The purpose of tree widgets is to display hierarchically-organized data. The Tree widget itself is a vertical container for widgets of type TreeItem. Tree itself is not terribly different from CList - both are derived directly from Container, and the Container methods work in the same way on Tree widgets as on CList widgets. The difference is that Tree widgets can be nested within other Tree widgets. We'll see how to do this shortly.
The Tree widget has its own window, and defaults to a white background, as does CList. Also, most of the Tree methods work in the same way as the corresponding CList ones. However, Tree is not derived from CList, so you cannot use them interchangeably.
A Tree is created in the usual way, using:
Like the CList widget, a Tree will simply keep growing as more items are added to it, as well as when subtrees are expanded. For this reason, they are almost always packed into a ScrolledWindow. You might want to use gtk_widget_set_usize() on the scrolled window to ensure that it is big enough to see the tree's items, as the default size for ScrolledWindow is quite small.
Now that you have a tree, you'll probably want to add some items to it. The TreeItem Widget below explains the gory details of TreeItem. For now, it'll suffice to create one, using:
You can then add it to the tree using one of the following (see Functions and Macros below for more options):
Note that you must add items to a Tree one at a time - there is no equivalent to gtk_list_*_items().
A subtree is created like any other Tree widget. A subtree is added to another tree beneath a tree item, using:
You do not need to call gtk_widget_show() on a subtree before or after adding it to a TreeItem. However, you must have added the TreeItem in question to a parent tree before calling gtk_tree_item_set_subtree(). This is because, technically, the parent of the subtree is not the GtkTreeItem which owns it, but rather the GtkTree which holds that GtkTreeItem.
When you add a subtree to a TreeItem, a plus or minus sign appears beside it, which the user can click on to expand or collapse it, meaning, to show or hide its subtree. TreeItems are collapsed by default. Note that when you collapse a TreeItem, any selected items in its subtree remain selected, which may not be what the user expects.
As with CList, the Tree type has a selection field, and it is possible to control the behaviour of the tree (somewhat) by setting the selection type using:
The semantics associated with the various selection modes are described in the section on the CList widget. As with the CList widget, the select_child, unselect_child (not really - see Signals below for an explanation), and selection_changed signals are emitted when list items are selected or unselected. However, in order to take advantage of these signals, you need to know which Tree widget they will be emitted by, and where to find the list of selected items.
This is a source of potential confusion. The best way to explain this is that though all Tree widgets are created equal, some are more equal than others. All Tree widgets have their own X window, and can therefore receive events such as mouse clicks (if their TreeItems or their children don't catch them first!). However, to make GTK_SELECTION_SINGLE and GTK_SELECTION_BROWSE selection types behave in a sane manner, the list of selected items is specific to the topmost Tree widget in a hierarchy, known as the root tree.
Thus, accessing the selection field directly in an arbitrary Tree widget is not a good idea unless you know it's the root tree. Instead, use the GTK_TREE_SELECTION(Tree) macro, which gives the root tree's selection list as a GList pointer. Of course, this list can include items that are not in the subtree in question if the selection type is GTK_SELECTION_MULTIPLE.
Finally, the select_child (and unselect_child, in theory) signals are emitted by all trees, but the selection_changed signal is only emitted by the root tree. Consequently, if you want to handle the select_child signal for a tree and all its subtrees, you will have to call gtk_signal_connect() for every subtree.
The Tree's TYPE definition looks like this:
The perils associated with accessing the selection field directly have already been mentioned. The other important fields of the RECORD can also be accessed with handy macros or class functions. GTK_IS_ROOT_TREE(Tree) returns a boolean value which indicates whether a tree is the root tree in a Tree hierarchy, while GTK_TREE_ROOT_TREE(Tree) returns the root tree, an object of type GtkTree (so, remember to cast it using GTK_WIDGET(Tree) if you want to use one of the gtk_widget_*() functions on it).
Instead of directly accessing the children field of a Tree widget, it's probably best to cast it using GTK_CONTAINER(Tree), and pass it to the gtk_container_children() function. This creates a duplicate of the original list, so it's advisable to free it up using g_list_free() after you're done with it, or to iterate on it destructively, like this:
The tree_owner field is defined only in subtrees, where it points to the TreeItem widget which holds the tree in question. The level field indicates how deeply nested a particular tree is; root trees have level 0, and each successive level of subtrees has a level one greater than the parent level. This field is set only after a Tree widget is actually mapped (i.e. drawn on the screen).
This signal will be emitted whenever the selection field of a Tree has changed. This happens when a child of the Tree is selected or deselected.
This signal is emitted when a child of the Tree is about to get selected. This happens on calls to gtk_tree_select_item(), gtk_tree_select_child(), on all button presses and calls to gtk_tree_item_toggle() and gtk_item_toggle(). It may sometimes be indirectly triggered on other occasions where children get added to or removed from the Tree.
This signal is emitted when a child of the Tree is about to get deselected. As of GTK 1.0.4, this seems to only occur on calls to gtk_tree_unselect_item() or gtk_tree_unselect_child(), and perhaps on other occasions, but not when a button press deselects a child, nor on emission of the toggle signal by gtk_item_toggle().
Returns the GtkTree type identifier.
Create a new Tree object. The new widget is returned as a pointer to a GtkWidget object. NIL is returned on failure.
Append a tree item to a Tree.
Prepend a tree item to a Tree.
Insert a tree item into a Tree at the position in the list specified by position.
Remove a list of items (in the form of a GList pointer) from a Tree. Note that removing an item from a tree dereferences (and thus usually) destroys it and its subtree, if it has one, and all subtrees in that subtree. If you want to remove only one item, you can use gtk_container_remove().
Remove the items from position start to position end from a Tree. The same warning about dereferencing applies here, as gtk_tree_clear_items() simply constructs a list and passes it to gtk_tree_remove_items().
Emits the select_item signal for the child at position item, thus selecting the child (unless you unselect it in a signal handler).
Emits the unselect_item signal for the child at position item, thus unselecting the child.
Emits the select_item signal for the child tree_item, thus selecting it.
Emits the unselect_item signal for the child tree_item, thus unselecting it.
Returns the position in the tree of child. If child is not in the tree, -1 is returned.
Sets the selection mode, which can be one of GTK_SELECTION_SINGLE (the default), GTK_SELECTION_BROWSE, GTK_SELECTION_MULTIPLE, or GTK_SELECTION_EXTENDED. This is only defined for root trees, which makes sense, since the root tree owns the selection. Setting it for subtrees has no effect at all; the value is simply ignored.
Sets the view mode, which can be either GTK_TREE_VIEW_LINE (the default) or GTK_TREE_VIEW_ITEM. The view mode propagates from a tree to its subtrees, and can't be set exclusively to a subtree (this is not exactly true - see the example code comments).
The term view mode is rather ambiguous - basically, it controls the way the highlight is drawn when one of a tree's children is selected. If it's GTK_TREE_VIEW_LINE, the entire TreeItem widget is highlighted, while for GTK_TREE_VIEW_ITEM, only the child widget (i.e., usually the label) is highlighted.
Controls whether connecting lines between tree items are drawn. flag is either TRUE, in which case they are, or FALSE, in which case they aren't.
Cast a generic pointer to GtkTree pointer.
Cast a generic pointer to GtkTreeClass pointer.
Determine if a generic pointer refers to a GtkTree object.
Determine if a generic pointer refers to a GtkTree object and is a root tree. Though this will accept any pointer, the results of passing it a pointer that does not refer to a Tree are undefined and possibly harmful.
Return the root tree of a pointer to a GtkTree object. The above warning applies.
Return the selection list of the root tree of a GtkTree object. The above warning applies here, too.
The TreeItem widget, like CListItem, is derived from Item, which in turn is derived from Bin. Therefore, the item itself is a generic container holding exactly one child widget, which can be of any type. The TreeItem widget has a number of extra fields, but the only one we need be concerned with is the subtree field.
The definition for the TreeItem TYPE looks like this:
The pixmaps_box field is an EventBox which catches clicks on the plus/minus symbol which controls expansion and collapsing. The pixmaps field points to an internal data structure. Since you can always obtain the subtree of a TreeItem in a (relatively) type-safe manner with the GTK_TREE_ITEM_SUBTREE(Item) macro, it's probably advisable never to touch the insides of a TreeItem unless you really know what you're doing.
Since it is directly derived from an Item it can be treated as such by using the GTK_ITEM(TreeItem) macro. A TreeItem usually holds a label, so the convenience function gtk_list_item_new_with_label() is provided. The same effect can be achieved using code like the following, which is actually copied verbatim from gtk_tree_item_new_with_label():
As one is not forced to add a Label to a TreeItem, you could also add an HBox or an Arrow, or even a Notebook (though your app will likely be quite unpopular in this case) to the TreeItem.
If you remove all the items from a subtree, it will be destroyed and unparented, unless you reference it beforehand, and the TreeItem which owns it will be collapsed. So, if you want it to stick around, do something like the following:
Finally, drag-n-drop does work with TreeItems. You just have to make sure that the TreeItem you want to make into a drag item or a drop site has not only been added to a Tree, but that each successive parent widget has a parent itself, all the way back to a toplevel or dialog window, when you call gtk_widget_dnd_drag_set() or gtk_widget_dnd_drop_set(). Otherwise, strange things will happen.
TreeItem inherits the select, deselect, and toggle signals from Item. In addition, it adds two signals of its own, expand and collapse.
This signal is emitted when an item is about to be selected, either after it has been clicked on by the user, or when the program calls gtk_tree_item_select(), gtk_item_select(), or gtk_tree_select_child().
This signal is emitted when an item is about to be unselected, either after it has been clicked on by the user, or when the program calls gtk_tree_item_deselect() or gtk_item_deselect(). In the case of TreeItems, it is also emitted by gtk_tree_unselect_child(), and sometimes gtk_tree_select_child().
This signal is emitted when the program calls gtk_item_toggle(). The effect it has when emitted on a TreeItem is to call gtk_tree_select_child() (and never gtk_tree_unselect_child()) on the item's parent tree, if the item has a parent tree. If it doesn't, then the highlight is reversed on the item.
This signal is emitted when the tree item's subtree is about to be expanded, that is, when the user clicks on the plus sign next to the item, or when the program calls gtk_tree_item_expand().
This signal is emitted when the tree item's subtree is about to be collapsed, that is, when the user clicks on the minus sign next to the item, or when the program calls gtk_tree_item_collapse().
Returns the GtkTreeItem type identifier (which is a LONGINT.
Create a new TreeItem object. The new widget is returned as a pointer to a GtkWidget object. NIL is returned on failure.
Create a new TreeItem object, having a single GtkLabel as the sole child. The new widget is returned as a pointer to a GtkWidget object. NIL is returned on failure.
This function is basically a wrapper around a call to gtk_item_select(GTK_ITEM(tree_item)) which will emit the select signal.
This function is basically a wrapper around a call to gtk_item_deselect(GTK_ITEM(tree_item)) which will emit the "deselect" signal.
This function adds a subtree to tree_item, showing it if tree_item is expanded, or hiding it if tree_item is collapsed. Again, remember that the tree_item must have already been added to a tree for this to work.
This removes all of tree_item's subtree's children (thus unreferencing and destroying it, any of its children's subtrees, and so on...), then removes the subtree itself, and hides the plus/minus sign.
This emits the expand signal on tree_item, which expands it.
This emits the collapse signal on tree_item, which collapses it.
Cast a generic pointer to GtkTreeItem pointer.
Cast a generic pointer to a GtkTreeItemClass pointer.
Determine if a generic pointer refers to a GtkTreeItem object.
Returns a tree_item's subtree (obj should point to a GtkTreeItem object).
This example puts up a window with a tree, and connects all the signals for the relevant objects, so you can see when they
are emitted.