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293 <div class=
"document" id=
"wxpython-2-6-migration-guide">
294 <h1 class=
"title">wxPython
2.6 Migration Guide
</h1>
295 <p>This document will help explain some of the major changes in wxPython
296 2.6 since the
2.4 series and let you know what you need to do to adapt
297 your programs to those changes. Be sure to also check in the
<a class=
"reference" href=
"CHANGES.html">CHANGES
</a>
298 file like usual to see info about the not so major changes and other
299 things that have been added to wxPython.
</p>
300 <div class=
"section">
301 <h1><a id=
"wxname-change" name=
"wxname-change">wxName Change
</a></h1>
302 <p>The
<strong>wxWindows
</strong> project and library is now known as
303 <strong>wxWidgets
</strong>. Please see
<a class=
"reference" href=
"http://www.wxwidgets.org/name.htm">here
</a> for more details.
</p>
304 <p>This won't really affect wxPython all that much, other than the fact
305 that the wxwindows.org domain name has changed to wxwidgets.org,
306 so mail list, CVS, and etc. addresses have also changed. We're going
307 to try and smooth the transition as much as possible, but I wanted you
308 all to be aware of this change if you run into any issues.
</p>
310 <div class=
"section">
311 <h1><a id=
"module-initialization" name=
"module-initialization">Module Initialization
</a></h1>
312 <p>The import-startup-bootstrap process employed by wxPython was changed
313 such that wxWidgets and the underlying gui toolkit are
<strong>not
</strong>
314 initialized until the wx.App object is created (but before wx.App.OnInit
315 is called.) This was required because of some changes that were made
316 to the C++ wxApp class.
</p>
317 <p>There are both benefits and potential problems with this change. The
318 benefits are that you can import wxPython without requiring access to
319 a GUI (for checking version numbers, etc.) and that in a
320 multi-threaded environment the thread that creates the app object will
321 now be the GUI thread instead of the one that imports wxPython. Some
322 potential problems are that the C++ side of the
"stock-objects
"
323 (wx.BLUE_PEN, wx.TheColourDatabase, etc.) are not initialized until
324 the wx.App object is created, so you should not use them until after
325 you have created your wx.App object. If you do then an exception will
326 be raised telling you that the C++ object has not been initialized
328 <p>Also, you will probably not be able to do any kind of GUI or bitmap
329 operation unless you first have created an app object, (even on
330 Windows where most anything was possible before.)
</p>
331 <p><strong>[Changed in
2.5.2.x]
</strong> All the Window and GDI (pen, bitmap, etc.)
332 class constructors and also many toplevel functions and static methods
333 will now check that a wx.App object has already been created and will
334 raise a wx.PyNoAppError exception if not.
</p>
336 <div class=
"section">
337 <h1><a id=
"swig-1-3" name=
"swig-1-3">SWIG
1.3</a></h1>
338 <p>wxPython is now using SWIG
1.3.x from CVS (with several of my own
339 customizations added that I hope to get folded back into the main SWIG
340 distribution.) This has some far reaching ramifications:
</p>
342 <p>All classes derive from object and so all are now
"new-style
343 classes.
" This also allows you to use mixin classes that are
344 new-style and to use properties, staticmethod, etc.
</p>
345 <p>Public data members of the C++ classes are wrapped as Python
346 properties using property() instead of using
347 __getattr__/__setattr__ hacks like before. Normally you shouldn't
348 notice any difference, but if you were previously doing something
349 with __getattr__/__setattr__ in derived classes then you may have
350 to adjust things.
</p>
351 <p>Static C++ methods are wrapped using the staticmethod() feature of
352 Python and so are accessible as ClassName.MethodName as expected.
353 They are still also available as top level functions named like
354 ClassName_MethodName as before.
</p>
355 <p>The relationship between the wxFoo and wxFooPtr classes have
356 changed for the better. Specifically, all instances that you see
357 will be wx.Foo even if they are created internally using wx.FooPtr,
358 because wx.FooPtr.__init__ will change the instance's __class__ as
359 part of the initialization. If you have any code that checks
360 class type using something like isinstance(obj, wx.FooPtr) you will
361 need to change it to isinstance(obj, wx.Foo).
</p>
364 <div class=
"section">
365 <h1><a id=
"binding-events" name=
"binding-events">Binding Events
</a></h1>
366 <p>All of the EVT_* functions are now instances of the wx.PyEventBinder
367 class. They have a __call__ method so they can still be used as
368 functions like before, but making them instances adds some
369 flexibility that I expect to take advantave of in the future.
</p>
370 <p>wx.EvtHandler (the base class for wx.Window) now has a Bind method that
371 makes binding events to windows a little easier. Here is its
372 definition and docstring:
</p>
373 <pre class=
"literal-block">
374 def Bind(self, event, handler, source=None, id=wxID_ANY, id2=wxID_ANY):
376 Bind an event to an event handler.
378 event One of the EVT_* objects that specifies the
379 type of event to bind.
381 handler A callable object to be invoked when the event
382 is delivered to self. Pass None to disconnect an
385 source Sometimes the event originates from a different window
386 than self, but you still want to catch it in self. (For
387 example, a button event delivered to a frame.) By
388 passing the source of the event, the event handling
389 system is able to differentiate between the same event
390 type from different controls.
392 id,id2 Used for menu IDs or for event types that require a
397 <p>Some examples of its use:
</p>
398 <pre class=
"literal-block">
399 self.Bind(wx.EVT_SIZE, self.OnSize)
400 self.Bind(wx.EVT_BUTTON, self.OnButtonClick, theButton)
401 self.Bind(wx.EVT_MENU, self.OnExit, id=wx.ID_EXIT)
403 <p>The wx.Menu methods that add items to a wx.Menu have been modified
404 such that they return a reference to the wx.MenuItem that was created.
405 Additionally menu items and toolbar items have been modified to
406 automatically generate a new ID if -
1 is given, similar to using -
1
407 with window classess. This means that you can create menu or toolbar
408 items and event bindings without having to predefine a unique menu ID,
409 although you still can use IDs just like before if you want. For
410 example, these are all equivallent other than their specific ID
412 <pre class=
"literal-block">
414 item = menu.Append(-
1,
"E
&xit
",
"Terminate the App
")
415 self.Bind(wx.EVT_MENU, self.OnExit, item)
418 item = menu.Append(wx.ID_EXIT,
"E
&xit
",
"Terminate the App
")
419 self.Bind(wx.EVT_MENU, self.OnExit, item)
422 menu.Append(wx.ID_EXIT,
"E
&xit
",
"Terminate the App
")
423 self.Bind(wx.EVT_MENU, self.OnExit, id=wx.ID_EXIT)
425 <p>If you create your own custom event types and EVT_* functions, and you
426 want to be able to use them with the Bind method above then you should
427 change your EVT_* to be an instance of wx.PyEventBinder instead of a
428 function. For example, if you used to have something like this:
</p>
429 <pre class=
"literal-block">
430 myCustomEventType = wxNewEventType()
431 def EVT_MY_CUSTOM_EVENT(win, id, func):
432 win.Connect(id, -
1, myCustomEventType, func)
434 <p>Change it like so:
</p>
435 <pre class=
"literal-block">
436 myCustomEventType = wx.NewEventType()
437 EVT_MY_CUSTOM_EVENT = wx.PyEventBinder(myCustomEventType,
1)
439 <p>The second parameter is an integer in [
0,
1,
2] that specifies the
440 number of IDs that are needed to be passed to Connect.
</p>
441 <p><strong>[Changed in
2.5.2.x]
</strong> There is also an Unbind method added to
442 wx.EvtHandler that can be used to disconenct event handlers. It looks
444 <pre class=
"literal-block">
445 def Unbind(self, event, source=None, id=wx.ID_ANY, id2=wx.ID_ANY):
447 Disconencts the event handler binding for event from self.
448 Returns True if successful.
452 <div class=
"section">
453 <h1><a id=
"the-wx-namespace" name=
"the-wx-namespace">The wx Namespace
</a></h1>
454 <p>The second phase of the wx Namespace Transition has begun. That means
455 that the real names of the classes and other symbols do not have the
456 'wx' prefix and the modules are located in a Python package named
457 wx. There is still a Python package named wxPython with modules
458 that have the names with the wx prefix for backwards compatibility.
459 Instead of dynamically changing the names at module load time like in
460 2.4, the compatibility modules are generated at build time and contain
461 assignment statements like this:
</p>
462 <pre class=
"literal-block">
463 wxWindow = wx._core.Window
465 <p>Don't let the
"_core
" in the name bother you. That and some other
466 modules are implementation details, and everything that was in the
467 wxPython.wx module before will still be in the wx package namespace
468 after this change. So from your code you would use it as wx.Window or
469 wxWindow if you import from the wxPython.wx module.
</p>
470 <p>A few notes about how all of this was accomplished might be
471 interesting... SWIG is now run twice for each module that it is
472 generating code for. The first time it outputs an XML representaion
473 of the parse tree, which can be up to
20MB and
300K lines in size!
474 That XML is then run through a little Python script that creates a
475 file full of SWIG %rename directives that take the wx off of the
476 names, and also generates the Python compatibility file described
477 above that puts the wx back on the names. SWIG is then run a second
478 time to generate the C++ code to implement the extension module, and
479 uses the %rename directives that were generated in the first step.
</p>
480 <p>Not every name is handled correctly (but the bulk of them are) and so
481 some work has to be done by hand, especially for the reverse-renamers.
482 So expect a few flaws here and there until everything gets sorted out.
</p>
483 <p>In summary, the wx package and names without the
"wx
" prefix are now
484 the official form of the wxPython classes. For example:
</p>
485 <pre class=
"literal-block">
488 class MyFrame(wx.Frame):
489 def __init__(self, parent, title):
490 wx.Frame.__init__(self, parent, -
1, title)
491 p = wx.Panel(self, -
1)
492 b = wx.Button(p, -
1,
"Do It
", (
10,
10))
493 self.Bind(wx.EVT_BUTTON, self.JustDoIt, b)
495 def JustDoIt(self, evt):
496 print
"It's done!
"
498 app = wx.PySimpleApp()
499 f = MyFrame(None,
"What's up?
")
503 <p>You shouldn't need to migrate all your modules over to use the new
504 package and names right away as there are modules in place that try to
505 provide as much backwards compatibility of the names as possible. If
506 you rewrote the above sample using
"from wxPython.wx import *
", the
507 old wxNames, and the old style of event binding it will still work
510 <div class=
"section">
511 <h1><a id=
"new-wx-dc-methods" name=
"new-wx-dc-methods">New wx.DC Methods
</a></h1>
512 <p><strong>[Changed in
2.5.2.x]
</strong> In wxPython
2.5.1.5 there was a new
513 implementation of the wx.DC Draw and other methods that broke
514 backwards compatibility in the name of consistency. That change has
515 been reverted and the wx.DC Draw methods with
2.4 compatible
516 signatures have been restored. In addition a new set of methods have
517 been added that take wx.Point and/or wx.Size parameters instead of
518 separate integer parameters. The Draw and etc. methods now available
519 in the wx.DC class are:
</p>
520 <pre class=
"literal-block">
521 FloodFill(self, x, y, colour, style = wx.FLOOD_SURFACE)
522 FoodFillPoint(self, pt, colour, style = wx.FLOOD_SURFACE)
525 GetPixelPoint(self, pt)
527 DrawLine(self, x1, y1, x2, y2)
528 DrawLinePoint(self, pt1, pt2)
530 CrossHair(self, x, y)
531 CrossHairPoint(self, pt)
533 DrawArc(self, x1, y1, x2, y2, xc, yc)
534 DrawArcPoint(self, pt1, pt2, centre)
536 DrawCheckMark(self, x, y, width, height)
537 DrawCheckMarkRect(self, rect)
539 DrawEllipticArc(self, x, y, w, h, sa, ea)
540 DrawEllipticArcPointSize(self, pt, sz, sa, ea)
542 DrawPoint(self, x, y)
543 DrawPointPoint(self, pt)
545 DrawRectangle(self, x, y, width, height)
546 DrawRectangleRect(self, rect)
547 DrawRectanglePointSize(self, pt, sz)
549 DrawRoundedRectangle(self, x, y, width, height, radius)
550 DrawRoundedRectangleRect(self, r, radius)
551 DrawRoundedRectanglePointSize(self, pt, sz, radius)
553 DrawCircle(self, x, y, radius)
554 DrawCirclePoint(self, pt, radius)
556 DrawEllipse(self, x, y, width, height)
557 DrawEllipseRect(self, rect)
558 DrawEllipsePointSize(self, pt, sz)
560 DrawIcon(self, icon, x, y)
561 DrawIconPoint(self, icon, pt)
563 DrawBitmap(self, bmp, x, y, useMask = False)
564 DrawBitmapPoint(self, bmp, pt, useMask = False)
566 DrawText(self, text, x, y)
567 DrawTextPoint(self, text, pt)
569 DrawRotatedText(self, text, x, y, angle)
570 DrawRotatedTextPoint(self, text, pt, angle)
572 bool Blit(self, xdest, ydest, width, height, sourceDC, xsrc, ysrc,
573 rop = wx.COPY, useMask = False, xsrcMask = -
1, ysrcMask = -
1)
574 BlitPointSize(self, destPt, sz, sourceDC, srcPt, rop = wx.COPY,
575 useMask = False, srcPtMask = wxDefaultPosition)
578 SetClippingRegion(self, x, y, width, height)
579 SetClippingRegionPointSize(self, pt, sz)
580 SetClippingRegionAsRegion(self, region)
581 SetClippingRect(self, rect)
584 <div class=
"section">
585 <h1><a id=
"building-extending-and-embedding-wxpython" name=
"building-extending-and-embedding-wxpython">Building, Extending and Embedding wxPython
</a></h1>
586 <p>wxPython's setup.py script now expects to use existing libraries for
587 the contribs (gizmos, stc, xrc, etc.) rather than building local
588 copies of them. If you build your own copies of wxPython please be
589 aware that you now need to also build the stc, xrc, animate and gizmos
590 libraries in addition to the main wx lib.
</p>
591 <p>The wxPython.h and other header files are now in
592 .../wxPython/include/wx/wxPython instead of in wxPython/src. You
593 should include it via the
"wx/wxPython/wxPython.h
" path and add
594 .../wxPython/include to your list of include paths. On OSX and
595 unix-like systems the wxPython headers are installed to the same place
596 that the wxWidgets headers are installed, so if you are building
597 wxPython compatible extensions on those platforms then your include
598 path should already be set properly.
</p>
599 <p>If you are also using SWIG for your extension then you'll need to
600 adapt how the wxPython .i files are imported into your .i files. See
601 the wxPython sources for examples. Your modules will need to at least
602 <tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">%import
</span> <span class=
"pre">core.i
</span></tt>, and possibly others if you need the definition of
603 other classes. Since you will need them to build your modules using
604 SWIG, the main wxPython .i files are also installed with the wxPython
605 headers in an i_files sibdirectory. It should be enough to pass a
606 -I/pathname on the command line for SWIG to find the files.
</p>
607 <p>The bulk of wxPython's setup.py has been moved to another module,
608 wx/build/config.py. This module will be installed as part of wxPython
609 so
3rd party modules that wish to use the same setup/configuration
610 code can do so simply by importing this module from their own setup.py
611 scripts using
<tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">import
</span> <span class=
"pre">wx.build.config
</span></tt>.
</p>
612 <p>You no longer need to call wxClassInfo::CleanUpClasses() and
613 wxClassInfo::InitializeClasses() in your extensions or when embedding
615 <p>The usage of wxPyBeginAllowThreads and wxPyEndAllowThreads has changed
616 slightly. wxPyBeginAllowThreads now returns a boolean value that must
617 be passed to the coresponding wxPyEndAllowThreads function call. This
618 is to help do the RightThing when calls to these two functions are
619 nested, or if calls to external code in other extension modules that
620 are wrapped in the standard Py_(BEGIN|END)_ALLOW_THERADS may result in
621 wx event handlers being called (such as during the call to
624 <div class=
"section">
625 <h1><a id=
"two-or-three-phase-create" name=
"two-or-three-phase-create">Two (or Three!) Phase Create
</a></h1>
626 <p>If you use the Precreate/Create method of instantiating a window, (for
627 example, to set an extended style flag, or for XRC handlers) then
628 there is now a new method named PostCreate to help with transplanting
629 the brain of the prewindow instance into the derived window instance.
631 <pre class=
"literal-block">
632 class MyDialog(wx.Dialog):
633 def __init__(self, parent, ID, title, pos, size, style):
635 pre.SetExtraStyle(wx.DIALOG_EX_CONTEXTHELP)
636 pre.Create(parent, ID, title, pos, size, style)
640 <div class=
"section">
641 <h1><a id=
"sizers" name=
"sizers">Sizers
</a></h1>
642 <p>The hack allowing the old
"option
" keyword parameter has been removed.
643 If you use keyword args with wx.Sizer Add, Insert, or Prepend methods
644 then you will need to use the
<tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">proportion
</span></tt> name instead of
645 <tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">option
</span></tt>. (The
<tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">proportion
</span></tt> keyword was also allowed in
2.4.2.4.)
</p>
646 <p>When adding a spacer to a sizer you now need to use a wx.Size or a
647 2-integer sequence instead of separate width and height parameters.
648 This was optionally allowed in
2.4, but now it is required. This
649 allows for more consistency in how you add the various types of items
650 to a sizer. The first parameter defines the item (instead of the
651 possibily first two, depending on if you are doing a spacer or not,)
652 and that item can either be a window, a sizer or a spacer (which can
653 be a sequence or a wx.Size.) Removing the option for separate width
654 and height parameters greatly simplified the wrapper code.
</p>
655 <p>The wx.GridBagSizer class (very similar to the RowColSizer in the
656 library) has been added to C++ and wrapped for wxPython. It can also
657 be used from XRC.
</p>
658 <p>You should not use AddWindow, AddSizer, AddSpacer (and similar for
659 Insert, Prepend, and etc.) methods any longer. Just use Add and the
660 wrappers will figure out what to do.
<strong>[Changed in
2.5.2.x]
</strong>
661 AddWindow, AddSizer, AddSpacer and etc. will now issue a
662 DeprecationWarning.
<strong>[Changed in
2.5.4.x]
</strong> These methods have now
663 been undeprecated at the request of Riaan Booysen, the Boa Constructor
664 team lead. They are now just simple compatibility aliases for Add,
666 <p><strong>[Changed in
2.5.2.x]
</strong> The Sizers have had some fundamental internal
667 changes in the
2.5.2.x release intended to make them do more of the
668 "Right Thing
" but also be as backwards compatible as possible.
669 First a bit about how things used to work:
</p>
672 <li>The size that a window had when Add()ed to the sizer was assumed
673 to be its minimal size, and that size would always be used by
674 default when calculating layout size and positions, and the
675 sizer itself would keep track of that minimal size.
</li>
676 <li>If the window item was added with the
<tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">wx.ADJUST_MINSIZE
</span></tt>
677 flag then when layout was calculated the item's
<tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">GetBestSize
</span></tt>
678 would be used to reset the minimal size that the sizer used.
</li>
681 <p>The main thrust of the new Sizer changes was to make behavior like
682 <tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">wx.ADJUST_MINSIZE
</span></tt> be the default, and also to push the tracking of
683 the minimal size to the window itself (since it knows its own needs)
684 instead of having the sizer take care of it. Consequently these
685 changes were made:
</p>
688 <li>The
<tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">wx.FIXED_MINSIZE
</span></tt> flag was added to allow for the old
689 behavior. When this flag is used the size a window has when
690 added to the sizer will be treated as its minimal size and it
691 will not be readjusted on each layout.
</li>
692 <li>The min size stored in
<tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">wx.Window
</span></tt> and settable with
693 <tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">SetSizeHints
</span></tt> or
<tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">SetMinSize
</span></tt> will by default be used by
694 the sizer (if it was set) as the minimal size of the sizer item.
695 If the min size was not set (or was only partially set) then the
696 window's best size is fetched and it is used instead of (or
697 blended with) the min size.
<tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">wx.Window.GetBestFittingSize
</span></tt>
698 was added to facilitate getting the size to be used by the
700 <li>The best size of a window is cached so it doesn't need to
701 recaculated on every layout.
<tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">wx.Window.InvalidateBestSize
</span></tt>
702 was added and should be called (usually just internally in
703 control methods) whenever something is done that would make the
704 best size change.
</li>
705 <li>All wxControls were changed to set the minsize to what is passed
706 to the constructor or Create method, and also to set the real
707 size of the control to the blending of the min size and best
708 size.
<tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">wx.Window.SetBestFittingSize
</span></tt> was added to help with
709 this, although most controls don't need to call it directly
710 because it is called indirectly via the
<tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">SetInitialSize
</span></tt>
711 called in the base classes.
</li>
714 <p>At this time, the only situation known not to work the same as before
715 is the following:
</p>
716 <pre class=
"literal-block">
717 win = SomeWidget(parent)
718 win.SetSize(SomeNonDefaultSize)
721 <p>In this case the old code would have used the new size as the minimum,
722 but now the sizer will use the default size as the minimum rather than
723 the size set later. It is an easy fix though, just move the
724 specification of the size to the constructor (assuming that SomeWidget
725 will set its minsize there like the rest of the controls do) or call
726 <tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">SetMinSize
</span></tt> instead of
<tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">SetSize
</span></tt>.
</p>
727 <p>In order to fit well with this new scheme of things, all wxControls or
728 custom controls should do the following things. (Depending on how
729 they are used you may also want to do the same thing for non-control
733 <li><p class=
"first">Either override or inherit a meaningful
<tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">DoGetBestSize
</span></tt> method
734 that calculates whatever size is
"best
" for the control. Once
735 that size is calculated then there should normally be a call to
736 <tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">CacheBestSize
</span></tt> to save it for later use, unless for some
737 reason you want the best size to be recalculated on every
739 <p>Note: In order to successfully override
<tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">DoGetBestSize
</span></tt> in
740 Python the class needs to be derived from
<tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">wx.PyWindow
</span></tt>,
741 <tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">wx.PyControl
</span></tt>, or etc. If your class instead derives from
742 one of the standard wx classes then just be sure that the min
743 size gets explicitly set to what would have been the best size
744 and things should work properly in almost all situations.
</p>
746 <li><p class=
"first">Any method that changes the attributes of the control such that
747 the best size will change should call
<tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">InvalidateBestSize
</span></tt> so
748 it will be recalculated the next time it is needed.
</p>
750 <li><p class=
"first">The control's constructor and/or Create method should ensure
751 that the minsize is set to the size passed in, and that the
752 control is sized to a blending of the min size and best size.
753 This can be done by calling
<tt class=
"docutils literal"><span class=
"pre">SetBestFittingSize
</span></tt>.
</p>
758 <div class=
"section">
759 <h1><a id=
"platforminfo" name=
"platforminfo">PlatformInfo
</a></h1>
760 <p>Added wx.PlatformInfo which is a tuple containing strings that
761 describe the platform and build options of wxPython. This lets you
762 know more about the build than just the __WXPORT__ value that
763 wx.Platform contains, such as if it is a GTK2 build. For example,
765 <pre class=
"literal-block">
766 if wx.Platform ==
"__WXGTK__
":
769 <p>you should do this:
</p>
770 <pre class=
"literal-block">
771 if
"__WXGTK__
" in wx.PlatformInfo:
774 <p>and you can specifically check for a wxGTK2 build by looking for
775 "gtk2
" in wx.PlatformInfo. Unicode builds are also detectable this
776 way. If there are any other platform/toolkit/build flags that make
777 sense to add to this tuple please let me know.
</p>
778 <p>BTW, wx.Platform will probably be deprecated in the future.
</p>
780 <div class=
"section">
781 <h1><a id=
"activex" name=
"activex">ActiveX
</a></h1>
782 <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
783 extension module called wx.activex. It is very generic and dynamic
784 and should allow hosting of arbitray ActiveX controls within your
785 wxPython apps. So far I've tested it with IE, PDF, and Flash
786 controls, (and there are new samples in the demo and also library
787 modules supporting these.)
</p>
788 <p>The new wx.activex module contains a bunch of code, but the most
789 important things to look at are ActiveXWindow and ActiveXEvent.
790 ActiveXWindow derives from wxWindow and the constructor accepts a
791 CLSID for the ActiveX Control that should be created. (There is also
792 a CLSID class that can convert from a progID or a CLSID String.) The
793 ActiveXWindow class simply adds methods that allow you to query some
794 of the TypeInfo exposed by the ActiveX object, and also to get/set
795 properties or call methods by name. The Python implementation
796 automatically handles converting parameters and return values to/from
797 the types expected by the ActiveX code as specified by the TypeInfo,
798 (just bool, integers, floating point, strings and None/Empty so far,
799 but more can be handled later.)
</p>
800 <p>That's pretty much all there is to the class, as I mentioned before it
801 is very generic and dynamic. Very little is hard-coded and everything
802 that is done with the actual ActiveX control is done at runtime and
803 referenced by property or method name. Since Python is such a dynamic
804 language this is a very good match. I thought for a while about doing
805 some Python black-magic and making the specific methods/properties of
806 the actual ActiveX control
"appear
" at runtime, but then decided that
807 it would be better and more understandable to do it via subclassing.
808 So there is a utility class in wx.activex that given an existing
809 ActiveXWindow instance can generate a .py module containing a derived
810 class with real methods and properties that do the Right Thing to
811 reflect those calls to the real ActiveX control. There is also a
812 script/tool module named genaxmodule that given a CLSID or progID and
813 a class name, will generate the module for you. There are a few
814 examples of the output of this tool in the wx.lib package, see
815 iewin.py, pdfwin.py and flashwin.py.
</p>
816 <p>Currently the genaxmodule tool will tweak some of the names it
817 generates, but this can be controled if you would like to do it
818 differently by deriving your own class from GernerateAXModule,
819 overriding some methods and then using this class from a tool like
820 genaxmodule. [TODO: make specifying a new class on genaxmodule's
821 command-line possible.] The current default behavior is that any
822 event names that start with
"On
" will have the
"On
" dropped, property
823 names are converted to all lower case, and if any name is a Python
824 keyword it will have an underscore appended to it. GernerateAXModule
825 does it's best when generating the code in the new module, but it can
826 only be as good as the TypeInfo data available from the ActiveX
827 control so sometimes some tweaking will be needed. For example, the
828 IE web browser control defines the Flags parameter of the Navigate2
829 method as required, but MSDN says it is optional.
</p>
830 <p>It is intended that this new wx.activex module will replace both the
831 older version of Lindsay's code available in iewin.IEHtmlWindow, and
832 also the wx.lib.activexwraper module. Probably the biggest
833 differences you'll ecounter in migrating activexwrapper-based code
834 (besides events working better without causing deadlocks) is that
835 events are no longer caught by overriding methods in your derived
836 class. Instead ActiveXWindow uses the wx event system and you bind
837 handlers for the ActiveX events exactly the same way you do for any wx
838 event. There is just one extra step needed and that is creating an
839 event ID from the ActiveX event name, and if you use the genaxmodule
840 tool then this extra step will be handled for you there. For example,
841 for the StatusTextChange event in the IE web browser control, this
842 code is generated for you:
</p>
843 <pre class=
"literal-block">
844 wxEVT_StatusTextChange = wx.activex.RegisterActiveXEvent('StatusTextChange')
845 EVT_StatusTextChange = wx.PyEventBinder(wxEVT_StatusTextChange,
1)
847 <p>and you would use it in your code like this:
</p>
848 <pre class=
"literal-block">
849 self.Bind(iewin.EVT_StatusTextChange, self.UpdateStatusText, self.ie)
851 <p>When the event happens and your event handler function is called the
852 event properties from the ActiveX control (if any) are converted to
853 attributes of the event object passed to the handler. (Can you say
854 'event' any more times in a single sentence? ;-) ) For example the
855 StatusTextChange event will also send the text that should be put into
856 the status line as an event parameter named
"Text
" and you can access
857 it your handlers as an attribute of the event object like this:
</p>
858 <pre class=
"literal-block">
859 def UpdateStatusText(self, evt):
860 self.SetStatusText(evt.Text)
862 <p>Usually these event object attributes should be considered read-only,
863 but some will be defined by the TypeInfo as output parameters. In
864 those cases if you modify the event object's attribute then that value
865 will be returned to the ActiveX control. For example, to prevent a
866 new window from being opened by the IE web browser control you can do
867 this in the handler for the iewin.EVT_NewWindow2 event:
</p>
868 <pre class=
"literal-block">
869 def OnNewWindow2(self, evt):
872 <p>So how do you know what methods, events and properties that an ActiveX
873 control supports? There is a funciton in wx.activex named GetAXInfo
874 that returns a printable summary of the TypeInfo from the ActiveX
875 instance passed in. You can use this as an example of how to browse
876 the TypeInfo provided, and there is also a copy of this function's
877 output appended as a comment to the modules produced by the
878 genaxmodule tool. Beyond that you'll need to consult the docs
879 provided by the makers of the ActiveX control that you are using.
</p>
881 <div class=
"section">
882 <h1><a id=
"png-images" name=
"png-images">PNG Images
</a></h1>
883 <p>Prior to
2.5 the PNG image handler would convert all alpha channel
884 information to a mask when the image was loaded. Pixels that were
885 more than halfway transparent would be made fully transparent by the
886 mask and the rest would be made fully opaque.
</p>
887 <p>In
2.5 the image handler has been updated to preserve the alpha
888 channel and will now only create a mask when all the pixels in the
889 image are either fully transparent or fully opaque. In addition, the
890 wx.DC.DrawBitmap and wx.DC.Blit methods are able to correctly blend
891 the pixels in the image with partially transparent alpha values.
</p>
892 <p>If you are using a PNG with an alpha channel but you need to have a
893 wx.Mask like you automatically got in
2.4 then you can do one of the
897 <li>Edit the image and make all the partially transparent pixels be
898 fully transparent.
</li>
899 <li>Use a different image type.
</li>
900 <li>Set a mask based on colour after you load the image.
</li>
904 <div class=
"section">
905 <h1><a id=
"ogl-is-dead-long-live-ogl" name=
"ogl-is-dead-long-live-ogl">OGL is dead! LONG LIVE OGL!
</a></h1>
906 <p><strong>[Changed in
2.5.2.x]
</strong></p>
907 <p>The wx.ogl module was deprecated in version
2.5.2 in favor of the new
908 Python port of the OGL library located at wx.lib.ogl contributed by
909 Pierre Hjälm. Starting in version
2.5.5 the old ogl is no longer
910 being built in the distributed binaries, however the source code is
911 still in the source tree so people can built it themselves if desired.
</p>
912 <p>The reason this changes was done was to greatly extend the life of OGL
913 within wxPython by making it more easily maintainable and less prone
914 to getting rusty as there seems to be less and less interest in
915 maintaining the C++ version.
</p>
916 <p>There are only a few known compatibility issues at this time. First
917 is the location of OGL. The old version was located in the
918 wx.ogl module, and the new version is in the wx.lib.ogl package. So
919 this just means that to start using the new version you need to adjust
920 your imports. So if your code currently has something like this:
</p>
921 <pre class=
"literal-block">
925 <p>Then just change it to this:
</p>
926 <pre class=
"literal-block">
928 import wx.lib.ogl as ogl
930 <p>The other compatibility issue deals with removing a wart in the
931 original API that was necessary in order to allow overloaded methods
932 in derived classes to call the same method in the base class when
933 using the old SWIG. Instead dedaling with the wart you can now just
934 call the base class method like you woudl for any other Python class.
935 For example, if you had to do something like this previously:
</p>
936 <pre class=
"literal-block">
937 class MyDividedShape(ogl.DividedShape):
939 def OnSizingEndDragLeft(self, pt, x, y, keys, attch):
940 self.base_OnSizingEndDragLeft(pt, x, y, keys, attch)
943 <p>You will need to change it to be like this:
</p>
944 <pre class=
"literal-block">
945 class MyDividedShape(ogl.DividedShape):
947 def OnSizingEndDragLeft(self, pt, x, y, keys, attch):
948 ogl.DividedShape.OnSizingEndDragLeft(self, pt, x, y, keys, attch)
952 <div class=
"section">
953 <h1><a id=
"obsolete-modules" name=
"obsolete-modules">Obsolete Modules
</a></h1>
954 <p>Instead of over a dozen separate extension modules linked together
955 into a single extension module, the
"core
" module is now just a few
956 extensions that are linked independently, and then merged together
957 later into the main namespace via Python code.
</p>
958 <p>Because of the above and also because of the way the new SWIG works,
959 the
"internal
" module names have changed, but you shouldn't have been
960 using them anyway so it shouldn't bother you. ;-) In case you were
961 erroneously using them in
2.4, here are the internal extension modules
962 that no longer exist:
</p>
988 <p>They have been replaced by the following, but please remember that
989 these are just
"implementation details
" and you should really be using
990 the objects in these modules only via the wx or wxPython.wx packages:
</p>
1000 <p>The help module no longer exists and the classes therein are now part
1001 of the core module imported with wxPython.wx or the wx package.
</p>
1003 <div class=
"section">
1004 <h1><a id=
"wx-taskbaricon" name=
"wx-taskbaricon">wx.TaskBarIcon
</a></h1>
1005 <p><strong>[Changed in
2.5.3.x]
</strong></p>
1006 <p>wx.TaskbarIcon now works on all three platforms, although for wxGTK it
1007 depends on support from the Window Manager. On OS X the icon replaces
1008 the application's icon on the dock and when you right click on it the
1009 app's default popup menu is merged with the wx.TaskBarIcon's menu.
1010 Because of how it is implemented on the Mac using the Dock most of the
1011 TaskBarIcon events will _not_ be emitted on that platform, but since
1012 98% of the time you simply want to display an icon and have a popup
1013 menu it shouldn't be much of a problem. You can still use the other
1014 events on the other platforms, you'll just want to be sure that you
1015 can do everything you want via the menu too.
</p>
1016 <p>Since popping up a menu is the most common thing to do with a
1017 TaskBarIcon the class has some new built in functionality to
1018 facilitate that. To use the TaskBarIcon in this new way, simply
1019 derive a new class from TaskBarIcon and implement a CreatePopupMenu
1020 method that creates and returns the menu. That's all there is to it,
1021 besides binding event handlers for the menu items of course. Take a
1022 look at the DemoTaskBarIcon class in the demo/Main.py module for an
1024 <p><strong>NOTE
</strong>: Unfortunately due to being able to support virtualizing
1025 CreatePopupMenu the C++ TaskBarIcon instance now holds a reference to
1026 the Python instance, and so you will need to explicitly Destroy() your
1027 TaskBarIcon instance when you are done with it. (Like you do with
1028 wx.Dialogs.) If you don't destroy it then wxWidgets will assume that
1029 you want the app to keep running with just the icon in the task bar
1030 and the MainLoop will not exit.
</p>
1032 <div class=
"section">
1033 <h1><a id=
"version-number-change" name=
"version-number-change">Version Number Change
</a></h1>
1034 <p><strong>[Changed in
2.5.3.x]
</strong></p>
1035 <p>Starting with
2.5.3.0 the Unicode versions of wxPython will no longer
1036 have a 'u' appended to the fourth component of the version number.
1037 Please check for the presence of
"unicode
" in the
<cite>wx.PlatformInfo
</cite>
1038 tuple instead. (This tuple of strings has been available since the
1039 first
2.5 version.) For example:
</p>
1040 <pre class=
"literal-block">
1041 if
"unicode
" in wx.PlatformInfo:
1046 <div class=
"section">
1047 <h1><a id=
"multi-version-installs" name=
"multi-version-installs">Multi-Version Installs
</a></h1>
1048 <p><strong>[Changed in
2.5.3.x]
</strong></p>
1049 <p>Starting with
2.5.3.0 the wx and wxPython package directories will be
1050 installed in a subdirectory of the site-packages directory, instead of
1051 directly in site-packages. This is done to help facilitate having
1052 multiple versions of wxPython installed side-by-side. Why would you
1053 want to do this? One possible scenario is you have an app that
1054 requires wxPython
2.4 but you want to use the newest
2.5 to do your
1055 own development with. Or perhaps you want to be able to test your app
1056 with several different versions of wxPython to ensure compatibility.
1057 Before everyone panics, rest asured that if you only install one
1058 version of wxPython then you should notice no difference in how things
1060 <p>In addition to installing wxPython into a
"versioned
" subdirectory of
1061 site-packages, a file named
<cite>wx.pth
</cite> is optionally installed that will
1062 contain the name of the versioned subdirectory. This will cause that
1063 subdirectory to be automatically added to the sys.path and so doing an
1064 "import wx
" will find the package in the subdirectory like it would
1065 have if it was still located directly in site-packages. I say
1066 "optionally
" above because that is how you can control which install
1067 of wxPython is the default one. Which ever version installs the
1068 wx.pth file will be the one that is imported with a plain
"import wx
"
1069 statement. Of course you can always manipulate that by editing the
1070 wx.pth file, or by setting PYTHONPATH in the environment, or by the
1071 method described in the next paragraph.
</p>
1072 <p>Finally, a new module named wxversion.py is installed to the
1073 site-packages directory. It can be used to manipulate the sys.path at
1074 runtime so your applications can select which version of wxPython they
1075 would like to to have imported. You use it like this:
</p>
1076 <pre class=
"literal-block">
1078 wxversion.select(
"2.4")
1081 <p>Then even though a
2.5 version of wxPython may be the default the
1082 application that does the above the first time that wx is imported
1083 will actually get a
2.4 version.
<strong>NOTE:
</strong> There isn't actually a
2.4
1084 version of wxPython that supports this, but there will be.
</p>
1085 <p>Please see this wiki page for more details, HowTo's and FAQ's:
1086 <a class=
"reference" href=
"http://wiki.wxpython.org/index.cgi/MultiVersionInstalls">http://wiki.wxpython.org/index.cgi/MultiVersionInstalls
</a></p>
1088 <div class=
"section">
1089 <h1><a id=
"miscellaneous-stuff" name=
"miscellaneous-stuff">Miscellaneous Stuff
</a></h1>
1090 <p>wxPyDefaultPosition and wxPyDefaultSize are gone. Use the
1091 wxDefaultPosition and wxDefaultSize objects instead.
</p>
1092 <p>Similarly, the wxSystemSettings backwards compatibiility aliases for
1093 GetSystemColour, GetSystemFont and GetSystemMetric have also gone into
1094 the bit-bucket. Use GetColour, GetFont and GetMetric instead.
</p>
1095 <p>Use the Python True/False constants instead of the true, TRUE, false,
1096 FALSE that used to be provided with wxPython.
</p>
1097 <p>Use None instead of the ancient and should have been removed a long
1098 time ago wx.NULL alias.
</p>
1099 <p>wx.TreeCtrl.GetFirstChild no longer needs to be passed the cookie
1100 variable as the
2nd parameter. It still returns it though, for use
1101 with GetNextChild.
</p>
1102 <p>The wx.NO_FULL_REPAINT_ON_RESIZE style is now the default style for
1103 all windows. The name still exists for compatibility, but it is set
1104 to zero. If you want to disable the setting (so it matches the old
1105 default) then you need to use the new wx.FULL_REPAINT_ON_RESIZE style
1106 flag otherwise only the freshly exposed areas of the window will be
1108 <p>wxPyTypeCast has been removed. Since we've had the OOR (Original
1109 Object Return) for a couple years now there should be no need to use
1110 wxPyTypeCast at all.
</p>
1111 <p>If you use the old wxPython package and wxPython.wx namespace then
1112 there are compatibility aliases for much of the above items.
</p>
1113 <p>The wxWave class has been renamed to wxSound, and now has a slightly
1115 <p>Before Python
2.3 it was possible to pass a floating point object as a
1116 parameter to a function that expected an integer, and the
1117 PyArg_ParseTuple family of functions would automatically convert to
1118 integer by truncating the fractional portion of the number. With
1119 Python
2.3 that behavior was deprecated and a deprecation warning is
1120 raised when you pass a floating point value, (for example, calling
1121 wx.DC.DrawLine with floats for the position and size,) and lots of
1122 developers using wxPython had to scramble to change their code to call
1123 int() before calling wxPython methods. Recent changes in SWIG have
1124 moved the conversion out of PyArg_ParseTuple to custom code that SWIG
1125 generates. Since the default conversion fragment was a little too
1126 strict and didn't generate a very meaningful exception when it failed,
1127 I decided to use a custom fragment instead, and it turned out that
1128 it's very easy to allow floats to be converted again just like they
1129 used to be. So, in a nutshell, any numeric type that can be
1130 converted to an integer is now legal to be passed to SWIG wrapped
1131 functions in wxPython for parameters that are expecting an integer.
1132 If the object is not already an integer then it will be asked to
1133 convert itself to one. A similar conversion fragment is in place for
1134 parameters that expect floating point values.
</p>
1135 <p><strong>[Changed in
2.5.2.x]
</strong> The MaskedEditCtrl modules have been moved
1136 to their own sub-package, wx.lib.masked. See the docstrings and demo
1137 for changes in capabilities, usage, etc.
</p>
1138 <p><strong>[Changed in
2.5.2.x]
</strong> wx.MaskColour constructor has been deprecated
1139 and will raise a DeprecationWarning if used. The main wx.Mask
1140 constructor has been modified to be compatible with wx.MaskColour so
1141 you should use it instead.
</p>
1142 <p><strong>[Changed in
2.5.2.x]
</strong> In wx.TextCtrls that have the
1143 wx.TE_PROCESS_TAB style the TAB key will be treated like an ordinary
1144 character and will not cause any tab traversal navigation at all. If
1145 you use this style but would still like to have the normal tab
1146 traversal take place then you should send your own
1147 wx.NavigationKeyEvent from the wx.EVT_KEY_DOWN handler. There is a
1148 new Navigate method in the wx.Window class to help send the event and
1149 it is used something like this:
</p>
1150 <pre class=
"literal-block">
1151 flags = wx.NavigationKeyEvent.IsForward
1152 if event.ShiftDown():
1153 flags = wx.NavigationKeyEvent.IsBackward
1154 if event.ControlDown():
1155 flags |= wx.NavigationKeyEvent.WinChange
1156 self.Navigate(flags)