Tkinter not displaying image

Question

I have this code:

from tkinter import *
import urllib
import urllib.request
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
import Pydeck
import sys
from collections import defaultdict

root = Tk()
name=""
def buttonclicked():
    name()
    picture()

def name():

    all_lists=[] #all lists
    text = inputfield.get()
    Pydeck.loadDatabase('DATABASE PATH')
    cardName = Pydeck.getCardsFromName(text)
    if not cardName == "":
            c = Pydeck.Card(cardName)
    tex.insert(END, c.name)
    level="\nLevel %s" % c.level + " " + c.attribute + " " + c.typestring 
    tex.insert(END, level)
    atk="\nAtk: %s" % c.attack
    tex.insert(END, atk)
    defe="\nDef: %s" % c.defense
    tex.insert(END, defe)
    typestring='\n%s' %c.typestring
    desc='\n%s' %c.description
    seperator='\n--------------------\n'
    tex.insert(END, typestring)
    tex.insert(END, desc)
    tex.insert(END,seperator)
    #--
    tex.see(END)             # Scroll if necessary
    return c.cardID


def picture():    
    text = inputfield.get()
    gifdir = "PICTURE FOLDERS PATH"
    Pydeck.loadDatabase('DATABASE PATH')
    cardName = Pydeck.getCardsFromName(text)
    if not cardName == "":
        c=Pydeck.Card(cardName)
    filename='{}.gif' .format(c.cardID)
    img = PhotoImage(file=gifdir+filename)
    can = Canvas(root)
    can.pack(fill=BOTH,side='top')
    can.config(width=img.width(), height=img.height())        
    can.create_image(2, 2, image=img, anchor=NW)

tex=Text(root)
tex.pack(side='right')
inputfield = Entry(root)
inputfield.pack(side='bottom')
but = Button(root,text="Enter Name", command = buttonclicked) #Calls name function
but.pack(side='bottom')
text = inputfield.get()

root.mainloop()

Ok, so in short the the program is in Tkinter for Python 3.3. It asks the user to input a name of a monster, it then searches for the monster in the database and returns the monster's attributes this is done in the name function. I want it to display a picture of the monster which is where I'm running into trouble. So the picture function takes one of the attributes specifically the cardID attribute and uses that as the name of the gif file. However it doesn't display the picture and I don't know why. Does anyone know why?

Answer 1

In order to get a stripped-down version of your code to display a .gif test image, I had to add aglobal imgstatement to thepicture()function so thePhotoImageobject that variable name refers to would not be destroyed when the function returns.

It seems strange thatCanvas.create_image()doesn't increment the reference count of theimageobject it's passed...looks like it's a documented bug.

Update: For reasons I don't completely understand, adding acan.img = imgright after thecan = Canvas(root)in thepicture()function accomplishes the same thing in a better way than creating a global namedimgin my opinion.

Display from working version: