PHP Cookbook

20.6. Displaying Multiple GUI Widgets in a Window

Problem

You want to display more than one widget in a window.

Solution

Add all of the widgets in a container, and then add the container in the window:

// create the window
$window = &new GtkWindow();

// create the container - GtkVBox aligns widgets vertically
$container = &new GtkVBox();

// create a text entry widget and add it to the container
$text_entry = &new GtkEntry();
$container->pack_start($text_entry);

// create a button and add it to the container
$a_button = &new GtkButton('Abort');
$container->pack_start($a_button);

// create another button and add it to the container
$r_button = &new GtkButton('Retry');
$container->pack_start($r_button);

// create yet another button and add it to the container
$f_button = &new GtkButton('Fail');
$container->pack_start($f_button);

// add the container to the window
$window->add($container);

// display the window
$window->show_all();

// necessary so that the program exits properly
function shutdown() { gtk::main_quit(); }
$window->connect('destroy','shutdown');

// start GTK's signal handling loop
gtk::main();

Discussion

A window is a container that can hold only one widget. To put multiple widgets in a window, you must place all widgets into a container that can hold more than one widget and then put that container in the window. This process can be nested: the widgets inside a container can themselves be containers.

In the Solution, widgets are added to a GtkVBox container, which ...