The `scrollutil::plainnotebook` Command

For Scrollutil Version 2.1

by

Csaba Nemethi

Quick Reference

scrollutil::plainnotebook – Create and manipulate plainnotebook widgets

package require scrollutil_tile
scrollutil::plainnotebook pathName ?options?

DESCRIPTION

STANDARD OPTIONS

-cursor

WIDGET-SPECIFIC OPTIONS

-caller pageIndex

-closabletabs
    boolean

-forgetcommand
    command

-height
    screenDistance

-leavecommand
    command

-movabletabs
    boolean

-side
    left|right

-takefocus
    0|1|""|command

-title text

-width
    screenDistance

TAB OPTIONS

TAB IDENTIFIERS

WIDGET COMMAND

pathName add
    window ?options?

pathName addbutton
    pageIndex text ?image?

pathName addlabel
    text ?image?

pathName addseparator

pathName adjustsize

pathName attrib ?name
    ?value name value ...??

pathName cget
    option

pathName closablestate tabId
    ?boolean?

pathName configure
    ?option ?value option value ...??

pathName forget
    tabId

pathName hasattrib
    name

pathName hastabattrib
    tabId name

pathName hide
    tabId

pathName index
    tabId

pathName insert
    pos window ?options?

pathName insertbutton
    pos pageIndex text ?image?

pathName insertlabel
    pos text ?image?

pathName insertseparator pos

pathName instate
    stateSpec ?script?

pathName see
    tabId

pathName select
    ?tabId?

pathName state
    ?stateSpec?

pathName style

pathName tab
    tabId ?option ?value option value
    ...??

pathName tabattrib
    tabId ?name ?value name value
    ...??

pathName tabpath
    tabId

pathName tabs

pathName titlepath

pathName unsetattrib
    name

pathName unsettabattrib tabId
    name

plainnotebook, widget, notebook, closebtn

Detailed Reference

NAME

scrollutil::plainnotebook – Create and manipulate plainnotebook widgets

SYNOPSIS

package require scrollutil_tile
scrollutil::plainnotebook pathName ?options?

Note that the scrollutil::plainnotebook command is provided by the Scrollutil_tile package, but not by Scrollutil.

DESCRIPTION

The scrollutil::plainnotebook command creates a new window named pathName and of the class Plainnotebook, and makes it into a plainnotebook widget. Additional options, described below, may be specified on the command line or in the option database to configure aspects of the plainnotebook widget such as its width, height, and side. The scrollutil::plainnotebook command returns its pathName argument. At the time this command is invoked, there must not exist a window named pathName, but pathName's parent must exist.

A plainnotebook is a mega-widget that extends a ttk::notebook having an arbitrary number of pages with invisible tabs by a ttk::frame to its left or right containing, among others, a scrollableframe whose content frame is the parent of a series of widgets that play the role of vertically laid-out notebook tabs. Currently not visible "tabs" can be brought into view by navigating with the mouse wheel, touchpad, or keyboard, and by scrolling with the vertical scrollbar of the scrollarea containing the scrollableframe. An individual "tab" can be made visible programmatically with the aid of the see subcommand. Unlike a ttk::notebook widget with vertically aligned tabs, which in most themes has a suboptimal look and whose -height option is quite often overridden by the total height of the tabs, the plainnotebook widget respects the value of its -height option, regardless of the space required by the "tabs".

In the rest of this document, the widgets that play the role of vertically laid-out notebook tabs, will be called tabs themselves.

The upper part of the frame to the left or right of the ttk::notebook component contains a toolbutton and a ttk::label widget, called ascend button and title label, respectively. Their visibility is controlled by the -caller and -title widget options. The ascend button displays an image whose shape resembles that of a < character.

The API of the plainnotebook widget is quite similar to that of ttk::notebook. Apart from a few additional, plainnotebook-specific subcommands and the missing identify subcommand, the Tcl command associated with a plainnotebook widget provides the same subcommands as the one associated with a ttk::notebook. Note that the API doesn't provide any command for retrieving the path name of the ttk::notebook widget contained in a plainnotebook, because there is no need to access that widget directly. Moreover, using its options or subcommands instead of those of the plainnotebook widget will more often than not result in an unpredictable behavior.

Notice also that only the tabs created with the add and insert subcommands are selectable. The ones created with the plainnotebook-specific subcommands addbutton and insertbutton are designed for descending to another plainnotebook widget, while the ones created via addlabel, addseparator, insertlabel, and insertseparator can be used as titles and delimiters of tab groups.

STANDARD OPTIONS

-cursor

See the ttk_widget manual entry for details on the above standard option. Its default value is an empty string.

WIDGET-SPECIFIC OPTIONS

Command-Line Name:	`-caller`
Database Name:	`caller`
Database Class:	`Caller`

The value of this option must be an integer. If it is nonnegative then the widget's parent must be a pagesman widget. In this case the value is viewed as the numerical index of an already existing page of the parent pagesman widget, and the plainnotebook's ascend button will select that page, which is assumed to be the "caller" of the current plainnotebook widget, meaning that the current plainnotebook was previously selected from within that page. For example, if the option's value is 0 then pressing and later releasing the left mouse button over the ascend button will ascend back to the pagesman page of index 0, which is assumed to be the page from which the user previously descended to the current one. The default is -1.

Command-Line Name:	`-closabletabs`
Database Name:	`closableTabs`
Database Class:	`ClosableTabs`

Specifies a boolean value that determines whether the tabs created with the add and insert subcommands (only) will contain the closebtn element. This style element is automatically created by the Scrollutil_tile package and is quite similar to the closetab element. See the FURTHER BINDINGS section below for details on closing the tabs with the aid of the closebtn element. The default is 0. This option can be overridden for individual tabs with the aid of the closablestate subcommand.

Command-Line Name:	`-forgetcommand`
Database Name:	`forgetCommand`
Database Class:	`ForgetCommand`

Specifies a command to be invoked when attempting to remove a tab and unmanage the associated window with the aid of the forget subcommand. If the option's value is a nonempty string then it is concatenated with the path name of the plainnotebook widget and that of the window to be unmanaged, and the resulting script, which must return a boolean, is evaluated in the global scope. If the return value of this script is false then the forget subcommand is aborted, i.e., the tab is not removed and the associated window is not unmanaged. The default is an empty string.

Command-Line Name:	`-height`
Database Name:	`height`
Database Class:	`Height`

If present and greater than zero, specifies the desired height of the pane area in any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPixels. Otherwise, the maximum requested height of all panes is used. The default is 0.

Command-Line Name:	`-leavecommand`
Database Name:	`leaveCommand`
Database Class:	`LeaveCommand`

Specifies a command to be invoked when attempting to leave the currently selected window by selecting a different one. If the option's value is a nonempty string then it is concatenated with the path name of the plainnotebook widget and that of the currently selected window, and the resulting script, which must return a boolean, is evaluated in the global scope. If the return value of this script is false then the operation of selecting a different window is aborted. The default is an empty string.

Command-Line Name:	`-movabletabs`
Database Name:	`movableTabs`
Database Class:	`MovableTabs`

Specifies a boolean value that determines whether the tabs can be moved with the mouse. See the FURTHER BINDINGS section below for details. The default is 1.

Command-Line Name:	`-side`
Database Name:	`side`
Database Class:	`Side`

Specifies on which side (left or right) of the widget to show the ttk::frame containing the tabs, the ascend button, and the title label. The default is left.

Command-Line Name:	`-takefocus`
Database Name:	`takeFocus`
Database Class:	`TakeFocus`

This option determines whether the plainnotebook widget accepts the focus during keyboard traversal. It is almost identical to the standard option of the same name (see the options manual entry for details). The only difference is that not the plainnotebook widget itself but the scrollableframe contained in it will receive the focus during keyboard traversal with the standard keys (Tab and Shift-Tab). The default is "ttk::takefocus" (just like for ttk::notebook and several other Tk themed widgets).

Command-Line Name:	`-title`
Database Name:	`title`
Database Class:	`Title`

Specifies the text to be displayed in the plainnotebook's title label, which is a ttk::label widget of the style PnbTitle.TLabel. The font used for this style is derived from TkDefaultFont by increasing the latter's size by a factor of 1.2. To set a different font, use the ttk::style command or retrieve the path name of this widget with the titlepath subcommand and then invoke ... configure -font ....

Command-Line Name:	`-width`
Database Name:	`width`
Database Class:	`Width`

If present and greater than zero, specifies the desired width of the pane area in any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPixels. Otherwise, the maximum requested width of all panes is used. The default is 0.

TAB OPTIONS

See the ttk_notebook manual entry.

TAB IDENTIFIERS

See the ttk_notebook manual entry. Note that in positional specifications of the form "@x,y", the coordinates are expected to be relative to the plainnotebook window.

WIDGET COMMAND

The scrollutil::plainnotebook command creates a new Tcl command whose name is pathName. This command may be used to invoke various operations on the widget. It has the following general form:

pathName option ?arg arg ...?

option and the args determine the exact behavior of the command. The following commands are possible for plainnotebook widgets:

pathName add window ?options?: See the ttk_notebook manual entry. As mentioned there, if window is currently managed by the notebook but hidden, the subcommand restores it to its previous position. This holds equally true for the non-selectable (dummy) windows associated with the tabs created with the addbutton, addlabel, addseparator, insertbutton, insertlabel, and insertseparator subcommands. If window is not yet managed by the notebook then the corresponding tab will be a ttk::radiobutton widget of a toolbutton style (Page.Toolbutton or ClosablePage.Toolbutton, depending on the value of the -closabletabs option). The return value is the path name of the widget used for the tab corresponding to window (a ttk::radiobutton or ttk::button, both using a toolbutton style, or a ttk::label, or a ttk::separator).
pathName addbutton pageIndex text ?image?: Adds a new tab implemented as a ttk::button widget of a toolbutton style (Desc.Toolbutton) that displays, besides the specified text and optional image, the descend element, whose shape resembles that of a > character. This style element is automatically created by the Scrollutil_tile package. Its size depends on the display's scaling percentage, while its foreground color is theme-specific and is updated whenever the theme changes. The return value is the path name of the above-mentioned ttk::button widget.; For this subcommand to work, the widget's parent must be a pagesman widget. pageIndex, which must be a nonnegative integer, specifies the numerical index of a page within the pagesman widget that will be selected when invoking the toolbutton. It is not expected that at the time this subcommand is invoked, the page identified by pageIndex already exists; it may be created and added to the pagesman widget later.; This subcommand, together with the -caller option, makes it easy to to write applications in which the user can descend from a plainnotebook to another one within a common pagesman parent with a single mouse click and switch back in the same way to the original one. For example, if the two plainnotebook widgets have the page indices 0 and 1 then all you need is to pass the page index 1 to the first plainnotebook's addbutton subcommand and set the -caller option of the second one to the page index 0.
pathName addlabel text ?image?: Adds a new tab implemented as a ttk::label widget of the style PnbLabel.TLabel that displays the specified text and optional image, and is typically used as a title of a group of tabs. The font used for this style is derived from TkDefaultFont by increasing the latter's size by a factor of 1.2 and can be changed with the ttk::style command. The return value is the path name of the above-mentioned ttk::label widget; you can use it, e.g., to override the style's font for this particular label via ... configure -font ....
pathName addseparator: Adds a new tab implemented as a horizontal ttk::separator widget, which is typically used as a delimiter of a group of tabs. The return value is the path name of the above-mentioned ttk::separator widget.
pathName adjustsize: Sets the plainnotebook's -height option to the maximum requested height of all panes and its -width option to the maximum requested width of all panes.; REMARK: If the plainnotebook's -height and -width options have their default value 0 then in many cases there is no need for invocations of this subcommand, since the widget will automatically attempt to adapt its size to the maximum requested size of its panes.
pathName attrib ?name ?value name value ...??: Queries or modifies the attributes of the widget. If no name is specified, the command returns a list of pairs, each of which contains the name and the value of an attribute for pathName. If name is specified with no value, then the command returns the value of the one named attribute, or an empty string if no corresponding value exists (you can use the hasattrib subcommand to distinguish this case from the one that the value of an existing attribute is an empty string). If one or more name-value pairs are specified, then the command sets the given widget attribute(s) to the given value(s); in this case the return value is an empty string. Each name may be an arbitrary string.
pathName cget option: Returns the current value of the configuration option given by option, which may have any of the values accepted by the scrollutil::plainnotebook command.
pathName closablestate tabId ?boolean?: Sets or queries the presence of the closebtn element in the tab specified by tabId. The optional argument is only supported for tabs created via add or insert. This subcommand overrides the -closabletabs option for the specified tab.
pathName configure ?option ?value option value ...??: Queries or modifies the configuration options of the widget. If no option is specified, the command returns a list describing all of the available options for pathName (see Tk_ConfigureInfo for information on the format of this list). If option is specified with no value, then the command returns a list describing the one named option (this list will be identical to the corresponding sublist of the value returned if no option is specified). If one or more option-value pairs are specified, then the command modifies the given widget option(s) to have the given value(s); in this case the return value is an empty string. option may have any of the values accepted by the scrollutil::plainnotebook command.
pathName forget tabId: See the ttk_notebook manual entry.
pathName hasattrib name: Returns 1 if the attribute name exists and 0 otherwise.
pathName hastabattrib tabId name: Returns 1 if the attribute name for the tab given by tabId exists and 0 otherwise.
pathName hide tabId: See the ttk_notebook manual entry.
pathName index tabId: See the ttk_notebook manual entry.
pathName insert pos window ?options?: See the ttk_notebook manual entry. As mentioned there, if window is already managed by the notebook, the subcommand moves it to the specified position. This holds equally true for the non-selectable (dummy) windows associated with the tabs created with the addbutton, addlabel, addseparator, insertbutton, insertlabel, and insertseparator subcommands. If window is not yet managed by the notebook then the corresponding tab will be a ttk::radiobutton widget of a toolbutton style (Page.Toolbutton or ClosablePage.Toolbutton, depending on the value of the -closabletabs option). The return value is the path name of the widget used for the tab corresponding to window (a ttk::radiobutton or ttk::button, both using a toolbutton style, or a ttk::label, or a ttk::separator).
pathName insertbutton pos pageIndex text ?image?: Inserts a new tab implemented as a ttk::button widget of a toolbutton style (Desc.Toolbutton) that displays, besides the specified text and optional image, the descend element, at the specified position. The details are quite similar to the ones regarding the addbutton subcommand.
pathName insertlabel pos text ?image?: Inserts a new tab implemented as a ttk::label widget of the style PnbLabel.TLabel that displays the specified text and optional image, at the specified position. The details are quite similar to the ones regarding the addlabel subcommand.
pathName insertseparator pos: Inserts a new tab implemented as a horizontal ttk::separator widget, at the specified position. The details are quite similar to the ones regarding the addseparator subcommand.
pathName instate stateSpec ?script?: See the ttk_widget manual entry.
pathName see tabId: This subcommand adjusts the view in the plainnotebook's window so that the tab given by tabId becomes visible in it. Note that when a tab gets selected, this command is automatically invoked for it, in order to make that tab visible.
pathName select ?tabId?: See the ttk_notebook manual entry.
pathName state ?stateSpec?: See the ttk_widget manual entry.
pathName style: Returns the style used by the widget: "Plainnotebook.TNotebook". For Tk themed widgets this subcommand was introduced in Tk 8.7a4, but the plainnotebook widget provides it for all supported Tk versions.
pathName tab tabId ?option ?value option value ...??: See the ttk_notebook manual entry.
pathName tabattrib tabId ?name ?value name value ...??: Queries or modifies the attributes of the tab given by tabId. If no name is specified, the command returns a list of pairs, each of which contains the name and the value of an attribute for the tab. If name is specified with no value, then the command returns the value of the one named tab attribute, or an empty string if no corresponding value exists (you can use the hastabattrib subcommand to distinguish this case from the one that the value of an existing tab attribute is an empty string). If one or more name-value pairs are specified, then the command sets the given tab attribute(s) to the given value(s); in this case the return value is an empty string. Each name may be an arbitrary string.
pathName tabpath tabId: Returns the path name of the widget used for the specified tab. This widget can be a ttk::radiobutton or ttk::button, both using a toolbutton style, or a ttk::label, or a ttk::separator.
pathName tabs: See the ttk_notebook manual entry.
pathName titlepath: Returns the path name of the plainnotebook's title label, which is a ttk::label widget of the style PnbTitle.TLabel.
pathName unsetattrib name: Unsets the attribute name. Returns an empty string.
pathName unsettabattrib tabId name: Unsets the attribute name for the tab given by tabId. Returns an empty string.

KEYBOARD TRAVERSAL

See the ttk_notebook manual entry.

VIRTUAL EVENTS

As described in the ttk_notebook manual entry, after a new tab of a ttk::notebook is selected (programmatically or interactively), the widget generates a <<NotebookTabChanged>> virtual event. This holds true for plainnotebook widgets, too.

The Scrollutil_tile package defines the virtual event <<Button3>> as <Button-3> for all windowing systems and additionally as <Control-Button-1> for Mac OS X/11+. If this event occurs over a tab of a plainnotebook whose disabled widget state flag is not set, and the Tk version is 8.5a2 or later, then the widget generates a <<MenuItemsRequested>> virtual event, by invoking event generate with the -data option set to a list consisting of the path name of an empty pop-up menu and the numerical index of the tab in question. (The support for this option was introduced in Tk 8.5a2.) If the application creates a binding for this virtual event, the binding script can access the user data as the value of the %d field, with the goal to populate the menu with application-specific entries. Note that the pop-up menu is posted with a delay of 100 ms, to make sure that it will appear readily populated by the application.

The following example provides a pop-up menu item for closing the tabs of a plainnotebook widget $nb:

bind $nb <<MenuItemsRequested>> { populateMenu %W %d }

proc populateMenu {nb data} {
    foreach {menu tabIdx} $data {}
    $menu add command -label "Close Tab" -command [list $nb forget $tabIdx]
}

See the next section for the description of the virtual events <<NotebookTabMoved>> and <<NotebookTabClosed>>.

FURTHER BINDINGS

The Scrollutil_tile package creates the following additional bindings for the plainnotebook widgets:

Navigation between the selectable tabs of a plainnotebook widget via the mouse wheel or touchpad: Recall that the selectable tabs are the ones created with the add and insert subcommands. A mouse wheel tick or a two-finger gesture on the touchpad selects the selectable tab of state normal cyclically following/preceding the currently selected one. (Note that the same effect can also be achieved with the keys Down, Up, Control-Tab, and Control-Shift-Tab.) On the windowing system aqua, if the Option key is down while the mouse wheel is being rotated then a wheel tick selects the 10'th selectable tab of state normal cyclically following/preceding the currently selected one (modulo the number of selectable tabs). The same holds true on the windowing systems x11 and win32 if the Tk version is 8.7a4 or later and the mouse wheel is rotated with the Alt key down.
Moving the tabs of a plainnotebook widget with the mouse: If mouse button 1 is pressed over a tab but outside the closebtn element (if any) and then dragged outside that tab then, provided that the value of the widget's -movabletabs option is true, the mouse cursor takes on the shape of an up/down arrow, indicating that the tab in question is being moved to another position. This operation ends when mouse button 1 is released, and can be canceled by pressing the Escape key. In both cases, the mouse cursor is reset to its original value, specified by the -cursor configuration option. After releasing mouse button 1, the source tab is moved to the position previously pointed to by the arrow (provided that the action was not canceled via Escape). If the Tk version is 8.5a2 or later then after moving the tab to its new position, the widget generates a <<NotebookTabMoved>> virtual event, by invoking event generate with the -data option set to a list consisting of the path name of the widget contained in the source pane and the numerical index of the target tab position. (The support for this option was introduced in Tk 8.5a2.)
Closing a tab of a plainnotebook widget with the aid of the closebtn element: If mouse button 1 is pressed over the closebtn element (if any) of a tab and later released over the same element then, provided that the value of the tab's -state option is normal, the tab is closed by means of the widget's forget subcommand. Recall that this operation can get canceled by the command specified as the value of the -forgetcommand option; if this was not the case and the Tk version is 8.5a2 or later then, after closing the tab, the widget generates a <<NotebookTabClosed>> virtual event, by invoking event generate with the -data option set to the path name of the widget contained in that tab's pane.

If the widget's disabled state flag is set then none of the above actions occur: the tabs are completely insensitive.

KEYWORDS