7.1. Normal Buttons

We've almost seen all there is to see of the button widget. It's pretty simple. There is however more than one way to create a button. You can use the gtk_button_new_with_label() or gtk_button_new_with_mnemonic() to create a button with a label, use gtk_button_new_from_stock() to create a button containing the image and text from a stock item or use gtk_button_new() to create a blank button. It's then up to you to pack a label or pixmap into this new button. To do this, create a new box, and then pack your objects into this box using the usual gtk_box_pack_start(), and then use gtk_container_add() to pack the box into the button.

Here's an example of using gtk_button_new() to create a button with a image and a label in it. I've broken up the code to create a box from the rest so you can use it in your programs. There are further examples of using images later in the tutorial.

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <gtk/gtk.h>

/* Create a new hbox with an image and a label packed into it
 * and return the box. */

static GtkWidget *xpm_label_box( gchar     *xpm_filename,
                                 gchar     *label_text )
{
    GtkWidget *box;
    GtkWidget *label;
    GtkWidget *image;

    /* Create box for image and label */
    box = gtk_hbox_new (FALSE, 0);
    gtk_container_set_border_width (GTK_CONTAINER (box), 2);

    /* Now on to the image stuff */
    image = gtk_image_new_from_file (xpm_filename);

    /* Create a label for the button */
    label = gtk_label_new (label_text);

    /* Pack the image and label into the box */
    gtk_box_pack_start (GTK_BOX (box), image, FALSE, FALSE, 3);
    gtk_box_pack_start (GTK_BOX (box), label, FALSE, FALSE, 3);

    gtk_widget_show (image);
    gtk_widget_show (label);

    return box;
}

/* Our usual callback function */
static void callback( GtkWidget *widget,
                      gpointer   data )
{
    g_print ("Hello again - %s was pressed\n", (char *) data);
}

int main( int   argc,
          char *argv[] )
{
    /* GtkWidget is the storage type for widgets */
    GtkWidget *window;
    GtkWidget *button;
    GtkWidget *box;

    gtk_init (&argc, &argv);

    /* Create a new window */
    window = gtk_window_new (GTK_WINDOW_TOPLEVEL);

    gtk_window_set_title (GTK_WINDOW (window), "Pixmap'd Buttons!");

    /* It's a good idea to do this for all windows. */
    g_signal_connect (G_OBJECT (window), "destroy",
	              G_CALLBACK (gtk_main_quit), NULL);

    g_signal_connect (G_OBJECT (window), "delete_event",
	 	      G_CALLBACK (gtk_main_quit), NULL);

    /* Sets the border width of the window. */
    gtk_container_set_border_width (GTK_CONTAINER (window), 10);

    /* Create a new button */
    button = gtk_button_new ();

    /* Connect the "clicked" signal of the button to our callback */
    g_signal_connect (G_OBJECT (button), "clicked",
		      G_CALLBACK (callback), (gpointer) "cool button");

    /* This calls our box creating function */
    box = xpm_label_box ("info.xpm", "cool button");

    /* Pack and show all our widgets */
    gtk_widget_show (box);

    gtk_container_add (GTK_CONTAINER (button), box);

    gtk_widget_show (button);

    gtk_container_add (GTK_CONTAINER (window), button);

    gtk_widget_show (window);

    /* Rest in gtk_main and wait for the fun to begin! */
    gtk_main ();

    return 0;
}

The xpm_label_box() function could be used to pack images and labels into any widget that can be a container.

The Button widget has the following signals:

• pressed - emitted when pointer button is pressed within Button widget

• released - emitted when pointer button is released within Button widget

• clicked - emitted when pointer button is pressed and then released within Button widget

• enter - emitted when pointer enters Button widget

• leave - emitted when pointer leaves Button widget