I'm working on an application using Tkinter in Python 2.7, to simplify:
from Tkinter import *
class rootWindow(Thread):
def __init__(self):
Thread.__init(self)
self.root = Tk()
self.button = Button(self.root,text="Execute",command=self.exec)
self.start()
self.join()
def run(self):
self.root.mainloop()
def exec(self):
# instruction 1
# instruction 2
# ...
# End instructions
the problem is the exec() function takes a time (because it modify's an excel file).
I want to run a second window (with a 'please wait' animation or progressbar or something) while the exec() function is doing it's job. So I created:
class waitWindow(Thread):
def __init__(self):
Thread._init__(self)
self.wait = Tk()
self.pb = ttk.Progressbar()
self.pb.pack()
self.start()
def run(self):
self.wait.after(16000, self.des)
self.wait.mainloop()
def des(self):
self.wait.destroy()
and I called this Thread before executing the exec() function. The launching is good but I can't stop the second Thread after the 16000 ms I passed in the second thread.
Any ideas? How can I stop the second thread within 16000 ms?
thank's in advance!
There are two problems with your code. The first is that all tkinter code must run in the same thread, and ideally that's the main thread. The code that processes the excel file is the code that should be in another thread.
Second, if you need more than one window, the second and subsequent windows need to be instances of Toplevel rather than Tk.
Related
So I want to know how I can make a delay between executing two functions. The goal is to replace regular, blank button by black after it was on screen for one second. My current program, simplified looks like this, and it just delays the the execution of CreateInterface():
class Program(Frame):
def __init__(self,root):
self.root=root
self.root.title('Test')
super().__init__(self.root)
self.grid()
self.Start()
return
def Start(self):
startbtn=Button(self,width=5, font=('Calibri',16,'bold'), height=2, text='start',command=lambda:self.CreateInterface())
startbtn.grid(row=1,column=1)
def CreateInterface(self):
time.import
btn1=Button()
btn1.grid(row=1,column=1)
time.sleep(10)
self.Function2(self)
return
def Function2(self):
btn2=Button(bg='black')
btn2.grid(row=1,column=1)
return
In a GUI interface, calling time.sleep makes the whole process wait, so the application appears to freeze. With Tk in Python, a way to do is to use the Tk after method on a window or frame, and then call a function that makes the necessary change to your Button. There are examples of how to do this at How to create a timer using tkinter
Use time.sleep to pause program execution for a certain amount of time. If you wanted to pause for 1 second after calling CreateInterface, change it to this:
def CreateInterface(self):
btn1=Button()
btn1.grid(row=1,column=1)
time.sleep(10)
self.Function2(self)
time.sleep(1)
Don't forget to import time when you do this.
So I have two python threads running from inside a class. I have checked using
threading.active_count()
and it says both threads are running. The first thread includes a tkinter window which works fine. The second thread I am using as an event manager for the first window, which also works okay by itself. However, when I run the second thread alongside the first thread, the first thread does not work, ie. the window does not appear. This is even if the first thread is executed first. When I remove the infinite loop from the second thread, the first thread works again, can anyone explain this to me? Here is the class:
class Quiz(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self):
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
def show(self, question):
self.question = quiz[question][0]
self.correct = quiz[question][1]
self.incorrectA = quiz[question][2]
self.incorrectB = quiz[question][3]
self.ref = quiz[question][4]
questionDisplay.config(text=self.question)
correctButton = "answer" + str(self.ref[0])
eval(correctButton).config(text=self.correct, command=lambda : check(True))
incorrect1 = "answer" + str(self.ref[1])
eval(incorrect1).config(text=self.incorrectA, command= lambda : check(False))
incorrect2 = "answer" + str(self.ref[2])
eval(incorrect2).config(text=self.incorrectB, command= lambda : check(False))
return self.correct
def run(self):
print("thread started")
print(threading.active_count())
while True:
print(questionQueue.qsize())
if questionQueue.qsize() >= 1:
pass
else:
pass
print("looped")
Thanks
From the code as currently shown it is not obvious where the problem lies. But keep the following in mind;
Tk is event-driven like basically all GUI toolkits. So for the GUI to work you need to run Tk's mainloop. The only pieces of your code that it runs in the main loop are the various callbacks attached to things like buttons, menus and timers.
Like most GUI toolkits Tk isn't thread-safe because of the overhead that would require. To keep it working properly, you should only call Tk functions and methods from one thread.
Python's threads are operating system threads. This means they are subject to operating system scheduling. And the OS sometimes gives more time to threads that are busy. So if a thread that is spinning in a busy-loop is pre-empted (as is done regularly), chances are that it ends up being run again instead of the GUI thread.
I have a program I've been writing that began as a helper function for me to find a certain report on a shared drive based on some information in that report. I decided to give it a GUI so I can distribute it to other employees, and have ran into several errors on my first attempt to implement tkinter and threading.
I'm aware of the old adage "I had one problem, then I used threads, now I have two problems." The thread did, at least, solve the first problem -- so now on to the second....
My watered down code is:
class GetReport(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self,root):
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
# this is just a hack to get the StringVar in the new thread, HELP!
self.date = root.getvar('date')
self.store = root.getvar('store')
self.report = root.getvar('report')
# this is just a hack to get the StringVar in the new thread, HELP!
self.top = Toplevel(root)
ttk.Label(self.top,text="Fooing the Bars into Bazes").pack()
self.top.withdraw()
def run(self):
self.top.deiconify()
# a function call that takes a long time
self.top.destroy() #this crashes the program
def main():
root = Tk()
date,store,report = StringVar(),StringVar(),StringVar()
#####
## labels and Entries go here that define and modify those StringVar
#####
def launchThread(rpt):
report.set(rpt)
# this is just a hack to get the StringVar in the new thread, HELP!
root.setvar('date',date.get())
root.setvar('store',store.get())
root.setvar('report',report.get())
# this is just a hack to get the StringVar in the new thread, HELP!
reportgetter = GetReport(root)
reportgetter.start()
ttk.Button(root,text="Lottery Summary",
command=lambda: launchThread('L')).grid(row=1,column=3)
root.mainloop()
My expected output is for root to open and populate with Labels, Entries, and Buttons (some of which are hidden in this example). Each button will pull data from the Entries and send them to the launchThread function, which will create a new thread to perform the foos and the bars needed to grab the paperwork I need.
That thread will launch a Toplevel basically just informing the user that it's working on it. When it's done, the Toplevel will close and the paperwork I requested will open (I'm using ShellExecute to open a .pdf) while the Thread exits (since it exits its run function)
What's ACTUALLY happening is that the thread will launch its Toplevel, the paperwork will open, then Python will become non-responsive and need to be "end processed".
As far as I know you cannot use Threading to alter any GUI elements. Such as destroying a Toplevel window.
Any Tkinter code needs to be done in the main loop of your program.
Tkinter cannot accept any commands from threads other than the main thread, so launching a TopLevel in a thread will fail by design since it cannot access the Tk in the other thread. To get around this, use the .is_alive method of threads.
def GetReport(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self,text):
self.text = text
super().__init__()
def run(self):
# do some stuff that takes a long time
# to the text you're given as input
def main():
root = Tk()
text = StringVar()
def callbackFunc(text):
top = Toplevel(root)
ttk.Label(top,text="I'm working here!").pack()
thread = GetReport(text)
thread.start()
while thread.is_alive():
root.update() # this keeps the GUI updating
top.destroy() # only when thread dies.
e_text = ttk.Entry(root,textvariable=text).pack()
ttk.Button(root,text="Frobnicate!",
command = lambda: callbackFunc(text.get())).pack()
I know that Python’s Tk interface has some problems when using threads, and I’ve already run into problems with it. My idea is now to use a Queue.Queue to somehow pass events to the Tk mainloop, similarly to the following example.
from Tkinter import *
import Queue
import time
# this queue will be filled by other threads
queue = Queue.Queue()
queue.put("Helloooo!")
queue.put("hi there, everyone!")
class Application(Frame):
def update(self):
while True:
try:
text = queue.get(False)
self.hi_there["text"] = text
time.sleep(3)
except Queue.Empty:
self.quit()
def create_widgets(self):
self.hi_there = Label(self)
self.hi_there["text"] = "Hello"
self.hi_there.pack({"side": "left"})
def __init__(self, master=None):
Frame.__init__(self, master)
self.pack()
self.create_widgets()
root = Tk()
app = Application(master=root)
app.update()
app.mainloop()
Of course, I must not call update myself (this will execute everything before the UI is even shown) but need Tk to handle that during its mainloop.
Is there any foolproof way to accomplish that with Tk which will not break under certain circumstances? Or should I just resort to Qt for that?
As a general rule of thumb a GUI application should never, ever call sleep, should never have an infinite loop (except for the event loop), and you should never call 'update'. The only exception to never calling update is that is is ok only when you truly understand why you should not.
Create a method that does two things: check the queue, and then use 'after' to call itself after some small period of time. Then, call this method once at the beginning of your program just before starting the event loop, after all other initialization has taken place.
For a working example of such a function, see How to create a timer using tkinter?
I'm relatively new to wxPython (but not Python itself), so forgive me if I've missed something here.
I'm writing a GUI application, which at a very basic level consists of "Start" and "Stop" buttons that start and stop a thread. This thread is an infinite loop, which only ends when the thread is stopped. The loop generates messages, which at the moment are just output using print.
The GUI class and the infinite loop (using threading.Thread as a subclass) are held in separate files. What is the best way to get the thread to push an update to something like a TextCtrl in the GUI? I've been playing around with PostEvent and Queue, but without much luck.
Here's some bare bones code, with portions removed to keep it concise:
main_frame.py
import wx
from loop import Loop
class MainFrame(wx.Frame):
def __init__(self, parent, title):
# Initialise and show GUI
# Add two buttons, btnStart and btnStop
# Bind the two buttons to the following two methods
self.threads = []
def onStart(self):
x = Loop()
x.start()
self.threads.append(x)
def onStop(self):
for t in self.threads:
t.stop()
loop.py
class Loop(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self):
self._stop = threading.Event()
def run(self):
while not self._stop.isSet():
print datetime.date.today()
def stop(self):
self._stop.set()
I did, at one point, have it working by having the classes in the same file by using wx.lib.newevent.NewEvent() along these lines. If anyone could point me in the right direction, that'd be much appreciated.
The easiest solution would be to use wx.CallAfter
wx.CallAfter(text_control.SetValue, "some_text")
You can call CallAfter from any thread and the function that you pass it to be called will be called from the main thread.