Category: GTK+

Porting widgets to the new template API… the LAZY way!

First of all I want to thanks everyone involved in GUADEC organization specially to the GNOME foundation for sponsoring me once again.

It is been great meeting with old friends and making new ones!

So after Tristan’s talk UI developer experience with Glade/GtkBuilder where he talked about the new template API some good friend of us, lets see if you can guess who, came and ask:

friend: How do I port my widgets to the new templates stuff?
friend: I do not want to redo all of them in glade
me: What kind of widgets?
friend: “A grid with some s#it in it!”
me: hmmm…
 

So we talked about it and told him if that he was that lazy not to redo all widgets in glade manually he could do some function that iterate over containers and spit some xml to get at least the hierarchy right.

As we all know the lazier a programmer is the better, since it will end up writing a program to do its chores!

Anyways I did!

I made a function you can paste in your program and use it together with libgladeui api to dump a runtime GtkWidget to an xml definition.

#include <gladeui/glade.h>

/* Create a Glade project */
GladeProject *project = glade_project_new ();

/* add as many widgets as you want in the project */
glade_project_add_widget_from_object (project, widget, NULL);

/* And then save it to a file */
glade_project_save (project, "myclass.ui", NULL);

And that is all you have to do if the widget is simple enough.
You will have to mark internal children manually since there is no easy way to introspect them, say for example you want to dump a GtkDialog derived widget…

#include <gladeui/glade.h>

/* Create a Glade project */
GladeProject *project = glade_project_new ();

/* We need to mark every internal children manually */
INTERNAL_CHILD (gtk_dialog_get_action_area (GTK_DIALOG (widget)),
                "action_area");
INTERNAL_CHILD (gtk_dialog_get_content_area (GTK_DIALOG (widget)),
                "vbox");

/* add as many widgets as you want in the project */
glade_project_add_widget_from_object (project, widget, NULL);

/* And then save it to a file */
glade_project_save (project, "myclass.ui", NULL);

Here is the cut&paste code glade_dump.c

This is obviously hacky code, it was not heavily tested and will probably make gladeui and gtk API complain a lot but it works pretty well for what is intended.

BTW you have to link with gladeui-2.0 library for this code to work!

I think that is all, happy porting!

Sponsored by GNOME Foundation

GtkBuilder and external objects

What if you want to reference an object you created from a GtkBuilder script? or even more add children to a container created outside the scope of GtkBuilder?

You can not!

But do not worry, a simple API like the following will allow us to reference any external object from builder.

void gtk_builder_expose_object (GtkBuilder *builder,
                                const gchar *name,
                                GObject *object);

Now consider a GtkBuilder script like this…

<interface>
  <object class="GtkButton" id="button">
    <property name="image" external-object="True">image</property>
    <signal name="clicked" handler="on_button_clicked"
     object="builder" external-object="yes"/>
  </object>
</interface>

All you have to do is tell builder which objects are external setting the “external-object” parameter then is as simple as calling gtk_builder_expose_object() to actually expose it.
Please note that the external-object parameter is needed to avoid naming space conflicts.

GtkWidget *image = gtk_image_new ();
GtkBuilder *builder = gtk_builder_new ();
gtk_builder_expose_object (builder, "image", G_OBJECT (image));
gtk_builder_expose_object (builder, "builder", G_OBJECT (builder));
gtk_builder_add_from_string (builder, buffer, -1, &error);

Ok but what about adding children to an existing container ?¿

The first idea was to use a fragment of builder xml format (basically the &ltchild&gt tag) and a new API gtk_builder_add_to_parent_*() but then I realize that would prevent us from setting properties on the external object and also it will not allow us to define anarchist objects that is objects outside the container hierarchy like for example a GtkAction.

So instead, I decided to add a new element: <template>

This new element is similar to <object> with the only difference it will be used as an entry point for the external object referenced by the template id.
Now with a template defined by this xml you can add children and set properties on an external object called “mybox”

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<interface>
  <!-- interface-requires gtk+ 3.0 -->
  <template class="GtkBox" id="mybox">
    <property name="visible">True</property>
    <property name="can_focus">False</property>
    <child>
      <object id="entry">
        <property name="visible">True</property>
        <property name="can_focus">True</property>
      </object>
      <packing>
        <property name="expand">False</property>
        <property name="fill">True</property>
        <property name="position">0</property>
      </packing>
    </child>
    <child>
      <object id="button">
        <property name="label">gtk-apply</property>
        <property name="visible">True</property>
        <property name="can_focus">True</property>
        <property name="receives_default">True</property>
        <property name="use_stock">True</property>
      </object>
      <packing>
        <property name="expand">False</property>
        <property name="fill">True</property>
        <property name="position">1</property>
      </packing>
    </child>
  </template>
</interface>

by simply using gtk_builder_add_from_string() in conjunction with gtk_builder_expose_object() like this:

builder = gtk_builder_new ();
mybox = gtk_box_new (GTK_ORIENTATION_HORIZONTAL, 0);
g_object_ref_sink (mybox);
gtk_builder_expose_object (builder, "mybox", G_OBJECT (mybox));
gtk_builder_add_from_string (builder, buffer, -1, &error);

Pretty simple is not it?

Patch available @ Bugzilla #688205 or if you prefer git this is the branch I been working on

git checkout -b composite-templates origin/composite-templates

Embeding GtkBuilder UI definitions into GObject classes!

Wait, what?

Back in the day Glade used to generate code which was messy if was not handled properly, eventually everyone agreed it was better to use libglade instead and load the UI interface from a xml file, something that got consolidated with the advent of GtkBuilder in GTK+

So if it’s better for applications, shouldn’t be the same for classes?

I believe so, this is why I am continuing the work that Tristan started in composite-widget-templates GTK+ branch  in my own branch named composite-template.

The idea is pretty simple,  instead of hand coding composite children in _init(), like most widget classes do or in _constructor() where they should all we need to do is set a template in _class_init() as follow

gtk_container_class_set_template (container_class,
                                  "foobar.ui",
                                  GTK_CONTAINER_TEMPLATE_FILE);

and voilà! GtkContainer class will build your children from that template using GtkBuilder at construction time. If you need to expose an internal child then all you have to do is declare it as follow

gtk_container_class_set_template (container_class,
                                  "foobar.ui",
                                  GTK_CONTAINER_TEMPLATE_FILE);
gtk_container_class_declare_internal_child
    (container_class, TRUE,
     G_STRUCT_OFFSET (FooBarPrivate, vbox),
     "vbox");

And if you do not like the idea of depending on a file, like I do, for your widget class to work you can use a string or even better a GResource.

but Juan, what about performance?

Obviously there is some extra overhead in the parsing but is not going to be significant in a medium/big size project that already uses GtkBuilder for it’s main interface. That being said if we want to optimize things the easy way would be to use EXI (Efficient XML Interchange) format which is basically a XML binary format, it would save use some memory space and the need to actually parse the UI definition. The hard way  would be to rethink GtkBuilder internal data model and transform it into a binary format that can be saved persistently. Implementing either of these approaches at the GMarkup level would not only be helpful for composite classes but more importantly for applications with big UI files.

Really wait, Say that again!

Ok, I should probably had started with an example, lets say you have a login dialog like this

With the following C source: foo-login-dialog.h foo-login-dialog.c

This code show the differences implementing a composite object the regular way and using templates. Note that USE_TEMPLATE macro is used to choose either implementation at compile time.

#include "foo-login-dialog.h"
 
struct _FooLoginDialogPrivate
{
  GtkWidget *username_entry;
  GtkWidget *password_entry;
};
 
enum
{
  LOGIN,
 
  LAST_SIGNAL
};
 
static guint login_dialog_signals[LAST_SIGNAL] = { 0 };
 
G_DEFINE_TYPE (FooLoginDialog, foo_login_dialog, GTK_TYPE_DIALOG);
 
void
on_dialog_response (FooLoginDialog *dialog, gint response_id)
{
  FooLoginDialogPrivate *priv = dialog->priv;
  const gchar *username, *password;
 
  if (response_id != GTK_RESPONSE_OK) return;
 
  username = gtk_entry_get_text (GTK_ENTRY (priv->username_entry));
  password = gtk_entry_get_text (GTK_ENTRY (priv->password_entry));
 
  g_signal_emit (dialog, login_dialog_signals[LOGIN], 0,
                 username, password);
}
 
static void
foo_login_dialog_init (FooLoginDialog *dialog)
{
  FooLoginDialogPrivate *priv;
 
  priv = G_TYPE_INSTANCE_GET_PRIVATE (dialog,
                                      FOO_TYPE_LOGIN_DIALOG,
                                      FooLoginDialogPrivate);
  dialog->priv = priv;
 
#ifndef USE_TEMPLATE
  GtkWidget *content_area;
  GtkWidget *action_area;
  GtkWidget *grid;
  GtkWidget *label;
  GtkWidget *button;
 
  content_area = gtk_dialog_get_content_area (GTK_DIALOG (dialog));
  action_area = gtk_dialog_get_action_area (GTK_DIALOG (dialog));
 
  grid = gtk_grid_new ();
  g_object_set (grid, "margin", 6, NULL);
  gtk_grid_set_column_spacing (GTK_GRID (grid), 6);
  gtk_grid_set_row_spacing (GTK_GRID (grid), 4);
  gtk_box_pack_start (GTK_BOX (content_area), grid, TRUE, TRUE, 0);
 
  label = gtk_label_new ("User name:");
  gtk_widget_set_halign (label, GTK_ALIGN_END);
  gtk_grid_attach (GTK_GRID (grid), label, 0, 0, 1, 1);
  priv->username_entry = gtk_entry_new ();
  gtk_widget_set_hexpand (priv->username_entry, TRUE);
  gtk_grid_attach (GTK_GRID (grid), priv->username_entry,
                   1, 0, 1, 1);
 
  label = gtk_label_new ("Password:");
  gtk_widget_set_halign (label, GTK_ALIGN_END);
  gtk_grid_attach (GTK_GRID (grid), label, 0, 1, 1, 1);
  priv->password_entry = gtk_entry_new ();
  gtk_widget_set_hexpand (priv->password_entry, TRUE);
  gtk_entry_set_visibility (GTK_ENTRY (priv->password_entry),
                            FALSE);
  gtk_entry_set_activates_default (GTK_ENTRY (priv->password_entry),
                                   TRUE);
  gtk_grid_attach (GTK_GRID (grid), priv->password_entry,
                   1, 1, 1, 1);
 
  button = gtk_button_new_from_stock ("gtk-cancel");
  gtk_dialog_add_action_widget (GTK_DIALOG (dialog), button,
                                GTK_RESPONSE_CANCEL);
 
  button = gtk_button_new_from_stock ("gtk-ok");
  gtk_widget_set_can_default (button, TRUE);
  gtk_dialog_add_action_widget (GTK_DIALOG (dialog), button,
                                GTK_RESPONSE_OK);
  gtk_widget_grab_default (button);
 
  g_signal_connect_swapped (priv->username_entry, "activate",
                            G_CALLBACK (gtk_widget_grab_focus),
                            priv->password_entry);
 
  gtk_window_set_resizable (GTK_WINDOW (dialog), FALSE);
  g_signal_connect (dialog, "response",
                    G_CALLBACK (on_dialog_response),
                    NULL);
#endif
}
 
static void
foo_login_dialog_finalize (GObject *object)
{
  G_OBJECT_CLASS (foo_login_dialog_parent_class)->finalize (object);
}
 
static void
foo_login_dialog_login (FooLoginDialog *self,
                        const gchar *username,
                        const gchar *password)
{
  g_message ("%s user: [%s] password: [%s]",
             __func__, username, password);
}
 
static void
foo_login_dialog_class_init (FooLoginDialogClass *klass)
{
  GObjectClass *object_class = G_OBJECT_CLASS (klass);
  GtkDialogClass *parent_class = GTK_DIALOG_CLASS (klass);
 
  g_type_class_add_private (klass, sizeof (FooLoginDialogPrivate));
 
  object_class->finalize = foo_login_dialog_finalize;
 
  klass->login = foo_login_dialog_login;
 
  login_dialog_signals[LOGIN] =
    g_signal_new ("login",
                  G_OBJECT_CLASS_TYPE (klass),
                  G_SIGNAL_RUN_LAST,
                  G_STRUCT_OFFSET (FooLoginDialogClass, login),
                  NULL, NULL,
                  NULL,
                  G_TYPE_NONE, 2,
                  G_TYPE_STRING, G_TYPE_STRING);
 
#ifdef USE_TEMPLATE
  gtk_container_class_set_template (GTK_CONTAINER_CLASS (klass),
                                    "foologindialog.ui",
                                    GTK_CONTAINER_TEMPLATE_FILE);
  gtk_container_class_declare_internal_child
    (GTK_CONTAINER_CLASS (klass), TRUE,
     G_STRUCT_OFFSET (FooLoginDialogPrivate, username_entry),
     "username_entry");
  gtk_container_class_declare_internal_child
    (GTK_CONTAINER_CLASS (klass), TRUE,
     G_STRUCT_OFFSET (FooLoginDialogPrivate, password_entry),
     "password_entry");
#endif  
}
 
GtkDialog *
foo_login_dialog_new ()
{
  return g_object_new (FOO_TYPE_LOGIN_DIALOG, NULL);
}

main.c: a simple program using such class, this is included in foo-login-dialog.c for convenience

#include <gtk/gtk.h>
#include "foo-login-dialog.h"
 
int main (int argc, char **argv)
{
  GtkDialog *dialog;
 
  gtk_init (&argc, &argv);
 
  dialog = foo_login_dialog_new ();
  gtk_widget_show_all (GTK_WIDGET (dialog));
 
  gtk_dialog_run (dialog);
}

You can compile it with a line like this

gcc -export-dynamic -o foo-login-dialog main.c foo-login-dialog.c \
 `pkg-config --libs --cflags gtk+-3.0` -DUSE_TEMPLATE

GtkBuilder template “foologindialog.ui”

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<interface>
  <!-- interface-requires gtk+ 3.0 -->
  <template class="FooLoginDialog" parent="GtkDialog" id="this">
    <property name="can_focus">False</property>
    <property name="border_width">5</property>
    <property name="type_hint">dialog</property>
    <signal name="response" handler="on_dialog_response" swapped="no"/>
    <child internal-child="vbox">
      <object id="dialog-vbox1">
        <property name="can_focus">False</property>
        <property name="orientation">vertical</property>
        <property name="spacing">2</property>
        <child internal-child="action_area">
          <object id="dialog-action_area1">
            <property name="can_focus">False</property>
            <property name="layout_style">end</property>
            <child>
              <object id="button1">
                <property name="label">gtk-cancel</property>
                <property name="use_action_appearance">False</property>
                <property name="visible">True</property>
                <property name="can_focus">True</property>
                <property name="receives_default">True</property>
                <property name="use_action_appearance">False</property>
                <property name="use_stock">True</property>
              </object>
              <packing>
                <property name="expand">False</property>
                <property name="fill">True</property>
                <property name="position">0</property>
              </packing>
            </child>
            <child>
              <object id="button2">
                <property name="label">gtk-ok</property>
                <property name="use_action_appearance">False</property>
                <property name="visible">True</property>
                <property name="can_focus">True</property>
                <property name="can_default">True</property>
                <property name="has_default">True</property>
                <property name="receives_default">True</property>
                <property name="use_action_appearance">False</property>
                <property name="use_stock">True</property>
              </object>
              <packing>
                <property name="expand">False</property>
                <property name="fill">True</property>
                <property name="position">1</property>
              </packing>
            </child>
          </object>
          <packing>
            <property name="expand">False</property>
            <property name="fill">True</property>
            <property name="pack_type">end</property>
            <property name="position">0</property>
          </packing>
        </child>
        <child>
          <object id="grid1">
            <property name="visible">True</property>
            <property name="can_focus">False</property>
            <property name="row_spacing">4</property>
            <property name="column_spacing">6</property>
            <child>
              <object id="label1">
                <property name="visible">True</property>
                <property name="can_focus">False</property>
                <property name="halign">end</property>
                <property name="label" translatable="yes">User name:</property>
              </object>
              <packing>
                <property name="left_attach">0</property>
                <property name="top_attach">0</property>
                <property name="width">1</property>
                <property name="height">1</property>
              </packing>
            </child>
            <child>
              <object id="label2">
                <property name="visible">True</property>
                <property name="can_focus">False</property>
                <property name="halign">end</property>
                <property name="label" translatable="yes">Password:</property>
              </object>
              <packing>
                <property name="left_attach">0</property>
                <property name="top_attach">1</property>
                <property name="width">1</property>
                <property name="height">1</property>
              </packing>
            </child>
            <child>
              <object id="username_entry">
                <property name="visible">True</property>
                <property name="can_focus">True</property>
                <property name="hexpand">True</property>
                <property name="invisible_char">●</property>
                <signal name="activate" handler="gtk_widget_grab_focus" object="password_entry" swapped="yes"/>
              </object>
              <packing>
                <property name="left_attach">1</property>
                <property name="top_attach">0</property>
                <property name="width">1</property>
                <property name="height">1</property>
              </packing>
            </child>
            <child>
              <object id="password_entry">
                <property name="visible">True</property>
                <property name="can_focus">True</property>
                <property name="hexpand">True</property>
                <property name="visibility">False</property>
                <property name="invisible_char">●</property>
                <property name="activates_default">True</property>
              </object>
              <packing>
                <property name="left_attach">1</property>
                <property name="top_attach">1</property>
                <property name="width">1</property>
                <property name="height">1</property>
              </packing>
            </child>
          </object>
          <packing>
            <property name="expand">False</property>
            <property name="fill">True</property>
            <property name="position">1</property>
          </packing>
        </child>
      </object>
    </child>
    <action-widgets>
      <action-widget response="-6">button1</action-widget>
      <action-widget response="-5">button2</action-widget>
    </action-widgets>
  </template>
</interface>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<interface>

Since this example sets the template from a relative path the file foologindialog.ui has to be in the current working directory when you run the program.
And last but not least you need composite-templates Gtk+ branch for this to work

$ git clone git://git.gnome.org/gtk+
$ cd gtk+
$ git checkout -b composite-templates origin/composite-templates