## Developing GTK3 Applications Here we will document on how to develop GTK3 application UI in python. First we want to setup an example code base to look into. In this case gnome-music. ## Setup gnome-music as code reference gnome-music does not use glade Clone gnome-music and check out the tag v40.0 [gnome-music](https://github.com/GNOME/gnome-music/tree/40.0) ```bash git clone git@github.com:GNOME/gnome-music.git && cd gnome-music && git checkout 40.0 ``` Checkout nixpkgs version `468cb5980b56d348979488a74a9b5de638400160` for the correct gnome-music devshell then execute: ```bash nix develop /home/username/Projects/nixpkgs#gnome.gnome-music ``` Look into the file `gnome-music.in` which bootstraps the application. ## Setup gnu-cash as reference Gnucash uses glade with complex UI Setup gnucash ```bash git clone git@github.com:Gnucash/gnucash.git git checkout ed4921271c863c7f6e0c800e206b25ac6e9ba4da cd nixpkgs git checkout 015739d7bffa7da4e923978040a2f7cba6af3270 nix develop /home/username/Projects/nixpkgs#gnucash mkdir build && cd build cmake .. cd .. make ``` - The use the GTK Builder instead of templates. ## Look into virt-manager it uses python + spice-gtk Look into `virtManager/details/viewers.py` to see how spice-gtk is being used ```bash git clone https://github.com/virt-manager/virt-manager ``` ### Glade Make sure to check the 'composit' box in glade in the GtkApplicationWindow to be able to import the glade file through GTK template ## Links - Another python glade project [syncthing-gtk](https://github.com/kozec/syncthing-gtk) - Other python glade project [linuxcnc](https://github.com/podarok/linuxcnc/tree/master) - Install [Glade UI Toolbuilder](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/glade) - To understand GTK3 Components look into the [Python GTK3 Tutorial](https://python-gtk-3-tutorial.readthedocs.io/en/latest/search.html?q=ApplicationWindow&check_keywords=yes&area=default) - https://web.archive.org/web/20100706201447/http://www.pygtk.org/pygtk2reference/ (GTK2 Reference, many methods still exist in gtk3) - - Also look into [PyGObject](https://pygobject.readthedocs.io/en/latest/guide/gtk_template.html) to know more about threading and async etc. - [GI Python API](https://lazka.github.io/pgi-docs/#Gtk-3.0) - https://developer.gnome.org/documentation/tutorials/application.html - [GTK3 Python] https://github.com/sam-m888/python-gtk3-tutorial/tree/master - https://gnome.pages.gitlab.gnome.org/libhandy/doc/1.8/index.html - https://github.com/geigi/cozy - https://github.com/lutris/lutris/blob/2e9bd115febe08694f5d42dabcf9da36a1065f1d/lutris/gui/widgets/cellrenderers.py#L92 ## Debugging Style and Layout ```bash # Enable the debugger gsettings set org.gtk.Settings.Debug enable-inspector-keybinding true # Start the application with the debugger attached GTK_DEBUG=interactive ./bin/clan-vm-manager ```