Gtk.Application¶

Subclasses:: None

Methods¶

Inherited:: Gio.Application (39), GObject.Object (37), Gio.ActionGroup (14), Gio.ActionMap (5)
Structs:: GObject.ObjectClass (5)

class	`new` (application_id, flags)
	`add_window` (window)
	`get_accels_for_action` (detailed_action_name)
	`get_actions_for_accel` (accel)
	`get_active_window` ()
	`get_menu_by_id` (id)
	`get_menubar` ()
	`get_window_by_id` (id)
	`get_windows` ()
	`inhibit` (window, flags, reason)
	`list_action_descriptions` ()
	`remove_window` (window)
	`set_accels_for_action` (detailed_action_name, accels)
	`set_menubar` (menubar)
	`uninhibit` (cookie)

Virtual Methods¶

Inherited:: Gio.Application (15), GObject.Object (7), Gio.ActionGroup (14), Gio.ActionMap (3)

	`do_window_added` (window)
	`do_window_removed` (window)

Properties¶

Inherited:: Gio.Application (9)

Name	Type	Flags
`active-window`	`Gtk.Window`	r
`menubar`	`Gio.MenuModel`	r/w
`register-session`	`bool`	r/w
`screensaver-active`	`bool`	r

Signals¶

Inherited:: Gio.Application (7), GObject.Object (1), Gio.ActionGroup (4)

Name	Short Description
`query-end`	Emitted when the session manager is about to end the session.
`window-added`	Emitted when a [class`Gtk`.Window] is added to `application` through [method`Gtk`.Application.add_window].
`window-removed`	Emitted when a [class`Gtk`.Window] is removed from `application`.

Fields¶

Inherited:: Gio.Application (7), GObject.Object (1), Gio.ActionGroup (4)

Name	Type	Access	Description
parent_instance	`Gio.Application`	r

Class Details¶

class Gtk.Application(**kwargs)¶

Bases:: Gio.Application
Abstract:: No
Structure:: Gtk.ApplicationClass

GtkApplication is a high-level API for writing applications.

It supports many aspects of writing a GTK application in a convenient fashion, without enforcing a one-size-fits-all model.

Currently, GtkApplication handles GTK initialization, application uniqueness, session management, provides some basic scriptability and desktop shell integration by exporting actions and menus and manages a list of toplevel windows whose life-cycle is automatically tied to the life-cycle of your application.

While GtkApplication works fine with plain [class`Gtk`.Window]s, it is recommended to use it together with [class`Gtk`.ApplicationWindow].

Automatic resources

GtkApplication will automatically load menus from the GtkBuilder resource located at “gtk/menus.ui”, relative to the application’s resource base path (see [method`Gio`.Application.set_resource_base_path]). The menu with the ID “menubar” is taken as the application’s menubar. Additional menus (most interesting submenus) can be named and accessed via [method`Gtk`.Application.get_menu_by_id] which allows for dynamic population of a part of the menu structure.

Note that automatic resource loading uses the resource base path that is set at construction time and will not work if the resource base path is changed at a later time.

It is also possible to provide the menubar manually using [method`Gtk`.Application.set_menubar].

GtkApplication will also automatically setup an icon search path for the default icon theme by appending “icons” to the resource base path. This allows your application to easily store its icons as resources. See [method`Gtk`.IconTheme.add_resource_path] for more information.

If there is a resource located at gtk/help-overlay.ui which defines a [class`Gtk`.ShortcutsWindow] with ID help_overlay then GtkApplication associates an instance of this shortcuts window with each [class`Gtk`.ApplicationWindow] and sets up the keyboard accelerator <kbd>Control</kbd>+<kbd>?</kbd> to open it. To create a menu item that displays the shortcuts window, associate the item with the action win.show-help-overlay.

A simple application

A simple example is available in the GTK source code repository

GtkApplication optionally registers with a session manager of the users session (if you set the [property`Gtk`.Application:register-session] property) and offers various functionality related to the session life-cycle.

An application can block various ways to end the session with the [method`Gtk`.Application.inhibit] function. Typical use cases for this kind of inhibiting are long-running, uninterruptible operations, such as burning a CD or performing a disk backup. The session manager may not honor the inhibitor, but it can be expected to inform the user about the negative consequences of ending the session while inhibitors are present.

See Also

HowDoI: Using GtkApplication, Getting Started with GTK: Basics

classmethod new(application_id, flags)[source]¶

Parameters:

application_id (str or None) – The application ID
flags (Gio.ApplicationFlags) – the application flags

Returns:

a new GtkApplication instance

Return type:

Gtk.Application

Creates a new GtkApplication instance.

When using GtkApplication, it is not necessary to call [func`Gtk`.init] manually. It is called as soon as the application gets registered as the primary instance.

Concretely, [func`Gtk`.init] is called in the default handler for the GApplication::startup signal. Therefore, GtkApplication subclasses should always chain up in their GApplication::startup handler before using any GTK API.

Note that commandline arguments are not passed to [func`Gtk`.init].

If application_id is not None, then it must be valid. See g_application_id_is_valid().

If no application ID is given then some features (most notably application uniqueness) will be disabled.

add_window(window)[source]¶

Parameters:: window (Gtk.Window) – a GtkWindow

Adds a window to application.

This call can only happen after the application has started; typically, you should add new application windows in response to the emission of the GApplication::activate signal.

This call is equivalent to setting the [property`Gtk`.Window:application] property of window to application.

Normally, the connection between the application and the window will remain until the window is destroyed, but you can explicitly remove it with [method`Gtk`.Application.remove_window].

GTK will keep the application running as long as it has any windows.

get_accels_for_action(detailed_action_name)[source]¶

Parameters:: detailed_action_name (str) – a detailed action name, specifying an action and target to obtain accelerators for
Returns:: accelerators for detailed_action_name
Return type:: [str]

Gets the accelerators that are currently associated with the given action.

get_actions_for_accel(accel)[source]¶

Parameters:: accel (str) – an accelerator that can be parsed by [func`Gtk`.accelerator_parse]
Returns:: a None-terminated array of actions for accel
Return type:: [str]

Returns the list of actions (possibly empty) that accel maps to.

Each item in the list is a detailed action name in the usual form.

This might be useful to discover if an accel already exists in order to prevent installation of a conflicting accelerator (from an accelerator editor or a plugin system, for example). Note that having more than one action per accelerator may not be a bad thing and might make sense in cases where the actions never appear in the same context.

In case there are no actions for a given accelerator, an empty array is returned. NULL is never returned.

It is a programmer error to pass an invalid accelerator string.

If you are unsure, check it with [func`Gtk`.accelerator_parse] first.

get_active_window()[source]¶

Returns:: the active window
Return type:: Gtk.Window or None

Gets the “active” window for the application.

The active window is the one that was most recently focused (within the application). This window may not have the focus at the moment if another application has it — this is just the most recently-focused window within this application.

get_menu_by_id(id)[source]¶

Parameters:: id (str) – the id of the menu to look up
Returns:: Gets the menu with the given id from the automatically loaded resources
Return type:: Gio.Menu or None

Gets a menu from automatically loaded resources.

See the section on Automatic resources for more information.

get_menubar()[source]¶

Returns:: the menubar for windows of application
Return type:: Gio.MenuModel or None

Returns the menu model that has been set with [method`Gtk`.Application.set_menubar].

get_window_by_id(id)[source]¶

Parameters:: id (int) – an identifier number
Returns:: the window for the given id
Return type:: Gtk.Window or None

Returns the [class`Gtk`.ApplicationWindow] with the given ID.

The ID of a GtkApplicationWindow can be retrieved with [method`Gtk`.ApplicationWindow.get_id].

get_windows()[source]¶

Returns:: a GList of GtkWindow instances
Return type:: [Gtk.Window]

Gets a list of the [class`Gtk`.Window] instances associated with application.

The list is sorted by most recently focused window, such that the first element is the currently focused window. (Useful for choosing a parent for a transient window.)

The list that is returned should not be modified in any way. It will only remain valid until the next focus change or window creation or deletion.

inhibit(window, flags, reason)[source]¶

Parameters:

window (Gtk.Window or None) – a GtkWindow
flags (Gtk.ApplicationInhibitFlags) – what types of actions should be inhibited
reason (str or None) – a short, human-readable string that explains why these operations are inhibited

Returns:

A non-zero cookie that is used to uniquely identify this request. It should be used as an argument to [method`Gtk`.Application.uninhibit] in order to remove the request. If the platform does not support inhibiting or the request failed for some reason, 0 is returned.

Return type:

int

Inform the session manager that certain types of actions should be inhibited.

This is not guaranteed to work on all platforms and for all types of actions.

Applications should invoke this method when they begin an operation that should not be interrupted, such as creating a CD or DVD. The types of actions that may be blocked are specified by the flags parameter. When the application completes the operation it should call [method`Gtk`.Application.uninhibit] to remove the inhibitor. Note that an application can have multiple inhibitors, and all of them must be individually removed. Inhibitors are also cleared when the application exits.

Applications should not expect that they will always be able to block the action. In most cases, users will be given the option to force the action to take place.

The reason message should be short and to the point.

If window is given, the session manager may point the user to this window to find out more about why the action is inhibited.

list_action_descriptions()[source]¶

Returns:: the detailed action names
Return type:: [str]

Lists the detailed action names which have associated accelerators.

See [method`Gtk`.Application.set_accels_for_action].

remove_window(window)[source]¶

Parameters:: window (Gtk.Window) – a GtkWindow

Remove a window from application.

If window belongs to application then this call is equivalent to setting the [property`Gtk`.Window:application] property of window to NULL.

The application may stop running as a result of a call to this function, if window was the last window of the application.

set_accels_for_action(detailed_action_name, accels)[source]¶

Parameters:

detailed_action_name (str) – a detailed action name, specifying an action and target to associate accelerators with
accels ([str]) – a list of accelerators in the format understood by [func`Gtk`.accelerator_parse]

Sets zero or more keyboard accelerators that will trigger the given action.

The first item in accels will be the primary accelerator, which may be displayed in the UI.

To remove all accelerators for an action, use an empty, zero-terminated array for accels.

For the detailed_action_name, see g_action_parse_detailed_name() and g_action_print_detailed_name().

set_menubar(menubar)[source]¶

Parameters:: menubar (Gio.MenuModel or None) – a GMenuModel

Sets or unsets the menubar for windows of application.

This is a menubar in the traditional sense.

This can only be done in the primary instance of the application, after it has been registered. GApplication::startup is a good place to call this.

Depending on the desktop environment, this may appear at the top of each window, or at the top of the screen. In some environments, if both the application menu and the menubar are set, the application menu will be presented as if it were the first item of the menubar. Other environments treat the two as completely separate — for example, the application menu may be rendered by the desktop shell while the menubar (if set) remains in each individual window.

Use the base GActionMap interface to add actions, to respond to the user selecting these menu items.

uninhibit(cookie)[source]¶

Parameters:: cookie (int) – a cookie that was returned by [method`Gtk`.Application.inhibit]

Removes an inhibitor that has been previously established.

See [method`Gtk`.Application.inhibit].

Inhibitors are also cleared when the application exits.

do_window_added(window) virtual¶

Parameters:: window (Gtk.Window) –

Signal emitted when a GtkWindow is added to application through Gtk.Application.add_window().

do_window_removed(window) virtual¶

Parameters:: window (Gtk.Window) –

Signal emitted when a GtkWindow is removed from application, either as a side-effect of being destroyed or explicitly through Gtk.Application.remove_window().

Signal Details¶

Gtk.Application.signals.query_end(application)¶

Signal Name:: query-end
Flags:: RUN_FIRST
Parameters:: application (Gtk.Application) – The object which received the signal

Emitted when the session manager is about to end the session.

This signal is only emitted if [property`Gtk`.Application:register-session] is TRUE. Applications can connect to this signal and call [method`Gtk`.Application.inhibit] with GTK_APPLICATION_INHIBIT_LOGOUT to delay the end of the session until state has been saved.

Gtk.Application.signals.window_added(application, window)¶

Signal Name:

window-added

Flags:

RUN_FIRST

Parameters:

application (Gtk.Application) – The object which received the signal
window (Gtk.Window) – the newly-added [class`Gtk`.Window]

Emitted when a [class`Gtk`.Window] is added to application through [method`Gtk`.Application.add_window].

Gtk.Application.signals.window_removed(application, window)¶

Signal Name:

window-removed

Flags:

RUN_FIRST

Parameters:

application (Gtk.Application) – The object which received the signal
window (Gtk.Window) – the [class`Gtk`.Window] that is being removed

Emitted when a [class`Gtk`.Window] is removed from application.

This can happen as a side-effect of the window being destroyed or explicitly through [method`Gtk`.Application.remove_window].

Property Details¶

Gtk.Application.props.active_window¶

Name:: active-window
Type:: Gtk.Window
Default Value:: None
Flags:: READABLE

The currently focused window of the application.

Gtk.Application.props.menubar¶

Name:: menubar
Type:: Gio.MenuModel
Default Value:: None
Flags:: READABLE, WRITABLE

The GMenuModel to be used for the application’s menu bar.

Gtk.Application.props.register_session¶

Name:: register-session
Type:: bool
Default Value:: False
Flags:: READABLE, WRITABLE

Set this property to TRUE to register with the session manager.

This will make GTK track the session state (such as the [property`Gtk`.Application:screensaver-active] property).

Gtk.Application.props.screensaver_active¶

Name:: screensaver-active
Type:: bool
Default Value:: False
Flags:: READABLE

This property is TRUE if GTK believes that the screensaver is currently active.

GTK only tracks session state (including this) when [property`Gtk`.Application:register-session] is set to True.

Tracking the screensaver state is currently only supported on Linux.