Phoenix Logo

phoenix_title wx.RendererNative

First, a brief introduction to wx.RendererNative and why it is needed.

Usually wxWidgets uses the underlying low level GUI system to draw all the controls - this is what we mean when we say that it is a “native” framework. However not all controls exist under all (or even any) platforms and in this case wxWidgets provides a default, generic, implementation of them written in wxWidgets itself.

These controls don’t have the native appearance if only the standard line drawing and other graphics primitives are used, because the native appearance is different under different platforms while the lines are always drawn in the same way.

This is why we have renderers: wx.RendererNative is a class which virtualizes the drawing, i.e. it abstracts the drawing operations and allows you to draw say, a button, without caring about exactly how this is done. Of course, as we can draw the button differently in different renderers, this also allows us to emulate the native look and feel.

So the renderers work by exposing a large set of high-level drawing functions which are used by the generic controls. There is always a default global renderer but it may be changed or extended by the user, see Render Sample.

All drawing functions take some standard parameters:

  • win - The window being drawn. It is normally not used and when it is it should only be used as a generic wx.Window (in order to get its low level handle, for example), but you should not assume that it is of some given type as the same renderer function may be reused for drawing different kinds of control.
  • dc - The wx.DC to draw on. Only this device context should be used for drawing. It is not necessary to restore pens and brushes for it on function exit but, on the other hand, you shouldn’t assume that it is in any specific state on function entry: the rendering functions should always prepare it.
  • rect - The bounding rectangle for the element to be drawn.
  • flags - The optional flags (none by default) which can be a combination of the CONTROL_FLAGS.

Note that each drawing function restores the wx.DC attributes if it changes them, so it is safe to assume that the same pen, brush and colours that were active before the call to this function are still in effect after it.


class_hierarchy Class Hierarchy

Inheritance diagram for class RendererNative:

method_summary Methods Summary

DrawCheckBox Draw a check box.
DrawChoice Draw a native wx.Choice.
DrawComboBox Draw a native wx.ComboBox.
DrawComboBoxDropButton Draw a button like the one used by wx.ComboBox to show a drop down window.
DrawDropArrow Draw a drop down arrow that is suitable for use outside a combo box.
DrawFocusRect Draw a focus rectangle using the specified rectangle.
DrawHeaderButton Draw the header control button (used, for example, by wx.ListCtrl).
DrawHeaderButtonContents Draw the contents of a header control button (label, sort arrows, etc.).
DrawItemSelectionRect Draw a selection rectangle underneath the text as used e.g.
DrawPushButton Draw a blank push button that looks very similar to wx.Button.
DrawRadioBitmap Draw a native wx.RadioButton bitmap.
DrawSplitterBorder Draw the border for sash window: this border must be such that the sash drawn by DrawSplitterSash blends into it well.
DrawSplitterSash Draw a sash.
DrawTextCtrl Draw a native wx.TextCtrl frame.
DrawTitleBarBitmap Draw a title bar button in the given state.
DrawTreeItemButton Draw the expanded/collapsed icon for a tree control item.
Get Return the currently used renderer.
GetCheckBoxSize Returns the size of a check box.
GetDefault Return the default (native) implementation for this platform Set in which case the return value of this method may be different from the return value of Get .
GetGeneric Return the generic implementation of the renderer.
GetHeaderButtonHeight Returns the height of a header button, either a fixed platform height if available, or a generic height based on the win window’s font.
GetHeaderButtonMargin Returns the horizontal margin on the left and right sides of header button’s label.
GetSplitterParams Get the splitter parameters, see wx.SplitterRenderParams.
GetVersion This function is used for version checking: Load refuses to load any shared libraries implementing an older or incompatible version.
Load Load the renderer from the specified DLL, the returned pointer must be deleted by caller if not None when it is not used any more.
Set Set the renderer to use, passing None reverts to using the default renderer (the global renderer must always exist).

property_summary Properties Summary

Version See GetVersion

api Class API



class wx.RendererNative(object)

First, a brief introduction to RendererNative and why it is needed.


Methods



DrawCheckBox(self, win, dc, rect, flags=0)

Draw a check box.

flags may have the CONTROL_CHECKED , CONTROL_CURRENT or CONTROL_UNDETERMINED bit set, see CONTROL_FLAGS.

Parameters:


DrawChoice(self, win, dc, rect, flags=0)

Draw a native wx.Choice.

Parameters:


DrawComboBox(self, win, dc, rect, flags=0)

Draw a native wx.ComboBox.

Parameters:


DrawComboBoxDropButton(self, win, dc, rect, flags=0)

Draw a button like the one used by wx.ComboBox to show a drop down window.

The usual appearance is a downwards pointing arrow.

flags may have the CONTROL_PRESSED or CONTROL_CURRENT bit set, see CONTROL_FLAGS.

Parameters:


DrawDropArrow(self, win, dc, rect, flags=0)

Draw a drop down arrow that is suitable for use outside a combo box.

Arrow will have transparent background.

rect is not entirely filled by the arrow. Instead, you should use bounding rectangle of a drop down button which arrow matches the size you need.

flags may have the CONTROL_PRESSED or CONTROL_CURRENT bit set, see CONTROL_FLAGS.

Parameters:


DrawFocusRect(self, win, dc, rect, flags=0)

Draw a focus rectangle using the specified rectangle.

wx.ListCtrl.

The only supported flags is CONTROL_SELECTED for items which are selected. see CONTROL_FLAGS.

Parameters:


DrawHeaderButton(self, win, dc, rect, flags=0, sortArrow=HDR_SORT_ICON_NONE, params=None)

Draw the header control button (used, for example, by wx.ListCtrl).

Depending on platforms the flags parameter may support the CONTROL_SELECTED CONTROL_DISABLED and CONTROL_CURRENT bits, see CONTROL_FLAGS.

Parameters:
Return type:

int

Returns:

The optimal width to contain the unabbreviated label text or bitmap, the sort arrow if present, and internal margins.



DrawHeaderButtonContents(self, win, dc, rect, flags=0, sortArrow=HDR_SORT_ICON_NONE, params=None)

Draw the contents of a header control button (label, sort arrows, etc.).

This function is normally only called by DrawHeaderButton .

Depending on platforms the flags parameter may support the CONTROL_SELECTED CONTROL_DISABLED and CONTROL_CURRENT bits, see CONTROL_FLAGS.

Parameters:
Return type:

int

Returns:

The optimal width to contain the unabbreviated label text or bitmap, the sort arrow if present, and internal margins.



DrawItemSelectionRect(self, win, dc, rect, flags=0)

Draw a selection rectangle underneath the text as used e.g.

in a wx.ListCtrl.

The supported flags are CONTROL_SELECTED for items which are selected (e.g. often a blue rectangle) and CONTROL_CURRENT for the item that has the focus (often a dotted line around the item’s text). CONTROL_FOCUSED may be used to indicate if the control has the focus (otherwise the selection rectangle is e.g. often grey and not blue). This may be ignored by the renderer or deduced by the code directly from the win.

Parameters:


DrawPushButton(self, win, dc, rect, flags=0)

Draw a blank push button that looks very similar to wx.Button.

flags may have the CONTROL_PRESSED , CONTROL_CURRENT or CONTROL_ISDEFAULT bit set, see CONTROL_FLAGS.

Parameters:


DrawRadioBitmap(self, win, dc, rect, flags=0)

Draw a native wx.RadioButton bitmap.

Parameters:


DrawSplitterBorder(self, win, dc, rect, flags=0)

Draw the border for sash window: this border must be such that the sash drawn by DrawSplitterSash blends into it well.

Parameters:


DrawSplitterSash(self, win, dc, size, position, orient, flags=0)

Draw a sash.

The orient parameter defines whether the sash should be vertical or horizontal and how the position should be interpreted.

Parameters:


DrawTextCtrl(self, win, dc, rect, flags=0)

Draw a native wx.TextCtrl frame.

Parameters:


DrawTitleBarBitmap(self, win, dc, rect, button, flags=0)

Draw a title bar button in the given state.

This function is currently only available under MSW and OS X (and only for wx.TITLEBAR_BUTTON_CLOSE under the latter), its best replacement for the other platforms is to use wx.ArtProvider to retrieve the bitmaps for ART_HELP and ART_CLOSE (but not any other title bar buttons and not for any state but normal, i.e. not pressed and not current one).

The presence of this function is indicated by HAS_DRAW_TITLE_BAR_BITMAP symbol being defined.

Also notice that PNG handler must be enabled using wx.Image.AddHandler to use this function under OS X currently as the bitmaps are embedded in the library itself in PNG format.

Parameters:

New in version 2.9.1.



DrawTreeItemButton(self, win, dc, rect, flags=0)

Draw the expanded/collapsed icon for a tree control item.

To draw an expanded button the flags parameter must contain CONTROL_EXPANDED bit, see CONTROL_FLAGS.

Parameters:


static Get()

Return the currently used renderer.

Return type: wx.RendererNative


GetCheckBoxSize(self, win)

Returns the size of a check box.

The win parameter is not used currently and can be None.

Parameters:win (wx.Window) –
Return type: wx.Size


static GetDefault()

Return the default (native) implementation for this platform Set in which case the return value of this method may be different from the return value of Get .

Return type: wx.RendererNative


static GetGeneric()

Return the generic implementation of the renderer.

Under some platforms, this is the default renderer implementation, others have platform-specific default renderer which can be retrieved by calling GetDefault .

Return type: wx.RendererNative


GetHeaderButtonHeight(self, win)

Returns the height of a header button, either a fixed platform height if available, or a generic height based on the win window’s font.

Parameters:win (wx.Window) –
Return type:int


GetHeaderButtonMargin(self, win)

Returns the horizontal margin on the left and right sides of header button’s label.

Parameters:win (wx.Window) –
Return type:int

New in version 2.9.2.



GetSplitterParams(self, win)

Get the splitter parameters, see wx.SplitterRenderParams.

The win parameter should be a wx.SplitterWindow.

Parameters:win (wx.Window) –
Return type: wx.SplitterRenderParams


GetVersion(self)

This function is used for version checking: Load refuses to load any shared libraries implementing an older or incompatible version.

Return type: wx.RendererVersion

Note

The implementation of this method is always the same in all renderers (simply construct wx.RendererVersion using the RendererVersion::Current_XXX values), but it has to be in the derived, not base, class, to detect mismatches between the renderers versions and so you have to implement it anew in all renderers.



static Load(name)

Load the renderer from the specified DLL, the returned pointer must be deleted by caller if not None when it is not used any more.

The name should be just the base name of the renderer and not the full name of the DLL file which is constructed differently (using DynamicLibrary.CanonicalizePluginName ) on different systems.

Parameters:name (string) –
Return type: wx.RendererNative


static Set(renderer)

Set the renderer to use, passing None reverts to using the default renderer (the global renderer must always exist).

Return the previous renderer used with Set or None if none.

Parameters:renderer (wx.RendererNative) –
Return type: wx.RendererNative

Properties



Version

See GetVersion