tkinter Widget Drag & Drop

Place tkinter widgets visually in the UI. Just drag and drop (dnd) the widgets with your mouse! It is about time we all stop placing widgets in code and start doing it visually. This implementation taks only one line of code.

How to use?

Before your mainloop, place dnd(). i.e.:

Without saving:

from tk_widget_dnd import dnd, quit_wrapper

# some tkinter code
def main():
  # some tkinter code

  dnd(locals(), mouse_button=3)
  
  root.protocol("WM_DELETE_WINDOW", quit_wrapper(locals(), verbose=True))
  window.mainloop()

or

from tk_widget_dnd import dnd, quit_wrapper

# some tkinter code

dnd(globals(), mouse_button=1)

root.protocol("WM_DELETE_WINDOW", quit_wrapper(globals(), verbose=True))
window.mainloop()

With saving:

from tk_widget_dnd import dnd, quit_wrapper

def main():
  # some tkinter code
  dnd(locals(), mouse_button=3)

  quit_func = quit_wrapper(locals(), quit_function=quit_app, save_function=save_widget_position, path=path, verbose=False)
  window.protocol("WM_DELETE_WINDOW", quit_func) 
  window.mainloop()

Load widgets position:

from tk_widget_dnd import dnd, quit_wrapper, set_widgets_position

# some tkinter code
# Here you load widgets_position from a yaml, json, pickle file... 
set_widgets_position(locals(), widgets_position)

Explanations:

locals() or globals() are the variables in the desired scope. The widgets are a subset of these variables. Only bindable tkinter widgets are saved.

• dnd function lets you move widgets freely. Its arguments:
  • variables: a dictionary of all the variables in the desired scope. Usually using locals() or globals().
  • anchor: default tkinter's CENTER.
  • mouse_button:
    • 1 for left mouse button.
    • 2 for middle mouse button.
    • 3 for right mouse button.
• quit_wrapper lets you do somthing with the widgets coordinates. Its arguments:
  • variables: a dictionary of all the variables in the desired scope. Usually using locals() or globals().
  • quit_function: the original quit function that runs when user quits the program.
  • save_function: a function that saves the dictionary of {widgets_names: widgets_coordinates} to a file
    • This funcion takes 2 arguments: widgets_dict, path.
  • path: the path given to the save function.
  • verbose: True/False - to print or not to print the widgets coordinates when the user quits.
  • *args, **kwargs: all the inputs to quit_function.