Purpose: to discuss tktable, its use and benefits, samples of code demonstrating neat features, etc.
See http://tktable.sourceforge.net/ for releases, source, ...
The documentation (direct from CVS) can be read: [L1 ]
This package is part of the ActiveTcl Batteries Included distribution.
This package creates a widget called table.
Does anyone use Tktable? What problems, tricks, tips, examples can you share?
snichols Does anyone have any code snipits they could put together for sorting relational data in tkTable? We use Tktable to show the result set from an SQL query. It would be very nice to be able to sort records decending or ascending in Tktable (one line of data in Tktable) when a user clicks on a column header (Column title, aka metadata: data that describes data). I invision when the user clicks on a column header all the relational data is sorted ascending, if the user clicks again its sorted descending.
Scott Nichols I am using the Tktable in a basic GUI (see tab example below). I recommend setting -sparsearray to false. Because when it is on (default) and -cache is on too the application becomes unstable and will shutdown when a user erases several cell values.
Scott Gamon - A Busy Developer's Guide to TkTable: [L2 ]
(DNS service to my domain is temporarily out of service. Link changed to direct IP.)
Try this link http://www.gamon.org//Profession/TCL/TkTableBDG/TkTableBDG.htm
There appears to be more than one widget by this name. The one most people think of is likely this one:
What: tkTable - Tk table widget (Hobbs)
Where: http://tktable.sf.net/
http://www.purl.org/net/hobbs/tcl/capp/
http://jfontain.free.fr/tktable-2.8-1.i386.rpm
http://jfontain.free.fr/tktable-2.8-1.i386.spec
Description: Editable 2D table/matrix widget.
Tag styles for multiple fonts, colors, etc.
It is a complex blend of the Tk entry, listbox, and text widgets.
Has embedded window support, multi-line cell text support.
This is based on the Ellson/King tkTable available earlier.
Requires Tk 8.x or newer and a C compiler.
Supports all Unix Tcl/Tk variants as well as Windows and
Macintosh.
The spec and rm files are used to build Redhat Linux rpm packages.
They require Tcl/Tk 8.3 rpm, also available on the jfontain site.
A precompiled Tk 8.1 Windows DLL is available.
A binary version for Windows is also available.
Version 2.8 now available.
Updated: 12/2001
Contact: mailto:[email protected] (Jeffrey Hobbs)
What: Tk table widget (Ellson)
Where: ftp://ftp.procplace.com/pub/tcl/sorted/packages-7.6/devel/graphics/tkTable-0.4p8.tar.gz
Description: A table/matrix widget, written in C, variable width table columns
and height rows, titles, attaches to an array variable,
supports standard Tk reliefs/fonts, support scrollbars,
has tag styles per row/column/cell for changing colors/fonts/relief or
anchor position, in-cell editing, different editing/drawing modes,
can have selected cell or not, optional update flashes,
can stretch rows and columns.
Contact John Ellson for patches to Table_Display.c and the
tkAppInit to get it to work with Tk 4.0.
Updated: 10/1998
Contact: mailto:[email protected] (current maintainer)
mailto:[email protected] (Roland King - original author)
mailto:[email protected] See also Displaying Tables , VUW widgets.
Scott Nichols Here's a little Tktable code snipit you may find useful. This code will create keyboard tab bindings for the tktable. If the current cell is less than the number of columns when the user presses the tab key, the cursor will move to the next cell (to the right of the current cell), but if the cell is the very last cell in the row, then it will move to the first column of the next row when the user presses tab. If the cell is the very last cell in the table, the binding will create a new row and move the cursor to the first cell in the new row that was just created when the user presses the tab key:
bind $table <Tab> {
set top [expr {[%W cget -roworigin] + [%W cget -titlerows]}]
set left [expr {[%W cget -colorigin] + [%W cget -titlecols]}]
if {[catch {%W index active} result] ||
[lassign [split $result ,] row col
expr {$row < $top || $col < $left}]} {
::tk::table::BeginSelect %W $top,$left
::tk::table::CancelRepeat
%W activate $top,$left
} else {
lassign [split $result ,] row col
if {$col < [%W cget -cols] - 1} {
::tk::table::MoveCell %W 0 1
} elseif {$row < [%W cget -rows] - 1} {
set x [expr {[%W cget -titlecols] - [%W cget -cols] + 1}]
::tk::table::MoveCell %W 1 $x
} else {
# Open new row. (Original behavior.)
%W insert rows end
::tk::table::MoveCell %W 1 -[%W cget -cols]
# Or return to upper-left.
#set y [expr {[%W cget -titlerows] - [%W cget -rows] + 1}]
#set x [expr {[%W cget -titlecols] - [%W cget -cols] + 1}]
#::tk::table::MoveCell %W $y $x
}
}
break
}
AMG Scott's code snippit, while a good start, had a number of problems (unnecessary nested exprs, mismatched brackets, failure to handle the case of no active cell or active cell inside the title, no consideration for -titlecols) so I rewrote it. If you want editable titles I guess you'll have to rewrite it again. :^)
snichols Thanks for the code update. My original code I posted worked Ok for my implementation as long as there were not any embedded widgets. Sorry you had problems. AMG, were you able to fix tabbing in cells when there was a widget embedded in the cell?
The thing with lassign and the newline inside the [...] is rather weird. If someone can think of a better way of expressing this, feel free to fix the code.
AM You can easily embed windows in a cell, using Jeff's Tktable. Here is a code snippet to show the basics:
package require Tktable pack [table .t] -fill both checkbutton .t.c .t window configure 1,1 -window .t.c
Explanation:
From: Eric Kemp-Benedict ([email protected]) I use TKTable in a couple of my projects (IPAT Studio and IPAT DX, both available from http://ipat-s.kb-creative.net/ and on SourceForge at http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipat-s/ ). I like TkTable a lot, with one exception. It doesn't seem possible to select all of the text in a cell (e.g., to completely replace it), either by dragging with the mouse or by double-clicking (usual behavior in Excel). Does this bother anyone else? And do you have a fix for it?
LV Eric, it is surprising, to me, that the default behavior for tktable is this way. However, take a look at the Busy Developer's Guide mentioned near the top of this page and the example there shows how to set up tktable so that you can select the text.
Thank you. - Eric
From: Roland ([email protected]) Subject: Auto-adjust height of TkTable rows to fit multiline cells
Here's a short script to do that job (note that startrow is 1 to skip title row):
set maxr [.table cget -rows]
set maxc [.table cget -cols]
for {set r 1} {$r < $maxr} {incr r} {
set maxh 1
for {set c 0} {$c < $maxc} {incr c} {
if {[set n [llength [split [.table get $r,$c] \n]]]>1 && $maxh<$n} {
set maxh $n
}
}
.table height $r $maxh
}From: MarkE
Subject: Tktable questions on ordering
How should a table be created where rows are added at the top ? For what it's worth I'm coding via Tkinter in Python rather than tcl directly.
I want to prepend data results to a table. If I use the command call-back approach and simply increase the number of rows, I'm hoping it will work but I anticipate severe slow-ness since rather than just drawing the new row, won't the table treat this as if every single row had changed and redraw everything ? For example I'm guessing the cache (which I intended to use) is index based. Am I right in thinking this will be a problem, and if so is there any way around it ?
QUESTION: Calling "insert_rows" seems to have no effect (i.e. mytable.insert_rows(1, 1) does nothing). ANSWER: If I'd read the man page more closely, I'd have noticed "all insert or delete methods will be ignored" when the state is disabled.
Am I even using the appropriate class here (direct Tkinter support for the Tix grid is pretty non-existent as far as I can tell which is how I ended up here) ?
Similarly is the command-callback approach the best way to sort data ?
And finally, where should tktable questions be sent ? Didn't seem right to start emailing the authors out of the blue.
Thanks for any help... I'm adding to the bottom (well almost)
2004-12-21 - Are people adding to the top or bottom of this page? Is Scott just now looking for code to sort a TkTable or has Mark just starting wondering about adding rows to the top of the table?
Would anyone else like to see smooth (line-at-a-time) scrolling in TkTable? I have an application that has multi-line rows and find row-at-a-time scrolling to be quite disconcerting and visually jarring. I'd like to add -scrollmode [row|line|pixel] where row is the current and new default behavior. Any thoughts? --Chris Nelson
2005-01-10 - Progress report: I'm making good progress adding smooth scrolling to TkTable. A week or so more and I may have it, at least for vertical scrolling. -- Chris Nelson
2005-01-18 - Progress report: I just submitted patch 1104766 [L3 ] at SourceForge. It includes support for smooth vertical scrolling with a couple of minor exceptions. -- Chris Nelson
KPV 2005-10-27 : see Simple Tktable for a simplified version of Tktable that works well for simple form-like tables.
EKB 2005-10-27 : and here's my code for Inserting an Entry Widget in TkTable. By double-clicking on a cell, it pops up an edit widget in the cell.
DLS 2005-12-13 : Could some explain how I might change the default behavior of cursor movement across the grid so that it doesn't "jump" to make the current row the second row? In my own tables, and the demos, if the window is so small that all columns cannot be seen (which is often the case for me) then if the cursor is highlighting a cell in a row low in the window, it will shift up when you get to the newly exposed column. I'd like to stay at the same vertical location in the window, to make it clear that the row is the same. A side product of this behavior is that after the active row shifts up to the second row, then vertical cursor movement makes the table shift up/down with respect to the second row (i.e. the table contents slide under the cursor) as opposed to simply moving the cursor up or down. Is there a setting I'm missing?
[ John Ellson | Jeffrey Hobbs | Category Package | Category GUI | Category Widget ]