This manual documents version 1.4 of the Gtkdialog1 utility. Released April 2015.
Copyright © 2003 Laszlo Pere.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts.
The source of Gtkdialog1 can be downloaded from http://distro.ibiblio.org/amigolinux/download/AmigoProjects/GtkDialog1/.1
gtkdialog1 uses GTK+, and requires GTK+ 1.2 or
higher and gdk-pixbuf-0.21.0; it needs gtk-config in your path in
order to build.
It uses GNUautomake and autoconf, so it will automatically detect
some features of your system that can affect gtkdialog1's
performance.
The program can be installed using the standard ‘./configure’,
make and make install command sequence.
If you wish to use GTK+ 2.0 or higher, do
‘./configure --with-gtk2’. Further details can be found in the INSTALL file included.
Copyright © 2003 Laszlo Pere.
The gtkdialog1 is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.0 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
The program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this software; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
Gtkdialog1 is a small utility program based on the GTK+ library. The program is mainly made for GUI development for shell scripts but can be used with many other programming languages. The programmer can easily create GUI not just for any shell script or UNIX command but for any interpreted or compiled program capable to start child process and use pipes.
Our first example program shows how to call the gtkdialog1 from a BASH script.
#! /bin/bash
export MAIN_DIALOG='
<vbox>
<text>
<label>This is a label...</label>
</text>
<hbox>
<button ok></button>
<button cancel></button>
</hbox>
</vbox>'
gtkdialog1 --program MAIN_DIALOG
This example uses a very plain way to open a dialog box. We store the
description of the dialog box in the MAIN_DIALOG environment
variable which is exported to the child processes with the BASH
export built-in. Then we call the gtkdialog1 program with
the --program option which is followed by the name of the
variable holding the dialog box description. It is simple and easy to
write BASH scripts in this manner.
A similar calling method can be used when user input is needed. The gtkdialog1 send the state of the widgets to the standard output when exiting and this is how we can get user input for the BASH program. The next example code show the reading process.
#! /bin/bash
export DIALOG='
<vbox>
<entry>
<variable>ENTRY</variable>
</entry>
<hbox>
<button ok></button>
<button cancel></button>
</hbox>
</vbox>'
I=$IFS; IFS=""
for STATEMENTS in $(gtkdialog1 --program DIALOG); do
eval $STATEMENTS
done
IFS=$I
if [ "$EXIT" = "OK" ]; then
echo "You entered: $ENTRY."
else
echo "You pressed the Cancel button."
fi
In the example script we use the for built-in to go through the
list gtkdialog1 produced. Changing the field separator (IFS) is
a little bit disturbing but necessary since this is the only way to
protect the space characters in user input.
In larger software projects it may be a good idea to break the code to
separate files. Since gtkdialog1 can read the description
program from file it is easy to write self executable programs with
it. This is how the next example constructed.
#! /usr/local/bin/gtkdialog1 -f
<vbox>
<checkbox>
<label>This is a checkbox</label>
<variable>CHECK1</variable>
</checkbox>
<checkbox>
<label>Another one</label>
<variable>CHECK2</variable>
</checkbox>
<button>
<label>OK</label>
</button>
</vbox>
When used in this fashion the state of the widgets can get from the standard output of the script as usually.
The dialog description language is a simple XML like language capable to denote any complex dialog box containing widgets and boxes.
Widgets are simple GUI elements such as buttons, entry fields, lists, etc. Widget can have attributes, states and actions (see Actions).
The widgets are grouped together with containers (see Containers), horizontal and vertical boxes or frames. Every widget should placed in one of the containers, no widgets can be alone for it is dangerous outside.
Label is a static text widget created with <text></text>
tag.
The text in a static label, can be set with the
<label>string</label> or the
<input file>filename</input> expression.
The <input file>filename</input> can not be used in
combination with <tooltip></tooltip> and
<action>command</action>.
<visible></visible>The <visible>state</visible> specify the initial
visibility of the label. The state can be either
enabled or disabled. When a label is disabled, it is
shaded.
<tooltip></tooltip>The <tooltip>tooltip</tooltip> specify the tooltip shown when
the label has focus. The tooltip must have content if used.
<action></action>The <action>command</action> directive tells the gtkdialog1
what to do, when the label is pressed. The action must have content if used.
The pushbutton is a clickable widget defined with the
<button></button> tags.
<label></label>The <label>string</label> directive sets the text label of
the pushbutton. If no label and pixmap is given for the button,
gtkdialog1 will use OK as default.
<input file></input>When creating buttons, the <input file>filename</input>,
<input file icon="filename"></input> or
<input file stock="filename"></input> tag can be used to
insert a pixmap into the button. The filename
must be a pixmap file.
The icon and stock should be without image extension (ex.: ".png").
Gtkdialog1 will load this file if it can be opened for read, or will
try to find a file with similar name (using the locate utility
program) if the file is unreadable.
The pushbuttons can contain a label and a pixmap simultaneously. For
this you have to use the <label></label> and the
<input file></input> as the next example shows:
<button>
<input file>/usr/share/GUIcompletion/button_save.xpm</input>
<label>The label</label>
</button>
<button>
<input file stock="gtk-edit"></input>
<label>The label</label>
</button>
<button>
<input file icon="gnome-dev-cdrom-audio"></input>
<label>The label</label>
</button>
<action></action>The <action>command</action> directive tells the gtkdialog1
what to do, when the button is pressed. If the action is not given
explicitly the gtkdialog1 uses the default action, which is to exit
the program. In this case the printed variable list will
contain a variable named EXIT, with the label of the activated
button as value.
The buttons can handle more than one actions simultaneously. If there
are more <action></action> directive for the given button, they
will be executed one by one, in the right order.
<visible></visible>The <visible>state</visible> specify the initial visibility
of the button. The state can be either enabled or
disabled. When a button is disabled, it is shaded and can not be
activated by mouse or keyboard.
<width></width> <height></height>The <width>width</width> and <height>height</height>
specify the width and height of the button. Both values must be given.
This is only applied on buttons with a pixmap.
<default></default>The <default>state</default> directive sets the
default relief style of the edges of the given button. The state
can be either none or half and the default is normal.
<tooltip></tooltip>The <tooltip>tooltip</tooltip> specify the tooltip shown when
the button has focus. The tooltip must have content if used.
<position></position>The <position>state</position> specify the position of the
text on the button. The state can be either top or
bottom. This is only applied on buttons with both a label and a
pixmap.
Gtkdialog1 supports a few pre-defined pushbuttons for simplify the creation of dialog boxes. The pre-defined buttons can be used the same manner the normal pushbuttons, but they have a default text, pixmap and output variable. Here is the list of available pre-defined pushbuttons:
<button ok></button>
<button cancel></button>
<button help></button>
<button yes></button>
<button no></button>
The entry widget is a simple text input field, which can be used to get a string from the user. It can be set with the `<entry>STRING</entry>' or the <entry max_length="INTEGER">STRING</entry>. The max_length= sets the maximum of characters a user can input.
<default></default>The <default>string</default> directive sets the
default content of the entry.
<visible></visible>The <visible>visibility</visible> sets the initial
state of the entry widget. The visibility can be enabled,
which means the entry can be used, disabled, which means
the content of the entry can not be altered or password.
The entry widgets with the visibility set to password are
editable, but unreadable as it is common with entries holding
password style information.
<action></action>The entry widgets are activating actions when their contents are changed.
<tooltip></tooltip>The <tooltip>tooltip</tooltip> specify the tooltip shown when
the entry has focus. The tooltip must have content if used.
<width></width> <height></height>The <width>width</width> and <height>height</height>
specify the width and height of the entry. Both values must be given.
The checkbox is a simple widget with a label and a check mark which
can be turned on and off by the user. Checkboxes are made with the
<checkbox></checkbox> directive.
<label></label>The label is the text shown beside the check mark. Every checkbox should have a label.
<default></default>The initial state of the checkbox can be set by the
<default>state</default> directive, where the state
can be either yes/true or no/false.
<action></action>The <action></action> directive tells the gtkdialog1 what to do,
when the state of the checkbox is changed. As every widgets, the
checkbox can hold multiply actions which are executed serially in the
order they are written.
Actions of checkboxes can be written as conditional instructions with if true and if false prefixes as in the next example:
<checkbox>
<label>This is a checkbox...</label>
<variable>CHECKBOX</variable>
<action>echo Checkbox is $CHECKBOX now.</action>
<action>if true enable:ENTRY</action>
<action>if false disable:ENTRY</action>
</checkbox>
<visible></visible>The <visible>state</visible> specify the initial
visibility of the checkbox. The state can be either
enabled or disabled. When a checkbox is disabled, it is
shaded and its state can not be altered anyway.
<variable></variable>The value of a checkbox can be true or false and depends
only on its state.
<tooltip></tooltip>The <tooltip>tooltip</tooltip> specify the tooltip shown when
the checkbox has focus. The tooltip must have content if used.
Radiobutton is a widget that gives a one choice of one of multiple check buttons.
<label></label>The label is the text shown beside the radiobutton mark. Every radiobutton should have a label.
<default></default>The initial state of the radiobutton can be set by the
<default>state</default> directive, where the state
can be either yes/true or no/false.
<tooltip></tooltip>The <tooltip>tooltip</tooltip> specify the tooltip shown when
the radiobutton has focus. The tooltip must have content if used.
<visible></visible>The <visible>state</visible> specify the initial
visibility of the radiobutton. The state can be either
enabled or disabled. When a radiobutton is disabled, it is
shaded and its state can not be altered anyway.
<action></action>The <action></action> directive tells the gtkdialog1 what to do,
when the state of the radiobutton is changed. As every widgets, the
radiobutton can hold multiply actions which are executed serially in the
order they are written.
Actions of radiobuttons can be written as conditional instructions with if true and if false prefixes as in the next example:
<vbox>
<radiobutton>
<label>First radiobutton in the group...</label>
</radiobutton>
<radiobutton>
<label>This one is needed for OK button.</label>
<action>if true enable:OKBUTTON</action>
<action>if false disable:OKBUTTON</action>
</radiobutton>
<radiobutton>
<label>Third radiobutton...</label>
<default>true</default>
</radiobutton>
</frame>
<hbox>
<button ok>
<variable>OKBUTTON</variable>
<visible>disabled</visible>
</button>
</hbox>
</vbox>
The <pixmap></pixmap> defines a pixmap widget.
<input file></input>The widget must have an input file defined with one of the
<input file>filename</input>,
<input file icon="filename"></input> or
<input file stock="filename"></input> tags. The filename
is the graphic image file for the pixmap. The icon and stock should be
without image extension (ex.: ".png"). Gtkdialog1 will load this
file if it can be opened for read, or will try to find a file with
similar name (using the locate utility program) if the file
is unreadable.
The next example defines a pixmap:
<pixmap>
<input file>help.png</input>
</pixmap>
<width></width> <height></height>The <width>width</width> and <height>height</height>
specify the width and height of the pixmap. Both values must be given.
<visible></visible>The <visible>state</visible> specify the initial
visibility of the pixmap. The state can be either
enabled or disabled. When a pixmap is disabled, it is
shaded.
<action></action>The <action></action> directive tells the gtkdialog1 what to do,
when the state of the pixmap is changed. The action must have content if used.
The <action></action> can not be used in combination with the
Refresh:Name called by another widget.
<tooltip></tooltip>The <tooltip>tooltip</tooltip> specify the tooltip shown when
the pixmap has focus. The tooltip must have content if used.
The <tooltip></tooltip> can not be used in combination with the
Refresh:Name called by another widget.
The <list></list> widget is a one column table. Only one
item in the list can be selected a time.
<item></item>The <item>string</item> add a row with the string to
the list.
<input></input>The <input>command</input> fills the list by the output
of the command
<action></action>The <action></action> directive tells the gtkdialog1 what to do,
when the state of the list is changed. The action must have content if used.
Example:
<vbox>
<list>
<input>ls</input>
<item>First item</item>
<item>Second item</item>
<item>Third item</item>
</list>
</vbox>
The <vscale></vscale> defines a vertical slider widget
used to select a value from a range.
The <hscale></hscale> defines a horizontal slider widget
used to select a value from a range.
<default></default>The <default>string</default> directive sets the
default value of the vscale/hscale. Alternative the syntax <vscale range-value="INTEGER"></vscale>" can be used.
<mini></mini>The <mini>string</mini> directive sets the
minimum value of the vscale/hscale. Alternative the syntax <vscale range-min="INTEGER"></vscale>" can be used.
<maxi></maxi>The <maxi>string</maxi> directive sets the
maximum value of the vscale/hscale. Alternative the syntax <vscale range-max="INTEGER"></vscale>" can be used.
<vscale range-step="INTEGER"></vscale>The <vscale range-step="INTEGER"></vscale> directive sets the
stepping value of the vscale/hscale.
<vscale draw-value="TRUE"></vscale>The <vscale draw-value="TRUE"></vscale> directive will print the
current value of the vscale/hscale.
<width></width> <height></height>The <width>width</width> and <height>height</height>
specify the width and height of the vscale/hscale. Both values must be given.
Alternative the syntax <vscale width-request="INTEGER"></vscale>" can be used.
<action></action>The <action></action> directive tells the gtkdialog1 what to do,
when the state of the vscale/hscale is changed. The action must have content if used.
<tooltip></tooltip>The <tooltip>tooltip</tooltip> specify the tooltip shown when
the vscale/hscale has focus. The tooltip must have content if used.
<visible></visible>The <visible>state</visible> specify the initial
visibility of the vscale/hscale. The state can be either
enabled or disabled. When a vscale/hscale is disabled, it is
shaded.
<input></input>The <input>command</input> fills the vscale/hscale by the output
of the command
The vseparator is a simple widget which draw a vertical line
between widgets. Vseparator are made with the
<vseparator></vseparator> directive.
The hseparator is a simple widget which draw a horizontal line
between widgets. Hseparator are made with the
<hseparator></hseparator> directive.
The <menubar></menubar> defines menu bar which can be placed
as any other screen elements. In the menubar widget you have to create
menus with the <menu></menu> tag, and inside the menu
must be at least one menu item created by the
<menuitem></menuitem> tag.
The next example shows how to create a simple menubar with only one menu:
<menubar>
<menu>
<menuitem>
<label>gtk-open</label>
</menuitem>
<menuitem>
<label>gtk-save</label>
</menuitem>
<separator></separator>
<menuitem>
<label>gtk-quit</label>
<action>EXIT="quit"</action>
</menuitem>
<label>File</label>
</menu>
</menubar>
<action></action>The <action></action> directive tells the gtkdialog1 what to do,
when the state of the menuitem is changed. The action must have content if used.
<tooltip></tooltip>The <tooltip>tooltip</tooltip> specify the tooltip shown when
the menuitem has focus. The tooltip must have content if used.
<separator></separator>The <separator></separator> draws a line between the menuitems.
The <table></table> creates a GtkCList widget - a very useful
multi-columned scrolling list. It can display data in nicely aligned
vertical columns, with titles at the top of the list. The items in the
table is autosorted and the width of each column is auto sized to reflect
the size of the content. By clicking on the column header the column is
sorted.
<label></label>The <label>label</label give the name of each column -
separated with "|".
<item></item>The <item>string</item> add a row with the string to
the table.
<input></input>The <input>command</input> fills the table by the output
of the command
<width></width> <height></height>The <width>width</width> and <height>height</height>
specify the width and height of the table. Both values must be given.
<default></default>The <default>state</default> directive tells if single or
multiple rows can be selected. The state can be either single
or multi.
<action></action>The <action></action> directive tells the gtkdialog1 what to do,
when the state of the selection is changed. The action must have content
if used. Note that two signals will be emitted - one for the select and
one for the unselect.
<vbox>
<table>
<label>Permissions|Links|Owner|Group|Size|Date|Time|Name</label>
<input>ls -l | grep -v total | tr -s ' '| tr ' ' '|'</input>
<width>400</width><height>200</height>
<default>multi</default>
</table>
<button ok></button>
</vbox>
The <chooser></chooser> creates an embedded fileselection widget.
The chooser widget emits signals when file-activated, selection changed and
when current-folder-changed.
The <default></default> sets the directory to start listing.
View example below:
<vbox>
<chooser>
<default>/usr/bin</default>
<action when="file-activated">echo file activated</action>
<action when="selection-changed">echo selection changed</action>
<action when="current-folder-changed">echo current folder changed</action>
</chooser>
</vbox>
The widgets are grouped together with containers, horizontal and vertical boxes or frames.
<vbox></vbox>The vbox is a container that organizes its child widgets into a single column. Example:
<vbox margin="30">
<button ok></button>
</vbox>
The "margin=" tag tells which margin between widgets to use.
<hbox></hbox>The hbox is a container that organizes its child widgets into a single horizontal row. Example:
<hbox margin="30">
<button ok></button>
</hbox>
The "margin=" tag tells which margin between widgets to use.
<frame></frame>This code <frame name>string</frame> create a frame widget in which other widgets can be placed.
Example:
<vbox>
<frame This is the frame name>
<button ok></button>
</frame>
</vbox>
<notebook></notebook>The notebook widget creates a number of containers set by the number
of labels. The content of each container is determined by the widgets
included within the <notebook></notebook> tags.
Example:
<vbox>
<notebook labels="One|Two" tabpos="top" show-border="yes" scroll="no" show-tabs="no">
<text>
<label>Some text here</label>
</text>
<button ok></button>
</notebook>
</vbox>
The labels= give the name of each notebook part - separated with "|".
The tabpos= gives the position of the tabs - "top", "right", "button"
and "left" can be used.
The show-border= tells if borders should be visible - "yes" and "no"
can be used.
The scroll= replace some tabs with navigating arrows - "yes" and "no"
can be used.
The show-tabs= makes tabs invisible - cant see reason to use it - any
value given is ignored.
When the user changes the state of a widget, gtkdialog1 checks if there is something to do with it. If the tampered widget have one or more actions, the program will execute them for the new situation to be handled.
Every widget can have multiply actions, a list of commands must be executed when the widget changed. Gtkdialog1 executes the actions in the order they found in the dialog description program, so one can write a complete program as a series of instructions.
If the action of a widget is created with the simple
<action>command</action> directive, gtkdialog1 will execute
it in a subshell. That means it will start up /bin/sh to handle
the operation. Here is how the subshell operation works:
This strange method is needed for the action driven programs, where the subshell have to load the shell functions from the calling script.
& as last character, so the subshell will not wait
the program to complete.)
The Exit:Value command exits gtkdialog1
immediately. The Value will be printed to standard output as the
value of the variable named EXIT.
The <action>Instruction:Name</action> tells the program to
perform Instruction on widget with variable name Name. Not every
widget is capable to perform every instruction.
Instruction can be one of the following:
Closewindow:NameThe command closes (hides) the named window opened by the Launch:
command. The program remain active if there are more windows active.
Launch:NameThe command opens (shows) a new window using the environment variable
Widget.
Disable:NameThe command disables the given widget if it is enabled. If the widget is disabled when the command is activated, nothing happens.
The disabled widgets are insensitive to user actions, their shapes are indicating they are temporary unavailable.
Enable:NameThe command enables the given widget if it is disabled. If the widget is enabled nothing happens.
Refresh:NameThe command refresh the named widget. If the widget have one or more input actions, they will be called by gtkdialog1.
Save:NameSome widgets can hold much data. (Currently only the edit widget capable to perform this action.)
The Save: action will save the data found in the named widget
to the filename found in <output file> attribute.
Clear:WidgetThe command clears the content of the target widget.
RemoveSelected:WidgetThe command remove the selected item from the target widget.
Fileselection:WidgetThe fileselection widget launch a popup widget where the user can select a file or directory. The return value is the selected file or directory and can be set to fill another widget with the file or directory name and path. If the target widget is an edit widget the file will be opened in the edit widget.
<vbox>
<hbox>
<entry>
<variable>FILE</variable>
</entry>
<button>
<action fileselection>FILE</action>
</button>
</hbox>
</vbox>
Comments can be made inside the gtkdialog1 instruction code. The following syntax can be used:
XML/HTML-style comments: <!--the comment goes here-->
C-style comments: /*the comment goes here*/
Shell-style comments: #the comment goes here