Builder

A GtkBuilder is an auxiliary object that reads textual descriptions of a user interface and instantiates the described objects. To create a GtkBuilder from a user interface description, call gtk.builder.Builder.newFromFile, gtk.builder.Builder.newFromResource or gtk.builder.Builder.newFromString.

In the (unusual) case that you want to add user interface descriptions from multiple sources to the same GtkBuilder you can call gtk.builder.Builder.new_ to get an empty builder and populate it by (multiple) calls to gtk.builder.Builder.addFromFile, gtk.builder.Builder.addFromResource or gtk.builder.Builder.addFromString.

A GtkBuilder holds a reference to all objects that it has constructed and drops these references when it is finalized. This finalization can cause the destruction of non-widget objects or widgets which are not contained in a toplevel window. For toplevel windows constructed by a builder, it is the responsibility of the user to call gtk.widget.Widget.destroy to get rid of them and all the widgets they contain.

The functions gtk.builder.Builder.getObject and gtk.builder.Builder.getObjects can be used to access the widgets in the interface by the names assigned to them inside the UI description. Toplevel windows returned by these functions will stay around until the user explicitly destroys them with gtk.widget.Widget.destroy. Other widgets will either be part of a larger hierarchy constructed by the builder (in which case you should not have to worry about their lifecycle), or without a parent, in which case they have to be added to some container to make use of them. Non-widget objects need to be reffed with gobject.object.ObjectWrap.ref_ to keep them beyond the lifespan of the builder.

The function gtk.builder.Builder.connectSignals and variants thereof can be used to connect handlers to the named signals in the description.

GtkBuilder UI Definitions # {#BUILDER-UI}

GtkBuilder parses textual descriptions of user interfaces which are specified in an XML format which can be roughly described by the RELAX NG schema below. We refer to these descriptions as “GtkBuilder UI definitions” or just “UI definitions” if the context is clear. Do not confuse GtkBuilder UI Definitions with [GtkUIManager UI Definitions][XML-UI], which are more limited in scope. It is common to use .ui as the filename extension for files containing GtkBuilder UI definitions.

RELAX NG Compact Syntax

The toplevel element is <interface>. It optionally takes a “domain” attribute, which will make the builder look for translated strings using dgettext() in the domain specified. This can also be done by calling gtk.builder.Builder.setTranslationDomain on the builder. Objects are described by <object> elements, which can contain <property> elements to set properties, <signal> elements which connect signals to handlers, and <child> elements, which describe child objects (most often widgets inside a container, but also e.g. actions in an action group, or columns in a tree model). A <child> element contains an <object> element which describes the child object. The target toolkit version(s) are described by <requires> elements, the “lib” attribute specifies the widget library in question (currently the only supported value is “gtk+”) and the “version” attribute specifies the target version in the form <major>.<minor>. The builder will error out if the version requirements are not met.

Typically, the specific kind of object represented by an <object> element is specified by the “class” attribute. If the type has not been loaded yet, GTK+ tries to find the get_type() function from the class name by applying heuristics. This works in most cases, but if necessary, it is possible to specify the name of the get_type() function explictly with the "type-func" attribute. As a special case, GtkBuilder allows to use an object that has been constructed by a #GtkUIManager in another part of the UI definition by specifying the id of the #GtkUIManager in the “constructor” attribute and the name of the object in the “id” attribute.

Objects may be given a name with the “id” attribute, which allows the application to retrieve them from the builder with gtk.builder.Builder.getObject. An id is also necessary to use the object as property value in other parts of the UI definition. GTK+ reserves ids starting and ending with ___ (3 underscores) for its own purposes.

Setting properties of objects is pretty straightforward with the <property> element: the “name” attribute specifies the name of the property, and the content of the element specifies the value. If the “translatable” attribute is set to a true value, GTK+ uses gettext() (or dgettext() if the builder has a translation domain set) to find a translation for the value. This happens before the value is parsed, so it can be used for properties of any type, but it is probably most useful for string properties. It is also possible to specify a context to disambiguate short strings, and comments which may help the translators.

GtkBuilder can parse textual representations for the most common property types: characters, strings, integers, floating-point numbers, booleans (strings like “TRUE”, “t”, “yes”, “y”, “1” are interpreted as true, strings like “FALSE”, “f”, “no”, “n”, “0” are interpreted as false), enumerations (can be specified by their name, nick or integer value), flags (can be specified by their name, nick, integer value, optionally combined with “|”, e.g. “GTK_VISIBLE|GTK_REALIZED”) and colors (in a format understood by gdk.rgba.RGBA.parse).

GVariants can be specified in the format understood by glib.variant.Variant.parse, and pixbufs can be specified as a filename of an image file to load.

Objects can be referred to by their name and by default refer to objects declared in the local xml fragment and objects exposed via gtk.builder.Builder.exposeObject. In general, GtkBuilder allows forward references to objects — declared in the local xml; an object doesn’t have to be constructed before it can be referred to. The exception to this rule is that an object has to be constructed before it can be used as the value of a construct-only property.

It is also possible to bind a property value to another object's property value using the attributes "bind-source" to specify the source object of the binding, "bind-property" to specify the source property and optionally "bind-flags" to specify the binding flags. Internally builder implements this using GBinding objects. For more information see gobject.object.ObjectWrap.bindProperty

Signal handlers are set up with the <signal> element. The “name” attribute specifies the name of the signal, and the “handler” attribute specifies the function to connect to the signal. By default, GTK+ tries to find the handler using gmodule.module_.Module.symbol, but this can be changed by passing a custom #GtkBuilderConnectFunc to gtk.builder.Builder.connectSignalsFull. The remaining attributes, “after”, “swapped” and “object”, have the same meaning as the corresponding parameters of the gobject.global.signalConnectObject or gobject.global.signalConnectData functions. A “last_modification_time” attribute is also allowed, but it does not have a meaning to the builder.

Sometimes it is necessary to refer to widgets which have implicitly been constructed by GTK+ as part of a composite widget, to set properties on them or to add further children (e.g. the @vbox of a #GtkDialog). This can be achieved by setting the “internal-child” property of the <child> element to a true value. Note that GtkBuilder still requires an <object> element for the internal child, even if it has already been constructed.

A number of widgets have different places where a child can be added (e.g. tabs vs. page content in notebooks). This can be reflected in a UI definition by specifying the “type” attribute on a <child> The possible values for the “type” attribute are described in the sections describing the widget-specific portions of UI definitions.

A GtkBuilder UI Definition

<interface>
  <object class="GtkDialog" id="dialog1">
    <child internal-child="vbox">
      <object class="GtkBox" id="vbox1">
        <property name="border-width">10</property>
        <child internal-child="action_area">
          <object class="GtkButtonBox" id="hbuttonbox1">
            <property name="border-width">20</property>
            <child>
              <object class="GtkButton" id="ok_button">
                <property name="label">gtk-ok</property>
                <property name="use-stock">TRUE</property>
                <signal name="clicked" handler="ok_button_clicked"/>
              </object>
            </child>
          </object>
        </child>
      </object>
    </child>
  </object>
</interface>

Beyond this general structure, several object classes define their own XML DTD fragments for filling in the ANY placeholders in the DTD above. Note that a custom element in a <child> element gets parsed by the custom tag handler of the parent object, while a custom element in an <object> element gets parsed by the custom tag handler of the object.

These XML fragments are explained in the documentation of the respective objects.

Additionally, since 3.10 a special <template> tag has been added to the format allowing one to define a widget class’s components. See the [GtkWidget documentation][composite-templates] for details.

class Builder : ObjectWrap {

this(void* ptr, Flag!"Take" take);

static GType _getGType();

GType _gType [@property getter];

Builder self();

static BuilderGidBuilder builder();

string translationDomain [@property getter];

string translationDomain [@property setter];

this();

static gtk.builder.Builder newFromFile(string filename);

static gtk.builder.Builder newFromResource(string resourcePath);

static gtk.builder.Builder newFromString(string string_);

uint addFromFile(string filename);

uint addFromResource(string resourcePath);

uint addFromString(string buffer);

uint addObjectsFromFile(string filename, string[] objectIds);

uint addObjectsFromResource(string resourcePath, string[] objectIds);

uint addObjectsFromString(string buffer, string[] objectIds);

void connectSignals(void* userData);

void connectSignalsFull(gtk.types.BuilderConnectFunc func);

void exposeObject(string name, gobject.object.ObjectWrap object);

uint extendWithTemplate(gtk.widget.Widget widget, gobject.types.GType templateType, string buffer);

gtk.application.Application getApplication();

gobject.object.ObjectWrap getObject(string name);

gobject.object.ObjectWrap[] getObjects();

string getTranslationDomain();

gobject.types.GType getTypeFromName(string typeName);

void setApplication(gtk.application.Application application);

void setTranslationDomain(string domain);

bool valueFromString(gobject.param_spec.ParamSpec pspec, string string_, gobject.value.Value value);

bool valueFromStringType(gobject.types.GType type, string string_, gobject.value.Value value);

}

Constructors

this this(void* ptr, Flag!"Take" take)
this this(): Creates a new empty builder object.

Members

Functions

addFromFile uint addFromFile(string filename): Parses a file containing a [GtkBuilder UI definition][BUILDER-UI] and merges it with the current contents of builder.
addFromResource uint addFromResource(string resourcePath): Parses a resource file containing a [GtkBuilder UI definition][BUILDER-UI] and merges it with the current contents of builder.
addFromString uint addFromString(string buffer): Parses a string containing a [GtkBuilder UI definition][BUILDER-UI] and merges it with the current contents of builder.
addObjectsFromFile uint addObjectsFromFile(string filename, string[] objectIds): Parses a file containing a [GtkBuilder UI definition][BUILDER-UI] building only the requested objects and merges them with the current contents of builder.
addObjectsFromResource uint addObjectsFromResource(string resourcePath, string[] objectIds): Parses a resource file containing a [GtkBuilder UI definition][BUILDER-UI] building only the requested objects and merges them with the current contents of builder.
addObjectsFromString uint addObjectsFromString(string buffer, string[] objectIds): Parses a string containing a [GtkBuilder UI definition][BUILDER-UI] building only the requested objects and merges them with the current contents of builder.
connectSignals void connectSignals(void* userData): This method is a simpler variation of gtk.builder.Builder.connectSignalsFull. It uses symbols explicitly added to builder with prior calls to gtk.builder.Builder.addCallbackSymbol. In the case that symbols are not explicitly added; it uses #GModule’s introspective features (by opening the module null) to look at the application’s symbol table. From here it tries to match the signal handler names given in the interface description with symbols in the application and connects the signals. Note that this function can only be called once, subsequent calls will do nothing.
connectSignalsFull void connectSignalsFull(gtk.types.BuilderConnectFunc func): This function can be thought of the interpreted language binding version of gtk.builder.Builder.connectSignals, except that it does not require GModule to function correctly.
exposeObject void exposeObject(string name, gobject.object.ObjectWrap object): Add object to the builder object pool so it can be referenced just like any other object built by builder.
extendWithTemplate uint extendWithTemplate(gtk.widget.Widget widget, gobject.types.GType templateType, string buffer): Main private entry point for building composite container components from template XML.
getApplication gtk.application.Application getApplication(): Gets the #GtkApplication associated with the builder.
getObject gobject.object.ObjectWrap getObject(string name): Gets the object named name. Note that this function does not increment the reference count of the returned object.
getObjects gobject.object.ObjectWrap[] getObjects(): Gets all objects that have been constructed by builder. Note that this function does not increment the reference counts of the returned objects.
getTranslationDomain string getTranslationDomain(): Gets the translation domain of builder.
getTypeFromName gobject.types.GType getTypeFromName(string typeName): Looks up a type by name, using the virtual function that #GtkBuilder has for that purpose. This is mainly used when implementing the #GtkBuildable interface on a type.
self Builder self(): Returns this, for use in with statements.
setApplication void setApplication(gtk.application.Application application): Sets the application associated with builder.
setTranslationDomain void setTranslationDomain(string domain): Sets the translation domain of builder. See #GtkBuilder:translation-domain.
valueFromString bool valueFromString(gobject.param_spec.ParamSpec pspec, string string_, gobject.value.Value value): This function demarshals a value from a string. This function calls gobject.value.Value.init_ on the value argument, so it need not be initialised beforehand.
valueFromStringType bool valueFromStringType(gobject.types.GType type, string string_, gobject.value.Value value): Like gtk.builder.Builder.valueFromString, this function demarshals a value from a string, but takes a #GType instead of #GParamSpec. This function calls gobject.value.Value.init_ on the value argument, so it need not be initialised beforehand.

Properties

_gType GType _gType [@property getter]
translationDomain string translationDomain [@property getter]: Get translationDomain property.
translationDomain string translationDomain [@property setter]: Set translationDomain property.

Static functions

_getGType GType _getGType()
builder BuilderGidBuilder builder(): Get builder for gtk.builder.Builder
newFromFile gtk.builder.Builder newFromFile(string filename): Builds the [GtkBuilder UI definition][BUILDER-UI] in the file filename.
newFromResource gtk.builder.Builder newFromResource(string resourcePath): Builds the [GtkBuilder UI definition][BUILDER-UI] at resource_path.
newFromString gtk.builder.Builder newFromString(string string_): Builds the user interface described by string (in the [GtkBuilder UI definition][BUILDER-UI] format).

Inherited Members

From ObjectWrap

_setGObject void _setGObject(void* cObj, Flag!"Take" take): Set the GObject of a D ObjectWrap wrapper.
_cPtr void* _cPtr(Flag!"Dup" dup): Get a pointer to the underlying C object.
_ref void* _ref(void* gObj): Calls g_object_ref() on a GObject.
_unref _unref(void* gObj): Calls g_object_unref() on a GObject.
_getGType GType _getGType(): Get the GType of an object.
_gType GType _gType [@property getter]: GObject GType property.
self ObjectWrap self(): Convenience method to return this cast to a type. For use in D with statements.
_getDObject T _getDObject(void* cptr, Flag!"Take" take): Template to get the D object from a C GObject and cast it to the given D object type.
connectSignalClosure gulong connectSignalClosure(string signalDetail, DClosure closure, Flag!"After" after): Connect a D closure to an object signal.
setProperty void setProperty(string propertyName, T val): Template for setting a GObject property.
getProperty T getProperty(string propertyName): Template for getting a GObject property.
compatControl size_t compatControl(size_t what, void* data)
bindProperty gobject.binding.Binding bindProperty(string sourceProperty, gobject.object.ObjectWrap target, string targetProperty, gobject.types.BindingFlags flags): Creates a binding between source_property on source and target_property on target.
bindPropertyFull gobject.binding.Binding bindPropertyFull(string sourceProperty, gobject.object.ObjectWrap target, string targetProperty, gobject.types.BindingFlags flags, gobject.closure.Closure transformTo, gobject.closure.Closure transformFrom): Creates a binding between source_property on source and target_property on target, allowing you to set the transformation functions to be used by the binding.
forceFloating void forceFloating(): This function is intended for #GObject implementations to re-enforce a floating[floating-ref] object reference. Doing this is seldom required: all #GInitiallyUnowneds are created with a floating reference which usually just needs to be sunken by calling gobject.object.ObjectWrap.refSink.
freezeNotify void freezeNotify(): Increases the freeze count on object. If the freeze count is non-zero, the emission of "notify" signals on object is stopped. The signals are queued until the freeze count is decreased to zero. Duplicate notifications are squashed so that at most one #GObject::notify signal is emitted for each property modified while the object is frozen.
getData void* getData(string key): Gets a named field from the objects table of associations (see gobject.object.ObjectWrap.setData).
getProperty void getProperty(string propertyName, gobject.value.Value value): Gets a property of an object.
getQdata void* getQdata(glib.types.Quark quark): This function gets back user data pointers stored via gobject.object.ObjectWrap.setQdata.
getv void getv(string[] names, gobject.value.Value[] values): Gets n_properties properties for an object. Obtained properties will be set to values. All properties must be valid. Warnings will be emitted and undefined behaviour may result if invalid properties are passed in.
isFloating bool isFloating(): Checks whether object has a floating[floating-ref] reference.
notify void notify(string propertyName): Emits a "notify" signal for the property property_name on object.
notifyByPspec void notifyByPspec(gobject.param_spec.ParamSpec pspec): Emits a "notify" signal for the property specified by pspec on object.
refSink gobject.object.ObjectWrap refSink(): Increase the reference count of object, and possibly remove the floating[floating-ref] reference, if object has a floating reference.
runDispose void runDispose(): Releases all references to other objects. This can be used to break reference cycles.
setData void setData(string key, void* data): Each object carries around a table of associations from strings to pointers. This function lets you set an association.
setProperty void setProperty(string propertyName, gobject.value.Value value): Sets a property on an object.
stealData void* stealData(string key): Remove a specified datum from the object's data associations, without invoking the association's destroy handler.
stealQdata void* stealQdata(glib.types.Quark quark): This function gets back user data pointers stored via gobject.object.ObjectWrap.setQdata and removes the data from object without invoking its destroy() function (if any was set). Usually, calling this function is only required to update user data pointers with a destroy notifier, for example:
thawNotify void thawNotify(): Reverts the effect of a previous call to gobject.object.ObjectWrap.freezeNotify. The freeze count is decreased on object and when it reaches zero, queued "notify" signals are emitted.
watchClosure void watchClosure(gobject.closure.Closure closure): This function essentially limits the life time of the closure to the life time of the object. That is, when the object is finalized, the closure is invalidated by calling gobject.closure.Closure.invalidate on it, in order to prevent invocations of the closure with a finalized (nonexisting) object. Also, gobject.object.ObjectWrap.ref_ and gobject.object.ObjectWrap.unref are added as marshal guards to the closure, to ensure that an extra reference count is held on object during invocation of the closure. Usually, this function will be called on closures that use this object as closure data.
connectNotify gulong connectNotify(string detail, T callback, Flag!"After" after): Connect to Notify signal.

gtk builder classes