notebook - create and manipulate notebook widgets

notebook pathName ?options?

itk::Widget <- notebook

background	foreground	scrollCommand	width
cursor	height	

See the "options" manual entry for details on the standard options.

Name:	auto
Class:	Auto
Command-Line Switch:	-auto

Specifies whether to use the automatic packing/unpacking algorithm of the notebook. A value of true indicates that page frames will be unpacked and packed acoording to the algorithm described in the select command. A value of false leaves the current page packed and subsequent selects, next, or previous commands do not switch pages automatically. In either case the page's associated command (see the add command's description of the command option) is invoked. The value may have any of the forms accepted by the Tcl_GetBoolean, such as true, false, 0, 1, yes, or no.

For example, if a series of pages in a notebook simply change certain display configurations of a graphical display, the -auto flag could be used. By setting it, the -command procs could do the appropriate reconfiguring of the page when the page is switched.

The notebook command creates a new window (given by the pathName argument) and makes it into a notebook widget. Additional options, described above may be specified on the command line or in the option database to configure aspects of the notebook such as its colors, font, and text. The notebook 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 notebook is a widget that contains a set of pages. It displays one page from the set as the selected page. When a page is selected, the page's contents are displayed in the page area. When first created a notebook has no pages. Pages may be added or deleted using widget commands described below.

A notebook's pages area contains a single child site frame. When a new page is created it is a child of this frame. The page's child site frame serves as a geometry container for applications to pack widgets into. It is this frame that is automatically unpacked or packed when the auto option is true. This creates the effect of one page being visible at a time. When a new page is selected, the previously selected page's child site frame is automatically unpacked from the notebook's child site frame and the newly selected page's child site is packed into the notebook's child site frame.

However, sometimes it is desirable to handle page changes in a different manner. By specifying the auto option as false, child site packing can be disabled and done differently. For example, all widgets might be packed into the first page's child site frame. Then when a new page is selected, the application can reconfigure the widgets and give the appearance that the page was flipped.

In both cases the command option for a page specifies a Tcl Command to execute when the page is selected. In the case of auto being true, it is called between the unpacking of the previously selected page and the packing of the newly selected page.

The notebookfR 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.

Many of the widget commands for a notebook take as one argument an indicator of which page of the notebook to operate on. These indicators are called indexes and may be specified in any of the following forms:

number

Specifies the index of the the component. For menus, 0 corresponds to the left-most menu of the menu bar. For entries, 0 corresponds to the top-most entry of the menu. number Specifies the page numerically, where 0 corresponds to the first page in the notebook, 1 to the second, and so on.

select

Specifies the currently selected page's index. If no page is currently selected, the value -1 is returned.

end

Specifes the last page in the notebooks's index. If the notebook is empty this will return -1.

pattern

If the index doesn't satisfy the form of a number, then this form is used. Pattern is pattern-matched against the label of each page in the notebook, in order from the first to the last page, until a matching entry is found. The rules of Tcl_StringMatch are used.

The following commands are possible for notebook widgets:

pathName add ?option value?

Add a new page at the end of the notebook. A new child site frame is created. Returns the child site pathName. If additional arguments are present, they specify any of the following options:

-background value

Specifies a background color to use for displaying the child site frame of this page. If this option is specified as an empty string (the default), then the background option for the overall notebook is used.

-command value

Specifies a Tcl command to be executed when this page is selected. This allows the programmer a hook to reconfigure this page's widgets or any other page's widgets.

If the notebook has the auto option set to true, when a page is selected this command will be called immediately after the previously selected page is unpacked and immediately before this page is selected. The index value select is valid during this Tcl command. `index select' will return this page's page number.

If the auto option is set to false, when a page is selected the unpack and pack calls are bypassed. This Tcl command is still called.

-foreground value

Specifies a foreground color to use for displaying tab labels when tabs are in their normal unselected state. If this option is specified as an empty string (the default), then the foreground option for the overall notebook is used.

-label value

Specifies a string to associate with this page. This label serves as an additional identifier used to reference the page. This label may be used for the index value in widget commands.

pathName childSite ?index?

If passed no arguments, returns a list of pathNames for all the pages in the notebook. If the notebook is empty, an empty list is returned

If index is passed, it returns the pathName for the page's child site frame specified by index. Widgets that are created with this pathName will be displayed when the associated page is selected. If index is not a valid index, an empty string is returned.

pathName cget option

Returns the current value of the configuration option given by option.

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

Query or modify the configuration options of the widget. If no option is specified, 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 command returns an empty string. Option may have any of the values accepted by the notebook command.

pathName delete index1 ?index2?

Delete all of the pages between index1 and index2 inclusive. If index2 is omitted then it defaults to index1. Returns an empty string.

pathName index index

Returns the numerical index corresponding to index.

pathName insert index ?option value?

Insert a new page in the notebook before the page specified by index. A new child site frame is created. See the add command for valid options. Returns the child site pathName.

pathName next

Advances the selected page to the next page (order is determined by insertion order). If the currently selected page is the last page in the notebook, the selection wraps around to the first page in the notebook.

For notebooks with auto set to true the current page's child site is unpacked from the notebook's child site frame. Then the next page's child site is packed into the notebooks child site frame. The Tcl command given with the command option will be invoked between these two operations.

For notebooks with auto set to false the Tcl command given with the command option will be invoked.

pathName pagecget index ?option?

Returns the current value of the configuration option given by option for the page specified by index. The valid available options are the same as available to the add command.

pathName pageconfigure index ?option? ?value option value ...?

This command is similar to the configure command, except that it applies to the options for an individual page, whereas configure applies to the options for the notebook. Options may have any of the values accepted by the add widget command. If options are specified, options are modified as indicated in the command and the command returns an empty string. If no options are specified, returns a list describing the current options for page index (see Tk_ConfigureInfo for information on the format of this list).

pathName prev

Moves the selected page to the previous page (order is determined by insertion order). If the currently selected page is the first page in the notebook, the selection wraps around to the last page in the notebook.

For notebooks with auto set to true the current page's child site is unpacked from the notebook's child site frame. Then the previous page's child site is packed into the notebooks child site frame. The Tcl command given with the command option will be invoked between these two operations.

For notebooks with auto set to false the Tcl command given with the command option will be invoked.

pathName select index

Selects the page specified by index as the currently selected page.

For notebooks with auto set to true the current page's child site is unpacked from the notebook's child site frame. Then the index page's child site is packed into the notebooks child site frame. The Tcl command given with the command option will be invoked between these two operations.

For notebooks with auto set to false the Tcl command given with the command option will be invoked.

pathName view

Returns the currently selected page. This command is for compatibility with the scrollbar widget.

pathName view index

Selects the page specified by index as the currently selected page. This command is for compatibility with the scrollbar widget.

pathName view moveto fraction

Uses the fraction value to determine the corresponding page to move to. This command is for compatibility with the scrollbar widget.

pathName view scroll num what

Uses the num value to determine how many pages to move forward or backward (num can be negative or positive). The what argument is ignored. This command is for compatibility with the scrollbar widget.

Following is an example that creates a notebook with two pages. In this example, we use a scrollbar widget to control the notebook widget.

# Create the notebook widget and pack it.
  notebook .nb -width 100 -height 100
  pack .nb -anchor nw \
	-fill both \
	-expand yes \
	-side left \
	-padx 10 \
	-pady 10

# Add two pages to the notebook, labelled 
# "Page One" and "Page Two", respectively.
  .nb add -label "Page One"
  .nb add -label "Page Two"

# Get the child site frames of these two pages.
  set page1CS [.nb childsite 0]
  set page2CS [.nb childsite "Page Two"]

# Create buttons on each page of the notebook
  button $page1CS.b -text "Button One"
  pack $page1CS.b
  button $page2CS.b -text "Button Two"
  pack $page2CS.b

# Select the first page of the notebook
  .nb select 0

# Create the scrollbar and associate teh scrollbar
# and the notebook together, then pack the scrollbar
  ScrollBar .scroll -command ".nb view"
  .nb configure -scrollcommand ".scroll set"
  pack .scroll -fill y -expand yes -pady 10

Bill W. Scott

notebook page