hbox section
        self.lowBatCheck = wx.CheckBox(self,-1,'Low Battery Voltage')
        self.batVoltText = wx.StaticText(self,-1, '9.9V')
        self.lowBatHbox = wx.BoxSizer(wx.HORIZONTAL)
        self.lowBatHbox.Add(self.lowBatCheck, 0,wx.RIGHT,20)
        self.lowBatHbox.Add(self.batVoltText, 0,wx.ALL,0)
        #make the pirCount hbox section
        self.pirCountHbox = wx.BoxSizer(wx.HORIZONTAL)
        self.pirCountNumber = 3
        self.pirLabel = wx.StaticText(self,-1,'PIR Count: ')
        self.pirCount = wx.StaticText(self,-1,str(self.pirCountNumber))
        self.pirReset = wx.Button(self,-1,label='Reset PIR Count')
        self.pirCountHbox.Add(self.pirLabel,0,wx.RIGHT,3)
        self.pirCountHbox.Add(self.pirCount,0,wx.RIGHT, 40)
        self.pirCountHbox.Add(self.pirReset,0,wx.ALIGN_RIGHT,0)
        self.pirReset.Bind(wx.EVT_BUTTON,self.resetPIR)
        #add all the parts to the main vbox
        sizer.Add(self.macHbox,0,wx.ALL,5)
        sizer.Add(self.superviseCheck,0,wx.ALL,5)
        sizer.Add(self.lowBatHbox,0,wx.ALL,5)
        sizer.Add(self.tamperCheck,0,wx.ALL,5)
        sizer.Add(self.pirCheck,0,wx.ALL,5)
        sizer.Add(self.pirCountHbox,0,wx.ALL,5)
# NOTE: here you set the sizer to the inner panel but there was
#       no sizer to connect it to ISC_status itself so it was
#       unreachable for the main frame and the layout was ignored
        self.SetSizer(sizer)

    def resetPIR(self,event):
        pass

    def updateOnSerial(self,flags):
        pass

class TestFrame(wx.Frame):
    def __init__(self):
        wx.Frame.__init__(self, None)
        sizer = wx.BoxSizer(wx.VERTICAL)
        row = wx.BoxSizer(wx.HORIZONTAL)
# NOTE: set proportion to 0 if you want them 'fixed size'
        row.Add(ISC_status(self),1,wx.ALL,5)
        row.Add(ISC_status(self),1,wx.ALL,5)
        sizer.Add(row,0,wx.EXPAND)
        self.SetSizerAndFit(sizer)

app = wx.PySimpleApp()
frame = TestFrame().Show()
app.MainLoop()
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