General Guidance

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Navigating the Docs

The online documentation aims to be as consistant as possible.

There are two main sections:

• Fillings - these are things you can add to the GUI
• Configuration - these are ways of changing how the GUI looks or operates

Fillings

These are things you can add to the GUI:

• Widgets - the various interface elements that can be included in a GUI
• Images - a specific section on how to manage images in a GUI
• Sounds - a section on how to get your GUI to make some noise
• Bars - menubars, statusbars & toolbars that can be added to your GUI
• Pop-ups - the different pop-ups that can be shown
• Multiple Windows - information on creating separate windows
• Splashscreen - a splashscreen to show at loadtime
• Special Characters - guidance on how to include special characters
• Beta widgets - some other available widgets, just not quite finished

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Configuration

These are ways of changing how the GUI looks or operates:

• GUI Options - options for configuring general GUI settings
• Widgets - options for configuring the layout and look & feel of widgets
• Events - options for delaying actions, making them repeat or run in the background
• Internationalisation - how to support multiple languages in your GUI
• Logging - how to turn on/off appJar's logging capabilities
• Command Line Arguments - hw t use various command line arguments
• ttk - how to enable ttk support

Understanding the Docs

When I first started appJar, I didn't really know any Python. I grew up on Pascal & Java, followed by JavaScript & PHP - appjar is therefore all in CamelCase.

Also, because of this, the concept of named parameters is also not really used (except in the more recent parts). Again, I learnt programming without this concept, and generally teach programming without this concept. You'll therefore find that sometimes you have to make two-or-three function calls, to achieve something that could be done with one - if I had more named parameters.

I've tried to keep function names standardised:

• .add XXX() - to add something to the GUI
• .set XXX() - to change something in the GUI
• .set XXX YYY() - to change some property of something in the GUI
• .get XXX() - to get something from the GUI

When the docs list the parameters available on a function, any with an = means they are optional, with the default being shown.

For example:

• setProperty(title, prop, value=False, callFunction=True)
  This has two required parameters title & prop - must be set (the title of the Properties group and a specific property)
  And two optional parameters value & callFunction - if you don't pass value it will be set to False

  So, you could simply call: .setProperty("Toppings", "cheese") to get rid of cheese.
  Or, if you want cheese: .setProperty("Toppings", "cheese", True).

  You don't need to name the parameters, as they are always listed in the required order.

  However, if you do want to name your parameters, feel free: .setProperty("Toppings", "cheese", callFunction=False)

  In fact, it can make your life much easier: .addLabel("l1", "Main Title", colspan=5) - saves you having to type in the row or column values.

Deprecation

appjar has been going so long, that some of the early decisions have turned out to be bad ones...
Some functions have now been deprecated - you can still use them, but appJar will warn you that you should be using something else.

Beta Code

Some elements of appjar are in beta. This means you can use them, and they generally work - but you may come across issues or they may change in the future. Generally, the beta code works pretty well - it wouldn't be included if it didn't. But, equally, we know its not perfect - drag'n drop will keep growing & improving, and the table needs some work.

So, please use them, and let us know any issues or improvements you'd like...