Python GTK: How to set up gtk.Notebook tab with custom widget -- page 2

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Submitted by chantra on Fri, 06/27/2008 - 23:45

Now, let's go over the code and see what happens.

From line 1 to 10, we import the required module to run the script and we define to global variables: window, the main window, and notebook, our customized gtk notebook.

Line 10, we define our class MyNotebook which inherit from gtk.Notebook.

Line 12 to 18, we initialized our Notebook. By setting the property "shows-tabs" to False, we make sure that a tab is not going to be visible to the user. We will set it to True later when the number of tabs will be greater than 1.

def __init__(self):
gtk.Notebook.__init__(self)
#set the tab properties
self.set_property('homogeneous', True)
#we do not show the tab if there is only one tab i total
self.set_property('show-tabs', False)

Line 19 to 41, this is the method that is going to be called when a new tab is created.
Up to line 25, we generate and append an image to the notebook.
Line 29-30, we make the tabs visible if there is more than 1.
35-41, we create our customized tab label widget, set it as a tab label and finally, give focus to the new tab.

def new_tab(self):
#we create a "Random" image to put in the tab
icons = [gtk.STOCK_ABOUT, gtk.STOCK_ADD, gtk.STOCK_APPLY, gtk.STOCK_BOLD]
image = gtk.Image()
nbpages = self.get_n_pages()
icon = icons[nbpages%len(icons)]
image.set_from_stock(icon, gtk.ICON_SIZE_DIALOG)
self.append_page(image)
#we want to show the tabs if there is more than 1
if nbpages + 1 > 1:
self.set_property('show-tabs', True)
#creation of a custom tab. the left image and
#the title are made of the stock icon name
#we pass the child of the tab so we can find the
#tab back upon closure
label = self.create_tab_label(icon, image)
label.show_all()
self.set_tab_label_packing(image, True, True, gtk.PACK_START)
self.set_tab_label(image, label)
image.show_all()
self.set_current_page(nbpages)

Line 43 to 59 is the method creating the tab label and connecting the close button to our close_tab.

Our tab is basically a gtk.HBox in which we pack:

An image on the left side which will match the content of the tab
The title of the tab
A close button on the right side

The close button is hooked to the signal clicked and pass the child of the tab as a user parameter so we can find the tab back and close it.

def create_tab_label(self, title, tab_child):
box = gtk.HBox()
icon = gtk.Image()
icon.set_from_stock(title, gtk.ICON_SIZE_MENU)
label = gtk.Label(title)
closebtn = gtk.Button()
#the close button is made of an empty button
#where we set an image
image = gtk.Image()
image.set_from_stock(gtk.STOCK_CLOSE, gtk.ICON_SIZE_MENU)
closebtn.connect("clicked", self.close_tab, tab_child)
closebtn.set_image(image)
closebtn.set_relief(gtk.RELIEF_NONE)
box.pack_start(icon, False, False)
box.pack_start(label, True, True)
box.pack_end(closebtn, False, False)
return box

The last method (line 61-68) of our class MyNotebook is the callback invoked when a "clicked" signal is intercepted.

By using the child of the tab, we can find the page number. Then, we remove the page and, if there is only one tab left, we hide the tab label to the user.