Gtk.UIManager¶

Subclasses:: None

Methods¶

Inherited:: GObject.Object (37), Gtk.Buildable (10)
Structs:: GObject.ObjectClass (5)

class	`new` ()
	`add_ui` (merge_id, path, name, action, type, top)
	`add_ui_from_file` (filename)
	`add_ui_from_resource` (resource_path)
	`add_ui_from_string` (buffer)
	`ensure_update` ()
	`get_accel_group` ()
	`get_action` (path)
	`get_action_groups` ()
	`get_add_tearoffs` ()
	`get_toplevels` (types)
	`get_ui` ()
	`get_widget` (path)
	`insert_action_group` (action_group, pos)
	`new_merge_id` ()
	`remove_action_group` (action_group)
	`remove_ui` (merge_id)
	`set_add_tearoffs` (add_tearoffs)

Virtual Methods¶

Inherited:: GObject.Object (7), Gtk.Buildable (10)

	`do_actions_changed` ()
	`do_add_widget` (widget)
	`do_connect_proxy` (action, proxy)
	`do_disconnect_proxy` (action, proxy)
	`do_get_action` (path)
	`do_get_widget` (path)
	`do_post_activate` (action)
	`do_pre_activate` (action)

Properties¶

Name	Type	Flags	Short Description
`add-tearoffs`	`bool`	d/r/w	Whether tearoff menu items should be added to menus `deprecated`
`ui`	`str`	r	An XML string describing the merged UI

Signals¶

Inherited:: GObject.Object (1)

Name	Short Description
`actions-changed`	The `::actions-changed` signal is emitted whenever the set of actions changes. `deprecated`
`add-widget`	The `::add-widget` signal is emitted for each generated menubar and toolbar. `deprecated`
`connect-proxy`	The `::connect-proxy` signal is emitted after connecting a proxy to an action in the group. `deprecated`
`disconnect-proxy`	The `::disconnect-proxy` signal is emitted after disconnecting a proxy from an action in the group. `deprecated`
`post-activate`	The `::post-activate` signal is emitted just after the action is activated. `deprecated`
`pre-activate`	The `::pre-activate` signal is emitted just before the action is activated. `deprecated`

Fields¶

Inherited:: GObject.Object (1)

Name	Type	Access	Description
parent	`GObject.Object`	r

Class Details¶

class Gtk.UIManager(**kwargs)¶

Bases:: GObject.Object, Gtk.Buildable
Abstract:: No
Structure:: Gtk.UIManagerClass

A Gtk.UIManager constructs a user interface (menus and toolbars) from one or more UI definitions, which reference actions from one or more action groups.

Gtk.UIManager is deprecated since GTK+ 3.10. To construct user interfaces from XML definitions, you should use Gtk.Builder, Gio.MenuModel, et al. To work with actions, use Gio.Action, Gtk.Actionable et al. These newer classes support richer functionality and integration with various desktop shells. It should be possible to migrate most/all functionality from Gtk.UIManager.

UI Definitions

The UI definitions are specified in an XML format which can be roughly described by the following DTD.

Do not confuse the Gtk.UIManager UI Definitions described here with the similarly named GtkBuilder UI Definitions.

<!ELEMENT ui          (menubar|toolbar|popup|accelerator)* >
<!ELEMENT menubar     (menuitem|separator|placeholder|menu)* >
<!ELEMENT menu        (menuitem|separator|placeholder|menu)* >
<!ELEMENT popup       (menuitem|separator|placeholder|menu)* >
<!ELEMENT toolbar     (toolitem|separator|placeholder)* >
<!ELEMENT placeholder (menuitem|toolitem|separator|placeholder|menu)* >
<!ELEMENT menuitem     EMPTY >
<!ELEMENT toolitem     (menu?) >
<!ELEMENT separator    EMPTY >
<!ELEMENT accelerator  EMPTY >
<!ATTLIST menubar      name                      #IMPLIED
                       action                    #IMPLIED >
<!ATTLIST toolbar      name                      #IMPLIED
                       action                    #IMPLIED >
<!ATTLIST popup        name                      #IMPLIED
                       action                    #IMPLIED
                       accelerators (true|false) #IMPLIED >
<!ATTLIST placeholder  name                      #IMPLIED
                       action                    #IMPLIED >
<!ATTLIST separator    name                      #IMPLIED
                       action                    #IMPLIED
                       expand       (true|false) #IMPLIED >
<!ATTLIST menu         name                      #IMPLIED
                       action                    #REQUIRED
                       position     (top|bot)    #IMPLIED >
<!ATTLIST menuitem     name                      #IMPLIED
                       action                    #REQUIRED
                       position     (top|bot)    #IMPLIED
                       always-show-image (true|false) #IMPLIED >
<!ATTLIST toolitem     name                      #IMPLIED
                       action                    #REQUIRED
                       position     (top|bot)    #IMPLIED >
<!ATTLIST accelerator  name                      #IMPLIED
                       action                    #REQUIRED >

There are some additional restrictions beyond those specified in the DTD, e.g. every toolitem must have a toolbar in its anchestry and every menuitem must have a menubar or popup in its anchestry. Since a GLib.MarkupParser is used to parse the UI description, it must not only be valid XML, but valid markup.

If a name is not specified, it defaults to the action. If an action is not specified either, the element name is used. The name and action attributes must not contain “/” characters after parsing (since that would mess up path lookup) and must be usable as XML attributes when enclosed in doublequotes, thus they must not “”” characters or references to the “ entity.

A UI definition

<ui>
  <menubar>
    <menu name="FileMenu" action="FileMenuAction">
      <menuitem name="New" action="New2Action" />
      <placeholder name="FileMenuAdditions" />
    </menu>
    <menu name="JustifyMenu" action="JustifyMenuAction">
      <menuitem name="Left" action="justify-left"/>
      <menuitem name="Centre" action="justify-center"/>
      <menuitem name="Right" action="justify-right"/>
      <menuitem name="Fill" action="justify-fill"/>
    </menu>
  </menubar>
  <toolbar action="toolbar1">
    <placeholder name="JustifyToolItems">
      <separator/>
      <toolitem name="Left" action="justify-left"/>
      <toolitem name="Centre" action="justify-center"/>
      <toolitem name="Right" action="justify-right"/>
      <toolitem name="Fill" action="justify-fill"/>
      <separator/>
    </placeholder>
  </toolbar>
</ui>

The constructed widget hierarchy is very similar to the element tree of the XML, with the exception that placeholders are merged into their parents. The correspondence of XML elements to widgets should be almost obvious:

menubar

a Gtk.MenuBar
toolbar

a Gtk.Toolbar
popup

a toplevel Gtk.Menu
menu

a Gtk.Menu attached to a menuitem
menuitem

a Gtk.MenuItem subclass, the exact type depends on the action
toolitem

a Gtk.ToolItem subclass, the exact type depends on the action. Note that toolitem elements may contain a menu element, but only if their associated action specifies a Gtk.MenuToolButton as proxy.
separator

a Gtk.SeparatorMenuItem or Gtk.SeparatorToolItem
accelerator

a keyboard accelerator

The “position” attribute determines where a constructed widget is positioned wrt. to its siblings in the partially constructed tree. If it is “top”, the widget is prepended, otherwise it is appended.

UI Merging

The most remarkable feature of Gtk.UIManager is that it can overlay a set of menuitems and toolitems over another one, and demerge them later.

Merging is done based on the names of the XML elements. Each element is identified by a path which consists of the names of its anchestors, separated by slashes. For example, the menuitem named “Left” in the example above has the path /ui/menubar/JustifyMenu/Left and the toolitem with the same name has path /ui/toolbar1/JustifyToolItems/Left.

Accelerators

Every action has an accelerator path. Accelerators are installed together with menuitem proxies, but they can also be explicitly added with <accelerator> elements in the UI definition. This makes it possible to have accelerators for actions even if they have no visible proxies.

Smart Separators

The separators created by Gtk.UIManager are “smart”, i.e. they do not show up in the UI unless they end up between two visible menu or tool items. Separators which are located at the very beginning or end of the menu or toolbar containing them, or multiple separators next to each other, are hidden. This is a useful feature, since the merging of UI elements from multiple sources can make it hard or impossible to determine in advance whether a separator will end up in such an unfortunate position.

For separators in toolbars, you can set expand="true" to turn them from a small, visible separator to an expanding, invisible one. Toolitems following an expanding separator are effectively right-aligned.

Empty Menus

Submenus pose similar problems to separators inconnection with merging. It is impossible to know in advance whether they will end up empty after merging. Gtk.UIManager offers two ways to treat empty submenus:

make them disappear by hiding the menu item they’re attached to
add an insensitive “Empty” item

The behaviour is chosen based on the “hide_if_empty” property of the action to which the submenu is associated.

Gtk.UIManager as Gtk.Buildable

The Gtk.UIManager implementation of the Gtk.Buildable interface accepts Gtk.ActionGroup objects as <child> elements in UI definitions.

A Gtk.UIManager UI definition as described above can be embedded in an Gtk.UIManager <object> element in a Gtk.Builder UI definition.

The widgets that are constructed by a Gtk.UIManager can be embedded in other parts of the constructed user interface with the help of the “constructor” attribute. See the example below.

An embedded Gtk.UIManager UI definition

<object class="GtkUIManager" id="uiman">
  <child>
    <object class="GtkActionGroup" id="actiongroup">
      <child>
        <object class="GtkAction" id="file">
          <property name="label">_File</property>
        </object>
      </child>
    </object>
  </child>
  <ui>
    <menubar name="menubar1">
      <menu action="file">
      </menu>
    </menubar>
  </ui>
</object>
<object class="GtkWindow" id="main-window">
  <child>
    <object class="GtkMenuBar" id="menubar1" constructor="uiman"/>
  </child>
</object>

classmethod new()[source]¶

Returns:: a new ui manager object.
Return type:: Gtk.UIManager

Creates a new ui manager object.

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.10.

add_ui(merge_id, path, name, action, type, top)[source]¶

Parameters:

merge_id (int) – the merge id for the merged UI, see Gtk.UIManager.new_merge_id()
path (str) – a path
name (str) – the name for the added UI element
action (str or None) – the name of the action to be proxied, or None to add a separator
type (Gtk.UIManagerItemType) – the type of UI element to add.
top (bool) – if True, the UI element is added before its siblings, otherwise it is added after its siblings.

Adds a UI element to the current contents of self.

If type is Gtk.UIManagerItemType.AUTO, GTK+ inserts a menuitem, toolitem or separator if such an element can be inserted at the place determined by path. Otherwise type must indicate an element that can be inserted at the place determined by path.

If path points to a menuitem or toolitem, the new element will be inserted before or after this item, depending on top.

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.10.

add_ui_from_file(filename)[source]¶

Parameters:: filename (str) – the name of the file to parse
Raises:: GLib.Error
Returns:: The merge id for the merged UI. The merge id can be used to unmerge the UI with Gtk.UIManager.remove_ui(). If an error occurred, the return value is 0.
Return type:: int

Parses a file containing a UI definition and merges it with the current contents of self.

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.10.

add_ui_from_resource(resource_path)[source]¶

Parameters:: resource_path (str) – the resource path of the file to parse
Raises:: GLib.Error
Returns:: The merge id for the merged UI. The merge id can be used to unmerge the UI with Gtk.UIManager.remove_ui(). If an error occurred, the return value is 0.
Return type:: int

Parses a resource file containing a UI definition and merges it with the current contents of self.

New in version 3.4.

Deprecated since version 3.10.

add_ui_from_string(buffer)[source]¶

Parameters:

buffer (str) – the string to parse
length (int) – the length of buffer (may be -1 if buffer is nul-terminated)

Raises:

GLib.Error

Returns:

The merge id for the merged UI. The merge id can be used to unmerge the UI with Gtk.UIManager.remove_ui(). If an error occurred, the return value is 0.

Return type:

int

Parses a string containing a UI definition and merges it with the current contents of self. An enclosing <ui> element is added if it is missing.

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.10.

ensure_update()[source]¶

Makes sure that all pending updates to the UI have been completed.

This may occasionally be necessary, since Gtk.UIManager updates the UI in an idle function. A typical example where this function is useful is to enforce that the menubar and toolbar have been added to the main window before showing it:

gtk_container_add (GTK_CONTAINER (window), vbox);
g_signal_connect (merge, "add-widget",
                  G_CALLBACK (add_widget), vbox);
gtk_ui_manager_add_ui_from_file (merge, "my-menus");
gtk_ui_manager_add_ui_from_file (merge, "my-toolbars");
gtk_ui_manager_ensure_update (merge);
gtk_widget_show (window);

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.10.

get_accel_group()[source]¶

Returns:: the Gtk.AccelGroup.
Return type:: Gtk.AccelGroup

Returns the Gtk.AccelGroup associated with self.

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.10.

get_action(path)[source]¶

Parameters:: path (str) – a path
Returns:: the action whose proxy widget is found by following the path, or None if no widget was found.
Return type:: Gtk.Action

Looks up an action by following a path. See Gtk.UIManager.get_widget() for more information about paths.

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.10.

get_action_groups()[source]¶

Returns:: a GLib.List of action groups. The list is owned by GTK+ and should not be modified.
Return type:: [Gtk.ActionGroup]

Returns the list of action groups associated with self.

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.10.

get_add_tearoffs()[source]¶

Returns:: whether tearoff menu items are added
Return type:: bool

Returns whether menus generated by this Gtk.UIManager will have tearoff menu items.

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.4: Tearoff menus are deprecated and should not be used in newly written code.

get_toplevels(types)[source]¶

Parameters:: types (Gtk.UIManagerItemType) – specifies the types of toplevel widgets to include. Allowed types are Gtk.UIManagerItemType.MENUBAR, Gtk.UIManagerItemType.TOOLBAR and Gtk.UIManagerItemType.POPUP.
Returns:: a newly-allocated GLib.SList of all toplevel widgets of the requested types. Free the returned list with g_slist_free().
Return type:: [Gtk.Widget]

Obtains a list of all toplevel widgets of the requested types.

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.10.

get_ui()[source]¶

Returns:: A newly allocated string containing an XML representation of the merged UI.
Return type:: str

Creates a UI definition of the merged UI.

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.10.

get_widget(path)[source]¶

Parameters:: path (str) – a path
Returns:: the widget found by following the path, or None if no widget was found
Return type:: Gtk.Widget

Looks up a widget by following a path. The path consists of the names specified in the XML description of the UI. separated by “/”. Elements which don’t have a name or action attribute in the XML (e.g. <popup>) can be addressed by their XML element name (e.g. “popup”). The root element (“/ui”) can be omitted in the path.

Note that the widget found by following a path that ends in a <menu>; element is the menuitem to which the menu is attached, not the menu it manages.

Also note that the widgets constructed by a ui manager are not tied to the lifecycle of the ui manager. If you add the widgets returned by this function to some container or explicitly ref them, they will survive the destruction of the ui manager.

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.10.

insert_action_group(action_group, pos)[source]¶

Parameters:

action_group (Gtk.ActionGroup) – the action group to be inserted
pos (int) – the position at which the group will be inserted.

Inserts an action group into the list of action groups associated with self. Actions in earlier groups hide actions with the same name in later groups.

If pos is larger than the number of action groups in self, or negative, action_group will be inserted at the end of the internal list.

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.10.

new_merge_id()[source]¶

Returns:: an unused merge id.
Return type:: int

Returns an unused merge id, suitable for use with Gtk.UIManager.add_ui().

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.10.

remove_action_group(action_group)[source]¶

Parameters:: action_group (Gtk.ActionGroup) – the action group to be removed

Removes an action group from the list of action groups associated with self.

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.10.

remove_ui(merge_id)[source]¶

Parameters:: merge_id (int) – a merge id as returned by Gtk.UIManager.add_ui_from_string()

Unmerges the part of self's content identified by merge_id.

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.10.

set_add_tearoffs(add_tearoffs)[source]¶

Parameters:: add_tearoffs (bool) – whether tearoff menu items are added

Sets the “add_tearoffs” property, which controls whether menus generated by this Gtk.UIManager will have tearoff menu items.

Note that this only affects regular menus. Generated popup menus never have tearoff menu items.

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.4: Tearoff menus are deprecated and should not be used in newly written code.

do_actions_changed() virtual¶

do_add_widget(widget) virtual¶

Parameters:: widget (Gtk.Widget) –

do_connect_proxy(action, proxy) virtual¶

Parameters:

action (Gtk.Action) –
proxy (Gtk.Widget) –

do_disconnect_proxy(action, proxy) virtual¶

Parameters:

action (Gtk.Action) –
proxy (Gtk.Widget) –

do_get_action(path) virtual¶

Parameters:: path (str) – a path
Returns:: the action whose proxy widget is found by following the path, or None if no widget was found.
Return type:: Gtk.Action

Looks up an action by following a path. See Gtk.UIManager.get_widget() for more information about paths.

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.10.

do_get_widget(path) virtual¶

Parameters:: path (str) – a path
Returns:: the widget found by following the path, or None if no widget was found
Return type:: Gtk.Widget

Looks up a widget by following a path. The path consists of the names specified in the XML description of the UI. separated by “/”. Elements which don’t have a name or action attribute in the XML (e.g. <popup>) can be addressed by their XML element name (e.g. “popup”). The root element (“/ui”) can be omitted in the path.

Note that the widget found by following a path that ends in a <menu>; element is the menuitem to which the menu is attached, not the menu it manages.

Also note that the widgets constructed by a ui manager are not tied to the lifecycle of the ui manager. If you add the widgets returned by this function to some container or explicitly ref them, they will survive the destruction of the ui manager.

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.10.

do_post_activate(action) virtual¶

Parameters:: action (Gtk.Action) –

do_pre_activate(action) virtual¶

Parameters:: action (Gtk.Action) –

Signal Details¶

Gtk.UIManager.signals.actions_changed(u_i_manager)¶

Signal Name:: actions-changed
Flags:: RUN_FIRST, NO_RECURSE
Parameters:: u_i_manager (Gtk.UIManager) – The object which received the signal

The ::actions-changed signal is emitted whenever the set of actions changes.

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.10.

Gtk.UIManager.signals.add_widget(u_i_manager, widget)¶

Signal Name:

add-widget

Flags:

RUN_FIRST, NO_RECURSE

Parameters:

u_i_manager (Gtk.UIManager) – The object which received the signal
widget (Gtk.Widget) – the added widget

The ::add-widget signal is emitted for each generated menubar and toolbar. It is not emitted for generated popup menus, which can be obtained by Gtk.UIManager.get_widget().

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.10.

Gtk.UIManager.signals.connect_proxy(u_i_manager, action, proxy)¶

Signal Name:

connect-proxy

Flags:

RUN_FIRST, NO_RECURSE

Parameters:

u_i_manager (Gtk.UIManager) – The object which received the signal
action (Gtk.Action) – the action
proxy (Gtk.Widget) – the proxy

The ::connect-proxy signal is emitted after connecting a proxy to an action in the group.

This is intended for simple customizations for which a custom action class would be too clumsy, e.g. showing tooltips for menuitems in the statusbar.

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.10.

Gtk.UIManager.signals.disconnect_proxy(u_i_manager, action, proxy)¶

Signal Name:

disconnect-proxy

Flags:

RUN_FIRST, NO_RECURSE

Parameters:

u_i_manager (Gtk.UIManager) – The object which received the signal
action (Gtk.Action) – the action
proxy (Gtk.Widget) – the proxy

The ::disconnect-proxy signal is emitted after disconnecting a proxy from an action in the group.

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.10.

Gtk.UIManager.signals.post_activate(u_i_manager, action)¶

Signal Name:

post-activate

Flags:

RUN_FIRST, NO_RECURSE

Parameters:

u_i_manager (Gtk.UIManager) – The object which received the signal
action (Gtk.Action) – the action

The ::post-activate signal is emitted just after the action is activated.

This is intended for applications to get notification just after any action is activated.

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.10.

Gtk.UIManager.signals.pre_activate(u_i_manager, action)¶

Signal Name:

pre-activate

Flags:

RUN_FIRST, NO_RECURSE

Parameters:

u_i_manager (Gtk.UIManager) – The object which received the signal
action (Gtk.Action) – the action

The ::pre-activate signal is emitted just before the action is activated.

This is intended for applications to get notification just before any action is activated.

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.10.

Property Details¶

Gtk.UIManager.props.add_tearoffs¶

Name:: add-tearoffs
Type:: bool
Default Value:: False
Flags:: DEPRECATED, READABLE, WRITABLE

The “add-tearoffs” property controls whether generated menus have tearoff menu items.

Note that this only affects regular menus. Generated popup menus never have tearoff menu items.

New in version 2.4.

Deprecated since version 3.4: Tearoff menus are deprecated and should not be used in newly written code.

Gtk.UIManager.props.ui¶

Name:: ui
Type:: str
Default Value:: '<ui>\n</ui>\n'
Flags:: READABLE

An XML string describing the merged UI