gtk.UIManager construct menus and toolbars from an XML description (new in PyGTK 2.4) Synopsis gtk.UIManager gobject.GObject gtk.UIManager set_add_tearoffs add_tearoffs get_add_tearoffs insert_action_group action_group pos-1 remove_action_group action_group get_action_groups get_accel_group get_widget path get_toplevels types get_action path add_ui_from_string buffer add_ui_from_file filename add_ui merge_id path name action type top remove_ui merge_id get_ui ensure_update new_merge_id Ancestry +-- gobject.GObject +-- gtk.UIManager Implemented Interfaces gtk.UIManager implements gtk.Buildable gtk.UIManager Properties
"add-tearoffs" Read-Write If True, regular menus have tearoff menu items. Note that this only affects regular menus. Generated popup menus never have tearoff menu items. Available in GTK+ 2.4 and above. "ui" Read-Write An XML string describing the merged UI.
gtk.UIManager Signal Prototypes gobject.GObject Signal Prototypes "actions-changed" callback uimanager user_param1 ... "add-widget" callback uimanager widget user_param1 ... "connect-proxy" callback uimanager action widget user_param1 ... "disconnect-proxy" callback uimanager action widget user_param1 ... "post-activate" callback uimanager action user_param1 ... "pre-activate" callback uimanager action user_param1 ... Description This object is available in PyGTK 2.4 and above. A gtk.UIManager constructs a user interface (menus and toolbars) from one or more UI definitions, which reference actions from one or more action groups. UI Definitions The UI definitions are specified in an XML format which can be roughly described by the following DTD. <!ELEMENT ui (menubar|toolbar|popup|accelerator)* > <!ELEMENT menubar (menuitem|separator|placeholder|menu)* > <!ELEMENT menu (menuitem|separator|placeholder|menu)* > <!ELEMENT popup (menuitem|separator|placeholder|menu)* > <!ELEMENT toolbar (toolitem|separator|placeholder)* > <!ELEMENT placeholder (menuitem|toolitem|separator|placeholder|menu)* > <!ELEMENT menuitem EMPTY > <!ELEMENT toolitem EMPTY > <!ELEMENT separator EMPTY > <!ELEMENT accelerator EMPTY > <!ATTLIST menubar name #IMPLIED > <!ATTLIST toolbar name #IMPLIED > <!ATTLIST popup name #IMPLIED > <!ATTLIST placeholder name #IMPLIED > <!ATTLIST menu name #IMPLIED action #REQUIRED position (top|bot) #IMPLIED > <!ATTLIST menuitem name #IMPLIED action #REQUIRED position (top|bot) #IMPLIED > <!ATTLIST toolitem name #IMPLIED action #REQUIRED position (top|bot) #IMPLIED > <!ATTLIST accelerator name #IMPLIED action #REQUIRED > There are some additional restrictions beyond those specified in the DTD, e.g. every toolitem must have a toolbar in its ancestry and every menuitem must have a menubar or popup in its ancestry. Since a GMarkup parser is used to parse the UI description, it must not only be valid XML, but valid GMarkup. If a name is not specified, it defaults to the action. If an action is not specified either, the element name is used. A UI definition <ui> <menubar> <menu name="FileMenu" action="FileMenuAction"> <menuitem name="New" action="New2Action" /> <placeholder name="FileMenuAdditions" /> </menu> <menu name="JustifyMenu" action="JustifyMenuAction"> <menuitem name="Left" action="justify-left"/> <menuitem name="Centre" action="justify-center"/> <menuitem name="Right" action="justify-right"/> <menuitem name="Fill" action="justify-fill"/> </menu> </menubar> <toolbar action="toolbar1"> <placeholder name="JustifyToolItems"> <separator/> <toolitem name="Left" action="justify-left"/> <toolitem name="Centre" action="justify-center"/> <toolitem name="Right" action="justify-right"/> <toolitem name="Fill" action="justify-fill"/> <separator/> </placeholder> </toolbar> </ui> The constructed widget hierarchy is very similar to the element tree of the XML, with the exception that placeholders are merged into their parents. The correspondence of XML elements to widgets should be almost obvious: menubar a gtk.MenuBar toolbar a gtk.Toolbar popup a toplevel gtk.Menu menu a gtk.Menu attached to a menuitem menuitem a gtk.MenuItem subclass, the exact type depends on the action toolitem a gtk.ToolItem subclass, the exact type depends on the action separator a gtk.SeparatorMenuItem or gtk.SeparatorToolItem accelerator a keyboard accelerator The "position" attribute determines where a constructed widget is positioned with respect to its siblings in the partially constructed tree. If it is "top", the widget is prepended, otherwise it is appended. UI Merging The most remarkable feature of gtk.UIManager is that it can overlay a set of menuitems and toolitems over another one, and demerge them later. Merging is done based on the name of the XML elements. Each element is identified by a path which consists of the names of its ancestors, separated by slashes. For example, the menuitem named "Left" in the example above has the path /ui/menubar/JustifyMenu/Left and the toolitem with the same name has path /ui/toolbar1/JustifyToolItems/Left. Accelerators Every action has an accelerator path. Accelerators are installed together with menuitem proxies, but they can also be explicitly added with <accelerator> elements in the UI definition. This makes it possible to have accelerators for actions even if they have no visible proxies. Smart Separators The separators created by gtk.UIManager are "smart", i.e. they do not show up in the UI unless they end up between two visible menu or tool items. Separators which are located at the very beginning or end of the menu or toolbar containing them, or multiple separators next to each other, are hidden. This is a useful feature, since the merging of UI elements from multiple sources can make it hard or impossible to determine in advance whether a separator will end up in such an unfortunate position. Empty Menus Submenus pose similar problems to separators in connection with merging. It is impossible to know in advance whether they will end up empty after merging. gtk.UIManager offers two ways to treat empty submenus: make them disappear by hiding the menu item they're attached to add an insensitive "Empty" item The behavior is chosen based on the "is_important" property of the action to which the submenu is associated. Constructor gtk.UIManager Returns : a new ui manager object. This constructor is available in PyGTK 2.4 and above. Creates a new gtk.UIManager object. Methods gtk.UIManager.set_add_tearoffs set_add_tearoffs add_tearoffs add_tearoffs : True if tearoff menu items are added to regular menus This method is available in PyGTK 2.4 and above. The add_tearoffs() method sets the "add_tearoffs" property to the value of add_tearoffs. If add_tearoffs is True regular menus generated by this gtk.UIManager will have tearoff menu items. Note that this only affects regular menus. Generated popup menus never have tearoff menu items. gtk.UIManager.get_add_tearoffs get_add_tearoffs Returns : True if tearoff menu items are added This method is available in PyGTK 2.4 and above. The get_add_tearoffs() method returns the value of the "add-tearoffs" property. If "add-tearoffs" is True regular menus generated will have tearoff menu items. gtk.UIManager.insert_action_group insert_action_group action_group pos-1 action_group : the action group to be inserted pos : the position at which the group will be inserted. If pos is negative action_group is inserted at the end of the list. This method is available in PyGTK 2.4 and above. pos has default value since PyGTK 2.12. The insert_action_group() method inserts the gtk.ActionGroup specified by action_group into the list of associated action groups at the position specified by pos. If pos is negative, new action group is inserted at the end of the list. Actions in earlier groups hide actions with the same name in later groups. gtk.UIManager.remove_action_group remove_action_group action_group action_group : the action group to be removed This method is available in PyGTK 2.4 and above. The remove_action_group() method removes the gtk.ActionGroup specified by action_group from the list of associated action groups. gtk.UIManager.get_action_groups get_action_groups Returns : a list of associated action groups. This method is available in PyGTK 2.4 and above. The get_action_groups() method returns the list of associated gtk.ActionGroup objects. gtk.UIManager.get_accel_group get_accel_group Returns : the gtk.AccelGroup. This method is available in PyGTK 2.4 and above. The get_accel_group() method returns the associated gtk.AccelGroup. gtk.UIManager.get_widget get_widget path path : a path Returns : the widget found by following the path, or None if no widget was found. This method is available in PyGTK 2.4 and above. The get_widget() method looks up a widget by following the path specified by path. The path consists of the names specified in the XML description of the UI. separated by '/'. Elements that don't have a name or action attribute in the XML (e.g. <popup>) can be addressed by their XML element name (e.g. "popup"). The root element ("/ui") can be omitted in the path. gtk.UIManager.get_toplevels get_toplevels types types : specifies the types of toplevel widgets to include. Allowed types are gtk.UI_MANAGER_MENUBAR, gtk.UI_MANAGER_TOOLBAR and gtk.UI_MANAGER_POPUP. Returns : a list of all toplevel widgets of the requested types. This method is available in PyGTK 2.4 and above. The get_toplevels() method returns a list of all toplevel widgets of the types specified by types. gtk.UIManager.get_action get_action path path : a path Returns : the action whose proxy widget is found by following the path, or None if no widget was found. This method is available in PyGTK 2.4 and above. The get_action() method looks up a gtk.Action by following a path. See the get_widget() method for more information about paths. gtk.UIManager.add_ui_from_string add_ui_from_string buffer buffer : the string to parse Returns : The merge id for the merged UI. The merge id can be used to unmerge the UI with the remove_ui() method. This method is available in PyGTK 2.4 and above. The add_ui_from_string() method parses the string specified by buffer that contains a UI definition and merges it with the current contents of the ui manager. An enclosing <ui> element is added if it is missing. This method raise the GError exception if an error occurs during the parsing of the string. gtk.UIManager.add_ui_from_file add_ui_from_file filename filename : the name of the file to parse Returns : The merge id for the merged UI. The merge id can be used to unmerge the UI with the gtk.UIManager.remove_ui() method. This method is available in PyGTK 2.4 and above. The add_ui_from_file() method parses the file specified by filename that contains a UI definition and merges it with the current contents of the ui manager. This method raise the GError exception if an error occurs during the parsing of the file. gtk.UIManager.add_ui add_ui merge_id path name action type top merge_id : the merge id for the merged UI, see new_merge_id() path : a path where the element should be added name : the name for the added UI element action : the name of the action to be proxied, or None to add a separator type : the type of UI element to add. top : if True, the UI element is added before its siblings, otherwise it is added after its siblings. This method is available in PyGTK 2.4 and above. The add_ui() method adds a UI element of the type specified by type to the current contents of the ui manager at the location specified by path. Note that path must not start with "/ui" though "ui" is acceptable. For example "/menubar" or "ui/menubar" is acceptable but "/ui/menubar" is not. type must be one of: gtk.UI_MANAGER_AUTO The type of the UI element (menuitem, toolitem or separator) is set according to the context. gtk.UI_MANAGER_MENUBAR A menubar. gtk.UI_MANAGER_MENU A menu. gtk.UI_MANAGER_TOOLBAR A toolbar. gtk.UI_MANAGER_PLACEHOLDER A placeholder. gtk.UI_MANAGER_POPUP A popup menu. gtk.UI_MANAGER_MENUITEM A menuitem. gtk.UI_MANAGER_TOOLITEM A toolitem. gtk.UI_MANAGER_SEPARATOR A separator. gtk.UI_MANAGER_ACCELERATOR An accelerator. gtk.UIManager.remove_ui remove_ui merge_id merge_id : a merge id This method is available in PyGTK 2.4 and above. The remove_ui() method unmerges the part of the ui manager content identified by merge_id. gtk.UIManager.get_ui get_ui Returns : A string containing an XML representation of the merged UI. This method is available in PyGTK 2.4 and above. The get_ui() method creates a UI definition of the merged UI. gtk.UIManager.ensure_update ensure_update This method is available in PyGTK 2.4 and above. The ensure_update() method makes sure that all pending updates to the UI have been completed. This may occasionally be necessary, since gtk.UIManager updates the UI in an idle function. A typical example where this method is useful is to enforce that the menubar and toolbar have been added to the main window before showing it: window.add(vbox) merge.connect("add_widget", add_widget, vbox) merge.add_ui_from_file("my-menus") merge.add_ui_from_file("my-toolbars") merge.ensure_update() window.show() gtk.UIManager.new_merge_id new_merge_id Returns : an unused merge id. This method is available in PyGTK 2.4 and above. The new_merge_id() method returns an unused merge id, suitable for use with the add_ui() method. The returned merge ids are monotonically increasing integer values. Signals The "actions-changed" gtk.UIManager Signal callback uimanager user_param1 ... uimanager : the uimanager that received the signal user_param1 : the first user parameter (if any) specified with the connect() method ... : additional user parameters (if any) This signal is available in GTK+ 2.4 and above. The "actions-changed" signal is emitted when the set of actions changes. The "add-widget" gtk.UIManager Signal callback uimanager widget user_param1 ... uimanager : the uimanager that received the signal widget : the added widget user_param1 : the first user parameter (if any) specified with the connect() method ... : additional user parameters (if any) This signal is available in GTK+ 2.4 and above. The "add-widget" signal is emitted for each generated menubar and toolbar. The added widget is specified by widget. It is not emitted for generated popup menus, which can be retrieved by the get_widget() method. The "connect-proxy" gtk.UIManager Signal callback uimanager action widget user_param1 ... uimanager : the uimanager that received the signal action : the action widget : the proxy widget user_param1 : the first user parameter (if any) specified with the connect() method ... : additional user parameters (if any) This signal is available in GTK+ 2.4 and above. The "connect-proxy" signal is emitted after connecting the proxy widget specified by widget to the gtk.Action specified by action in the group. This is intended for simple customizations for which a custom action class would be too clumsy, e.g. showing tooltips for menuitems in the statusbar. The "disconnect-proxy" gtk.UIManager Signal callback uimanager action widget user_param1 ... uimanager : the uimanager that received the signal action : the action widget : the proxy widget user_param1 : the first user parameter (if any) specified with the connect() method ... : additional user parameters (if any) This signal is available in GTK+ 2.4 and above. The "disconnect-proxy" signal is emitted when widget is disconnected from action. The "post-activate" gtk.UIManager Signal callback uimanager action user_param1 ... uimanager : the uimanager that received the signal action : the action user_param1 : the first user parameter (if any) specified with the connect() method ... : additional user parameters (if any) This signal is available in GTK+ 2.4 and above. The "post-activate" signal is emitted after action is activated. This signal is intended for applications to get notification after any action is activated. The "pre-activate" gtk.UIManager Signal callback uimanager action user_param1 ... uimanager : the uimanager that received the signal action : the action user_param1 : the first user parameter (if any) specified with the connect() method ... : additional user parameters (if any) This signal is available in GTK+ 2.4 and above. The "pre-activate" signal is emitted before action is activated. This signal is intended for applications to get notification before any action is activated.