Best method for creating clickable images?

[Resonanz]

Options would seem to be:

1. Use a button (clickable, but cannot use images)
2. Use an image (image, but not clickable)
3. Use a canvas (many options for drawing, but no image loading option)

[mhsmith]

The title was "Best method for creating clickable buttons?", but I guess you're actually asking to to make clickable images. In which case, see the previous discussion in #1343.

[Resonanz]

Mmmm, seems we need to be careful of terminology here. I'm not sure I am clear on that.

• Picture = something like a PNG, potentially large and colorful. These are "images" in Toga.
• Icon = small, typically single color. Play, pause, stop are icons. These could be made from "canvas" objects in Toga.
• Unicode has some icon-esque options and can be used on rectangular buttons.

I read thru the previous discussion, and certainly the unicode option would not work for the stuff I am working on.

I'm keen on some simple rounded triangles (arrows) that match an existing product. I also need to add some simple graphics and other buttons with custom icons(?) on them.

Probably the canvas option would be best for me at this stage. on_press and on_release could be used for changing shading a bit when the button is pressed.

Does that sound sensible? :-)

[freakboy3742]

In short - no, it doesn't. Canvas isn't the right approach for building a button. A Button is.

"Matching an existing product" is the red flag from the perspective of Toga's design. Toga adheres to the platform's look and feel. It doesn't actively support use cases that involve re-inventing a HIG from scratch, or building UIs that look identical on every platform. That means macOS buttons look like macOS buttons, Windows buttons look like Windows buttons, and so on - and as a result, macOS apps look like macOS apps and Windows apps look like Windows apps. If you've got a designer saying "I want my buttons to look like ", and they're talking about the entire appearance of the button, not just the icon on the button, Toga isn't going to be a good match.

[Resonanz]

Ok, you have made it clear that Toga is designed to implement native UIs and follow each platform's HIGs :-)

Can I then ask for some really simple advice: how would you recommend implementing things like the following from Apple's Monterey OS?

Or GTK 4:

The learning curve (and thus time commitment) for those of us who are learning Toga and Python is steep, so suggesting that I modify Toga's source is not really as simple as it sounds. The Pycon presentation pointed to in the help docs was helpful but still it seems that coding in Objective C (and the Windows/Linux equivalents) would be required.

[freakboy3742]

How do you do this right now? If you just want to use the toolkit as currently provided, the short answer is "you don't".

Or - you change your expectations. The first of those examples is a toga.Slider and some labels; the second is 2 text labels, a slider, and some buttons where you use Unicode glyphs (like ▶️ and 🔈) as the text label. It won't look the same, but it will expose the functionality so that there's a button you can push that will activate the desired functionality.

The current release of Toga is v0.3.0.dev39. It's marked as an alpha in packaging metadata. I don't know how many other ways I can flag that Toga a work in progress. There are many features we still want to add. Allowing icons on buttons is one of those features.

As for contributing - I didn't say it would be easy - I said it would be easier than trying to make Canvas behave like a button.

If you're still learning Python, then contributing to the Toga codebase is probably a tall ask; but then, so is trying to make a Canvas behave like another widget. However, FWIW, no Objective C coding is required to contribute to Toga. There isn't a single line of Objective C in Toga, in either the iOS or macOS backends. Toga does make extensive use of Objective C APIs, using a Python interface. You need to be able to read Objective C - or, at least, be able to read the ObjC API documentation to work out what calls can be made in Python.

[Resonanz]

Thanks again. I get the feeling that I am being unhelpful. If so, just say so and I will leave you alone :-)

I'm looking at a long term commitment to a Python GUI and I think yours is the best (most sensible) option out there (even as an Alpha it is pretty good), and will only get better. So I hope I can invest some time in helping.

The info above is really helpful, so thanks !