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  11 <div class=
"document" id=
"wxpython-2-5-migration-guide"> 
  12 <h1 class=
"title">wxPython 
2.5 Migration Guide
</h1> 
  13 <p>This document will help explain some of the major changes in wxPython
 
  14 2.5 and let you know what you need to do to adapt your programs to
 
  15 those changes.  Be sure to also check in the CHANGES.txt file like
 
  16 usual to see info about the not so major changes and other things that
 
  17 have been added to wxPython.
</p> 
  18 <div class=
"section" id=
"wxname-change"> 
  19 <h1><a name=
"wxname-change">wxName Change
</a></h1> 
  20 <p>The 
<strong>wxWindows
</strong> project and library is now known as
 
  21 <strong>wxWidgets
</strong>.  Please see 
<a class=
"reference" href=
"http://www.wxwidgets.org/name.htm">here
</a> for more details.
</p> 
  22 <p>This won't really affect wxPython all that much, other than the fact
 
  23 that the wxwindows.org domain name will be changing to wxwidgets.org,
 
  24 so mail list, CVS, and etc. addresses will be changing.  We're going
 
  25 to try and smooth the transition as much as possible, but I wanted you
 
  26 all to be aware of this change if you run into any issues.
</p> 
  28 <div class=
"section" id=
"module-initialization"> 
  29 <h1><a name=
"module-initialization">Module Initialization
</a></h1> 
  30 <p>The import-startup-bootstrap process employed by wxPython was changed
 
  31 such that wxWidgets and the underlying gui toolkit are 
<strong>not
</strong> 
  32 initialized until the wx.App object is created (but before wx.App.OnInit
 
  33 is called.)  This was required because of some changes that were made
 
  34 to the C++ wxApp class.
</p> 
  35 <p>There are both benefits and potential problems with this change.  The
 
  36 benefits are that you can import wxPython without requiring access to
 
  37 a GUI (for checking version numbers, etc.) and that in a
 
  38 multi-threaded environment the thread that creates the app object will
 
  39 now be the GUI thread instead of the one that imports wxPython.  Some
 
  40 potential problems are that the C++ side of the 
"stock-objects
" 
  41 (wx.BLUE_PEN, wx.TheColourDatabase, etc.) are not initialized until
 
  42 the wx.App object is created, so you should not use them until after
 
  43 you have created your wx.App object.  If you do then an exception will
 
  44 be raised telling you that the C++ object has not been initialized
 
  46 <p>Also, you will probably not be able to do any kind of GUI or bitmap
 
  47 operation unless you first have created an app object, (even on
 
  48 Windows where most anything was possible before.)
</p> 
  50 <div class=
"section" id=
"swig-1-3"> 
  51 <h1><a name=
"swig-1-3">SWIG 
1.3</a></h1> 
  52 <p>wxPython is now using SWIG 
1.3.x from CVS (with several of my own
 
  53 customizations added that I hope to get folded back into the main SWIG
 
  54 distribution.)  This has some far reaching ramifications:
</p> 
  56 <p>All classes derive from object and so all are now 
"new-style
 
  58 <p>Public data members of the C++ classes are wrapped as Python
 
  59 properties using property() instead of using __getattr__/__setattr__
 
  60 like before.  Normally you shouldn't notice any difference, but if
 
  61 you were previously doing something with __getattr__/__setattr__
 
  62 in derived classes then you may have to adjust things.
</p> 
  63 <p>Static C++ methods are wrapped using the staticmethod()
 
  64 feature of Python and so are accessible as ClassName.MethodName
 
  65 as expected.  They are still available as top level functions
 
  66 ClassName_MethodName as before.
</p> 
  67 <p>The relationship between the wxFoo and wxFooPtr classes have
 
  68 changed for the better.  Specifically, all instances that you see
 
  69 will be wxFoo even if they are created internally using wxFooPtr,
 
  70 because wxFooPtr.__init__ will change the instance's __class__ as
 
  71 part of the initialization.  If you have any code that checks
 
  72 class type using something like isinstance(obj, wxFooPtr) you will
 
  73 need to change it to isinstance(obj, wxFoo).
</p> 
  76 <div class=
"section" id=
"binding-events"> 
  77 <h1><a name=
"binding-events">Binding Events
</a></h1> 
  78 <p>All of the EVT_* functions are now instances of the wx.PyEventBinder
 
  79 class.  They have a __call__ method so they can still be used as
 
  80 functions like before, but making them instances adds some
 
  81 flexibility that I expect to take advantave of in the future.
</p> 
  82 <p>wx.EvtHandler (the base class for wx.Window) now has a Bind method that
 
  83 makes binding events to windows a little easier.  Here is its
 
  84 definition and docstring:
</p> 
  85 <pre class=
"literal-block"> 
  86 def Bind(self, event, handler, source=None, id=wxID_ANY, id2=wxID_ANY):
 
  88     Bind an event to an event handler.
 
  90       event     One of the EVT_* objects that specifies the
 
  91                 type of event to bind.
 
  93       handler   A callable object to be invoked when the event
 
  94                 is delivered to self.  Pass None to disconnect an
 
  97       source    Sometimes the event originates from a different window
 
  98                 than self, but you still want to catch it in self.  (For
 
  99                 example, a button event delivered to a frame.)  By
 
 100                 passing the source of the event, the event handling
 
 101                 system is able to differentiate between the same event
 
 102                 type from different controls.
 
 104       id,id2    Used for menu IDs or for event types that require a
 
 109 <p>Some examples of its use:
</p> 
 110 <pre class=
"literal-block"> 
 111 self.Bind(wx.EVT_SIZE,   self.OnSize)
 
 112 self.Bind(wx.EVT_BUTTON, self.OnButtonClick, theButton)
 
 113 self.Bind(wx.EVT_MENU,   self.OnExit, id=wx.ID_EXIT)
 
 115 <p>The wx.Menu methods that add items to a wx.Menu have been modified
 
 116 such that they return a reference to the wx.MenuItem that was created.
 
 117 Additionally menu items and toolbar items have been modified to
 
 118 automatically generate a new ID if -
1 is given, similar to using -
1 
 119 with window classess.  This means that you can create menu or toolbar
 
 120 items and event bindings without having to predefine a unique menu ID,
 
 121 although you still can use IDs just like before if you want.  For
 
 122 example, these are all equivallent other than their specific ID
 
 124 <pre class=
"literal-block"> 
 126   item = menu.Append(-
1, 
"E
&xit
", 
"Terminate the App
")
 
 127   self.Bind(wx.EVT_MENU, self.OnExit, item)
 
 130   item = menu.Append(wx.ID_EXIT, 
"E
&xit
", 
"Terminate the App
")
 
 131   self.Bind(wx.EVT_MENU, self.OnExit, item)
 
 134   menu.Append(wx.ID_EXIT, 
"E
&xit
", 
"Terminate the App
")
 
 135   self.Bind(wx.EVT_MENU, self.OnExit, id=wx.ID_EXIT)
 
 137 <p>If you create your own custom event types and EVT_* functions, and you
 
 138 want to be able to use them with the Bind method above then you should
 
 139 change your EVT_* to be an instance of wxPyEventBinder instead of a
 
 140 function.  For example, if you used to have something like this:
</p> 
 141 <pre class=
"literal-block"> 
 142 myCustomEventType = wxNewEventType()
 
 143 def EVT_MY_CUSTOM_EVENT(win, id, func):
 
 144     win.Connect(id, -
1, myCustomEventType, func)
 
 146 <p>Change it like so:
</p> 
 147 <pre class=
"literal-block"> 
 148 myCustomEventType = wx.NewEventType()
 
 149 EVT_MY_CUSTOM_EVENT = wx.PyEventBinder(myCustomEventType, 
1)
 
 151 <p>The second parameter is an integer in [
0, 
1, 
2] that specifies the
 
 152 number of IDs that are needed to be passed to Connect.
</p> 
 154 <div class=
"section" id=
"the-wx-namespace"> 
 155 <h1><a name=
"the-wx-namespace">The wx Namespace
</a></h1> 
 156 <p>The second phase of the wx Namespace Transition has begun.  That means
 
 157 that the real names of the classes and other symbols do not have the
 
 158 'wx' prefix and the modules are located in a Python package named
 
 159 wx.  There is still a Python package named wxPython with modules
 
 160 that have the names with the wx prefix for backwards compatibility.
 
 161 Instead of dynamically changing the names at module load time like in
 
 162 2.4, the compatibility modules are generated at build time and contain
 
 163 assignment statements like this:
</p> 
 164 <pre class=
"literal-block"> 
 165 wxWindow = wx.core.Window
 
 167 <p>Don't let the 
"core
" in the name bother you.  That and some other
 
 168 modules are implementation details, and everything that was in the
 
 169 wxPython.wx module before will still be in the wx package namespace
 
 170 after this change.  So from your code you would use it as wx.Window.
</p> 
 171 <p>A few notes about how all of this was accomplished might be
 
 172 interesting...  SWIG is now run twice for each module that it is
 
 173 generating code for.  The first time it outputs an XML representaion
 
 174 of the parse tree, which can be up to 
20MB and 
300K lines in size!
 
 175 That XML is then run through a little Python script that creates a
 
 176 file full of SWIG %rename directives that take the wx off of the
 
 177 names, and also generates the Python compatibility file described
 
 178 above that puts the wx back on the names.  SWIG is then run a second
 
 179 time to generate the C++ code to implement the extension module, and
 
 180 uses the %rename directives that were generated in the first step.
</p> 
 181 <p>Not every name is handled correctly (but the bulk of them are) and so
 
 182 some work has to be done by hand, especially for the reverse-renamers.
 
 183 So expect a few flaws here and there until everything gets sorted out.
</p> 
 184 <p>In summary, the wx package and names without the 
"wx
" prefix are now
 
 185 the official form of the wxPython classes.  For example:
</p> 
 186 <pre class=
"literal-block"> 
 189 class MyFrame(wx.Frame):
 
 190     def __init__(self, parent, title):
 
 191         wx.Frame.__init__(self, parent, -
1, title)
 
 192         p = wx.Panel(self, -
1)
 
 193         b = wx.Button(p, -
1, 
"Do It
", (
10,
10))
 
 194         self.Bind(wx.EVT_BUTTON, self.JustDoIt, b)
 
 196     def JustDoIt(self, evt):
 
 197         print 
"It's done!
" 
 199 app = wx.PySimpleApp()
 
 200 f = MyFrame(None, 
"What's up?
")
 
 204 <p>You shouldn't need to migrate all your modules over to use the new
 
 205 package and names right away as there are modules in place that try to
 
 206 provide as much backwards compatibility of the names as possible.  If
 
 207 you rewrote the above sample using 
"from wxPython.wx import * 
", the
 
 208 old wxNames, and the old style of event binding it will still work
 
 211 <div class=
"section" id=
"new-wx-dc-methods"> 
 212 <h1><a name=
"new-wx-dc-methods">New wx.DC Methods
</a></h1> 
 213 <p>Many of the Draw methods of wx.DC have alternate forms in C++ that take
 
 214 wxPoint or wxSize parameters (let's call these 
<em>Type A
</em>) instead of
 
 215 the individual x, y, width, height, etc. parameters (and we'll call
 
 216 these 
<em>Type B
</em>).  In the rest of the library I normally made the 
<em>Type
 
 217 A
</em> forms of the methods be the default method with the 
"normal
" name,
 
 218 and had renamed the 
<em>Type B
</em> forms of the methods to some similar
 
 219 name.  For example in wx.Window we have these Python methods:
</p> 
 220 <pre class=
"literal-block"> 
 221 SetSize(size)               # Type A
 
 222 SetSizeWH(width, height)    # Type B
 
 224 <p>For various reasons the new 
<em>Type A
</em> methods in wx.DC were never added
 
 225 and the existing 
<em>Type B
</em> methods were never renamed.  Now that lots
 
 226 of other things are also changing in wxPython it has been decided that
 
 227 it is a good time to also do the method renaming in wx.DC too in order
 
 228 to be consistent with the rest of the library.  The methods in wx.DC
 
 229 that are affected are listed here:
</p> 
 230 <pre class=
"literal-block"> 
 231 FloodFillXY(x, y, colour, style = wx.FLOOD_SURFACE)
 
 232 FloodFill(point, colour,  style = wx.FLOOD_SURFACE)
 
 237 DrawLineXY(x1, y1, x2, y2)
 
 238 DrawLine(point1, point2)
 
 243 DrawArcXY(x1, y1, x2, y2, xc, yc)
 
 244 DrawArc(point1, point2, center)
 
 246 DrawCheckMarkXY(x, y, width, height)
 
 249 DrawEllipticArcXY(x, y, w, h, start_angle, end_angle)
 
 250 DrawEllipticArc(point, size, start_angle, end_angle)
 
 255 DrawRectangleXY(x, y, width, height)
 
 256 DrawRectangle(point, size)
 
 257 DrawRectangleRect(rect)
 
 259 DrawRoundedRectangleXY(x, y, width, height, radius)
 
 260 DrawRoundedRectangle(point, size, radius)
 
 261 DrawRoundedRectangleRect(rect, radius)
 
 263 DrawCircleXY(x, y, radius)
 
 264 DrawCircle(point, radius)
 
 266 DrawEllipseXY(x, y, width, height)
 
 267 DrawEllipse(point, size)
 
 268 DrawEllipseRect(rect)
 
 270 DrawIconXY(icon, x, y)
 
 271 DrawIcon(icon, point)
 
 273 DrawBitmapXY(bmp, x, y, useMask = FALSE)
 
 274 DrawBitmap(bmp, point, useMask = FALSE)
 
 276 DrawTextXY(text, x, y)
 
 277 DrawText(text, point)
 
 279 DrawRotatedTextXY(text, x, y, angle)
 
 280 DrawRotatedText(text, point, angle)
 
 283 BlitXY(xdest, ydest, width, height, sourceDC, xsrc, ysrc,
 
 284        rop = wxCOPY, useMask = FALSE, xsrcMask = -
1, ysrcMask = -
1)
 
 285 Blit(destPt, size, sourceDC, srcPt,
 
 286      rop = wxCOPY, useMask = FALSE, srcPtMask = wx.DefaultPosition)
 
 288 SetClippingRegionXY(x, y, width, height)
 
 289 SetClippingRegion(point, size)
 
 290 SetClippingRect(rect)
 
 291 SetClippingRegionAsRegion(region);
 
 293 <p>If you have code that draws on a DC and you are using the new wx
 
 294 namespace then you 
<strong>will
</strong> get errors because of these changes, but
 
 295 it should be easy to fix the code.  You can either change the name of
 
 296 the 
<em>Type B
</em> method called to the names shown above, or just add
 
 297 parentheses around the parameters as needed to turn them into tuples
 
 298 and let the SWIG typemaps turn them into the wx.Point or wx.Size
 
 299 object that is expected.  Then you will be calling the new 
<em>Type A
</em> 
 300 method.  For example, if you had this code before:
</p> 
 301 <pre class=
"literal-block"> 
 302 dc.DrawRectangle(x, y, width, height)
 
 304 <p>You could either continue to use the 
<em>Type B
</em> method bu changing the
 
 305 name to DrawRectabgleXY, or just change it to the new 
<em>Type A
</em> by
 
 306 adding some parentheses like this:
</p> 
 307 <pre class=
"literal-block"> 
 308 dc.DrawRectangle((x, y), (width, height))
 
 310 <p>Or if you were already using a point and size:
</p> 
 311 <pre class=
"literal-block"> 
 312 dc.DrawRectangle(p.x, p.y, s.width, s.height)
 
 314 <p>Then you can just simplify it like this:
</p> 
 315 <pre class=
"literal-block"> 
 316 dc.DrawRectangle(p, s)
 
 318 <p>Now before you start yelling and screaming at me for breaking all your
 
 319 code, take note that I said above 
"...using the new wx namespace...
" 
 320 That's because if you are still importing from wxPython.wx then there
 
 321 are some classes defined there with Draw and etc. methods that have
 
 322 2.4 compatible signatures.  However if/when the old wxPython.wx
 
 323 namespace is removed then these classes will be removed too so you
 
 324 should plan on migrating to the new namespace and new DC Draw methods
 
 325 before that time.
</p> 
 327 <div class=
"section" id=
"building-extending-and-embedding-wxpython"> 
 328 <h1><a name=
"building-extending-and-embedding-wxpython">Building, Extending and Embedding wxPython
</a></h1> 
 329 <p>wxPython's setup.py script now expects to use existing libraries for
 
 330 the contribs (gizmos, stc, xrc, etc.) rather than building local
 
 331 copies of them.  If you build your own copies of wxPython please be
 
 332 aware that you now need to also build the ogl, stc, xrc, and gizmos
 
 333 libraries in addition to the main wx lib.
</p> 
 334 <p>The wxPython.h and other header files are now in
 
 335 .../wxPython/include/wx/wxPython instead of in wxPython/src.  You should
 
 336 include it via the 
"wx/wxPython/wxPython.h
" path and add
 
 337 .../wxPython/include to your list of include paths.  On OSX and
 
 338 unix-like systems the wxPython headers are installed to the same place
 
 339 that the wxWidgets headers are installed, so if you building wxPython
 
 340 compatible extensions on those platforms then your include path shoudl
 
 341 already be set properly.
</p> 
 342 <p>If you are also using SWIG for your extension then you'll need to
 
 343 adapt how the wxPython .i files are imported into your .i files.  See
 
 344 the wxPython sources for examples.  Your modules will need to at least
 
 345 <tt class=
"literal"><span class=
"pre">%import
</span> <span class=
"pre">core.i
</span></tt>, and possibly others if you need the definition of
 
 346 other classes.  Since you will need them to build your modules, the
 
 347 main wxPython .i files are also installed with the wxPython headers in
 
 348 an i_files sibdirectory.  It should be enough to pass a -I/pathname on
 
 349 the command line for it to find the files.
</p> 
 350 <p>The bulk of wxPython's setup.py has been moved to another module,
 
 351 wx/build/config.py.  This module will be installed as part of wxPython
 
 352 so 
3rd party modules that wish to use the same setup/configuration
 
 353 code can do so simply by importing this module from their own setup.py
 
 354 scripts using 
<tt class=
"literal"><span class=
"pre">import
</span> <span class=
"pre">wx.build.config
</span></tt>.
</p> 
 355 <p>You no longer need to call wxClassInfo::CleanUpClasses() and
 
 356 wxClassInfo::InitializeClasses() in your extensions or when embedding
 
 358 <p>The usage of wxPyBeginAllowThreads and wxPyEndAllowThreads has changed
 
 359 slightly.  wxPyBeginAllowThreads now returns a boolean value that must
 
 360 be passed to the coresponding wxPyEndAllowThreads function call.  This
 
 361 is to help do the RightThing when calls to these two functions are
 
 362 nested, or if calls to external code in other extension modules that
 
 363 are wrapped in the standard Py_(BEGIN|END)_ALLOW_THERADS may result in
 
 364 wx event handlers being called (such as during the call to
 
 367 <div class=
"section" id=
"two-or-three-phase-create"> 
 368 <h1><a name=
"two-or-three-phase-create">Two (or Three!) Phase Create
</a></h1> 
 369 <p>If you use the Precreate/Create method of instantiating a window, (for
 
 370 example, to set an extended style flag, or for XRC handlers) then
 
 371 there is now a new method named PostCreate to help with transplanting
 
 372 the brain of the prewindow instance into the derived window instance.
 
 374 <pre class=
"literal-block"> 
 375 class MyDialog(wx.Dialog):
 
 376     def __init__(self, parent, ID, title, pos, size, style):
 
 378         pre.SetExtraStyle(wx.DIALOG_EX_CONTEXTHELP)
 
 379         pre.Create(parent, ID, title, pos, size, style)
 
 383 <div class=
"section" id=
"sizers"> 
 384 <h1><a name=
"sizers">Sizers
</a></h1> 
 385 <p>The hack allowing the old 
"option
" keyword parameter has been removed.
 
 386 If you use keyworkd args with w.xSizer Add, Insert, or Prepend methods
 
 387 then you will need to use the 
<tt class=
"literal"><span class=
"pre">proportion
</span></tt> name instead of 
<tt class=
"literal"><span class=
"pre">option
</span></tt>.
</p> 
 388 <p>When adding a spacer to a sizer you now need to use a wx.Size or a
 
 389 2-integer sequence instead of separate width and height parameters.
</p> 
 390 <p>The wx.GridBagSizer class (very similar to the RowColSizer in the
 
 391 library) has been added to C++ and wrapped for wxPython.  It can also
 
 392 be used from XRC.
</p> 
 393 <p>You should not use AddWindow, AddSizer, AddSpacer (and similar for
 
 394 Insert, Prepend, and etc.) methods any longer.  Just use Add and the
 
 395 wrappers will figure out what to do.
</p> 
 397 <div class=
"section" id=
"platforminfo"> 
 398 <h1><a name=
"platforminfo">PlatformInfo
</a></h1> 
 399 <p>Added wx.PlatformInfo which is a tuple containing strings that
 
 400 describe the platform and build options of wxPython.  This lets you
 
 401 know more about the build than just the __WXPORT__ value that
 
 402 wx.Platform contains, such as if it is a GTK2 build.  For example,
 
 404 <pre class=
"literal-block"> 
 405 if wx.Platform == 
"__WXGTK__
":
 
 408 <p>you should do this:
</p> 
 409 <pre class=
"literal-block"> 
 410 if 
"__WXGTK__
" in wx.PlatformInfo:
 
 413 <p>and you can specifically check for a wxGTK2 build by looking for
 
 414 "gtk2
" in wx.PlatformInfo.  Unicode builds are also detectable this
 
 415 way.  If there are any other platform/toolkit/build flags that make
 
 416 sense to add to this tuple please let me know.
</p> 
 417 <p>BTW, wx.Platform will probably be deprecated in the future.
</p> 
 419 <div class=
"section" id=
"activex"> 
 420 <h1><a name=
"activex">ActiveX
</a></h1> 
 421 <p>Lindsay Mathieson's newest 
<a class=
"reference" href=
"http://members.optusnet.com.au/~blackpaw1/wxactivex.html">wxActiveX
</a> class has been wrapped into a new
 
 422 extension module called wx.activex.  It is very generic and dynamic
 
 423 and should allow hosting of arbitray ActiveX controls within your
 
 424 wxPython apps.  So far I've tested it with IE, PDF, and Flash
 
 425 controls, (and there are new samples in the demo and also library
 
 426 modules supporting these.)
</p> 
 427 <p>The new wx.activex module contains a bunch of code, but the most
 
 428 important things to look at are ActiveXWindow and ActiveXEvent.
 
 429 ActiveXWindow derives from wxWindow and the constructor accepts a
 
 430 CLSID for the ActiveX Control that should be created.  (There is also
 
 431 a CLSID class that can convert from a progID or a CLSID String.)  The
 
 432 ActiveXWindow class simply adds methods that allow you to query some
 
 433 of the TypeInfo exposed by the ActiveX object, and also to get/set
 
 434 properties or call methods by name.  The Python implementation
 
 435 automatically handles converting parameters and return values to/from
 
 436 the types expected by the ActiveX code as specified by the TypeInfo,
 
 437 (just bool, integers, floating point, strings and None/Empty so far,
 
 438 but more can be handled later.)
</p> 
 439 <p>That's pretty much all there is to the class, as I mentioned before it
 
 440 is very generic and dynamic.  Very little is hard-coded and everything
 
 441 that is done with the actual ActiveX control is done at runtime and
 
 442 referenced by property or method name.  Since Python is such a dynamic
 
 443 language this is a very good match.  I thought for a while about doing
 
 444 some Python black-magic and making the specific methods/properties of
 
 445 the actual ActiveX control 
"appear
" at runtime, but then decided that
 
 446 it would be better and more understandable to do it via subclassing.
 
 447 So there is a utility class in wx.activex that given an existing
 
 448 ActiveXWindow instance can generate a .py module containing a derived
 
 449 class with real methods and properties that do the Right Thing to
 
 450 reflect those calls to the real ActiveX control.  There is also a
 
 451 script/tool module named genaxmodule that given a CLSID or progID and
 
 452 a class name, will generate the module for you.  There are a few
 
 453 examples of the output of this tool in the wx.lib package, see
 
 454 iewin.py, pdfwin.py and flashwin.py.
</p> 
 455 <p>Currently the genaxmodule tool will tweak some of the names it
 
 456 generates, but this can be controled if you would like to do it
 
 457 differently by deriving your own class from GernerateAXModule,
 
 458 overriding some methods and then using this class from a tool like
 
 459 genaxmodule.  [TODO: make specifying a new class on genaxmodule's
 
 460 command-line possible.]  The current default behavior is that any
 
 461 event names that start with 
"On
" will have the 
"On
" dropped, property
 
 462 names are converted to all lower case, and if any name is a Python
 
 463 keyword it will have an underscore appended to it.  GernerateAXModule
 
 464 does it's best when generating the code in the new module, but it can
 
 465 only be as good as the TypeInfo data available from the ActiveX
 
 466 control so sometimes some tweaking will be needed.  For example, the
 
 467 IE web browser control defines the Flags parameter of the Navigate2
 
 468 method as required, but MSDN says it is optional.
</p> 
 469 <p>It is intended that this new wx.activex module will replace both the
 
 470 older version of Lindsay's code available in iewin.IEHtmlWindow, and
 
 471 also the wx.lib.activexwraper module.  Probably the biggest
 
 472 differences you'll ecounter in migrating activexwrapper-based code
 
 473 (besides events working better without causing deadlocks) is that
 
 474 events are no longer caught by overriding methods in your derived
 
 475 class.  Instead ActiveXWindow uses the wx event system and you bind
 
 476 handlers for the ActiveX events exactly the same way you do for any wx
 
 477 event.  There is just one extra step needed and that is creating an
 
 478 event ID from the ActiveX event name, and if you use the genaxmodule
 
 479 tool then this extra step will be handled for you there.  For example,
 
 480 for the StatusTextChange event in the IE web browser control, this
 
 481 code is generated for you:
</p> 
 482 <pre class=
"literal-block"> 
 483 wxEVT_StatusTextChange = wx.activex.RegisterActiveXEvent('StatusTextChange')
 
 484 EVT_StatusTextChange = wx.PyEventBinder(wxEVT_StatusTextChange, 
1)
 
 486 <p>and you would use it in your code like this:
</p> 
 487 <pre class=
"literal-block"> 
 488 self.Bind(iewin.EVT_StatusTextChange, self.UpdateStatusText, self.ie)
 
 490 <p>When the event happens and your event handler function is called the
 
 491 event properties from the ActiveX control (if any) are converted to
 
 492 attributes of the event object passed to the handler.  (Can you say
 
 493 'event' any more times in a single sentence? ;-) ) For example the
 
 494 StatusTextChange event will also send the text that should be put into
 
 495 the status line as an event parameter named 
"Text
" and you can access
 
 496 it your handlers as an attribute of the event object like this:
</p> 
 497 <pre class=
"literal-block"> 
 498 def UpdateStatusText(self, evt):
 
 499     self.SetStatusText(evt.Text)
 
 501 <p>Usually these event object attributes should be considered read-only,
 
 502 but some will be defined by the TypeInfo as output parameters.  In
 
 503 those cases if you modify the event object's attribute then that value
 
 504 will be returned to the ActiveX control.  For example, to prevent a
 
 505 new window from being opened by the IE web browser control you can do
 
 506 this in the handler for the iewin.EVT_NewWindow2 event:
</p> 
 507 <pre class=
"literal-block"> 
 508 def OnNewWindow2(self, evt):
 
 511 <p>So how do you know what methods, events and properties that an ActiveX
 
 512 control supports?  There is a funciton in wx.activex named GetAXInfo
 
 513 that returns a printable summary of the TypeInfo from the ActiveX
 
 514 instance passed in.  You can use this as an example of how to browse
 
 515 the TypeInfo provided, and there is also a copy of this function's
 
 516 output appended as a comment to the modules produced by the
 
 517 genaxmodule tool.  Beyond that you'll need to consult the docs
 
 518 provided by the makers of the ActiveX control that you are using.
</p> 
 520 <div class=
"section" id=
"other-stuff"> 
 521 <h1><a name=
"other-stuff">Other Stuff
</a></h1> 
 522 <p>Instead of over a dozen separate extension modules linked together
 
 523 into a single extension module, the 
"core
" module is now just a few
 
 524 extensions that are linked independently, and then merged together
 
 525 later into the main namespace via Python code.
</p> 
 526 <p>Because of the above and also because of the way the new SWIG works,
 
 527 the 
"internal
" module names have changed, but you shouldn't have been
 
 528 using them anyway so it shouldn't bother you. ;-)
</p> 
 529 <p>The help module no longer exists and the classes therein are now part
 
 530 of the core module imported with wxPython.wx or the wx package.
</p> 
 531 <p>wxPyDefaultPosition and wxPyDefaultSize are gone.  Use the
 
 532 wxDefaultPosition and wxDefaultSize objects instead.
</p> 
 533 <p>Similarly, the wxSystemSettings backwards compatibiility aliases for
 
 534 GetSystemColour, GetSystemFont and GetSystemMetric have also gone into
 
 535 the bit-bucket.  Use GetColour, GetFont and GetMetric instead.
</p> 
 536 <p>The wx.NO_FULL_REPAINT_ON_RESIZE style is now the default style for
 
 537 all windows.  The name still exists for compatibility, but it is set
 
 538 to zero.  If you want to disable the setting (so it matches the old
 
 539 default) then you need to use the new wx.FULL_REPAINT_ON_RESIZE style
 
 540 flag otherwise only the freshly exposed areas of the window will be
 
 542 <p>wxPyTypeCast has been removed.  Since we've had the OOR (Original
 
 543 Object Return) for a couple years now there should be no need to use
 
 544 wxPyTypeCast at all.
</p> 
 545 <p>If you use the old wxPython package and wxPython.wx namespace then
 
 546 there are compatibility aliases for much of the above items.
</p> 
 547 <p>The wxWave class has been renamed to wxSound, and now has a slightly
 
 549 <p>wx.TaskbarIcon works on wxGTK-based platforms now, however you have to
 
 550 manage it a little bit more than you did before.  Basically, the app
 
 551 will treat it like a top-level frame in that if the wx.TaskBarIcon
 
 552 still exists when all the frames are closed then the app will still
 
 553 not exit.  You need to ensure that the wx.TaskBarIcon is destroyed
 
 554 when your last Frame is closed.  For wxPython apps it is usually
 
 555 enough if your main frame object holds the only reference to the
 
 556 wx.TaskBarIcon, then when the frame is closed Python reference
 
 557 counting takes care of the rest.
</p>