pygtk running two windows, popup and main

Question

I'm creating script in python, which cooperate with bash. When I set all searching options and push the find button, I'd like to appear popup window with progress bar, which disappear when searching will be completed. I open popup window by popup.show() and no function is execute until I close popup. So how to solve this problem?

In controller class:

def search(self, widget):
    cmd = "find " + self.model.directory + " -name \"" + self.model.name + "\"" + " -perm -" + str(self.model.mode)
    if self.model.type is not None and self.model.type != '':
        cmd += " -type " + self.model.type
    if self.model.owner is not None:
        cmd += " -user " + self.model.owner
    if self.model.days is not None:
        cmd += " -mtime -" + str(self.model.days)

    self.progress = SearcherProgressBar()

    output = subprocess.Popen(cmd, shell=True, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
    out = output.stdout.read().strip()
    array = string.split(out, '\n')
    self.list = list()
    self.progress.label = "sdsds"
    for value in array:
        self.add_to_list(value)

    #self.progress.popup.destroy() # when I uncomment, popup never appears

    self.view.treestore.clear()
    self.add_to_tree(self.list, None)
    self.view.expand_item.set_sensitive(True)

In progressbar class:

class SearcherProgressBar:

def __init__(self):
    self.popup = gtk.Window(gtk.WINDOW_POPUP)
    vbox = gtk.VBox()
    self.popup.add(vbox)
    self.popup.set_size_request(500,100)
    self.label = gtk.Label("Searching...")
    vbox.pack_start(self.label, True, True, 0)
    self.popup.connect("destroy", self.dest)
    self.popup.show_all()


def dest(self, widget, data=None):
    self.popup.destroy()
    return False

Answer 1

At any rate, the question seemed quite interesting though it's hard from the outside to see what you want or how your program works and is intended to work. I put together a minimal code for how you could make a popup.

I use a combination of subprocessing for the bash-command and threading for the gui.

Important bits to note in this code:

• Since threading is used in combination with gtk we must use gobject.threads_init()

• The functions that are not in threads execute quickly and returns control to the gtk.main-loop

• The search-button is deactivated while invoked not to stack subprocesses.

And here's the code:

#!/usr/bin/env python

import gtk
import threading
import gobject 
from subprocess import Popen, PIPE

class SearcherProgressBar(object):
    """This is the popup with only progress-bar that pulses"""
    def __init__(self):
        self._popup = gtk.Window(gtk.WINDOW_POPUP)
        self._progress = gtk.ProgressBar()
        self._progress.set_text = gtk.Label("Searching...")
        self._popup.add(self._progress)

    def run(self, search, target):
        """Run spawns a thread so that it can return the process to the
        main app and so that we can do a little more than just execute
        a subprocess"""
        self._popup.show_all()
        self._thread = threading.Thread(target=self._search, args=(search, target))
        self._thread.start()

        #Adding a callback here makes gtk check every 0.42s if thread is done
        gobject.timeout_add(420, self._callback)

    def _search(self, cmd, target):
        """This is the thread, it makes a subprocess that it communicates with
        when it is done it calls the target with stdout and stderr as arguments"""
        p = Popen(cmd, stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE)
        target(*p.communicate())

    def _callback(self, *args):
        """The callback checks if thread is still alive, if so, it pulses
        return true makes callback continue, while false makes it stop"""
        if self._thread.is_alive():
            self._progress.pulse()
            return True
        else:
            self._popup.destroy()
            return False

class App(object):

    def __init__(self):

        self._window = gtk.Window()
        self._window.connect("destroy", self._destroy)

        vbox = gtk.VBox()
        self._window.add(vbox)

        self.button = gtk.Button()
        self.button.set_label('Pretend to search...')
        self.button.connect('clicked', self._search)
        vbox.pack_start(self.button, False, False, 0)

        entry = gtk.Entry()
        entry.set_text("This is here to show this gui doesn't freeze...")
        entry.connect("changed", self._gui_dont_freeze)
        vbox.pack_start(entry, False, False, 0)

        self._results = gtk.Label()
        vbox.pack_start(self._results, False, False, 0)

        self._gui_never_freeze = gtk.Label("Write in entry while searching...")
        vbox.pack_start(self._gui_never_freeze, False, False, 0)

        self._window.show_all()

    def run(self):

        gtk.main()

    def _gui_dont_freeze(self, widget):

        self._gui_never_freeze.set_text(
            "You've typed: '{0}'".format(widget.get_text()))

    def _search(self, widget):
        """Makes sure you can't stack searches by making button
        insensitive, gets a new popup and runs it. Note that the run
        function returns quickly and thus this _search function too."""
        self.button.set_sensitive(False)
        self._results.set_text("")
        popup = SearcherProgressBar()
        popup.run(['sleep', '10'], self._catch_results)

    def _catch_results(self, stdout, stderr):
        """This is where we do something with the output from the subprocess
        and allow button to be pressed again."""
        self.button.set_sensitive(True)
        self._results.set_text("out: {0}\terr: {1}".format(stdout, stderr))

    def _destroy(self, *args):

        self._window.destroy()         
        gtk.main_quit()

if __name__ == "__main__":

        #This is vital for threading in gtk to work correctly
        gobject.threads_init()
        a = App()
        a.run()