Question

When using the select.select() method in Python, is there any way to use input from a GUI (Tkinter Entry) to send data out of a socket?

The input list of select() accepts sys.stdin or received data from a server, but is there anyway to get data from a GUI and have it be sent out? Or is select not usable with a GUI?

I have searched extensively, but if you have a link to another thread I’d appreciate that as well.

import socket, select, threading, Queue, cPickle
from Tkinter import *
from Message import *

class GUI(Frame):

    def __init__(self, host="localhost",port=5678, root="Tk()"):
        Frame.__init__(self,root)
        self.nickname = raw_input("What is your screen name? ")
        self.inqueue = Queue.Queue()
        self.outqueue = Queue.Queue()
        self.root = root
        self.text = Text(self,height=10,width=40)
        self.scroll=Scrollbar(self)
        self.text.configure(yscrollcommand=self.scroll.set)
        self.scroll.grid(row=0, column=1, sticky=N+S)
        self.scroll.config(command=self.text.yview)
        self.text.grid(row=0,column=0)
        self.entry = Entry(self)
        self.entry.grid(row=1,column=0)
        self.pack()
        self.sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
        self.sock.connect((host, port))
        self.sock.send(self.nickname)
        self.thread1=threading.Thread(target=self.cmdloop)
        self.thread1.start()
        self.entry.bind("<Return>",self.enter)
        self.call()

    def enter(self,event):
        msg = Message(self.nickname,0,self.entry.get())
        self.entry.delete(0, END)
        msg = cPickle.dumps(msg)
        self.inqueue.put(msg)
        self.sock.send(msg)

    def call(self):
        self.processData()
        self.after(100,self.call)

    def cmdloop(self):
        while 1:
            sys.stdout.flush()
            # Wait for input from stdin & socket
            inputs, outputs, excepts = select.select([0,self.sock],[],[])

            for i in inputs:
                if i == 0:
                    data = sys.stdin.readline()
                    msg = Message(self.nickname,0,data)
                    msg = cPickle.dumps(msg)
                    self.inqueue.put(msg)
                    self.sock.send(msg)

                elif i == self.sock:
                    data = self.sock.recv(1024)
                    self.inqueue.put(data)

    def processData(self):
        while self.inqueue.qsize():
            try:
                msg = self.inqueue.get(0)
                msg = cPickle.loads(msg) 
                self.text.insert(END, msg.getusr()+": "+msg.getmsg())
                self.text.yview(END)
            except Queue.Empty:
                pass

if __name__ == "__main__":
    root = Tk()
    root.title("textarea")
    client = GUI(sys.argv[1],int(sys.argv[2]),root)
    root.mainloop()

Answer 1

I think I was asking the question poorly, thank you to those who tried to answer despite my poor phrasing. I had just started using Python. Either way, here is an answer my group member found to the question I was trying to ask. I do not know if he wrote it himself or found it on a website, but it is basically just a use of the TKinter after() call.

Our main loop looks like:

def cmdloop():
    (sread, swrite, sexc) = select.select( [sock], [], [], 0)
    for s in sread:
        ...
        ...
        ...
    app.after(500,cmdloop)

That half second break allowed the textbox call inputBox.bind('<Return>', sendMsg) (and the message waiting to send in the socket) to work properly. sendMsg() then simply had a sock.send() call.

def sendMsg(event=''):
    message = inputBox.get()
    message += "\n"
    msg = Message(nickname,0,message,None) #Custom Class
    sock.send(pickle.dumps(msg))
    inputBox.delete(0,END)
    return