Develop Reference

wxpython: StaticText vertically centered text with background

I've read so many questions similar to this but I'm caving in and making my own because nothing is working. Basically, I want to have my wx.StaticText have vertically centered text while resizing with the window. My understanding is that existing solutions don't work because I care about the background of the StaticText, and so I cannot simply vertically center the label itself in a sizer. I also see that it requires messy subclassing to have a transparent-background StaticText, so overlaying it on a panel sounds difficult.
Here is a minimal example (in my project the sizer has several other things in it):
import wx
class MyFrame(wx.Frame):
def __init__(self):
super().__init__(None, title='Sample')
sizer=wx.BoxSizer(wx.VERTICAL)
label = wx.StaticText(self, -1, 'PLEASE VERTICALLY CENTER ME ;(', style=wx.ALIGN_CENTRE | wx.ST_NO_AUTORESIZE)
label.SetMinSize((300,300))
label.SetBackgroundColour((255,0,0))
sizer.Add(label, 1, wx.EXPAND | wx.ALL, 10)
self.SetSizerAndFit(sizer)
if __name__ == '__main__':
app=wx.App()
frame=MyFrame()
frame.Show()
app.MainLoop()
Despite that, it's hard to accept it's not simple to vertically center text. What is the easiest way to have the text in the label be vertically centered?
Solution:
catalin's answer gave the concept necessary! Here is a full snippet for anyone else who encounters this problem. I added a button below the StaticText to demonstrate the vertical sizer remaining in control. The vertical sizer could be removed altogether if your application doesn't need it.
import wx
class MyFrame(wx.Frame):
def __init__(self):
super().__init__(None, title='Sample')
sizer=wx.BoxSizer(wx.VERTICAL) # "main" sizer
panel = wx.Panel(self) # panel just for centering label
panel.SetBackgroundColour((255,0,0))
label = wx.StaticText(panel, -1, 'PLEASE VERTICALLY CENTER ME ;(', style=wx.ALIGN_CENTRE | wx.ST_NO_AUTORESIZE)
hsizer=wx.BoxSizer(wx.HORIZONTAL) # sizer for the panel
hsizer.Add(label, 1, wx.ALIGN_CENTER_VERTICAL)
panel.SetSizer(hsizer)
sizer.Add(panel, 1, wx.EXPAND)
btn = wx.Button(self, -1, 'Button')
sizer.Add(btn, 0, wx.EXPAND)
self.SetSizerAndFit(sizer)
if __name__ == '__main__':
app=wx.App()
frame=MyFrame()
frame.Show()
app.MainLoop()

In c++ a quick way would look like this:
wxPanel* p = new wxPanel(this); // you don't need to put it in a sizer if it's the only child
p->SetBackgroundColour({ 255, 0, 0 }); // this will be inherited by children
wxStaticText* label = new wxStaticText(p, wxID_ANY, "PLEASE VERTICALLY CENTER ME ;(");
wxSizer* s = new wxBoxSizer(wxHORIZONTAL); // for vertical one, you'd need stretch-spacers, and could not use wxALIGN_CENTER_VERTICAL, see below
s->Add(label, wxSizerFlags(1).Align(wxALIGN_CENTER_VERTICAL));
p->SetSizer(s);
Mind that if you want the text to wrap upon resize, wxStaticText will probably not resize correctly, and you might need to replace it with something else.

Another example of the sizer concept.
The frame is broken up into component parts, with each part assigned its relevant sizer.
The component sizers are then put within a main (self) sizer, to put it all together.
In this case the components are text, that needs to be centered and a set of buttons to the right, vertically stacked.
Obviously, components and arrangements differ but the concept of breaking the design into parts, which is then assembled for final presentation, remains the same.
Indeed, complicated components often need to have the same principle applied, leaving you with a series of sub-assemblies before the final one, in the main sizer.
import wx
class MyFrame(wx.Frame):
def __init__(self):
super().__init__(None, title='Sample')
mainsizer=wx.BoxSizer(wx.HORIZONTAL) # "main" sizer
tsizer=wx.BoxSizer(wx.HORIZONTAL) # "text" sizer
bsizer=wx.BoxSizer(wx.VERTICAL) # "button" sizer
panel = wx.Panel(self) # panel for label
button_panel = wx.Panel(self) # panel for buttons
panel.SetBackgroundColour((190,0,0))
button_panel.SetBackgroundColour((160,0,0))
label = wx.StaticText(panel, -1, 'PLEASE VERTICALLY CENTER ME ;(')
btn1 = wx.Button(button_panel,-1, 'Button 1')
btn2 = wx.Button(button_panel,-1, 'Button 2')
btn3 = wx.Button(button_panel,-1, 'Button 3')
btn4 = wx.Button(button_panel,-1, 'Button 4')
tsizer.AddSpacer(10)
tsizer.Add(label, 0, wx.CENTER)
tsizer.AddSpacer(10) # Ensure gap between text and buttons
bsizer.Add(btn1)
bsizer.Add(btn2)
bsizer.Add(btn3)
bsizer.Add(btn4, 0, wx.BOTTOM, 35) # With space below
panel.SetSizer(tsizer)
button_panel.SetSizer(bsizer)
mainsizer.Add(panel, proportion=1, flag=wx.EXPAND) # panel to grow when resized
mainsizer.Add(button_panel, proportion=0, flag=wx.EXPAND) # panel to fill available space
self.SetSizerAndFit(mainsizer)
if __name__ == '__main__':
app=wx.App()
frame=MyFrame()
frame.Show()
app.MainLoop()

In wxPython, how can I use sizers to left- and right-justify statictext beneath a slider?

I'm trying to make a GUI like so:
The big square is a wxGrid, the small ones are wxButtons, and they all act fine. The drawing at left is intended to be a wxSlider, with text labels "slow" and "fast" beneath each end of the slider.
So I lay out a bunch of BoxSizers, like this:
From outside in:
Blue is vertical, and contains a wxGrid and the green BoxSizer
Green is horizontal, and contains the orange BoxSizer and two buttons
Orange is vertical, and contains a wxSlider and the purple BoxSizer
Purple is horizontal, and contains two StaticTexts, with the words "slow" and "fast"
But the closest I can get it to render is this.
Notice especially how the slider is tiny, and the slow and fast labels (intended to mark the ends of the slider!) are a mess.
I've messed with alignments and expands, I've read a bunch of posts from other people complaining about BoxSliders, and I've gotten nowhere. I thought for sure I had it when I read about wx.ST_NO_AUTORESIZE, but that didn't do anything. I even rebuilt my window with wxGlade, and got the same thing, especially with the static text laid out far left.
The one thing I haven't done is specified the size of anything in pixels. It doesn't seem like any layout should require that, because who knows what size screen I'll be running on or what a reasonable number of pixels is. And if I've understood proportions correctly in sizers, I don't have to specify sizes in pixels.
But I'm out of ideas, and I haven't even found a good example, just similar veins of frustration.
How do I make my slider take up the full width of the orange boxsizer, and how do I get the slow and fast text to label the ends of the slider?
What I'm running, stripped to the layout essentials (and it's got the slider and labels problem):
import wx
import wx.grid
app = wx.App()
frame = wx.Frame(None, title="MyUnhappyLayout")
blue_sizer = wx.BoxSizer(wx.VERTICAL)
grid = wx.grid.Grid(frame)
blue_sizer.Add(grid, 6, wx.EXPAND, 8)
green_sizer = wx.BoxSizer()
blue_sizer.Add(green_sizer, 1, wx.EXPAND)
button1 = wx.Button(frame)
button2 = wx.Button(frame)
slider = wx.Slider(frame, name="Speed", value=1, minValue=1, maxValue=100)
purple_sizer = wx.BoxSizer()
label_slow = wx.StaticText(frame, label="Slow")
label_fast = wx.StaticText(frame, label="Fast")
purple_sizer.Add(label_slow, wx.ALIGN_LEFT)
purple_sizer.Add(label_fast, wx.ALIGN_RIGHT)
orange_sizer = wx.BoxSizer(wx.VERTICAL)
green_sizer.Add(orange_sizer, 2)
orange_sizer.Add(slider)
orange_sizer.Add(purple_sizer, wx.EXPAND)
green_sizer.Add(button1, 1, wx.EXPAND)
green_sizer.Add(button2, 1, wx.EXPAND)
frame.SetSizerAndFit(blue_sizer)
frame.Show()
app.MainLoop()

There is a "built-in" option for showing min and max labels for a slider: use wxSL_MIN_MAX_LABELS when creating it (unless you are using wxWidgets older than 2.9.1).
Otherwise, for your specific sizer layout (it might be easier to review if you create each sizer just before using it):
purple_sizer = wx.BoxSizer()
purple_sizer.Add(label_slow)
purple_sizer.AddStretchSpacer()
purple_sizer.Add(label_fast)
orange_sizer = wx.BoxSizer(wx.VERTICAL)
# when adding to a sizer, the second argument would be proportion;
# use SizerFlags to avoid mistakenly skipping an argument
orange_sizer.Add(slider, wx.SizerFlags().Expand())
orange_sizer.Add(purple_sizer, wx.SizerFlags().Expand())
green_sizer = wx.BoxSizer()
green_sizer.Add(orange_sizer, wx.SizerFlags(1)) # no need for proportion=2, 1 should do
green_sizer.Add(button1) # you probably meant to enlarge the slider, not the buttons
green_sizer.Add(button2)
blue_sizer = wx.BoxSizer(wx.VERTICAL)
blue_sizer.Add(grid, wx.SizerFlags(1).Expand().Border(8)) # no need for proportion=6, 1 should do
blue_sizer.Add(green_sizer, wx.SizerFlags().Expand())

As #VZ has pointed out to me, the old Align within a boxsizer in it's orientation, never worked but now throws an error in newer iterations of wxWidgets.
Now, the old way to achieve the same result, is to insert dummy entries into the sizer and ask for them to be expanded.
For the new way see the answer from #catalin.
Some of the changes to your code are cosmetic to help me understand what is what, by explicit rather than implicit with the defaults for widgets.
import wx
import wx.grid
app = wx.App()
frame = wx.Frame(None, title="MyUnhappyLayout")
blue_sizer = wx.BoxSizer(wx.VERTICAL)
grid = wx.grid.Grid(frame)
blue_sizer.Add(grid, 6, wx.EXPAND, 8)
green_sizer = wx.BoxSizer(wx.HORIZONTAL)
blue_sizer.Add(green_sizer, 1, wx.EXPAND)
button1 = wx.Button(frame)
button2 = wx.Button(frame)
slider = wx.Slider(frame, name="Speed", value=1, minValue=1, maxValue=100)
purple_sizer = wx.BoxSizer(wx.HORIZONTAL)
label_slow = wx.StaticText(frame, label="Slow")
label_fast = wx.StaticText(frame, label="Fast")
purple_sizer.Add(label_slow, 0, 0, 0)
purple_sizer.Add((-1,-1), 1, wx.EXPAND, 0)
purple_sizer.Add(label_fast, 0, 0, 0)
orange_sizer = wx.BoxSizer(wx.VERTICAL)
orange_sizer.Add(slider, 0, wx.EXPAND)
orange_sizer.Add(purple_sizer, 0, wx.EXPAND)
green_sizer.Add(orange_sizer, 2, 0, 0)
green_sizer.Add(button1, 1, wx.EXPAND)
green_sizer.Add(button2, 1, wx.EXPAND)
frame.SetSizerAndFit(blue_sizer)
frame.Show()
app.MainLoop()
Note:
This is the dummy entry:
purple_sizer.Add((-1,-1), 1, wx.EXPAND, 0)

buttons and a refreshing display area in wxpython

I am a humanities teacher, trying to adapt a simple app to help teachers manage classroom interaction - it takes attendance, then allows for calling on random attending students in class, or breaking them into groups, or recording an excused absence, and so on. I've long had a working version in PHP / MySQL running locally on my laptop, but I want to make it a portable python / sqlite app, with an eye toward releasing into the wild for other teachers to use and improve.
But I'm totally new to wxPython, and not really strong on object-oriented programming generally. I have spent hours reading (or skimming through) a fair number of tutorials and introductions and StackOverflow questions, and I've played with wxFormBuilder, but I do not feel like I'm making progress - I'm still quite confused about panels and sizers and layouts, and which bits should belong to what parents.
I think if I could just get this minimal version working, that would go a long way toward my real app. The toolbar-like buttons along the top seem to work fine, but I'd like a "display" area below with a minimal (but expandable) vertical size, a centered text area, and a row of 2-3 buttons in the display area below that text. This display area should change and clear depending on the button pushed above. Here's what I've got:
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import wx
class MainWindow(wx.Frame):
def __init__(self, parent, title):
wx.Frame.__init__(self, parent, title=title, size=(-1,-1))
# self.panel = wx.Panel(self, size=(-1,300))
# buttons bar
self.top_button_sizer = wx.BoxSizer(wx.HORIZONTAL)
self.btn_left = wx.Button(self, -1, label="left")
self.btn_right = wx.Button(self, -1, label="right")
self.btn_left.Bind(wx.EVT_BUTTON, self.OnLeft)
self.btn_right.Bind(wx.EVT_BUTTON, self.OnRight)
self.top_button_sizer.Add(self.btn_left, 1, wx.EXPAND)
self.top_button_sizer.Add(self.btn_right, 1, wx.EXPAND)
self.sizer = wx.BoxSizer(wx.VERTICAL)
self.display_sizer = wx.BoxSizer(wx.VERTICAL)
self.text_sizer = wx.BoxSizer(wx.HORIZONTAL)
self.display_text = wx.StaticText(self, label="Push a button!")
self.display_buttons_sizer = wx.BoxSizer(wx.HORIZONTAL)
self.text_sizer.Add(self.display_text, 0, wx.ALIGN_CENTER, 5)
self.display_sizer.Add(self.text_sizer, 1, wx.ALIGN_CENTER, 5)
self.display_sizer.Add(self.display_buttons_sizer, 0, wx.EXPAND)
self.sizer.Add(self.top_button_sizer, 0, wx.TOP | wx.EXPAND)
# self.sizer.Add(self.panel)
self.sizer.Add(self.display_sizer, 1, wx.EXPAND)
self.SetSizerAndFit(self.sizer)
self.Show()
def OnLeft(self,e):
# for child in self.display_buttons_sizer.GetChildren():
# child.Destroy()
# ^ my attempt to "clear" causes a SegFault
for child in self.display_buttons_sizer.GetChildren():
child.Destroy()
self.display_text.SetLabel("Hey lefty!")
self.btn_hey = wx.Button(self, -1, label="Hey yourself lefty.")
self.btn_whoa = wx.Button(self, -1, label="Whoa there lefty.")
self.display_buttons_sizer.Add(self.btn_hey, 1, wx.EXPAND)
self.display_buttons_sizer.Add(self.btn_whoa, 1, wx.EXPAND)
self.sizer.Layout()
def OnRight(self,e):
# for child in self.display_buttons_sizer.GetChildren():
# child.Destroy()
# ^ my attempt to "clear" causes a SegFault!
self.display_text.SetLabel("Hey righty!")
self.btn_hey = wx.Button(self, -1, label="Hey yourself righty.")
self.btn_whoa = wx.Button(self, -1, label="Whoa there righty.")
self.display_buttons_sizer.Add(self.btn_hey, 1, wx.EXPAND)
self.display_buttons_sizer.Add(self.btn_whoa, 1, wx.EXPAND)
self.sizer.Layout()
app = wx.App(False)
frame = MainWindow(None, "MWE")
app.MainLoop()
(I'm sure this is abhorrent code in lots of ways.) Should I put in a panel somewhere? Where, and how? Would it be easier to learn about "notebooks" instead of using my top buttons? How do I properly clear what's in the "display" area below for the next button push?
Bonus points: the most complicated of the top buttons on my real app is for taking attendance. It would display many lines of text (the students in that class, which I get from sqlite; I've worked that part out I think) with radio buttons for present / absent next to each line, and then record in the database. Hints about this would also be appreciated.
Thanks in advance for your patience.

You could do this sort of thing several different ways. You can swap out panels when a button is pushed or you could just use a wx.Notebook which is basically the same idea. I wrote up a tutorial on panel switching here that you might find helpful:
https://www.blog.pythonlibrary.org/2010/06/16/wxpython-how-to-switch-between-panels/
It uses a menu instead of buttons, but that wouldn't be hard to change. Here's a simple example that doesn't do panel switching, but does show how to add a multiline text control that clears itself when a button is pressed:
import wx
class MainPanel(wx.Panel):
def __init__(self, parent):
wx.Panel.__init__(self, parent)
self.main_sizer = wx.BoxSizer(wx.VERTICAL)
btn_sizer = wx.BoxSizer(wx.HORIZONTAL)
left_button = wx.Button(self, label='Left')
left_button.Bind(wx.EVT_BUTTON, self.on_left)
btn_sizer.Add(left_button, 0, wx.ALL, 5)
right_button = wx.Button(self, label='Right')
right_button.Bind(wx.EVT_BUTTON, self.on_right)
btn_sizer.Add(right_button, 0, wx.ALL, 5)
self.text_ctrl = wx.TextCtrl(self, style=wx.TE_MULTILINE)
self.main_sizer.Add(btn_sizer, 0, wx.CENTER)
self.main_sizer.Add(self.text_ctrl, 1, wx.ALL|wx.EXPAND, 5)
self.SetSizer(self.main_sizer)
def on_left(self, event):
self.text_ctrl.Clear()
self.text_ctrl.SetValue('Left')
def on_right(self, event):
self.text_ctrl.Clear()
self.text_ctrl.SetValue('Right')
class MainWindow(wx.Frame):
def __init__(self, parent, title):
wx.Frame.__init__(self, parent, title=title, size=(-1,-1))
panel = MainPanel(self)
self.Show()
app = wx.App(False)
frame = MainWindow(None, "MWE")
app.MainLoop()
This also demonstrates how to add a panel, which is recommended as panels give you the right "look" on all platforms and it also enables tabbing between controls.
You could easily add another set of buttons to the bottom by using the same concepts shown here and then just adding the second set of button's sizer to the main sizer.
If you want to do lines of text with some kind of radio or check button, I would recommend using a wx.ListCtrl or (better), ObjectListView (https://objectlistview-python-edition.readthedocs.io/en/latest/recipes.html#recipe-checkbox) (see also https://www.blog.pythonlibrary.org/2009/12/23/wxpython-using-objectlistview-instead-of-a-listctrl/)
You can tie an event to the checkbox that can then update your database appropriately.

wxPython: TextCtrl in pop up window

I have created a pop up window, but the TextCtrl is not fully expanded to fill up the window. It works great if I use StaticText instead, (but if content too large then I would need the scroll bar, that is why I am using TextCtrl now). Please provide some guidance.
self.description = WindowPopup(self, wx.SIMPLE_BORDER, content)
btn = event.GetEventObject()
dw = wx.DisplaySize()[0]
width = self.description.GetSize()[0]
y = btn.ClientToScreen((0,0))[1]
height = btn.GetSize()[1]
x = dw - width - 20 - 10
self.description.Position((x, y), (0, height))
self.description.Show(True)
class WindowPopup(wx.PopupWindow):
""" Pops up a window to provide description for the selection """
def __init__(self, parent, style, content):
wx.PopupWindow.__init__(self, parent, style)
self.SetSize((700, 287))
panel = wx.Panel(self)
sizer = wx.BoxSizer(wx.VERTICAL)
st = wx.TextCtrl(self, -1, style = wx.TE_MULTILINE | wx.TE_READONLY)
st.SetValue(content)
sizer.Add(st, 0, wx.EXPAND)
panel.SetSizer(sizer)

I suspect your problem is that the panel is not as big as the popupwindow ... so even though the textfield is expanding to fill its sizer area it is not filling the popup its self.
try using something like
def __init__(...):
...
self.SetMinSize((700,287))
sizer2 = wx.BoxSizer()
sizer2.Add(panel)
self.SetSizer(sizer2)
also make sure that you are calling layout on it at some point (note this is totally untested... so it may need some tweeks, or even worse just be wrong...)

The actual answer is:
sizer = wx.BoxSizer(wx.VERTICAL)
st = wx.TextCtrl(self, -1, style = wx.TE_MULTILINE | wx.TE_READONLY, size = (500, 174))
st.SetValue(content)
self.SetSize((500, 174))
sizer.Add(st, 0, wx.EXPAND)
self.SetSizer(sizer)
self.Layout()
self.Show(True)
Credits to Joran for noticing Layout().
PopupWindow does not require an additional panel, because the window itself can have sizer set to it. This has been realized by using the wxPython Widget Inspection Tool.
Make sure TextCtrl and PopupWindow have the same size.

wxPython SplitterWindow does not expand within a Panel

I'm trying a simple layout and the panel divided by a SplitterWindow doesn't expand to fill the whole area, what I want is this:
[button] <= (fixed size)
---------
TEXT AREA }
~~~~~~~~~ <= (this is the splitter) } this is a panel
TEXT AREA }
The actual code is:
import wx
app = wx.App()
frame = wx.Frame(None, wx.ID_ANY, "Register Translator")
parseButton = wx.Button(frame, label="Parse")
panel = wx.Panel(frame)
panel.SetBackgroundColour("BLUE")
splitter = wx.SplitterWindow(panel)
inputArea = wx.TextCtrl(splitter, style=wx.TE_MULTILINE)
outputArea = wx.TextCtrl(splitter, style=wx.TE_MULTILINE)
splitter.SplitHorizontally(inputArea, outputArea)
sizer=wx.BoxSizer(wx.VERTICAL)
sizer.Add(parseButton, 0, wx.ALIGN_CENTER)
sizer.Add(panel, 1, wx.EXPAND | wx.ALL)
frame.SetSizerAndFit(sizer)
frame.SetAutoLayout(1)
frame.Show(True)
app.MainLoop()
I set the panel color different, and it's actually using the whole area, so the problem is just the SplitterWindow within the Panel, not within the BoxSizer.
Any ideas about why it isn't working? Thanks!

The Panel is probably expanding but the ScrolledWindow within the Panel is not, because you aren't using a sizer for the panel, only the frame.
You could also try just having the SplitterWindow be a child of the frame, without the panel.