CODEWITHSUNDEEP
wxpythonuser-input
virtualnobi
virtualnobi

Reputation: 1190

Use a prompt in an wxpython textctrl field

I'd like to put a prompt (italic, grey, unchangeable text) into an input field, which is removed when the user types the first character (or the field is focussed, which would not be as nice).

The rationale is to give the user some hint about the meaning of the field as long as it's empty.

Documentation at https://wxpython.org/Phoenix/docs/html/wx.TextCtrl.html says that text styles are (only?) available for multi-line fields, which I do not need.

Can this be achieved with the wxpython TextCtrl? How?

Many thanks!

Upvotes: 1

Views: 563

Answers (2)

Andrei Korshikov
Andrei Korshikov

Reputation: 149

wx.TextCtrl is a subclass of wx.TextEntry, which has SetHint() method. It does not do exactly what you want: prompt is removed when the field is focused, text is not italic (at least on Linux). But it is simple and consistent with other similar stuff on the system.

Upvotes: 0

Rolf of Saxony
Rolf of Saxony

Reputation: 22448

One simple way is to set the Font to have the attributes that you require and then reset them when the "Hint" text is backspaced.
i.e. 

import wx

class MainFrame(wx.Frame):

    def __init__(self):
        wx.Frame.__init__(self, None, title='Test TextCtrl')
        self.panel = wx.Panel(self)
        self.text1 = wx.TextCtrl(self.panel,value="Normal Text",pos=(10,10),size=(350,30))
        self.text2 = wx.TextCtrl(self.panel,value="Italic greyed hint text",pos=(10,40),size=(350,30))
        font = wx.Font(10, wx.DEFAULT, wx.FONTSTYLE_ITALIC, wx.NORMAL)
        self.text2.SetFont(font)
        self.text2.SetForegroundColour('#848484')
        self.text2.Bind(wx.EVT_TEXT, self.On_Text_Active)
        self.Show()

    def On_Text_Active(self, event):
        if self.text2.GetForegroundColour() == '#848484':
            font = wx.Font(10, wx.DEFAULT, wx.NORMAL, wx.NORMAL)
            self.text2.SetFont(font)
            self.text2.SetForegroundColour(wx.BLACK)
            self.text2.SetValue('')

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app = wx.App()
    frame = MainFrame()
    app.MainLoop()

enter image description here

Upvotes: 1

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