nionui

Introduction

This is a Python UI library that can run with a pyside6 or nionui-tool backend.

Installation

Install this library using pip or conda.

.. code-block::

pip install nionui

Install using PySide6 or nionui-tool backend.

.. code-block::

pip install nionui-tool

.. code-block::

pip install pyside6

Usage

This UI library supports an application.

To run the example application, use the following command with the appropriate application identifier. It will launch using either the nionui-tool or pyside6 backend, depending on which is installed. If both are installed, it will use the nionui-tool.

.. code-block::

python -m nionui <application_identifier>

To run the UI demo app, use the following command (application identifier is 'nionui_examples.ui_demo'):

.. code-block::

python -m nionui nionui_examples.ui_demo

To run the Canvas demo app, use the following command (application identifier is 'nionui_examples.canvas_demo'):

.. code-block::

python -m nionui nionui_examples.canvas_demo

To run Nion Swift, use the following command (application identifier is 'nionswift'):

.. code-block::

python -m nionui nionswift

Changelog (nionui)

8.0.0 (2024-10-26)

• Rework canvas item layout/paint architecture for improved performance.
• Add a nionui module for easier launching.
• Add support for text alignment in labels.
• Add create_persistent_bool_model for persistent bool storage.
• Add support for timestamp_ns for display timing measurements.
• Change ComboBox to stop scrolling when not expanded.
• Use modifiers at mouse click rather than mouse release for modifying focus.
• Update for numpy 2.
• Add Python 3.13 support. Drop Python 3.9, 3.10 support.
• Add canvas item demo code.

7.1.1 (2024-06-14)

• Add support for pyside6 (alternate Qt 6.7 frontend) as a successor to pyside2.
• Refactor canvas item layout code to be non-threaded. Deprecate prepare_render method.
• Fix several race conditions in canvas drawing code.
• Improve error reporting in UI callbacks.

7.0.3 (2024-01-22)

• Minor addition for future color scheme change support.

7.0.2 (2023-12-17)

• Add support for handling screen scaling changes.
• Add support for declarative text browser (with markdown).
• Add support for grid item tool tips.
• Improve handling of tool tips (hide when mouse leaves canvas item).

7.0.1 (2023-10-23)

• Minor changes for Python 3.12 compatibility.

7.0.0 (2023-08-16)

• Render SVG images with pixelated images.
• Many changes to layout engine to simplify and make it easier to use.

0.6.11 (2023-06-19)

• Fix issue with closing application, improve compatibility with Qt 6.5.
• Change fallback behavior for preferences to not use old preferences.
• Allow binding for placeholder text in line edit.
• Implement visible property to dock widgets.
• Eliminate spurious write to persistent storage when initializing section widget.
• Improve handling of wheel scrolling.

0.6.10 (2022-12-19)

• Add support for text browser (markdown), requires tool 0.4.18 or later.

0.6.9 (2022-11-04)

• Automatically activate windows when showing them.
• Use alternate low level asyncio on Windows to avoid crash/bug in default.
• Fix race condition in binding helper.

0.6.8 (2022-10-06)

• Introduce a Bitmap object to optionally replace uses of NDArray/uint32 bitmaps.

0.6.6 (2022-10-03)

• Fix regression where line edits not using latest text when still focused.
• Improved look for basic (canvas item) tabs.
• Allow background color to be a gradient in most cases.
• Add ability to set specific borders and margins independently in declarative UI.

0.6.5 (2022-09-13)

• Add a bindable background_color property to widgets, requires tool 0.4.15 or later.
• Add a declarative twist-down section widget.
• Add Path object and method to add it to drawing context.
• Add a alternate compact Tab implementation.
• Add ability to bind text_color property of declarative label.
• Fix issue with dialogs being closed twice.

0.6.4 (2022-07-25)

• Minor code maintenance.

0.6.3 (2022-04-20)

• Introduce Declarative.Handler base class. Optional, but will be required in 0.7.0 and later.

0.6.2 (2022-02-18)

• Allow setting of widget id in declarative; useful for testing.
• Allow binding of image property in declarative image (#33).
• Ensure handlers are closed properly (#50).
• Fix namespace issue.

0.6.1 (2021-12-13)

• Fix issue with spacing items in column/row widgets.

0.6.0 (2021-11-10)

• Add ability to set color/font/word_wrap on declarative UI labels.
• Enable strict typing on entire library.
• Drop support for Python 3.7, enable support for Python 3.10.
• Add methods to create persistent value models.
• Allow subclasses to override persistent value behavior.
• Configure stack widgets to expand/contract as content changes.
• Fix issue with declarative label width.
• Extend declarative components to make it easier to implement all-in-one handler+view.
• Improve handling of focus in dock widgets.
• Add divider and draw canvas items and declarative divider.
• Standardize to use a single event loop managed by Application.
• Add canvas item slider.

0.5.2 (2021-05-26)

• Fix radio button grouping issue.
• Improve font scaling behavior on Windows when running PyQt or PySide.
• Add a window.activate method.
• Expand action capabilities and be able to match key sequences.
• Add additional border color support for declarative images.
• Add icon based declarative radio buttons.
• Fix issue with lists making the selection visible.
• Remove menus from utility windows (affects Windows and Linux).
• Fix case of preference dialog when no preference panels are registered.

0.5.1 (2021-04-12)

• Default SVG now uses fastest compression rather than best (see nionswift-642).

0.5.0 (2021-03-12)

• Fix some drawing inconsistencies during splitter dragging.
• Minor improvements to drawing performance.
• Fix potential crash when closing canvas items with threads.
• Add window file path support to Window.
• Add support for directly getting last or current keyboard modifiers.
• Only change canvas item focus when no key modifiers are enabled.
• Add menu methods for adding only if enabled and checking if enabled.
• Expand action architecture to support parameters and results.
• Require sizing to be set by the canvas item (backwards incompatible).

0.4.5 (2021-02-02)

• Add color dialog support, a color well widget, and some color utility functions.

0.4.4 (2020-12-07)

• Execute context menus actions by queue to fix crashes.

0.4.3 (2020-11-13)

• Extend declarative list box to support item tool tips and context menu.
• Add mechanism to request window close from within event loop.

0.4.2 (2020-11-06)

• Add ability to determine whether a canvas item is interacting with user.
• Add ability to add actions to context menus.
• Improve look of pose dialog.

0.4.1 (2020-09-03)

• Improve capabilities of window closing workflow.
• Fix issues with file dialogs in PyQt version.

0.4.0 (2020-08-31)

• Add support for declarative pop-up window (preliminary).
• Improve key handling in list widget.
• Improve handling of slider value to avoid update cycles in multiple sliders bound to same value.
• Spacing in item-bound rows/columns now works.
• Add a declarative image widget.
• Allow custom bindings in declarative handlers.
• Allow binding to push button and check box text content.
• Add support for declarative polymorphic components using get_resource and examples.
• Add support for declarative list box.
• Add support for specifying expanding declarative items (horizontal/vertical-size-policy).
• Add show_ok_dialog and show_ok_cancel_dialog methods to application class.
• Add run_ui to application for running simple declarative windows.
• Add functions for opening file dialogs without a window.
• Add support for adjusting menus at the application level.
• Add function to truncate string to pixel width.
• Add color/font methods to eliminate need for stylesheet properties.
• Improve handling of scrolling when changing list selection.
• Add UI function to retrieve default cursor tolerance for hit testing.
• Add basic notification dialog when actions report warnings/errors.
• Consolidate default behavior (dock windows, window closing, etc.).
• Add backend support for multi-threaded section-serialized rendering.
• Add backend support for section by section drawing for improved performance.
• Add latency display capability with rolling average to backend.
• Fix drawing bugs (nested layers, startup race condition, thread shutdown).
• Introduce action architecture for declarative menus and key bindings.
• Add support for "name" keyword for declarative row and column widgets.

0.3.27 (2020-02-27)

• Fix tool tip handling (incorrect recursive implementation caused UI hangs).
• Add support for layer caching (optimized drawing, part 1).

0.3.26 (2020-01-08)

• Add support for dynamic tool tips in canvas items and list items.
• Change default logging level to INFO (was DEBUG).
• Add ability to register declarative components.
• Add preliminary support for PySide2 (similar to PyQt).
• Add unbind methods to complement all bind methods.

0.3.25 (2019-10-24)

• Add icon to push button. Add binding to both push button text and icon.
• Add binding to enabled/visible/tool_tip and size properties for all declarative elements.
• Fix minor checkbox issue in PyQt.
• Improve ability to handle stacked canvas items during drag and drop.
• Extend list canvas item to support drag and drop on items.
• Fix issues with SVG 1.1 compatibility (use 'none' in place of 'transparent', opacity).
• Do not select list item if click handled in delegate mouse_pressed_in_item method.

0.3.24 (2019-06-27)

• Fix problem clearing tasks. Add ability to clear queued tasks too.
• Fix problem leaking threads in PyCanvas in PyQt backend.
• Extend sizing policy support.
• Expand capabilities of StringListWidget. Stricter keyword arguments too.
• Implement high quality image rendering in PyQt backend.

0.3.23 (2019-04-17)

• Fix byte ordering bug when exporting RGB data to SVG (includes complex data displays).
• Do not automatically using expanding layout when setting min-width or min-height on widget.
• Add 'expanded' property to SectionWidget for programmatic control.
• Fix issue to avoid combo box having dangling update after close.
• Fix another issue with closing dynamic components.

0.3.22 (2019-02-27)

• Fix skewing issue drawing raster images with odd widths in pyqt UI.
• Fix issues with dynamic declarative components.
• Keep selection (by index) on combo box, if possible, when replacing items.

0.3.21 (2019-01-07)

• Add 2 pixel margin to tree widget to avoid undesired scrolling behavior.
• Add text edit widget to declarative.
• Allow window show method to specify position and size.

0.3.20 (2018-12-11)

• Fix issue with drawing context when writing RGB data to SVG.
• Load resources using pkgutil to be more compatible with embedding.
• Add bitmap loader based on imageio.
• Improve exception handling in pyqt callbacks to avoid crashes.

0.3.19 (2018-11-28)

• Fix issues with line edits: returns, escapes, and editing finished events.
• Fix issue with menu items being enabled for key shortcuts.
• Add support for window level key handling.

0.3.17 (2018-11-13)

• Add ability to specify width on declarative label, push button, combo box.
• Fix problem comparing keyboard modifiers in pyqt.
• Add text button widget.
• Fix text color in SVG.

0.3.16 (2018-07-23)

• Python 3.7 compatibility (command launcher).

0.3.15 (2018-06-25)

• Fix combo box initialization issue.

0.3.14 (2018-06-18)

• Fix issue with splitters. Also add snapping to 1/3, 1/2, and 2/3 points.
• Fix bugs with PyQt backend (color maps, export image).

0.3.13 (2018-05-18)

• Fix bugs with PyQt backend (gradients).

0.3.12 (2018-05-15)

• DPI aware drawing code.

0.3.11 (2018-05-12)

• Initial version online.

Copyright (c) 2013-2020 Nion Company

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.