1GladeXML(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation GladeXML(3)
2
6 Gtk2::GladeXML - Create user interfaces directly from Glade XML files.
7
9 # for a pure gtk+ glade project
10 use Gtk2 -init;
11 use Gtk2::GladeXML;
12 $gladexml = Gtk2::GladeXML->new('example.glade');
13 $gladexml->signal_autoconnect_from_package('main');
14 $quitbtn = $gladexml->get_widget('Quit');
15 Gtk2->main;
16 # for glade files using gnome widgets, you must initialize Gnome2
18 # before loading the glade file.
19 use Gnome2;
20 use Gtk2::GladeXML;
21 # this call also initializes gtk+ for us
22 Gnome2::Program->init ($appname, $version);
23 $gladexml = Gtk2::GladeXML->new('gnomeapp.glade');
24 Gtk2->main;
25
27 Gtk2::GladeXML allows Perl programmers to use libglade, a C library
28 which generates graphical user interfaces directly from the XML output
29 of the Glade user interface designer.
30
32 Glade is a free user interface builder for GTK+ and GNOME. After
33 designing a user interface with glade-2 the layout and configuration
34 are saved in an XML file. libglade is a library which knows how to
35 build and hook up the user interface described in the Glade XML file at
36 application run time.
37 This extension module binds libglade to Perl so you can create and
39 manipulate user interfaces in Perl code in conjunction with Gtk2 and
40 even Gnome2. Better yet you can load a file's contents into a PERL
41 scalar do a few magical regular expressions to customize things and the
42 load up the app. It doesn't get any easier.
43
45 $gladexml = Gtk2::GladeXML->new(GLADE_FILE, [ROOT, DOMAIN])
46 Create a new GladeXML object by loading the data in GLADE_FILE.
47 ROOT is an optional parameter that specifies a point (widget node)
48 from which to start building. DOMAIN is an optional parameter that
49 specifies the translation domain for the xml file.
50 $gladexml = Gtk2::GladeXML->new_from_buffer(BUFFER, [ROOT, DOMAIN])
52 Create a new GladeXML object from the scalar string contained in
53 BUFFER. ROOT is an optional parameter that specifies a point (wid‐
54 get node) from which to start building. DOMAIN is an optional
55 parameter that specifies the translation domain for the xml file.
56 $widget = $gladexml->get_widget(NAME)
58 Return the widget created by the XML file with NAME or undef if no
59 such name exists.
60 $gladexml->signal_autoconnect($callback[, $userdata])
62 Iterates over all signals and calls the given callback:
63 sub example_cb {
65 my ($name, $widget, $signal, $signal_data, $connect, $after, $userdata) = @_;
66 }
67 The following two convenience methods use this to provide a more
69 convenient interface.
70 $gladexml->signal_autoconnect_from_package([PACKAGE or OBJECT])
72 Sets up the signal handling callbacks as specified in the glade XML
73 data.
74 The argument to this method can be a Perl package name or an
76 object. If a package name is used, each handler named in the Glade
77 XML data will be called as a subroutine in the named package. If
78 an object is supplied each handler will be called as a method of
79 the object. If no argument is supplied, the name of the calling
80 package will be used. A user data argument cannot be supplied how‐
81 ever this is seldom necessary when an object is used.
82 The names of the subroutines or methods must exactly match the han‐
84 dler name in the XML data. It is worth noting that callbacks you
85 get for free in c such as gtk_main_quit will not exist in perl and
86 must always be defined, for example:
87 sub gtk_main_quit
89 {
90 Gtk2->main_quit;
91 }
92 Otherwise behavior should be exactly as expected with the use of
94 libglade from a C application.
95 $gladexml->signal_autoconnect_all (name => handler, ...)
97 Iterates over all named signals and tries to connect them to the
98 handlers specified as arguments (handlers not given as argument are
99 being ignored). This is very handy when implementing your own wid‐
100 gets, where you can't use global callbacks.
101 $widget = Gtk2::Glade->set_custom_handler ($callback[, $userdata])
103 This method tells Gtk2::GladeXML how to create handlers for custom
104 widgets.
105 You can specify a "custom" widget in a glade file, which allows you
107 to include in your interface widgets that Glade itself doesn't know
108 how to create. To tell libglade how to instantiate such widgets,
109 you specify a "custom widget handler", a function which returns a
110 Gtk2:Widget object for that custom widget. This handler needs to
111 be installed sometime before the instantiation of your
112 Gtk2::GladeXML object, by calling "set_custom_handler".
113 my $widget = Gtk2::Glade->set_custom_handler( \&my_handler );
115 my $gladexml = Gtk2::GladeXML->new( 'MyApp.glade' );
116 The prototype for the custom handler is:
118 sub my_handler {
120 my ($xml, # The Gtk2::GladeXML object
121 # the remaining arguments are as specified in the glade file:
122 $func_name, # The function name
123 $name, # the name of the widget to be created
124 $str1, # the string1 property
125 $str2, # the string2 property
126 $int1, # the int1 property
127 $int2, # the int2 property
128 $userdata # the data passed to set_custom_handler
129 ) = @_;
130 ...
131 return $widget; # a new Gtk2::Widget; you must call ->show on it.
132 }
133
135 Where is the option to generate Perl source in Glade?
136 Glade itself only creates the XML description, and relies on extra
137 converter programs to write source code; only a few converters are
138 widely popular.
139 In general, however, you don't want to generate source code for a
141 variety of reasons, mostly to do with maintainability. This mes‐
142 sage on the glade-devel list explains it best:
143 http://lists.ximian.com/archives/public/glade-devel/2003-Febru‐
145 ary/000015.html
146 Why does my program crash on startup?
148 Does your glade file use Gnome widgets? If so, you must initialize
149 Gnome manually; libglade can knows how to create gnome widgets, but
150 can't know how you want to initialize the app. This is usually
151 sufficient:
152 use Gnome2;
154 Gnome2::Program->init ($app_name, $version_string);
155 Libglade's API reference mentions this: http://devel‐
157 oper.gnome.org/doc/API/2.0/libglade/libglade-modules.html
158
160 perl(1), Glib(3pm), Gtk2(3pm)
161 The Libglade Reference Manual at <http://devel‐
163 oper.gnome.org/doc/API/2.0/libglade/>
164 An introductory article that originally appeared in The Perl Review:
166 <http://live.gnome.org/GTK2-Perl/GladeXML/Tutorial>
167
169 Ross McFarland <rwmcfa1 at neces dot com>, Marc Lehmann <pcg@goof.com>,
170 muppet <scott at asofyet dot org>. Bruce Alderson provided several
171 examples. Grant McClean <grant at mclean dot net dot nz> and Marco
172 Antonio Manzo <amnesiac at perl dot org dot mx> contributed documenta‐
173 tion.
174
176 Copyright 2003-2006 by the gtk2-perl team.
177 This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
179 under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License as published
180 by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
181 (at your option) any later version.
182 This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
184 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MER‐
185 CHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Library
186 General Public License for more details.
187 You should have received a copy of the GNU Library General Public
189 License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
190 Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307
191 USA.
192perl v5.8.8 2006-09-04 GladeXML(3)