tkinter: search widget by name in an efficient way

Question

I like to isolate production code from gui code. I would like to set/retrieve widget values over message queues.

Therefore, given a named widget, I thought I could pass the name along with the set/retrieve message and let the gui code associate the name with the widget instance.

Unfortunately, I cannot simply pass the widget name, I need to pass the widget path which is sth like this: leftwindow.button_grid.my_button1. I don't want the production code need to know the complete path, as it contradicts my isolation purpose and is subject to change if the widgets in the gui are rearranged.

I know, I can run a recursion loop starting with the top level window and comparing the name of each widget with the name of the widget of interest. E.g.: Is it possible to search widget by name in Tkinter?

However, doing this every time I need to set/get a widget value is a performance penality.

Does somebody know how to do this in a more efficient way, given just the widget name without specifying the full widget path?

My idea is to implement an own parser which translates a widget pseudo path into an actual widget path, e.g.:

def translate_widget_pseudo_path(wpath: str):
    wpath = wpath.replace("process_control_buttons", "leftwindow.button_grid")
    wpath = wpath.replace("...", "...")
    return wpath

This way, I could isolate my code, providing a stable pseudo path to the production code and letting the gui decide which part of the pseudo path translate into which part of the actual path to the gui element.

Answer 1

As the code is not complete I've made a similar program from which you'll get a clear idea of how to do this. In the following program, there is a search-entry widget. When you search your preferred widget and enter(or if 'Go' button is pressed'), The cursor will go to the required entry-widget. Be creative and modify to search with part of the text as well. Modify other things as well according to your requirement.

Checked for its working. works perfect.

from tkinter import *
from tkinter import messagebox as mb

def goto_wdgt():
    x = dct['search_lbl'].get()
    
    # the actual key in the dct is search term + '_lbl'
    x = x + '_lbl'
    x = x.lower()
    
    if x == '':
        mb.showinfo('Enter Widget Name', 'Enter the widget Name or go to the widget directly')
    
    elif x in dct.keys():
        
        dct[x].focus_set()
    else:
        mb.showinfo('Wrong widget', f'There is no widget with name {x} available')



root = Tk()
root.geometry('500x700')

# Create a dct -all keys in small letters, for entry widgets value being blank
dct = { 'search': '',
        'search_lbl' : 'xxxx',
        'name': '',
        'name_lbl':'xxxx',
        'phone number': '',
        'phone number_lbl' : 'xxxx',
        'address 1st line' : '',
        'address 1st line_lbl' : 'xxxx',
        'address 2nd line': '',
        'address 2nd line_lbl' : 'xxxx',
        'pincode' : '',
        'pincode_lbl' : 'xxxx'
        }

#iterate thru dct to pack each widget
for key, val in dct.items():

    #if value is empty, the widget should be a Label and the text should be key.capitalize()
    if val == '':
        dct[key] = Label(root, text = key.capitalize())
        dct[key].pack(side='top')
    
    # if value is not empty the widget should be entry widget
    else:
        dct[key] = Entry(root)
        dct[key].pack(side='top')
        
    # if key is 'search_lbl', we need a btn after that to initiate search, map btn with function goto_wdgt
    if key == 'search_lbl':
        
        btn = Button(root, text = 'Go', command = goto_wdgt)
        btn.pack(side='top') 
        

# Bind search-entry widget with return-key inturn with btn so that search can also be initiated by pressing 'enter'
dct['search_lbl'].bind('<Return>', lambda evnt: btn.invoke())
      
root.mainloop()