Widgets in Ruby GTK

Widgets

In this part of the Ruby GTK programming tutorial, we will introduce some widgets.
Widgets are basic building blocks of a GUI application. Over the years, several widgets became a standard in all toolkits on all OS platforms. For example a button, a check box or a scroll bar. The GTK toolkit's philosophy is to keep the number of widgets at a minimum level. More specialized widgets are created as custom GTK widgets.

CheckButton

CheckButton is a widget, that has two states. On and Off. The On state is visualised by a check mark. It is used to denote some boolean property.

#!/usr/bin/ruby

# ZetCode Ruby GTK tutorial
#
# This program toggles the title of the
# window with the CheckButton widget
#
# author: jan bodnar
# website: www.zetcode.com
# last modified: April 2009

require 'gtk2'

class RubyApp < Gtk::Window
    def initialize
        super
    
        set_title "CheckButton"
        signal_connect "destroy" do 
            Gtk.main_quit 
        end
        
        init_ui

        set_default_size 250, 200
        set_window_position Gtk::Window::POS_CENTER
        show_all
    end
    
    
    def init_ui
    
        fixed = Gtk::Fixed.new
        add fixed
        
        cb = Gtk::CheckButton.new "Show title"
        cb.set_active true
        cb.set_can_focus false
        cb.signal_connect("clicked") do |w|
            on_clicked(w)
        end

        fixed.put cb, 50, 50    
    
    end
    
    def on_clicked sender

        if sender.active?
            self.set_title "Check Button"
        else
           self.set_title ""
        end
    end
end

Gtk.init
    window = RubyApp.new
Gtk.main

We will display a title in the titlebar of the window, depending on the state of the CheckButton.

cb = Gtk::CheckButton.new "Show title"

CheckButton widget is created.

cb.set_active true

The title is visible by default, so we check the check button by default.

if sender.active?
    self.set_title "Check Button"
else
    self.set_title ""
end

We show the title, if the button is checked.

Figure: CheckButton

Label

The Label widget shows text.

#!/usr/bin/ruby

# ZetCode Ruby GTK tutorial
#
# This example demonstrates the Label widget
#
# author: jan bodnar
# website: www.zetcode.com
# last modified: June 2009

require 'gtk2'

$lyrics = %{Meet you downstairs in the bar and heard
your rolled up sleeves and your skull t-shirt
You say why did you do it with him today?
and sniff me out like I was Tanqueray

cause you're my fella, my guy
hand me your stella and fly
by the time I'm out the door
you tear men down like Roger Moore

I cheated myself
like I knew I would
I told ya, I was trouble
you know that I'm no good}


class RubyApp < Gtk::Window

    def initialize
        super
    
        set_title  "You know I'm no Good"
        signal_connect "destroy" do 
            Gtk.main_quit 
        end
        
        init_ui

        set_default_size 250, 200
        set_window_position Gtk::Window::POS_CENTER
        
        show_all
    end
    
    def init_ui
    
        set_border_width 10
        label = Gtk::Label.new $lyrics
        add label    
    
    end
end

Gtk.init
    window = RubyApp.new
Gtk.main

The code example shows some lyrics on the window.

 $lyrics = %{Meet you downstairs in the bar and heard
 your rolled up sleeves and your skull t-shirt
 ...

We create a multi line text.

set_border_width 10

The Label is surrounded by some empty space.

label = Gtk::Label.new $lyrics
add label 

The Label widget is created and added to the window.

Figure: Label Widget

Entry

The Entry is a single line text entry field. This widget is used to enter textual data.

#!/usr/bin/ruby

# ZetCode Ruby GTK tutorial
#
# This example demonstrates the Entry widget
#
# author: jan bodnar
# website: www.zetcode.com
# last modified: June 2009

require 'gtk2'


class RubyApp < Gtk::Window

    def initialize
        super
    
        set_title "Entry"
        signal_connect "destroy" do 
            Gtk.main_quit 
        end
        
        init_ui

        set_default_size 250, 200
        set_window_position Gtk::Window::POS_CENTER
        
        show_all
    end
    
    def init_ui
    
        fixed = Gtk::Fixed.new

        label = Gtk::Label.new "..."
        fixed.put label, 60, 40

        entry = Gtk::Entry.new
        fixed.put entry, 60, 100

        entry.signal_connect "key-release-event" do |w, e|
            on_key_release(w, e, label)
        end

        add(fixed)
    end  
    
    def on_key_release sender, event, label
        label.set_text sender.text
    end
end

Gtk.init
    window = RubyApp.new
Gtk.main

This example shows an entry widget and a label. The text that we key in the entry is displayed immediately in the label widget.

entry = Gtk::Entry.new

Entry widget is created.

entry.signal_connect "key-release-event" do |w, e|
    on_key_release(w, e, label)
end

We plug the on_key_release method to the key-release-event of the Entry widget.

def on_key_release sender, event, label
    label.set_text sender.text
end

We get the text from the Entry widget and set it to the label.

Figure: Entry Widget

Image

The Image widget shows an image.

#!/usr/bin/ruby

# ZetCode Ruby GTK tutorial
#
# This example demonstrates the Image widget
#
# author: jan bodnar
# website: www.zetcode.com
# last modified: June 2009

require 'gtk2'


class RubyApp < Gtk::Window

    def initialize
        super
    
        set_title "Red Rock"
        signal_connect "destroy" do 
            Gtk.main_quit 
        end
        
        init_ui

        set_default_size 250, 200
        set_window_position Gtk::Window::POS_CENTER
        
        show_all
    end
    
    def init_ui
    
        set_border_width 2
        
        begin
            image = Gtk::Image.new "redrock.png"
        rescue
            puts "cannot load image"
            exit
        end
        
        add image
    end
    
end

Gtk.init
    window = RubyApp.new
Gtk.main

In our example, we show an image on the window.

set_border_width 2

We put some empty border around the image.

begin
    image = Gtk::Image.new "redrock.png"
rescue
    puts "cannot load image"
    exit
end

The Image widget is created. IO operations are error prone, so we handle the possible exceptions.

add image

Widget is added to the container.

Figure: Image widget

ComboBox

ComboBox is a widget that allows the user to choose from a list of options.

#!/usr/bin/ruby

# ZetCode Ruby GTK tutorial
#
# This example demonstrates the ComboBox widget
#
# author: jan bodnar
# website: www.zetcode.com
# last modified: June 2009

require 'gtk2'


class RubyApp < Gtk::Window

    def initialize
        super
    
        set_title "ComboBox"
        signal_connect "destroy" do 
            Gtk.main_quit 
        end
        
        init_ui

        set_default_size 250, 200
        set_window_position Gtk::Window::POS_CENTER
        
        show_all
    end
    
    def init_ui

        fixed = Gtk::Fixed.new
        label = Gtk::Label.new '-'
        fixed.put label, 50, 140

        cb = Gtk::ComboBox.new
        cb.signal_connect "changed" do |w, e|
            on_changed(w, e, label)
        end

        cb.append_text 'Ubuntu'
        cb.append_text 'Mandriva'
        cb.append_text 'Redhat'
        cb.append_text 'Gento'
        cb.append_text 'Mint' 

        fixed.put cb, 50, 30

        add fixed

    end

    def on_changed sender, event, label
        label.set_label sender.active_text
    end
end

Gtk.init
    window = RubyApp.new
Gtk.main

The example shows a combo box and a label. The combo box has a list of five options. These are the names of Linux Distros. The label widget shows the selected option from the combo box.

cb = Gtk::ComboBox.new

The ComboBox widget is created.

cb.append_text 'Ubuntu'
cb.append_text 'Mandriva'
cb.append_text 'Redhat'
cb.append_text 'Gento'
cb.append_text 'Mint' 

It is filled with data.

def on_changed sender, event, label
    label.set_label sender.active_text
end

Inside the on_changed method, we get the selected text out of the combo box and set it to the label.

Figure: ComboBox

In this chapter of the Ruby GTK tutorial, we showed some basic widgets.