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I am currently coding a program with will tie in with Discord's rich presence, and I am needing to create a GUI for it in Tkinter. The issue is, I cannot understand how to place elements correctly. It has been quite a pain. Here is what I am planning to have the app sort of look like: https://i.stack.imgur.com/K9Wox.jpg
However, with my current code, this is how abismal the GUI looks... https://i.stack.imgur.com/wGA9A.jpg
Here is my code:
root = tkinter.Tk()
root.title("Matter: A Discord Rich Presence Tool")
root.config(bg='#2C2F33')
root.geometry("560x300")
#root.overrideredirect(1)
# Load images
loadProfileImage = tkinter.PhotoImage(file="resources/loadprofile.png")
saveProfileImage = tkinter.PhotoImage(file="resources/saveprofile.png")
newProfileImage = tkinter.PhotoImage(file="resources/newprofile.png")
# GUI Hell starts here
topCanvas = tkinter.Canvas(root, width=600, height=150)
topCanvas.config(bd=0, highlightthickness=0, relief='ridge', background="#7289DA")
topTextFieldText = tkinter.StringVar(value='Sample top text')
topTextField = tkinter.Entry(root, textvariable=topTextFieldText)
topTextField.config(borderwidth=0, background="#7289DA")
bottomTextFieldText = tkinter.StringVar(value='Sample bottom text')
bottomTextField = tkinter.Entry(root, textvariable=bottomTextFieldText)
bottomTextField.config(borderwidth=0, background="#7289DA")
largeIconName = tkinter.StringVar()
largeIconNameField = tkinter.Entry(root, textvariable=largeIconName)
smallIconName = tkinter.StringVar()
smallIconNameField = tkinter.Entry(root, textvariable=smallIconName)
applicationIDFieldText = tkinter.StringVar()
applicationIDField = tkinter.Entry(root, textvariable=applicationIDFieldText)
applicationIDField.config(borderwidth=0, background="#23272A")
largeIconHoverText = tkinter.StringVar()
largeIconHoverTextField = tkinter.Entry(root, textvariable=largeIconHoverText)
largeIconHoverTextField.config(borderwidth=0, background="#23272A")
smallIconHoverText = tkinter.StringVar()
smallIconHoverTextField = tkinter.Entry(root, textvariable=smallIconHoverText)
smallIconHoverTextField.config(borderwidth=0, background="#23272A")
#greet_button = tkinter.Button(root, text="Run", command=run)
buttonFrame = tkinter.Frame(height=2, bd=0, relief=tkinter.SUNKEN)
newProfileButton = tkinter.Button(root, text="Save to profile", command=save)
newProfileButton.config(image=newProfileImage, borderwidth=0, background="#23272A")
saveButton = tkinter.Button(root, text="Save to profile", command=save)
saveButton.config(image=saveProfileImage, borderwidth=0, background="#23272A")
loadButton = tkinter.Button(root, command=load)
loadButton.config(image=loadProfileImage, borderwidth=0, background="#23272A")
# Grid stuff
topCanvas.grid(row=0, column=1)
applicationIDField.grid(row=3, column=1)
largeIconHoverTextField.grid(row=3, column=2)
smallIconHoverTextField.grid(row=3, column=3)
newProfileButton.grid(row=5, column=1, padx=(20, 5))
saveButton.grid(row=5, column=2, padx=(5, 5))
loadButton.grid(row=5, column=3, padx=(5, 20))
root.mainloop()
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated since I cannot seem to be able to figure out how to use Tkinter's grid to make a layout similar to the images above.
Do not try to put everything into a single grid. Divide your UI up into sections, and then use the right tool for each section.
Start at the root window
I see two major sections to your UI: a top section in blue that has some information, and a bottom section with a black background that has some buttons.
So, I would start by creating those two sections in the root window, and use pack to place one on top of the other:
topFrame = tk.Frame(root, background="#7289DA")
bottomFrame = tk.Frame(root, background="#2C2F33")
topFrame.pack(side="top", fill="both", expand=True)
bottomFrame.pack(side="bottom", fill="both", expand=True)
With that, you will now always have the root divided into two colored regions. The above code gives them an equal size. You may one to change the expand value to False for one or the other, depending on what you want to happen when the user resizes the window.
Don't worry too much about the size, though. It will change once you start adding widgets to each section.
Next, do the bottom section
The bottom also appears to be in two sections: one for inputs and one for buttons. You could use a single grid layout for this whole section, but to illustrate the concept of dividing the UI into sections we'll split the bottom into two. Plus, because everything isn't neatly lined up into rows and columns, this will make things a bit easier.
As I mentioned earlier, you may want to fiddle around with the expand option, depending on if you want these frames to resize equally or stay the same size when the user resizes the window.
inputFrame = tk.Frame(bottomFrame, background="#2C2F33")
buttonFrame = tk.Frame(bottomFrame, background="#2C2F33")
inputFrame.pack(side="top", fill="both", expand=True)
buttonFrame.pack(side="top", fill="both", expand=True)
Note: if you stop right here and try to run your program, you might not see these frames. During development it sometimes helps to give them distinctive colors to help you visualize. Once you get everything working, you can adjust the colors to their final values.
Add the entry widgets
Now we can add the entry widgets to the top half of the bottom section. We can use grid here, since everything is lined up neatly. An important step is to give the rows an equal weight so that they grow and shrink together, though you can make it so that only one column resizes if you wish.
I'll also point out that there's no need to use StringVar instance. You can, but it adds extra objects to keep track of, which in most cases is not necessary.
label1 = tk.Label(inputFrame, text="APPLICATION ID",
foreground="lightgray",
background="#2C2F33")
label2 = tk.Label(inputFrame, text="LARGE IMAGE HOVER",
foreground="lightgray",
background="#2C2F33")
label3 = tk.Label(inputFrame, text="SMALL IMAGE HOVER",
foreground="lightgray",
background="#2C2F33")
# columns should get extra space equally. Give any extra vertical space
# to an empty column below the entry widgets
inputFrame.grid_columnconfigure((0,1,2), weight=1)
inputFrame.grid_rowconfigure(2, weight=1)
appIdEntry = tk.Entry(inputFrame, borderwidth=0,
highlightthickness=0,
background="#23272A", bd=0)
largeImageEntry = tk.Entry(inputFrame,
highlightthickness=0,
background="#23272A", bd=0)
smallImageEntry = tk.Entry(inputFrame, borderwidth=0,
highlightthickness=0,
background="#23272A", bd=0)
label1.grid(row=0, column=0, sticky="w")
label2.grid(row=0, column=1, sticky="w", padx=10)
label3.grid(row=0, column=2, sticky="w")
appIdEntry.grid(row=1, column=0, sticky="ew")
largeImageEntry.grid(row=1, column=1, sticky="ew", padx=10)
smallImageEntry.grid(row=1, column=2, sticky="ew")
This gives us the following:
Notice that the top appears to have shrunk. That's only because it's empty. Tkinter is really good about expanding and shrinking things to fit what's inside. Don't worry too much about it. You can tweak things once you get everything working.
And so on...
I don't want to rewrite your whole program in this answer. The point here is that you should break your UI up into logical chunks, and make each chunk a frame. You are then free to use whatever geometry manager makes the most sense within that frame. Sometimes grid is best, sometimes pack. In either case, it's much easier to manage a few high level frames than it is to try to cram dozens of widgets into a single grid, especially when there are no clear cut rows and/or columns.
This solution also makes it pretty easy to create functions or classes for each section. For example, your main program might look like:
root = tkinter.Tk()
top = topSection(root)
bottom = bottomSection(root)
By doing so, if you decide to completely redesign one section of the UI, you can do so without worrying that you'll mess up the layout in the other sections, since each frame is mostly independent of any other frame.
First you have to explain to the grid geometry manager that you want the canvas to span all three columns:
topCanvas.grid(row=0, column=1, columnspan=3)
Widgets do not automatically expand to fill the entire column (or row) if you don't specify it and it will center itself in a cell if you dont specify where you want it with sticky:
newProfileButton.grid(row=5, column=1, padx=(20, 5), sticky='w')
saveButton.grid(row=5, column=2, padx=(5, 5), sticky='w')
loadButton.grid(row=5, column=3, padx=(5, 20), sticky='w')
This will hopefully give you something to play with although it's not a complete answer.
Here is a good tutorial: Getting Tkinter Grid Sizing Right the first time
How to set/change the length/width of a ttk.Separator object in Tkinter?
ttk.Separator(self, orient='horizontal').grid(column=0,
row=0, columnspan=2, sticky='ew')
It seems that columnspan tries to do the job, but when you have multiple separators with the same columnspan, they appear to have different lengths - any idea why?
Here is a simple quick ad-hoc "dirty" test example:
import ttk
from Tkinter import *
class myTestFrame(Frame):
def __init__(self):
Frame.__init__(self)
self.master.title("My Test Frame")
self.master.minsize(350, 150)
self.grid(sticky=W+N+S+E)
firstLayer = Frame(self)
firstLayer.pack(side="top", fill="x")
secondLayer = Frame(self)
secondLayer.pack(side="top", fill="x")
thirdLayer = Frame(self)
thirdLayer.pack(side="top", fill="x")
labelText=StringVar()
labelText.set("Enter your area zip code: ")
labelDir=Label(firstLayer, textvariable=labelText, fg="black", font = "Calibri 10 bold")
labelDir.grid(row=2, column=0, sticky="W")
zipCode=IntVar(None)
entryFieldFrame=Entry(firstLayer,textvariable=zipCode,width=5)
entryFieldFrame.grid(row=2, column=1, sticky="W", padx=31)
ttk.Separator(secondLayer, orient='horizontal').grid(column=0,
row=0, columnspan=2, sticky='ew')
labelText=StringVar()
labelText.set("Enter your age: ")
labelDir=Label(secondLayer, textvariable=labelText, fg="black", font = "Calibri 10 bold")
labelDir.grid(row=2, column=0, sticky="W")
age=IntVar(None)
age.set(1.0)
entryFieldFrame=Entry(secondLayer,textvariable=age,width=5)
entryFieldFrame.grid(row=2, column=1, sticky="W", padx=83)
ttk.Separator(thirdLayer, orient='horizontal').grid(column=0,
row=0, columnspan=2, sticky='ew')
labelText=StringVar()
labelText.set("Enter your brother's age: ")
labelDir=Label(thirdLayer, textvariable=labelText, fg="black", font = "Calibri 10 bold")
labelDir.grid(row=2, column=0, sticky="W")
brothersAge=IntVar(None)
entryFieldFrame=Entry(thirdLayer,textvariable=brothersAge,width=5)
entryFieldFrame.grid(row=2, column=1, sticky="W", padx=29)
if __name__ == "__main__":
testFrame = myTestFrame()
testFrame.mainloop()
Your problem is not that the separators are too short, it's that you haven't told grid what to do with extra un-allocated space. Your columns are only exactly as wide as they need to be, and your separator is only as wide as the columns it is in. In a comment you say "I want them to go till the end of the entry fields" and that's exactly what they are doing. What you really want is for all of the entry fields to end at the same location.
The quick fix is to make sure that when you use grid, you always give at least one row and one column a non-zero weight. This tells grid where to allocate any extra space. In your case you haven't done this, so in the third row there is space that does unused to the right of the entry widget.
The quick and dirty solution here is to make sure that either column 0 or 1 gets the extra space. Usually the choice is to give it to the input widget. So, you can add this to improve the situation:
thirdLayer.grid_columnconfigure(1, weight=1)
This solves the immediate problem, but you need to do the same thing for every one of your frames, as well as for the root window. For every frame that contains children managed by grid, you need to give at least one row and one column a weight.
Since you seem to be trying to create a grid of labels and entry widgets, you might want to consider using a single frame rather than multiple frames. By using a single frame you don't have to try to guess how much padding to use to get everything to line up.
I am building a GUI for a software and want to achieve this:
######################################
# | some title #
# menu upper |----------------------#
# | #
# | CANVAS #
# menu lower | #
# | #
#------------------------------------#
# statusbar #
######################################
Menu upper has some high level functionality, menu lower is changing in dependency of user input. Statusbar changes its contents often.
Unfortunately, Tkinter refuses to work.
Using the grid layout manager I were unable to create a stable design and adding content like labels and buttons to the menu on the left side:
self.root = tk.Tk()
self.root.resizable(width=0, height=0)
self.root.title("some application")
# menu left
self.menu_left = tk.Frame(self.root, width=150, bg="#ababab")
self.menu_left.grid(row=0, column=0, rowspan=2, sticky="ns")
self.menu_left_upper = tk.Frame(self.menu_left, width=150, height=150, bg="red")
self.menu_left_upper.grid(row=0, column=0)
# this label breaks the design
#self.test = tk.Label(self.menu_left_upper, text="test")
#self.test.pack()
self.menu_left_lower = tk.Frame(self.menu_left, width=150, bg="blue")
self.menu_left_lower.grid(row=1, column=0)
# right area
self.some_title_frame = tk.Frame(self.root, bg="#dfdfdf")
self.some_title_frame.grid(row=0, column=1, sticky="we")
self.some_title = tk.Label(self.some_title_frame, text="some title", bg="#dfdfdf")
self.some_title.pack()
self.canvas_area = tk.Canvas(self.root, width=500, height=400, background="#ffffff")
self.canvas_area.grid(row=1, column=1)
self.root.mainloop()
This design worked without contents in the menu on the left side. Whenever I added something in self.menu_left_upper or self.menu_left_lower, like the test label, my design got broke: the menu frames disappeared.
Additionally, even with columnspan, I had to remove the statusbar, because when it was added the menus on the left disappeared, again.
Using pack layout manager I got this:
######################################
# | some title #
# |----------------------#
# menu upper | #
# | CANVAS #
# | #
# menu lower | #
# |----------------------#
# | statusbar #
######################################
Since I wanted the menu frame on the left to consume the full y-space I made it grow with pack(side="left", expand=True, fill="both"), but this setup always denies the statusbar to go for the full width.
Besides, the pure pack manager code looks "ugly". I think a design with a grid manager is "clearer". Therefore I thought a grid or a pack layout inside a grid layout would be nice?
Can anyone help? I am stuck in the GUI-hell :/
The key to doing layout is to be methodical, and to use the right tool
for the job. It also means that sometimes you need to be creative.
That means using grid when laying things out in a
grid, and using pack when laying things out top-to-bottom or
left-to-right.
The other key is to group your layout code together. It's much, much
easier to visualize and modify the layout when it's all in one block
of code.
In your case you seem to have three or four distinct areas, depending
on how you count. If you want to use grid, it will be easiest to
combine "menu upper" and "menu lower" into a frame, and treat that
whole frame as a table cell. It looks like you're already doing that,
which is good.
So, let's start with those main areas:
self.menu_left.grid(row=0, column=0, rowspan=2, sticky="nsew")
self.some_title_frame.grid(row=0, column=1, sticky="ew")
self.canvas_area.grid(row=1, column=1, sticky="nsew")
# you don't have a status bar in the example code, but if you
# did, this is where you would put it
# self.status_frame.grid(row=2, column=0, columnspan=2, sticky="ew")
Any time you use grid, you need to give at least one row and one
column a positive weight so that tkinter knows where to use any
unallocated space. Usually there is one widget that is the "main"
widget. In this case it's the canvas. You want to make sure that the
row and column for the canvas has a weight of 1 (one):
self.root.grid_rowconfigure(1, weight=1)
self.root.grid_columnconfigure(1, weight=1)
note: using pack instead of grid would save you two lines of code, since pack doesn't require you to set weights the way grid does.
Next, we need to solve the problem of the menu areas. By default,
frames shrink to fit their contents, which is why adding the label
broke your layout. You weren't telling tkinter what to do with extra space, so the frames shrunk to fit, and extra space went unused.
Since you want "menu_upper" and "menu_lower" to
each share 50% of that area, pack is the simplest solution. You can
use grid, but it requires more lines of code to add the row and column weights.
self.menu_left_upper.pack(side="top", fill="both", expand=True)
self.menu_left_lower.pack(side="top", fill="both", expand=True)
Here is a functioning version, with statusbar. Notice how it behaves exactly as it should when you resize the window:
import Tkinter as tk
class Example():
def __init__(self):
self.root = tk.Tk()
self.root.title("some application")
# menu left
self.menu_left = tk.Frame(self.root, width=150, bg="#ababab")
self.menu_left_upper = tk.Frame(self.menu_left, width=150, height=150, bg="red")
self.menu_left_lower = tk.Frame(self.menu_left, width=150, bg="blue")
self.test = tk.Label(self.menu_left_upper, text="test")
self.test.pack()
self.menu_left_upper.pack(side="top", fill="both", expand=True)
self.menu_left_lower.pack(side="top", fill="both", expand=True)
# right area
self.some_title_frame = tk.Frame(self.root, bg="#dfdfdf")
self.some_title = tk.Label(self.some_title_frame, text="some title", bg="#dfdfdf")
self.some_title.pack()
self.canvas_area = tk.Canvas(self.root, width=500, height=400, background="#ffffff")
self.canvas_area.grid(row=1, column=1)
# status bar
self.status_frame = tk.Frame(self.root)
self.status = tk.Label(self.status_frame, text="this is the status bar")
self.status.pack(fill="both", expand=True)
self.menu_left.grid(row=0, column=0, rowspan=2, sticky="nsew")
self.some_title_frame.grid(row=0, column=1, sticky="ew")
self.canvas_area.grid(row=1, column=1, sticky="nsew")
self.status_frame.grid(row=2, column=0, columnspan=2, sticky="ew")
self.root.grid_rowconfigure(1, weight=1)
self.root.grid_columnconfigure(1, weight=1)
self.root.mainloop()
Example()
On an unrelated note: I would strongly encourage you to not remove the ability for the user to resize the window. They know better than you what their requirements are. If you use grid and pack properly, the GUI will resize perfectly.
Adding the following code right before self.root.mainloop() achieves what you're looking for
self.some_status = tk.Label(self.root, text="status bar", bg="#dfdfdf")
self.some_status.grid(row=3, column=0, columnspan=2, sticky="we")
By putting in the line:
menu_left_upper.grid_propagate(False)
In between your menu_left_upper Frame and menu_left_upper.mainloop()
This works as:
By default, a container widget expands or collapses to be just big enough to hold its contents. Thus, when you call pack, it causes the frame to shrink. This feature is called geometry propagation.
For the vast majority of applications, this is the behavior you want. For those rare times when you want to explicitly set the size of a container you can turn this feature off. To turn it off, call either pack_propagate or grid_propagate on the container (depending on whether you're using grid or pack on that container), giving it a value of False.
See link to another question where this came from
To get your status bar just implement another frame and grid method:
status_bar_frame = Frame(root, bg="#dfdfdf")
status_bar_frame.grid(row=3, column=0, columnspan=2, sticky="we")
status_bar = Label(status_bar_frame, text="status bar", bg="#dfdfdf")
status_bar.pack()
Then your plan works.
Hope it helps :)
PS. Also why all the self attributes?
EDIT:
TO work you need to do:
menu_left_upper = Frame(menu_left, width=225, height=225, bg="red")
menu_left_upper.grid_propagate(False)
menu_left_upper.grid(row=0, column=0)
# this label breaks the design
test = Label(menu_left_upper, text="test", bg='red')
test.grid()
My result
I wrote a code which uses Tkinter I just cant arrange the places of the Labels and Entry boxes can someone help me with it. My code is down below and it's print out is Figure1. I want it to seem like Figure2.
import Tkinter
main_window = Tkinter.Tk()
main_window.geometry("320x400")
main_window.title("Address")
label = Tkinter.Label(main_window,text ="Name:")
label.pack()
nameentry = Tkinter.Entry(main_window)
nameentry.pack()
label2 = Tkinter.Label(main_window, text= "Address:")
label2.pack()
addressentry = Tkinter.Entry(main_window)
addressentry.pack()
label3 = Tkinter.Label(main_window, text = "Phone Number:")
label3.pack()
numberentry = Tkinter.Entry(main_window)
numberentry.pack()
main_window.mainloop()
Figure1
Figure2
You clearly want things laid out in a grid, so grid is a better choice than pack.
Your layout has three rows and two columns. Labels go in column 0 (zero), and you want them anchored to the top-right (north-east, represented as "ne"). The input fields go in the second column column 1 (one).
It looks something like this (extra space added for clarity, it's not required):
label.grid( row=0, column=0, sticky="ne")
label2.grid(row=1, column=0, sticky="ne")
label3.grid(row=2, column=0, sticky="ne")
nameentry.grid( row=0, column=1, sticky="nsew")
addressentry.grid(row=1, column=1, sticky="nsew")
numberentry.grid( row=2, column=1, sticky="nsew")
One final step is to tell tkinter what to do with any extra space it has. In your case you probably want the label column to be as small as possible, and the input fields to be as big as possible. Also, the address appears to be multiline (though you're using an Entry widget which only accepts a single line).
To accomplish that we want to give the middle row and the right column a positive weight, which tkinter uses to know how to allocate extra space:
main_window.grid_rowconfigure(1, weight=1)
main_window.grid_columnconfigure(1, weight=1)
I'm trying to create two Label widgets that are in the top left and top right corners of my test UI. The problem is that the widgets are stuck together and I'd like there to be space between them.
In my research, I came across suggestions to use the sticky, padx, and pady options. But no matter what arguments I pass to .grid() , I can't seem to be able to create space between my widgets. I understand that regardless of the number of columns and rows between two widgets, if said rows/columns are empty, then its as if they didn't exist and the widgets appear glued together.
Using the .grid() method, how can I position widgets so that they aren't stuck together?
Here is my code so far:
#!/usr/bin/python
from Tkinter import *
class MyApp:
def __init__(self, parent):
self.myParent = parent
self.main_container = Frame(parent)
self.main_container.grid(row=0, rowspan=2, column=0, columnspan=4)
self.top_frame = Frame(self.main_container)
self.top_frame.grid(row=0, column=0, columnspan=4)
self.top_left = Frame(self.top_frame)
self.top_left.grid(row=0, column=0, columnspan=2)
self.top_right = Frame(self.top_frame)
self.top_right.grid(row=0, column=2, columnspan=2)
self.bottom_frame = Frame(self.main_container)
self.bottom_frame.grid(row=2, column=0, columnspan=4)
self.top_left_label = Label(self.top_left, text="Top Left")
self.top_left_label.grid(row=0, column=0, sticky='W', padx=2, pady=2)
self.top_right_label = Label(self.top_right, text="Top Right")
self.top_right_label.grid(row=0, column=4, sticky='E', padx=2, pady=2)
self.text_box = Text(self.bottom_frame, height=5, width=40)
self.text_box.grid(row=0, column=0)
root = Tk()
root.title("Test UI")
myapp = MyApp(root)
root.mainloop()
~~Update~~
I tried the following but it did not work:
self.top_left = Frame(self.top_frame)
self.top_left.grid(row=0, column=0, columnspan=2)
for c in range(2):
self.top_left.columnconfigure(c, weight=2)
self.top_right = Frame(self.top_frame)
self.top_right.grid(row=0, column=2, columnspan=2)
for c in range(2):
self.top_right.columnconfigure(c, weight=2)
You need to use grid_columnconfigure to give the columns in the middle some weight. With more weight than the other columns, they will expand and contract to fill any extra space you have. However, in your case there's really no need to use grid. Everything in your GUI is aligned along particular sides for which pack is a more natural fit.
I'll show how to use both pack and grid, starting with pack since it's the easiest. Even if you insist on using grid, read through the next section to understand how to break one big layout problem into many smaller layout problems.
Divide and conquer
The best way to do layout in Tkinter is "divide and conquer". Start with the outermost widgets and get them exactly the way you want. Then, tackle each of these one at a time.
In your case you have one outermost widget - the main container. Since it is the only widget in the window, pack is the simplest way to get it to fill the whole container. You can use grid as well, but it requires a little extra work:
self.main_container = Frame(parent. background="bisque")
self.main_container.pack(side="top", fill="both", expand=True)
It helps to temporarily give your frames distinctive colors so you can visualize them as you develop. Add just the above code to your __init__, run your app, then resize the window to see that the main frame properly grows and shrinks.
Next, you have two frames -- top_frame and bottom_frame. By their names and judging by how you've attempted to use grid, I assume they should fill the GUI in the x direction. Also, I'm guessing the top frame is some sort of toolbar, and the bottom frame is the real "main" part of your GUI. Thus, let's make the bottom widget take up all the extra space.
Since these are stacked on top of each other, pack is again the natural choice. Add the following code -- and only the following code -- to make sure these areas occupy the parts of the window that you expect, and that they have the proper resize behavior.
self.top_frame = Frame(self.main_container, background="green")
self.bottom_frame = Frame(self.main_container, background="yellow")
self.top_frame.pack(side="top", fill="x", expand=False)
self.bottom_frame.pack(side="bottom", fill="both", expand=True)
Next comes the frames for the labels. Again, these occupy space along the edges of their container so pack makes the most sense. And again, add just the following bit of code, run your program, and make sure things are still resizing properly and filling the right parts of the window:
self.top_left = Frame(self.top_frame, background="pink")
self.top_right = Frame(self.top_frame, background="blue")
self.top_left.pack(side="left", fill="x", expand=True)
self.top_right.pack(side="right", fill="x", expand=True)
Next, you have your "corner" labels. Again, since the container is but a single row of widgets, pack makes it easy. Since you want the labels in the corners, we'll set the sticky attribute a little different for each:
self.top_left_label = Label(self.top_left, text="Top Left")
self.top_right_label = Label(self.top_right, text="Top Right")
self.top_left_label.pack(side="left")
self.top_right_label.pack(side="right")
Finally, you have the text widget. It fills the entire bottom frame, so once again pack is our friend:
self.text_box = Text(self.bottom_frame, height=5, width=40, background="gray")
self.text_box.pack(side="top", fill="both", expand=True)
pack or grid?
You used grid for your original code and asked how to fix it. Why did I use pack for my examples?
When you use pack, all of the configuration options can be wrapped up in a single call. With grid along with putting the widgets in their containers you must also take care to give your various columns and rows "weight" so that they resize properly. When you are simply stacking widgets on top of each other or aligning them in a row, pack is much easier to use.
In my GUIs, I almost always use a combination of grid and pack. They are both powerful, and excel at different things. The only thing to remember -- and this is crucial -- is that you can't use them in the same parent. Using your code as an example, you can't use pack for the top_left frame and grid for the top_right frame, since they both share the same parent. You can, however, mix them within the same application.
Once more, using grid
Ok, so maybe you really want to use grid: maybe this is a school assignment, or maybe you just want to focus on one geometry manager at a time. That's cool. Here's how I would do it. Again, you must divide and conquer:
Start with the main frame. Replace the one statement where we pack the main container with the following lines. Notice that we have to configure the rows and columns on the parent, not the frame that we created.
self.main_container.grid(row=0, column=0, sticky="nsew")
self.myParent.grid_rowconfigure(0, weight=1)
self.myParent.grid_columnconfigure(0, weight=1)
Ok, now for the top and bottom frames. Remove the pack, and add the following lines. You still only have a single column, but this time there are a couple of rows. Notice which row gets a weight of 1:
self.top_frame.grid(row=0, column=0, sticky="ew")
self.bottom_frame.grid(row=1, column=0,sticky="nsew")
self.main_container.grid_rowconfigure(1, weight=1)
self.main_container.grid_columnconfigure(0, weight=1)
The corner frames -- at last, a container with more than one column! Let's create a third column in the middle to take up all the slack. Replace the pack statements with the following, paying close attention to what is given "weight":
self.top_left.grid(row=0, column=0, sticky="w")
self.top_right.grid(row=0, column=2, sticky="e")
self.top_frame.grid_columnconfigure(1, weight=1)
Next, the labels in their frames. Since we don't need them to expand, we can keep the default weight of zero. You may think it odd that both labels are in column zero. Remember that they are in different parents, and they are the only widgets in their parents so there's only one column in each:
self.top_left_label.grid(row=0, column=0, sticky="w")
self.top_right_label.grid(row=0, column=0, sticky="e")
Finally we have the text widget which is the only widget in the bottom frame. Replace the final pack statements with the following:
self.text_box.grid(row=0, column=0, sticky="nsew")
self.bottom_frame.grid_rowconfigure(0, weight=1)
self.bottom_frame.grid_columnconfigure(0, weight=1)
Conclusion
Laying out widgets is easy, but you have to be systematic about it. Think about what you are doing, organize your widgets into groups, and then tackle the groups one at a time. When you do that, it should become apparent which geometry manager you should use.
As you can see, grid requires a few more lines of code but it's the right choice when you really do have a grid. In your case you had already sub-divided your GUI into sections, and so even though the end result was a grid, each section was either packed on top or below another, or to the left or right edges. In these cases, pack is a bit easier to use since you don't have to worry about row and column weights.
If you add bg = "red" to both top_left and top_right constructors, you will see how the Frames are stuck on the centre, even using the sticky option. If they are not going to contain anything else than a single widget, I recommend not to use them.
#!/usr/bin/python
from Tkinter import *
class MyApp:
def __init__(self, parent):
self.top_left_label = Label(parent, text="Top Left")
self.top_left_label.grid(row=0, column=0, padx=2, pady=2, sticky=N+S+W)
self.top_right_label = Label(parent, text="Top Right")
self.top_right_label.grid(row=0, column=1, padx=2, pady=2, sticky=N+S+E)
self.text_box = Text(parent, height=5, width=40)
self.text_box.grid(row=1, column=0, columnspan=2)
root = Tk()
root.title("Test UI")
myapp = MyApp(root)
root.mainloop()
Here is an easy way to do it:
First design your gui on paper or using any tool that works for you
Use grid layout manager
Wherever you want to create empty space, use columnspan or rowspan
property of layout, in combination of sticky property
columnspan or rowspan let you assign more than one cell of the grid to a gui component, and sticky property let you force that element to stick to one side(s) and leave empty space on the other side(s)
Better late than never ;)
Tkinter's "grid" wants to put everything together. Thats why you are not able to skip cells. You have to specify the widths and then anchor the text. I added color to help show cells. I put the bd in the frame. Then I had to give width to the cells left and right so grid would give weight to them. Then anchor text West or East. Im not sure why I had to add extra 2 spaces for each cell but I figured it was a font issue.
I believe Rodas is cleaner and simpler but I tried to stay within the parameters you asking about.
Pack is easier and faster for small stuff.
from tkinter import *
class MyApp:
def __init__(self, parent):
self.myParent = parent
self.main_container = Frame(parent, bg="green")
self.main_container.grid()
self.top_frame = Frame(self.main_container)
self.top_frame.grid()
self.top_left = Frame(self.top_frame, bd=2)
self.top_left.grid(row=0, column=0)
self.top_right = Frame(self.top_frame, bd=2)
self.top_right.grid(row=0, column=2)
self.top_left_label = Label(self.top_left, bd=2, bg="red", text="Top Left", width=22, anchor=W)
self.top_left_label.grid(row=0, column=0)
self.top_right_label = Label(self.top_right, bd=2, bg="blue", text="Top Right", width=22, anchor=E)
self.top_right_label.grid(row=0, column=0)
self.bottom_frame = Frame(self.main_container, bd=2)
self.bottom_frame.grid(row=2, column=0)
self.text_box = Text(self.bottom_frame, width=40, height=5)
self.text_box.grid(row=0, column=0)
root = Tk()
root.title("Test UI")
myapp = MyApp(root)
root.mainloop()
If you need to have full control on the placement of your gui component, try place layout; a highly manageable approach is to organize your components in several frame, each with grid or pack layout, and then organizing all those frames using place layout.