Gtk2::Dialog

  # create a new dialog with some buttons - one stock, one not.
  $dialog = Gtk2::Dialog->new ($title, $parent_window, $flags,
                               'gtk-cancel' => 'cancel',
                               'Do it'      => 'ok');
  # create window contents for yourself.
  $dialog->vbox->add ($some_widget);

  $dialog->set_default_response ('ok');

  # show and interact modally -- blocks until the user
  # activates a response.
  $response = $dialog->run;
  if ($response eq 'ok') {
      do_the_stuff ();
  }

  # activating a response does not destroy the window,
  # that's up to you.
  $dialog->destroy;

Dialog boxes are a convenient way to prompt the user for a small amount of input, eg. to display a message, ask a question, or anything else that does not require extensive effort on the user's part.

GTK+ treats a dialog as a window split vertically. The top section is a Gtk2::VBox, and is where widgets such as a Gtk2::Label or a Gtk2::Entry should be packed. The bottom area is known as the action_area. This is generally used for packing buttons into the dialog which may perform functions such as cancel, ok, or apply. The two areas are separated by a Gtk2::HSeparator.

GtkDialog boxes are created with a call to CWGtk2::Dialog->new. The multi-argument form (and its alias, CWnew_with_buttons is recommended; it allows you to set the dialog title, some convenient flags, and add simple buttons all in one go.

If $dialog is a newly created dialog, the two primary areas of the window can be accessed as CW$dialog->vbox and CW$dialog->action_area, as can be seen from the example, below.

A 'modal' dialog (that is, one which freezes the rest of the application from user input), can be created by calling the Gtk2::Window method CWset_modal on the dialog. You can also pass the 'modal' flag to CWnew.

If you add buttons to GtkDialog using CWnew, CWnew_with_buttons, CWadd_button, CWadd_buttons, or CWadd_action_widget, clicking the button will emit a signal called response with a response ID that you specified. GTK+ will never assign a meaning to positive response IDs; these are entirely user-defined. But for convenience, you can use the response IDs in the Gtk2::ResponseType enumeration. If a dialog receives a delete event, the response signal will be emitted with a response ID of 'GTK_RESPONSE_NONE' (except within CWrun see below).

If you want to block waiting for a dialog to return before returning control flow to your code, you can call CW$dialog->run. This function enters a recursive main loop and waits for the user to respond to the dialog, returning the response ID corresponding to the button the user clicked.

For the simple dialog in the following example, in reality you'd probably use Gtk2::MessageDialog to save yourself some effort. But you'd need to create the dialog contents manually if you had more than a simple message in the dialog.

 # Function to open a dialog box displaying the message provided.

 sub quick_message {
    my $message = shift;
    my $dialog = Gtk2::Dialog->new ('Message', $main_app_window,
                                    'destroy-with-parent',
                                    'gtk-ok' => 'none');
    my $label = Gtk2::Label->new (message);
    $dialog->vbox->add ($label);

    # Ensure that the dialog box is destroyed when the user responds.
    $dialog->signal_connect (response => sub { $_[0]->destroy });

    $dialog->show_all;
 }

  Glib::Object
  +----Glib::Object::_Unregistered::GInitiallyUnowned
       +----Gtk2::Object
            +----Gtk2::Widget
                 +----Gtk2::Container
                      +----Gtk2::Bin
                           +----Gtk2::Window
                                +----Gtk2::Dialog

  Gtk2::Atk::ImplementorIface

* ... (list) of button-text => response-id pairs.

The multi-argument form takes the same list of text => response-id pairs as CW$dialog->add_buttons. Do not pack widgets directly into the window; add them to CW$dialog->vbox. Here's a simple example:

 $dialog = Gtk2::Dialog->new ('A cool dialog',
                              $main_app_window,
                              [qw/modal destroy-with-parent/],
                              'gtk-ok'     => 'accept',
                              'gtk-cancel' => 'reject');

* ... (list) of button-text => response-id pairs.

Alias for the multi-argument version of CWGtk2::Dialog->new. Returns the created button.

* ... (list) of button-text => response-id pairs

Like calling CW$dialog->add_button repeatedly, except you don't get the created widgets back. The buttons go from left to right, so the first button added will be the left-most one.

* ... (list)

Emit the response signal, as though the user had clicked on the button with $response_id. Enable or disable an action button by its $response_id. Blocks in a recursive main loop until the dialog either emits the response signal, or is destroyed. If the dialog is destroyed during the call to CW$dialog->run, the function returns 'GTK_RESPONSE_NONE' ('none'). Otherwise, it returns the response ID from the response signal emission. Before entering the recursive main loop, CW$dialog->run calls CW$widget->show on $dialog for you. Note that you still need to show any children of the dialog yourself. During CWrun, the default behavior of delete_event is disabled; if the dialog receives delete_event, it will not be destroyed as windows usually are, and CWrun will return 'GTK_RESPONSE_DELETE_EVENT' ('delete-event'). Also, during CWrun the dialog will be modal. You can force CWrun to return at any time by calling CW$dialog->response to emit the response signal. Destroying the dialog during CWrun is a very bad idea, because your post-run code won't know whether the dialog was destroyed or not. After CWrun returns, you are responsible for hiding or destroying the dialog if you wish to do so. Typical usage of this function might be:

  if ('accept' eq $dialog->run) {
         do_application_specific_something ();
  } else {
         do_nothing_since_dialog_was_cancelled ();
  }
  $dialog->destroy;

'has-separator' (boolean : readable / writable / private)

The dialog has a separator bar above its buttons

response (Gtk2::Dialog, integer)

close (Gtk2::Dialog)

* 'modal' / 'GTK_DIALOG_MODAL'

* 'destroy-with-parent' / 'GTK_DIALOG_DESTROY_WITH_PARENT'

* 'no-separator' / 'GTK_DIALOG_NO_SEPARATOR'

The response type is somewhat abnormal as far as gtk2-perl enums go. In C, this enum lists named, predefined integer values for a field that is other composed of whatever integer values you like. In Perl, we allow this to be either one of the string constants listed here or any positive integer value. For example, 'ok', 'cancel', 4, and 42 are all valid response ids. You cannot use arbitrary string values, they must be integers. Be careful, because unknown string values tend to be mapped to 0.

* 'none' / 'GTK_RESPONSE_NONE'

* 'reject' / 'GTK_RESPONSE_REJECT'

* 'accept' / 'GTK_RESPONSE_ACCEPT'

* 'delete-event' / 'GTK_RESPONSE_DELETE_EVENT'

* 'ok' / 'GTK_RESPONSE_OK'

* 'cancel' / 'GTK_RESPONSE_CANCEL'

* 'close' / 'GTK_RESPONSE_CLOSE'

* 'yes' / 'GTK_RESPONSE_YES'

* 'no' / 'GTK_RESPONSE_NO'

* 'apply' / 'GTK_RESPONSE_APPLY'

* 'help' / 'GTK_RESPONSE_HELP'

Gtk2, Glib::Object, Glib::Object::_Unregistered::GInitiallyUnowned, Gtk2::Object, Gtk2::Widget, Gtk2::Container, Gtk2::Bin, Gtk2::Window

Copyright (C) 2003-2005 by the gtk2-perl team.

This software is licensed under the LGPL. See Gtk2 for a full notice.