Question

So, I have a more a curiosity of how to do something in Tkinter. It’s not required but I kind of want to implement it. Anyways, what I want to do is when one of the items in the apSelect Listbox is selected, I want to create one or two multi Listboxes that are then populated from data from a file (for simplicities sake, lets just say it’s from a preset list.) In addition to this, I would like to have them disappear if an different entry is selected in apSelect. The other thing, would be then grabbing what ever data is selected in those dynamic Listboxes (assuming they exist). Here is the code that is utilizing Tkinter. Really the only important part is the init_ method (which is probably where I can set up for the dynamic generation) and the generate method (where I will need to pull the data).

class App:
    def __init__(self, master):
        dateFrame= Frame(master)
        dateFrame.pack()
        apSelectFrame = Frame(master)
        apSelectFrame.pack()
        entryFrame = Frame(master)
        entryFrame.pack()
        buttonFrame = Frame(master)
        buttonFrame.pack()

        Label(dateFrame, text="Period:").grid(row=0)
        self.period = Entry(dateFrame)
        self.period.grid(row=0, column=1)
        Label(dateFrame, text="Year:").grid(row=1)
        self.year = Entry(dateFrame)
        self.year.grid(row=1, column=1)

        Label(apSelectFrame, text="Select Report Type:").grid(row=0)
        self.apSelect = Listbox(apSelectFrame, selectmode=SINGLE, height=3)
        self.apSelect.grid(row=1)
        for item in ["Artists", "Publishers", "Both"]:
            self.apSelect.insert(END, item)
        self.allTheThings = IntVar()
        self.checkAll = Checkbutton(apSelectFrame, text="All?", variable=self.allTheThings)
        self.checkAll.grid(row=1, column=1)

        Label(entryFrame, text="Client Name: ").grid(row=0)
        self.client = Entry(entryFrame)
        self.client.grid(row=0, column=1)
        Label(entryFrame, text="Publisher Name: ").grid(row=1)
        self.pub = Entry(entryFrame)
        self.pub.grid(row=1, column=1)

        self.generateBt = Button(buttonFrame, text="Generate!", command=self.generate)
        self.generateBt.pack(side=LEFT)
        self.resetBt = Button(buttonFrame, text="Reset!", command=self.reset)
        self.resetBt.pack(side=LEFT)
        self.quitBt = Button(buttonFrame, text="Quit!", fg="red", command=buttonFrame.quit)
        self.quitBt.pack(side=LEFT)

    def fileChecker(self, filename):
        if(not os.path.isfile(filename)):
            return "Missing file: "+filename+"\n"

    def checkForFiles(self, srFilename):
        errorFlag = False
        errorReport = []    
        errorReport.append(self.fileChecker("albums.csv"))
        errorReport.append(self.fileChecker("clients.csv"))
        errorReport.append(self.fileChecker("composition_copyright_holders.csv"))
        errorReport.append(self.fileChecker("compositions.csv"))
        errorReport.append(self.fileChecker("copyright_holders.csv"))
        errorReport.append(self.fileChecker("track_compositions.csv"))
        #errorReport.append(self.fileChecker("track_copyright_holders.csv"))
        errorReport.append(self.fileChecker("tracks.csv"))
        errorReport.append(self.fileChecker("copyright_holders_previously_owed.csv"))
        errorReport.append(self.fileChecker("artist_override.csv"))
        errorReport.append(self.fileChecker(srFilename))
        if(errorFlag):
            tkMessageBox.showerror("Error",
                "Either select all or enter publisher name!")
        else:
            return

    def generate(self):
        #TODO File checker
        month = self.period.get()
        #month = 'q1'
        year = self.year.get()
        #year = '2012'
        clname = self.client.get()
        pubname = self.pub.get()
        report_type = self.apSelect.curselection()
        #report_type = '1'
        allTheThings = self.allTheThings.get()
        #allTheThings = True
        if len(month)==0:
            tkMessageBox.showerror("Error",
                "You forgot to enter a period!")
            return
        if len(year)==0:
            tkMessageBox.showerror("Error",
                "You forgot to enter a year!")
            return
        if len(report_type)==0:
            tkMessageBox.showerror("Error",
                "You forgot to select a report type!")
            return
        if report_type[0]=='0' and allTheThings==0 and clname=="":
            tkMessageBox.showerror("Error",
                "Either select all or enter a client name!")
            return
        if report_type[0]=='1' and allTheThings==0 and pubname=="":
            tkMessageBox.showerror("Error",
                "Either select all or enter publisher name!")
            return
        if report_type[0]=='2' and allTheThings==0 and clname=="" and pubname=="":
            tkMessageBox.showerror("Error",
                "Either select all or enter a client and publisher name!")
            return
        if(not os.path.exists("reports")):
            os.makedirs("reports")
        if(not os.path.exists('reports/'+month+'_'+year+'')):
            os.makedirs('reports/'+month+'_'+year)
        if(not os.path.exists('reports/'+month+'_'+year+'/artists')):
            os.makedirs('reports/'+month+'_'+year+'/artists')
        if(not os.path.exists('reports/'+month+'_'+year+'/publishers')):
            os.makedirs('reports/'+month+'_'+year+'/publishers')
        if(not os.path.exists('reports/'+month+'_'+year+'/artists/empty')):
            os.makedirs('reports/'+month+'_'+year+'/artists/empty')
        if(not os.path.exists('reports/'+month+'_'+year+'/publishers/empty')):
            os.makedirs('reports/'+month+'_'+year+'/publishers/empty')
        srFilename="sr1_"+month+"_"+year+".csv"
        self.checkForFiles(srFilename)
        tester=ACR_CALC()
        tester.calc(month, year, clname, pubname, report_type, allTheThings,srFilename)

    def reset(self):
        print "RESETING!"
        self.period.delete(0, END)
        self.year.delete(0, END)
        self.allTheThings.set(0)
        self.client.delete(0, END)
        self.pub.delete(0, END)
        self.apSelect.select_clear(0,END)

root = Tk()
app = App(root)
root.mainloop()

Answer 1

Using the grid geometry manager, you can easily have a widget appear/disappear on a given event, as I did in my example below.

pack has an analogous pack_forget method, but I imagine it might be a little more difficult to have your widget disappear/re-appear in the same place, if it’s not confined to a stationary, dedicated frame.

The widget in this code appears/disappears on pressing a button, but this method can be used to make a widget (dis)appear on any event that you’d like, if you understand how to bind events in Tkinter (look up the bind method for more info).

import Tkinter as tk

class App(tk.Frame):
    def __init__(self,master):
        tk.Frame.__init__(self,master)
        self.b=tk.Button(self,text='hide',command=self.hide)
        self.lbl=tk.Label(self,text="This is a label you can hide")
        self.b.grid(row=0,column=0)
        self.lbl.grid(row=0,column=1)

    def hide(self):
        self.lbl.grid_forget()
        self.b.config(command=self.show,text='show')

    def show(self):
        self.lbl.grid(row=0,column=1)
        self.b.config(command=self.hide,text='hide')

if __name__ == '__main__':
    root = tk.Tk()
    f=App(root)
    f.grid(row=0,column=0)
    root.mainloop()

I’m not completely sure that I’ve answered the whole question here — there was a lot in your question to sort through…Let me know if you have other questions…