Samples Overview

Overview of the examples provided with wxWidgets.

Probably the best way to learn wxWidgets is by reading the source of some 80+ samples provided with it. Many aspects of wxWidgets programming can be learnt from them, but sometimes it is not simple to just choose the right sample to look at. This overview aims at describing what each sample does/demonstrates to make it easier to find the relevant one if a simple grep through all sources didn't help. They also provide some notes about using the samples and what features of wxWidgets are they supposed to test.

There are currently more than 80 different samples as part of wxWidgets: the list in this page is not complete! You should start your tour of wxWidgets with the Minimal Sample which is the wxWidgets version of "Hello, world!". It shows the basic structure of wxWidgets program and is the most commented sample of all - looking at its source code is recommended.

The next most useful sample is Widgets Sample which shows many of wxWidgets controls, such as buttons, text entry zones, list boxes, check boxes, combo boxes etc. It is organized in many different source files, one per each control, which makes it easier to study it, and also allows to change various control styles and call its methods interactively.

Other, more complicated controls, have their own samples. In this category you may find the following samples showing the corresponding controls:

• wxCalendarCtrl: Calendar Sample
• wxListCtrl: List Control Sample
• wxTreeCtrl: wxTreeCtrl Sample
• wxGrid: Grid Sample
• wxDataViewCtrl: wxDataViewCtrl Sample

Finally, here is the full list of samples:

Accessibility Sample Animation Sample Art Provider Sample Advanced User Interface Sample Calendar Sample Caret Sample Clipboard Sample Collapsible Pane Sample Combo Sample Configuration Sample Console Program Sample Controls Sample wxDataViewCtrl Sample Debug Reporter Sample Dialogs Sample Dialup Sample Display Sample Drag & Drop Sample Document/View Sample Drag Image Sample Drawing Sample Erase Event Sample Event Sample Exception Sample External Program Execution Sample Flash Sample Font Sample

Grid Sample Help Sample HTML List Box Sample HTML Sample Image Sample Internationalization Sample Connection Sample Joystick Sample Key Event Sample Layout Sample List Control Sample MDI Sample Mediaplayer Sample Memory Checking Sample Menu Sample MFC Sample Minimal Sample Native Windows Dialog Sample Notebook Sample OLE Automation Sample OpenGL Sample Owner-drawn Sample Popup Transient Window Sample Power Management Sample Printing Sample wxPropertyGrid Sample

Registry Sample Render Sample wxRichTextCtrl Sample Sash Sample Scroll Window Sample Shaped Window Sample Sockets Sample Sound Sample Splash Screen Sample Splitter Window Sample Status Bar Sample wxStyledTextCtrl Sample SVG Sample Tab Order Sample Task Bar Icon Sample Text Sample Thread Sample Tool Bar Sample wxTreeCtrl Sample Types Sample Validator Sample VScrolled Window Sample Widgets Sample Wizard Sample wxWrapSizer Sample XRC Sample

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Notice that all wxWidgets samples mentioned above can be found in samples subdirectory of the library distribution. When a foobar sample is mentioned below, its sources can be found in samples/foobar directory of your wxWidgets tree. If you installed wxWidgets from a binary package, you might not have this directory. In this case, you may view the samples online at http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/samples/ but you need to download the source distribution in order to be able to build them (highly recommended).

Final advice is to do a search in the entire samples directory if you can't find the sample showing the control you are interested in by name. Most classes contained in wxWidgets occur in at least one of the samples.

Todo:

Write descriptions for the samples who description started with "This sample demonstrates", they are semi-auto generated.

Accessibility Sample

This sample shows how you can use the wxAccessible classes in a simple GUI program.

Build Note: You may need to build the wxWidgets library with wxUSE_ACCESSIBILITY being set to 1 to be able to make it work, please read comments in <wx/setup_inc.h> for more info.

Location: samples/access subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/access

Animation Sample

This sample shows how you can use wxAnimationCtrl control and shows concept of a platform-dependent animation encapsulated in wxAnimation.

Location: samples/animate subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/animate

Art Provider Sample

This sample shows how you can customize the look of standard wxWidgets dialogs by replacing default bitmaps/icons with your own versions. It also shows how you can use wxArtProvider to get stock bitmaps for use in your application.

Location: samples/artprov subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/artprov

Advanced User Interface Sample

This sample demonstrates AUI classes.

Location: samples/aui subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/aui

Calendar Sample

This sample shows the calendar control in action. It shows how to configure the control (see the different options in the calendar menu) and also how to process the notifications from it.

Location: samples/calendar subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/calendar

Caret Sample

This sample demonstrates wxCaret.

Location: samples/caret subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/caret

Collapsible Pane Sample

This sample demonstrates wxCollapsiblePane.

Location: samples/collpane subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/collpane

Combo Sample

This sample demonstrates wxComboBox, wxComboCtrl and wxOwnerDrawnComboBox etc.

Location: samples/combo subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/combo

Configuration Sample

This sample demonstrates the wxConfig classes in a platform independent way, i.e. it uses text based files to store a given configuration under Unix and uses the Registry under Windows.

See wxConfig Overview for the descriptions of all features of this class.

Location: samples/config subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/config

Console Program Sample

This sample demonstrates a console program.

Location: samples/console subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/console

Controls Sample

The controls sample is the main test program for most simple controls used in wxWidgets. The sample tests their basic functionality, events, placement, modification in terms of colour and font as well as the possibility to change the controls programmatically, such as adding an item to a list box etc. Apart from that, the sample uses a wxNotebook and tests most features of this special control (using bitmap in the tabs, using wxSizer instances and wxLayoutConstraints within notebook pages, advancing pages programmatically and vetoing a page change by intercepting the wxNotebookEvent.

The various controls tested are listed here:

• wxButton
• wxBitmapButton
• wxCheckBox
• wxChoice
• wxComboBox
• wxGauge
• wxStaticBox
• wxListBox
• wxSpinCtrl
• wxSpinButton
• wxStaticText
• wxStaticBitmap
• wxRadioBox
• wxRadioButton
• wxSlider

Location: samples/controls subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/controls

wxDataViewCtrl Sample

This sample demonstrates wxDataViewCtrl.

Location: samples/dataview subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/dataview

Clipboard Sample

This sample demonstrates wxClipboard.

Location: samples/clipboard subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/clipboard

Debug Reporter Sample

This sample shows how to use wxDebugReport class to generate a debug report in case of a program crash or otherwise. On start up, it proposes to either crash itself (by dereferencing a NULL pointer) or generate debug report without doing it. Next it initializes the debug report with standard information adding a custom file to it (just a timestamp) and allows to view the information gathered using wxDebugReportPreview.

For the report processing part of the sample to work you should make available a Web server accepting form uploads, otherwise wxDebugReportUpload will report an error.

Build Note: You may need to build the wxWidgets library with wxUSE_DEBUGREPORT and wxUSE_ON_FATAL_EXCEPTION being set to 1 to be able to make it work, please read comments in <wx/setup_inc.h> for more info.

Location: samples/debugrpt subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/debugrpt

Dialogs Sample

This sample shows how to use the common dialogs available from wxWidgets. These dialogs are described in detail in the Common Dialogs.

Location: samples/dialogs subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/dialogs

Dialup Sample

This sample shows the wxDialUpManager class. In the status bar, it displays the information gathered through its interface: in particular, the current connection status (online or offline) and whether the connection is permanent (in which case a string `LAN' appears in the third status bar field - but note that you may be on a LAN not connected to the Internet, in which case you will not see this) or not.

Using the menu entries, you may also dial or hang up the line if you have a modem attached and (this only makes sense for Windows) list the available connections.

Location: samples/dialup subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/dialup

Display Sample

This sample demonstrates wxDisplay.

Location: samples/display subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/display

Drag & Drop Sample

This sample shows both clipboard and drag and drop in action. It is quite non trivial and may be safely used as a basis for implementing the clipboard and drag and drop operations in a real-life program.

When you run the sample, its screen is split in several parts. On the top, there are two listboxes which show the standard derivations of wxDropTarget: wxTextDropTarget and wxFileDropTarget.

The middle of the sample window is taken by the log window which shows what is going on (of course, this only works in debug builds) and may be helpful to see the sequence of steps of data transfer.

Finally, the last part is used for dragging text from it to either one of the listboxes (only one will accept it) or another application. The last functionality available from the main frame is to paste a bitmap from the clipboard (or, in the case of the Windows version, also a metafile) - it will be shown in a new frame.

So far, everything we mentioned was implemented with minimal amount of code using standard wxWidgets classes. The more advanced features are demonstrated if you create a shape frame from the main frame menu. A shape is a geometric object which has a position, size and color. It models some application-specific data in this sample. A shape object supports its own private wxDataFormat which means that you may cut and paste it or drag and drop (between one and the same or different shapes) from one sample instance to another (or the same). However, chances are that no other program supports this format and so shapes can also be rendered as bitmaps which allows them to be pasted/dropped in many other applications (and, under Windows, also as metafiles which are supported by most of Windows programs as well - try Write/Wordpad, for example).

Take a look at DnDShapeDataObject class to see how you may use wxDataObject to achieve this.

Location: samples/dnd subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/dnd

Document/View Sample

This sample demonstrates Document/View Framework.

Location: samples/docview subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/docview

See also:

MDI Sample

Drag Image Sample

This sample demonstrates wxDragImage.

Location: samples/dragimag subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/dragimag

Drawing Sample

This sample demonstrates the drawing ability of wxDC.

Location: samples/drawing subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/drawing

Erase Event Sample

This sample demonstrates wxEraseEvent.

Location: samples/erase subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/erase

Event Sample

This sample demonstrates various features of the wxWidgets events. It shows how to dynamic events and connecting/disconnecting the event handlers during run time by using wxEvtHandler::Connect() and wxEvtHandler::Disconnect(), and also how to use wxWindow::PushEventHandler() and wxWindow::PopEventHandler().

Location: samples/event subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/event

Exception Sample

This very simple sample shows how to use C++ exceptions in wxWidgets programs, i.e. where to catch the exception which may be thrown by the program code. It doesn't do anything very exciting by itself, you need to study its code to understand what goes on.

Build Note: You need to build the library with wxUSE_EXCEPTIONS being set to 1 and compile your code with C++ exceptions support to be able to build this sample.

Location: samples/except subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/except

External Program Execution Sample

The exec sample demonstrates the wxExecute and wxShell functions. Both of them are used to execute the external programs and the sample shows how to do this synchronously (waiting until the program terminates) or asynchronously (notification will come later).

It also shows how to capture the output of the child process in both synchronous and asynchronous cases and how to kill the processes with wxProcess::Kill() and test for their existence with wxProcess::Exists().

Location: samples/exec subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/exec

Flash Sample

The flash sample demonstrates embedding of Adobe Flash into a wxWidgets program. Currently it only works under Windows as it uses the Flash ActiveX control to achieve this but we hope to be able to extend it to also work under other platforms in the future. The sample also currently requires Microsoft Visual C++ compiler as it uses COM support extensions specific to this compiler.

The sample comes with 2 Flash files (SWF), showing a simple Flash animation which can be controlled using the "Play", "Stop" and "Back"/"Forward" buttons in the sample as well as a Flash form which shows how Flash and wxWidgets program can exchange data: calling "GetText" function without arguments returns the text of the text control defined inside Flash and calling "SetText" with an argument sets the control contents to the given string. Finally clicking on the button generates an event which is caught by the C++ program.

Font Sample

The font sample demonstrates wxFont, wxFontEnumerator and wxFontMapper classes. It allows you to see the fonts available (to wxWidgets) on the computer and shows all characters of the chosen font as well.

Location: samples/font subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/font

Grid Sample

This sample demonstrates wxGrid.

Location: samples/grid subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/grid

Help Sample

This sample demonstrates wxHelpController.

Location: samples/help subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/help

HTML Sample

Eight HTML samples cover all features of the HTML sub-library.

• Test demonstrates how to create wxHtmlWindow and also shows most supported HTML tags.

• Widget shows how you can embed ordinary controls or windows within an HTML page. It also nicely explains how to write new tag handlers and extend the library to work with unsupported tags.

• About may give you an idea how to write good-looking About boxes.

• Zip demonstrates use of virtual file systems in wxHTML. The zip archives handler (ships with wxWidgets) allows you to access HTML pages stored in a compressed archive as if they were ordinary files.

• Virtual is yet another virtual file systems demo. This one generates pages at run-time. You may find it useful if you need to display some reports in your application.

• Printing explains use of wxHtmlEasyPrinting class which serves as as-simple-as-possible interface for printing HTML documents without much work. In fact, only few function calls are sufficient.

• Help and Helpview are variations on displaying HTML help (compatible with MS HTML Help Workshop). Help shows how to embed wxHtmlHelpController in your application while Helpview is a simple tool that only pops up the help window and displays help books given at command line.

Location: samples/html subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/html

HTML List Box Sample

This sample demonstrates wxHtmlListBox.

Location: samples/htlbox subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/htlbox

Image Sample

The image sample demonstrates use of the wxImage class and shows how to download images in a variety of formats, currently PNG, GIF, TIFF, JPEG, BMP, PNM and PCX. The top of the sample shows two rectangles, one of which is drawn directly in the window, the other one is drawn into a wxBitmap, converted to a wxImage, saved as a PNG image and then reloaded from the PNG file again so that conversions between wxImage and wxBitmap as well as loading and saving PNG files are tested.

At the bottom of the main frame there is a test for using a monochrome bitmap by drawing into a wxMemoryDC. The bitmap is then drawn specifying the foreground and background colours with wxDC::SetTextForeground() and wxDC::SetTextBackground() (on the left). The bitmap is then converted to a wxImage and the foreground colour (black) is replaced with red using wxImage::Replace().

This sample also contains the code for testing the image rotation and resizing and using raw bitmap access, see the corresponding menu commands.

Location: samples/image subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/image

Internationalization Sample

The not very clearly named internat sample demonstrates the wxWidgets internationalization (i18n for short from now on) features. To be more precise, it only shows localization support, i.e. support for translating the program messages into another language while true i18n would also involve changing the other aspects of the programs behaviour.

More information about this sample can be found in the readme.txt file in its directory. Please also see the Internationalization.

Location: samples/internat subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/internat

Connection Sample

This sample demonstrates wxConnection.

Location: samples/ipc subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/ipc

Joystick Sample

This sample demonstrates wxJoystick.

Location: samples/joytest subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/joytest

Key Event Sample

This sample demonstrates wxKeyEvent.

Location: samples/keyboard subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/keyboard

Layout Sample

The layout sample demonstrates the two different layout systems offered by wxWidgets. When starting the program, you will see a frame with some controls and some graphics. The controls will change their size whenever you resize the entire frame and the exact behaviour of the size changes is determined using the wxLayoutConstraints class. See also the overview and the wxIndividualLayoutConstraint class for further information.

The menu in this sample offers two more tests, one showing how to use a wxBoxSizer in a simple dialog and the other one showing how to use sizers in connection with a wxNotebook class. See also wxSizer.

Location: samples/layout subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/layout

List Control Sample

This sample shows the wxListCtrl control. Different modes supported by the control (list, icons, small icons, report) may be chosen from the menu.

The sample also provides some timings for adding/deleting/sorting a lot of (several thousands) items into the control.

Location: samples/listctrl subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/listctrl

MDI Sample

This sample demonstrates MDI.

See also:

Document/View Sample

Location: samples/mdi subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/mdi

Mediaplayer Sample

This sample demonstrates how to use all the features of wxMediaCtrl and play various types of sound, video, and other files.

It replaces the old dynamic sample.

Location: samples/mediaplayer subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/mediaplayer

Memory Checking Sample

This sample demonstrates memory tracing using wxDebugContext.

Location: samples/memcheck subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/memcheck

Build Note: You may need to build the wxWidgets library with wxUSE_MEMORY_TRACING and wxUSE_DEBUG_CONTEXT being set to 1 to be able to make it work, please read comments in <wx/setup_inc.h> for more info.

Menu Sample

This sample demonstrates wxMenu classes.

Location: samples/menu subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/menu

MFC Sample

This sample demonstrates how to mix MFC and wxWidgets code. It pops up an initial wxWidgets frame, with a menu item that allows a new MFC window to be created.

For build instructions please read IMPORTANT NOTES in mfctest.cpp.

Availability:  only available for the wxMSW port.

Location: samples/mfc subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/mfc

Minimal Sample

The minimal sample is what most people will know under the term Hello World, i.e. a minimal program that doesn't demonstrate anything apart from what is needed to write a program that will display a "hello" dialog. This is usually a good starting point for learning how to use wxWidgets.

Location: samples/minimal subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/minimal

Native Windows Dialog Sample

This sample demonstrates native windows dialog.

Availability:  only available for the wxMSW port.

Location: samples/nativdlg subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/nativdlg

Notebook Sample

This samples shows wxBookCtrl family of controls. Although initially it was written to demonstrate wxNotebook only, it can now be also used to see wxListbook, wxChoicebook and wxTreebook in action. Test each of the controls, their orientation, images and pages using commands through menu.

Location: samples/notebook subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/notebook

OLE Automation Sample

This sample demonstrates OLE automation using wxAutomationObject.

Availability:  only available for the wxMSW port.

Location: samples/oleauto subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/oleauto

OpenGL Sample

This sample demonstrates wxGLCanvas.

• cube Draws only a cube to demonstrate how to write a basic wxWidgets OpenGL program.
• isosurf Draws a surface by reading coordinates from a dat file.
• penguin Draws a rotatable penguin by reading data from a dxf file.

Location: samples/opengl subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/opengl

Owner-drawn Sample

This sample demonstrates owner-drawn wxMenuItem, wxCheckList and wxListBox.

Location: samples/ownerdrw subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/ownerdrw

Popup Transient Window Sample

This sample demonstrates wxPopupTransientWindow.

Location: samples/popup subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/popup

Power Management Sample

This sample demonstrates wxWidgets power management.

See also:

wxPowerEvent

Location: samples/power subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/power

Printing Sample

This sample demonstrates printing.

See also:

Printing Framework Overview, Printing Under Unix (GTK+)

Build Note: You may need to build the wxWidgets library with wxUSE_PRINTING_ARCHITECTURE being set to 1 to be able to make it work, please read comments in <wx/setup_inc.h> for more info.

Location: samples/printing subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/printing

wxPropertyGrid Sample

Sample application has following additional examples of custom properties:

• wxFontDataProperty ( edits wxFontData )
• wxPointProperty ( edits wxPoint )
• wxSizeProperty ( edits wxSize )
• wxAdvImageFileProperty ( like wxImageFileProperty, but also has a drop-down for recent image selection )
• wxDirsProperty ( edits a wxArrayString consisting of directory strings)
• wxArrayDoubleProperty ( edits wxArrayDouble )

This sample demonstrates wxPropertyGrid.

Location: samples/propgrid subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/propgrid

Registry Sample

This sample demonstrates wxRegKey.

Availability:  only available for the wxMSW port.

Location: samples/regtest subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/regtest

Render Sample

This sample shows how to replace the default wxWidgets renderer and also how to write a shared library (DLL) implementing a renderer and load and unload it during the run-time.

Location: samples/render subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/render

wxRichTextCtrl Sample

This sample demonstrates wxRichTextCtrl.

Location: samples/richtext subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/richtext

Sash Sample

This sample demonstrates wxSashWindow classes.

Location: samples/sashtest subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/sashtest

Scroll Window Sample

This sample demonstrates wxScrolledWindow.

This sample demonstrates use of the wxScrolledWindow class including placing subwindows into it and drawing simple graphics. It uses the SetTargetWindow method and thus the effect of scrolling does not show in the scrolled window itself, but in one of its subwindows.

Additionally, this samples demonstrates how to optimize drawing operations in wxWidgets, in particular using the wxWindow::IsExposed() method with the aim to prevent unnecessary drawing in the window and thus reducing or removing flicker on screen.

Location: samples/scroll subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/scroll

Shaped Window Sample

This sample demonstrates how to implement a shaped or transparent window, and a window showing/hiding with effect.

See also:

wxTopLevelWindow::SetShape(), wxTopLevelWindow::SetTransparent(), wxWindow::ShowWithEffect(), wxWindow::HideWithEffect()

Location: samples/shaped subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/shaped

Sockets Sample

The sockets sample demonstrates how to use the communication facilities provided by wxSocket. There are two different applications in this sample: a server, which is implemented using a wxSocketServer object, and a client, which is implemented as a wxSocketClient.

The server binds to the local address, using TCP port number 3000, sets up an event handler to be notified of incoming connection requests (wxSOCKET_CONNECTION events), and sits there, waiting for clients (listening, in socket parlance). For each accepted connection, a new wxSocketBase object is created. These socket objects are independent from the server that created them, so they set up their own event handler, and then request to be notified of wxSOCKET_INPUT (incoming data) or wxSOCKET_LOST (connection closed at the remote end) events. In the sample, the event handler is the same for all connections; to find out which socket the event is addressed to, the GetSocket function is used.

Although it might take some time to get used to the event-oriented system upon which wxSocket is built, the benefits are many. See, for example, that the server application, while being single-threaded (and of course without using fork() or ugly select() loops) can handle an arbitrary number of connections.

The client starts up unconnected, so you can use the Connect... option to specify the address of the server you are going to connect to (the TCP port number is hard-coded as 3000). Once connected, a number of tests are possible. Currently, three tests are implemented. They show how to use the basic IO calls in wxSocketBase, such as wxSocketBase::Read(), wxSocketBase::Write(), wxSocketBase::ReadMsg() and wxSocketBase::WriteMsg(), and how to set up the correct IO flags depending on what you are going to do. See the comments in the code for more information. Note that because both clients and connection objects in the server set up an event handler to catch wxSOCKET_LOST events, each one is immediately notified if the other end closes the connection.

There is also a URL test which shows how to use the wxURL class to fetch data from a given URL.

The sockets sample is work in progress. Some things to do:

• More tests for basic socket functionality.
• More tests for protocol classes (wxProtocol and its descendants).
• Tests for the recently added (and still in alpha stage) datagram sockets.
• New samples which actually do something useful (suggestions accepted).

Location: samples/sockets subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/sockets

Sound Sample

The sound sample shows how to use wxSound for simple audio output (e.g. notifications).

Location: samples/sound subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/sound

Splash Screen Sample

This sample demonstrates wxSplashScreen.

Location: samples/splash subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/splash

Splitter Window Sample

This sample demonstrates wxSplitterWindow.

Location: samples/splitter subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/splitter

Status Bar Sample

This sample shows how to create and use wxStatusBar. Although most of the samples have a statusbar, they usually only create a default one and only do it once.

Here you can see how to recreate the statusbar (with possibly different number of fields) and how to use it to show icons/bitmaps and/or put arbitrary controls into it.

Location: samples/statbar subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/statbar

wxStyledTextCtrl Sample

This sample demonstrates wxStyledTextCtrl.

Location: samples/stc subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/stc

SVG Sample

This sample demonstrates wxSVGFileDC.

Location: samples/svg subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/svg

Tab Order Sample

This sample allows to test keyboard navigation (mostly done using the TAB key, hence the sample name) between different controls. It shows the use of wxWindow::MoveBeforeInTabOrder() and MoveAfterInTabOrder() methods to change the default order of the windows in the navigation chain and of wxWindow::Navigate() for moving focus along this chain.

Location: samples/taborder subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/taborder

Task Bar Icon Sample

This sample demonstrates wxTaskBarIcon.

Location: samples/taskbar subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/taskbar

Text Sample

This sample demonstrates four features: firstly the use and many variants of the wxTextCtrl class (single line, multi line, read only, password, ignoring TAB, ignoring ENTER).

Secondly it shows how to intercept a wxKeyEvent in both the raw form using the EVT_KEY_UP and EVT_KEY_DOWN macros and the higher level from using the EVT_CHAR macro. All characters will be logged in a log window at the bottom of the main window. By pressing some of the function keys, you can test some actions in the text ctrl as well as get statistics on the text ctrls, which is useful for testing if these statistics actually are correct.

Thirdly, on platforms which support it, the sample will offer to copy text to the wxClipboard and to paste text from it. The GTK version will use the so called PRIMARY SELECTION, which is the pseudo clipboard under X and best known from pasting text to the XTerm program.

Last not least: some of the text controls have tooltips and the sample also shows how tooltips can be centrally disabled and their latency controlled.

Location: samples/text subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/text

Thread Sample

This sample demonstrates use of threads in connection with GUI programs.

There are two fundamentally different ways to use threads in GUI programs and either way has to take care of the fact that the GUI library itself usually is not multi-threading safe, i.e. that it might crash if two threads try to access the GUI class simultaneously.

One way to prevent that is have a normal GUI program in the main thread and some worker threads which work in the background. In order to make communication between the main thread and the worker threads possible, wxWidgets offers the wxQueueEvent function and this sample demonstrates its usage.

The other way is to use a wxMutexGuiEnter and wxMutexGuiLeave functions, but this is not currently shown in the sample.

See also Multithreading Overview and wxThread.

Location: samples/thread subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/thread

Tool Bar Sample

The toolbar sample shows the wxToolBar class in action.

The following things are demonstrated:

• Creating the toolbar using wxToolBar::AddTool() and wxToolBar::AddControl(): see MyApp::InitToolbar() in the sample.
• Using EVT_UPDATE_UI handler for automatically enabling/disabling toolbar buttons without having to explicitly call EnableTool. This is done in MyFrame::OnUpdateCopyAndCut().
• Using wxToolBar::DeleteTool() and wxToolBar::InsertTool() to dynamically update the toolbar.

Some buttons in the main toolbar are check buttons, i.e. they stay checked when pressed. On the platforms which support it, the sample also adds a combobox to the toolbar showing how you can use arbitrary controls and not only buttons in it.

If you toggle another toolbar in the sample (using Ctrl-A) you will also see the radio toolbar buttons in action: the first three buttons form a radio group, i.e. checking any of them automatically unchecks the previously checked one.

Location: samples/toolbar subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/toolbar

wxTreeCtrl Sample

This sample demonstrates using the wxTreeCtrl class. Here you may see how to process various notification messages sent by this control and also when they occur (by looking at the messages in the text control in the bottom part of the frame).

Adding, inserting and deleting items and branches from the tree as well as sorting (in default alphabetical order as well as in custom one) is demonstrated here as well - try the corresponding menu entries.

Location: samples/treectrl subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/treectrl

Types Sample

This sample demonstrates wxWidgets types.

Todo:

This sample isn't very didactive; it's more than a set of tests rather than a sample and thus should be rewritten with CppUnit and moved under "tests"

Location: samples/typetest subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/typetest

Validator Sample

This sample demonstrates wxValidator.

Location: samples/validate subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/validate

VScrolled Window Sample

This sample demonstrates wxVScrolledWindow.

Location: samples/vscroll subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/vscroll

Widgets Sample

The widgets sample is the main presentation program for most simple and advanced native controls and complex generic widgets provided by wxWidgets. The sample tests their basic functionality, events, placement, modification in terms of colour and font as well as the possibility to change the controls programmatically, such as adding an item to a list box etc. All widgets are categorized for easy browsing.

Location: samples/widgets subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/widgets

Wizard Sample

This sample shows the so-called wizard dialog (implemented using wxWizard and related classes). It shows almost all features supported:

• Using bitmaps with the wizard and changing them depending on the page shown (notice that wxValidationPage in the sample has a different image from the other ones)
• Using TransferDataFromWindow to verify that the data entered is correct before passing to the next page (done in wxValidationPage which forces the user to check a checkbox before continuing).
• Using more elaborated techniques to allow returning to the previous page, but not continuing to the next one or vice versa (in wxRadioboxPage)
• This (wxRadioboxPage) page also shows how the page may process the Cancel button itself instead of relying on the wizard parent to do it.
• Normally, the order of the pages in the wizard is known at compile-time, but sometimes it depends on the user choices: wxCheckboxPage shows how to dynamically decide which page to display next (see also wxWizardPage)

Location: samples/wizard subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/wizard

wxWrapSizer Sample

This sample demonstrates wxWrapSizer.

Location: samples/wrapsizer subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/wrapsizer

XRC Sample

This sample demonstrates XML Based Resource System (XRC).

Location: samples/xrc subdirectory of your wxWidgets installation or http://svn.wxwidgets.org/viewvc/wx/wxWidgets/trunk/xrc