Python Cookbook

Using a wxPython Notebook with Panels

Credit: Mark Nenadov

Problem

You want to design a wxPython GUI comprised of multiple panels—each driven by a separate Python script running in the background—that let the user switch back and forth (i.e., a wxPython Notebook).

Solution

Notebooks are a powerful GUI approach, as they let the user select the desired view from several options at any time with an instinctive button click. wxPython supports this by supplying a wxNotebook widget:

from wxPython.wx import *

class MainFrame(wxFrame):
    #
    # snipped: mainframe class attributes
    #
    def _ _init_ _(self, parent, id, title):
        #
        # snipped: frame-specific initialization
        #

        # Create the notebook
        self.nb = wxNotebook(self, -1,
            wxPoint(0,0), wxSize(0,0), wxNB_FIXEDWIDTH)

        # Populate the notebook with pages (panels)
        panel_names = "First Panel", "Second Panel", "The Third One"
        panel_scripts = "panel1", "panel2", "panel3"
        for name, script in zip(panel_names, panel_scripts):
            # Make panel named 'name' (driven by script 'script'.py)
            self.module = _ _import_ _(script, globals(  ))
            self.window = self.module.runPanel(self, self.nb)
            if self.window: self.nb.AddPage(self.window, name)

        #
        # snipped: rest of frame initialization
        #

Discussion

wxPython provides a powerful notebook user-interface object, with multiple panels, each of which is built and driven by a separate Python script. Each panel’s script runs in the background, even when the panel is not selected, and maintains state as the user switches back and forth.