treectrl(n) Tk Commands treectrl(n)______________________________________________________________________________NAMEtreectrl - Create and manipulate hierarchical multicolumn widgets
SYNOPSIS
package require treectrl 2.4.1
treectrl pathName ?options?
pathName activate itemDesc
pathName bbox ?area?
pathName canvasx windowx
pathName canvasy windowy
pathName cget option
pathName collapse ?-recurse? ?itemDesc ...?
pathName column option column ?arg ...?
pathName column bbox columnDesc
pathName column cget columnDesc option
pathName column configure columnDesc ?option? ?value? ?option value
...?
pathName column compare column1 op column2
pathName column count ?columnDesc?
pathName column create ?option value ...?
pathName column delete first ?last?
pathName column dragcget option
pathName column dragconfigure ?option? ?value? ?option value ...?
pathName column index columnDesc
pathName column id columnDesc
pathName column list ?-visible?
pathName column move columnDesc beforeDesc
pathName column neededwidth columnDesc
pathName column order columnDesc ?-visible?
pathName column tag option ?arg arg ...?
pathName column tag add columnDesc tagList
pathName column tag expr columnDesc tagExpr
pathName column tag names columnDesc
pathName column tag remove columnDesc tagList
pathName column width columnDesc
pathName compare itemDesc1 op itemDesc2
pathName configure ?option? ?value option value ...?
pathName contentbox
pathName debug option ?arg arg ...?
pathName debug alloc
pathName debug cget option
pathName debug configure ?option? ?value? ?option value ...?
pathName debug dinfo option
pathName debug expose x1 y1 x2 y2
pathName depth ?itemDesc?
pathName dragimage option ?arg ...?
pathName dragimage add itemDesc ?column? ?element?
pathName dragimage cget option
pathName dragimage clear
pathName dragimage configure ?option? ?value? ?option value ...?
pathName dragimage offset ?x y?
pathName element option ?element? ?arg arg ...?
pathName element cget element option
pathName element configure element ?option? ?value? ?option value ...?
pathName element create name type ?option value ...?
pathName element delete ?element ...?
pathName element names
pathName element perstate element option stateList
pathName element type element
pathName expand ?-recurse? ?itemDesc ...?
pathName gradient option ?arg ...?
pathName gradient cget gradient option
pathName gradient configure gradient ?option value ...?
pathName gradient create name ?option value ...?
pathName gradient delete ?name ...?
pathName gradient names
pathName gradient native ?preference?
pathName header option ?arg ...?
pathName header bbox headerDesc ?column? ?element?
pathName header compare headerDesc1 op headerDesc2
pathName header configure headerDesc ?arg ...?
pathName header count ?headerDesc?
pathName header create ?option value?
pathName header delete headerDesc
pathName header dragcget ?arg ...?
pathName header dragconfigure ?arg ...?
pathName header element ?arg ...?
pathName header id headerDesc
pathName header image headerDesc ?column? ?image? ?column image ...?
pathName header span headerDesc ?column? ?numColumns? ?column num‐
Columns ...?
pathName header state command headerDesc ?arg ...?
pathName header style command headerDesc ?arg ...?
pathName header text headerDesc ?column? ?text? ?column text ...?
pathName header tag command headerDesc ?arg ...?
pathName identify ?-array varName? x y
pathName index itemDesc
pathName item option ?arg ...?
pathName item ancestors itemDesc
pathName item bbox itemDesc ?column? ?element?
pathName item buttonstate itemDesc ?state?
pathName item cget itemDesc option
pathName item children itemDesc
pathName item collapse itemDesc ?-animate? ?-recurse?
pathName item compare itemDesc1 op itemDesc2
pathName item complex itemDesc ?list...?
pathName item configure itemDesc ?option? ?value? ?option value ...?
pathName item count ?itemDesc?
pathName item create ?option value ...?
pathName item delete first ?last?
pathName item descendants itemDesc
pathName item dump itemDesc
pathName item element command itemDesc column element ?arg ...?
pathName item element actual itemDesc column element option
pathName item element cget itemDesc column element option
pathName item element configure itemDesc column element ?option?
?value? ?option value ...?
pathName item element perstate itemDesc column element option
?stateList?
pathName item enabled itemDesc ?boolean?
pathName item expand itemDesc ?-animate? ?-recurse?
pathName item firstchild parent ?child?
pathName item id itemDesc
pathName item image itemDesc ?column? ?image? ?column image ...?
pathName item isancestor itemDesc descendant
pathName item isopen itemDesc
pathName item lastchild parent ?child?
pathName item nextsibling sibling ?next?
pathName item numchildren itemDesc
pathName item order itemDesc ?-visible?
pathName item parent itemDesc
pathName item prevsibling sibling ?prev?
pathName item range first last
pathName item remove itemDesc
pathName item rnc itemDesc
pathName item sort itemDesc ?option ...?
pathName item span itemDesc ?column? ?numColumns? ?column numColumns
...?
pathName item state command itemDesc ?arg ...?
pathName item state define stateName
pathName item state forcolumn itemDesc column ?stateDescList?
pathName item state get itemDesc ?stateName?
pathName item state linkage stateName
pathName item state names
pathName item state set itemDesc ?lastItem? stateDescList
pathName item state undefine ?stateName ...?
pathName item style command itemDesc ?arg ...?
pathName item style elements itemDesc column
pathName item style map itemDesc column style map
pathName item style set itemDesc ?column? ?style? ?column style ...?
pathName item tag option ?arg arg ...?
pathName item tag add itemDesc tagList
pathName item tag expr itemDesc tagExpr
pathName item tag names itemDesc
pathName item tag remove itemDesc tagList
pathName item text itemDesc ?column? ?text? ?column text ...?
pathName item toggle itemDesc ?-animate? ?-recurse?
pathName marquee option ?arg ...?
pathName marquee anchor ?x y?
pathName marquee cget option
pathName marquee configure ?option? ?value? ?option value ...?
pathName marquee coords ?x1 y1 x2 y2?
pathName marquee corner ?x y?
pathName marquee identify
pathName notify option ?arg ...?
pathName notify bind ?object? ?pattern? ?+??script?
pathName notify configure object pattern ?option? ?value? ?option value
...?
pathName notify detailnames eventName
pathName notify eventnames
pathName notify generate pattern ?charMap? ?percentsCommand?
pathName notify install pattern ?percentsCommand?
pathName notify install detail eventName detail ?percentsCommand?
pathName notify install event eventName ?percentsCommand?
pathName notify linkage pattern
pathName notify linkage eventName ?detail?
pathName notify unbind object ?pattern?
pathName notify uninstall pattern
pathName notify uninstall detail eventName detail
pathName notify uninstall event eventName
pathName numcolumns
pathName numitems
pathName orphans
pathName range first last
pathName scan option args
pathName scan mark x y
pathName scan dragto x y ?gain?
pathName see itemDesc ?columnDesc? ?option value ...?
pathName selection option args
pathName selection add first ?last?
pathName selection anchor ?itemDesc?
pathName selection clear ?first? ?last?
pathName selection count
pathName selection get ?first? ?last?
pathName selection includes itemDesc
pathName selection modify select deselect
pathName state option args
pathName state define stateName
pathName state linkage stateName
pathName state names
pathName state undefine ?stateName ...?
pathName style option ?element? ?arg arg ...?
pathName style cget style option
pathName style configure style ?option? ?value? ?option value ...?
pathName style create name ?option value ...?
pathName style delete ?style ...?
pathName style elements style ?elementList?
pathName style layout style element ?option? ?value? ?option value ...?
pathName style names
pathName theme option ?arg ...?
pathName theme platform
pathName theme setwindowtheme appname
pathName toggle ?-recurse? ?itemDesc ...?
pathName xview ?args?
pathName xview
pathName xview moveto fraction
pathName xview scroll number what
pathName yview ?args?
pathName yview
pathName yview moveto fraction
pathName yview scroll number what
_________________________________________________________________DESCRIPTIONtreectrl pathName ?options?
The treectrl command creates a new window (given by the pathName argu‐
ment) and makes it into a treectrl widget. Additional options,
described above, may be specified on the command line or in the option
database to configure aspects of the treectrl such as its background
color and relief. The treectrl command returns the path name of the
new window. At the time this command is invoked, there must not exist
a window named pathName, but pathName's parent must exist.
A treectrl is a listbox widget which displays items in a one- or two-
dimensional arrangement. Items have a parent-child relationship with
other items. Items may be arranged from top-to-bottom or from left-to-
right. Items may be spread about one or more columns. Each item-col‐
umn may be configured to span one or more adjacent item-columns. The
visibility of items can be set individually.
Items have a set of states, which are boolean properties. For each
column of an item there is a style associated, which determines how to
display the item's column taking into account the item's current state
set. New states may be defined to further control the appearance of
items; these custom states may be turned on or off in individual col‐
umns of items.
Multiple rows of column headers are supported. Column headers have
platform-native appearance on Windows, Mac OS X, and Gtk+. The appear‐
ance of column headers may be customized using styles.
Columns may be rearranged by the user using drag-and-drop. One column
can be specified to display the data in a hierarchical structure. The
visibility of columns can be set individually.
A treectrl can display a user-resizable selection rectangle called the
marquee. Another feature, the drag image, may be used to provide feed‐
back during drag-and-drop operations. Both of these are features com‐
monly found in file browsers.
A treectrl can generate events when various things happen, such as
changes to the selection, or a parent item being toggled open or
closed. Scripts may be bound to these events. New events can be
defined.
A treectrl can display a background image. The background image can be
configured to be scrolled and tiled on each axis individually.
STANDARD OPTIONS-background
-borderwidth
-cursor
-font
-highlightbackground
-highlightcolor
-highlightthickness
-orient
-relief
-takefocus
-xscrollcommand
-yscrollcommand
-foreground
See the option manual entry for details on the standard options.
WIDGET SPECIFIC OPTIONS
Command-Line Switch: -backgroundimage
Database Name: backgroundImage
Database Class: BackgroundImage
Specifies the name of an image to draw as the list background.
Other options control whether the image is tiled and whether the
image scrolls. If the image is transparent it is drawn on top of
any column -itembackground colors.
Command-Line Switch: -backgroundmode
Database Name: backgroundMode
Database Class: BackgroundMode
Specifies how the background color of items is chosen in each
column. The value should be one of row, column, order, or
ordervisible. The default is row. This option has only an
effect for columns which have -itembackground defined as list of
two or more colors (see section COLUMNS below for more on this).
If row or column is specified, the background color is chosen
based on the location of the item in the 1- or 2-dimensional
grid of items as layed out on the screen; this layout of items
is affected by the -orient and -wrap options as well as item
visibility. When order or ordervisible is specified, the back‐
ground color is chosen based on the result of the item order
command, regardless of the layout of items.
Command-Line Switch: -bgimage
Database Name: bgImage
Database Class: BgImage
Synonym for -backgroundimage.
Command-Line Switch: -bgimageanchor
Database Name: bgImageAnchor
Database Class: BgImageAnchor
Specifies how the background image should be aligned in any of
the forms acceptable to Tk_GetAnchor. Must be one of the values
n, ne, e, se, s, sw, w, nw, or center. The default is nw. When
the background image scrolls, the anchor position is relative to
the canvas, otherwise it is relative to the contentbox.
Command-Line Switch: -bgimageopaque
Database Name: bgImageOpaque
Database Class: BgImageOpaque
Specifies a boolean indicating whether or not the background
image is fully opaque. This is needed because there is no way
in Tk to determine whether an image contains transparency or
not. The default value is true, so if you use a transparent
-backgroundimage you must set this to false.
Command-Line Switch: -bgimagescroll
Database Name: bgImageScroll
Database Class: BgImageScroll
Specifies whether the background image scrolls along with the
items or whether it remains locked in place relative to the
edges of the window. The value must be a string that contains
zero or more of the characters x or y. The default is xy.
Command-Line Switch: -bgimagetile
Database Name: bgImageTile
Database Class: BgImageTile
Specifies whether the background image is tiled along the x
and/or y axes. The value must be a string that contains zero or
more of the characters x or y. The default is xy.
Command-Line Switch: -buttonbitmap
Database Name: buttonBitmap
Database Class: ButtonBitmap
Specifies the name of a bitmap be used to display the
expand/collapse button of an item. This is a per-state option.
If a bitmap is specified for a certain item state, it overrides
the effects of -usetheme.
Command-Line Switch: -buttoncolor
Database Name: buttonColor
Database Class: ButtonColor
Specifies the foreground color which should be used for drawing
the outline and the plus or minus sign of an item's expand/col‐
lapse button.
Command-Line Switch: -buttonimage
Database Name: buttonImage
Database Class: ButtonImage
Specifies the name of an image to be used to display the
expand/collapse button of an item. This is a per-state option.
If an image is specified for a certain item state, it overrides
the effects of -buttonbitmap and -usetheme.
Command-Line Switch: -buttonsize
Database Name: buttonSize
Database Class: ButtonSize
Specifies the width and height of the expand/collapse button of
an item in any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPixels.
Command-Line Switch: -buttonthickness
Database Name: buttonThickness
Database Class: ButtonThickness
Specifies the width of the outline and the plus or minus sign of
the expand/collapse button of an item in any of the forms
acceptable to Tk_GetPixels.
Command-Line Switch: -buttonttracking
Database Name: buttonTracking
Database Class: ButtonTracking
Specifies a boolean that determines if the expand/collapse but‐
tons are tracked like pushbuttons when clicking them. When
true, buttons are not toggled until the <ButtonRelease> event
occurs over them. When false, buttons are toggled as soon as
the <ButtonPress> event occurs over them. This option defaults
to true on Mac OS X and Gtk+, false on Win32 and X11.
Command-Line Switch: -canvaspadx
Database Name: canvasPadX
Database Class: CanvasPadX
Specifies the width of extra whitespace on the left and right
edges of the canvas in any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPix‐
els. The option value may be a list of one or two screen dis‐
tances to specify padding for the two edges separately. The
default is 0.
Command-Line Switch: -canvaspady
Database Name: canvasPadY
Database Class: CanvasPadY
Specifies the height of extra whitespace on the top and bottom
edges of the canvas in any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPix‐
els. The option value may be a list of one or two screen dis‐
tances to specify padding for the two edges separately. The
default is 0.
Command-Line Switch: -columnprefix
Database Name: columnPrefix
Database Class: ColumnPrefix
Specifies an ascii string that changes the way column ids are
reported and processed. If this option is a non-empty string,
the usual integer value of a column id is prefixed with the
given string. This can aid debugging but it is important your
code doesn't assume column ids are integers if you use it.
Command-Line Switch: -columnproxy
Database Name: columnProxy
Database Class: ColumnProxy
If this option specifies a non empty value, it should be a
screen distance in any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPixels.
Then a 1 pixel thick vertical line will be drawn at the speci‐
fied screen distance from the left edge of the treectrl widget,
which reaches from top to bottom of the treectrl widget and uses
an inverting color (i.e black on lighter background, white on
darker background). This line can be used to give the user a
visual feedback during column resizing.
Command-Line Switch: -columnresizemode
Database Name: columnResizeMode
Database Class: ColumnResizeMode
Specifies the visual feedback used when resizing columns. The
value should be one of proxy or realtime. For proxy, a 1-pixel
thick vertical line is drawn representing where the right edge
of the column will be after resizing. For realtime, the column's
size is changed while the user is dragging the right edge of the
column. The default is realtime.
Command-Line Switch: -columntagexpr
Database Name: columnTagExpr
Database Class: ColumnTagExpr
Specifies a boolean that enables or disables tag expressions in
column descriptions. See ITEM AND COLUMN TAGS.
Command-Line Switch: -defaultstyle
Database Name: defaultStyle
Database Class: DefaultStyle
This option is deprecated; use the column option -itemstyle
instead. Specifies a list of styles, one per column, to apply
to each item created by the item create command. The number of
styles in the list can be different from the number of tree col‐
umns. Each list element should be a valid style name or an
empty string to indicate no style should be applied to a spe‐
cific column. The list of styles is updated if a style is
deleted or if a column is moved.
Command-Line Switch: -doublebuffer
Database Name: doubleBuffer
Database Class: DoubleBuffer
This option no longer has any effect, but was left in for com‐
patibility. It used to control the amount of double-buffering
that was used when displaying a treectrl.
Command-Line Switch: -headerfont
Database Name: headerFont
Database Class: Font
Specifies the font to draw text in column headers with. The
default value is TkHeadingFont where available (on Tk 8.5+).
This option can be overridden by setting the -font option for
individual column headers.
Command-Line Switch: -headerfg
Database Name: headerForeground
Database Class: Foreground
Synonym for -headerforeground.
Command-Line Switch: -headerforeground
Database Name: headerForeground
Database Class: Foreground
Specifies the color to draw text in column headers with. The
default value is the Tk button foreground color (usually black).
On Gtk+, the system theme may override this color. This option
(and the Gtk+ system theme color) can be overridden by setting
the -textcolor option for individual column headers.
Command-Line Switch: -height
Database Name: height
Database Class: Height
Specifies the desired height for the window in any of the forms
acceptable to Tk_GetPixels. The default is 200 pixels. If this
option is less than or equal to zero then the window will not
request any size at all.
Command-Line Switch: -indent
Database Name: indent
Database Class: Indent
Specifies the screen distance an item is indented relative to
its parent item in any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPixels.
The default is 19 pixels.
Command-Line Switch: -itemgapx
Database Name: itemGapX
Database Class: ItemGapX
Specifies the horizontal spacing between adjacent items in any
of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPixels. The default is 0.
Command-Line Switch: -itemgapy
Database Name: itemGapY
Database Class: ItemGapY
Specifies the vertical spacing between adjacent items in any of
the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPixels. The default is 0.
Command-Line Switch: -itemheight
Database Name: itemHeight
Database Class: ItemHeight
Specifies a fixed height for every item in any of the forms
acceptable to Tk_GetPixels. If non-zero, this option overrides
the requested height of an item and the -minitemheight option.
If an item's own -height option is specified then that is the
height used for the item. In any case, items are never shorter
than the maximum height of a button if they display one. The
default is 0.
Command-Line Switch: -itemprefix
Database Name: itemPrefix
Database Class: ItemPrefix
Specifies an ascii string that changes the way item ids are
reported and processed. If this option is a non-empty string,
the usual integer value of an item id is prefixed with the given
string. This can aid debugging but it is important your code
doesn't assume item ids are integers if you use it.
Command-Line Switch: -itemtagexpr
Database Name: itemTagExpr
Database Class: ItemTagExpr
Specifies a boolean that enables or disables tag expressions in
item descriptions. See ITEM AND COLUMN TAGS.
Command-Line Switch: -itemwidth
Database Name: itemWidth
Database Class: ItemWidth
Specifies a fixed width for every item in any of the forms
acceptable to Tk_GetPixels. If more than one column is visible,
then this option has no effect. If the -orient option is verti‐
cal, and the -wrap option is unspecified, then this option has
no effect (in that case all items are as wide as the column).
Command-Line Switch: -itemwidthequal
Database Name: itemWidthEqual
Database Class: ItemWidthEqual
Specifies a boolean that says whether all items should have the
same width. If more than one column is visible, then this
option has no effect. If the -orient option is vertical, and
the -wrap option is unspecified, then this option has no effect
(in that case all items are as wide as the column). If the
-itemwidth option is specified, then this option has no effect.
Command-Line Switch: -itemwidthmultiple
Database Name: itemWidthMultiple
Database Class: ItemWidthMultiple
Specifies a screen distance that every item's width will be
evenly divisible by in any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPix‐
els. If more than one column is visible, then this option has
no effect. If the -orient option is vertical, and the -wrap
option is unspecified, then this option has no effect (in that
case all items are as wide as the column). If the -itemwidth
option is specified, then this option has no effect.
Command-Line Switch: -linecolor
Database Name: lineColor
Database Class: LineColor
Specifies the color which should be used for drawing the con‐
necting lines between related items.
Command-Line Switch: -linestyle
Database Name: lineStyle
Database Class: LineStyle
Specifies the appearance of the connecting lines between related
items. The value should be dot, which is the default, or solid.
Command-Line Switch: -linethickness
Database Name: lineThickness
Database Class: LineThickness
Specifies the thickness of the connecting lines between related
items in any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPixels.
Command-Line Switch: -minitemheight
Database Name: minItemHeight
Database Class: MinItemHeight
Specifies a minimum height for every item in any of the forms
acceptable to Tk_GetPixels. The default is 0, which means that
every item has the height requested by the arrangement of ele‐
ments in each column. This option has no effect if either the
-itemheight widget option or -height item option is specified.
In any case, items are never shorter than the maximum height of
an expand/collapse button.
Command-Line Switch: -rowproxy
Database Name: rowProxy
Database Class: RowProxy
If this option specifies a non empty value, it should be a
screen distance in any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPixels.
Then a 1 pixel thick horizontal line will be drawn at the speci‐
fied screen distance from the top edge of the treectrl widget,
which reaches from left to right of the treectrl widget and uses
an inverting color (i.e black on lighter background, white on
darker background). This line can be used to give the user a
visual feedback during row resizing.
Command-Line Switch: -scrollmargin
Database Name: scrollMargin
Database Class: ScrollMargin
Specifies a positive screen distance in any of the forms accept‐
able to Tk_GetPixels. This option is used by the default bind‐
ings to determine how close to the edges of the contentbox the
mouse pointer must be before scrolling occurs. Specifying a
positive value is useful when items may be drag-and-dropped.
Defaults to 0.
Command-Line Switch: -selectmode
Database Name: selectMode
Database Class: SelectMode
Specifies one of several styles for manipulating the selection.
The value of the option may be arbitrary, but the default bind‐
ings expect it to be either single, browse, multiple, or
extended; the default value is browse.
Command-Line Switch: -showbuttons
Database Name: showButtons
Database Class: ShowButtons
Specifies a boolean value that determines whether this widget
leaves indentation space to display the expand/collapse buttons
next to items. The default value is true. The item option
-button determines whether an item has a button. See also the
widget options -showrootbutton and -showrootchildbuttons.
Command-Line Switch: -showheader
Database Name: showHeader
Database Class: ShowHeader
Specifies a boolean value that determines whether this widget
should display the header line with the column names at the top
of the widget. The default value is true.
Command-Line Switch: -showlines
Database Name: showLines
Database Class: ShowLines
Specifies a boolean value that determines whether this widget
should draw the connecting lines between related items. The
default value is true on Win32 and X11, false on Mac OS X and
Gtk+.
Command-Line Switch: -showroot
Database Name: showRoot
Database Class: ShowRoot
Specifies a boolean value that determines whether this widget
should draw the root item. By suppressing the drawing of the
root item the widget can have multiple items that appear as
toplevel items. The default value is true.
Command-Line Switch: -showrootbutton
Database Name: showRootButton
Database Class: ShowRootButton
Specifies a boolean value that determines whether this widget
leaves indentation space to display the expand/collapse button
next to the root item. The default value is false. The item
option -button determines whether the root item has a button.
Command-Line Switch: -showrootchildbuttons
Database Name: showRootChildButtons
Database Class: ShowRootChildButtons
Specifies a boolean value that determines whether this widget
should draw the expand/collapse buttons next to children of the
root item. The default value is true.
Command-Line Switch: -showrootlines
Database Name: showRootLines
Database Class: ShowRootLines
Specifies a boolean value that determines whether this widget
should draw the connecting lines between children of the root
item. The default value is true.
Command-Line Switch: -treecolumn
Database Name: treeColumn
Database Class: TreeColumn
Specifies a column description that determines which column dis‐
plays the expand/collapse buttons and connecting lines between
items. The default is unspecified.
Command-Line Switch: -usetheme
Database Name: useTheme
Database Class: UseTheme
Specifies a boolean value that determines whether this widget
should draw parts of itself using a platform-specific theme man‐
ager. The default is true.
Command-Line Switch: -width
Database Name: width
Database Class: Width
Specifies the desired width for the window in any of the forms
acceptable to Tk_GetPixels. The default is 200 pixel. If this
option is less than or equal to zero then the window will not
request any size at all.
Command-Line Switch: -wrap
Database Name: wrap
Database Class: Wrap
Specifies whether items are arranged in a 1- or 2-dimensional
layout.
If the value is an empty string (the default), then items are
arranged from top to bottom (-orient=vertical) or from left to
right (-orient=horizontal) in a 1-dimensional layout.
If the value is "N items", then no more than N items will appear
in a vertical group (-orient=vertical) or horizontal group
(-orient=horizontal).
If the value is "N pixels", then no vertical group of items will
be taller than N pixels (-orient=vertical) or no horizontal
group of items will be wider than N pixels (-orient=horizontal).
If the value is window, then a no vertical group of items will
be taller than the window (-orient=vertical) or no horizontal
group of items will be wider than the window (-orient=horizon‐
tal).
It is also possible to cause wrapping to occur on a per-item
basis by using the item option -wrap. See the item create com‐
mand for that option.
Command-Line Switch: -xscrolldelay
Database Name: xScrollDelay
Database Class: ScrollDelay
This option controls how quickly horizontal scrolling occurs
while dragging the mouse with button 1 pressed. The value
should be a list of 1 or 2 integers interpreted as milliseconds.
If 2 values are specified, then the first value determines the
intial delay after the first scroll, and the second value deter‐
mines the delay for all scrolling after the first. If only 1
value is specified, each scroll takes place after that delay.
Command-Line Switch: -xscrollincrement
Database Name: xScrollIncrement
Database Class: ScrollIncrement
Specifies an increment for horizontal scrolling, in any of the
usual forms permitted for screen distances. If the value of
this option is greater than zero, the horizontal view in the
window will be constrained so that the canvas x coordinate at
the left edge of the window is always an even multiple of
-xscrollincrement; furthermore, the units for scrolling (e.g.,
the change in view when the left and right arrows of a scrollbar
are selected) will also be -xscrollincrement. If the value of
this option is less than or equal to zero, then horizontal
scrolling snaps to the left of an item, or part of an item if
items are wider than the contentbox.
Command-Line Switch: -xscrollsmoothing
Database Name: xScrollSmoothing
Database Class: ScrollSmoothing
Specifies whether scrolling should be done as if -xscrollincre‐
ment=1 whenever scrolling is performed by non-unit amounts.
When the value of this option is true and the xview command is
called to scroll by "units", scrolling occurs according to the
-xscrollincrement option, and all other scrolling is done as if
the -xscrollincrement option was set to 1. The effect is that
when dragging the scrollbar thumb scrolling is very smooth, but
when clicking the scrollbar buttons scrolling is done in coarser
increments. The default value is false.
Command-Line Switch: -yscrolldelay
Database Name: yScrollDelay
Database Class: ScrollDelay
This option controls how quickly vertical scrolling occurs while
dragging the mouse with button 1 pressed. The value should be a
list of 1 or 2 integers interpreted as milliseconds. If 2 val‐
ues are specified, then the first value determines the intial
delay after the first scroll, and the second value determines
the delay for all scrolling after the first. If only 1 value is
specified, each scroll takes place after that delay.
Command-Line Switch: -yscrollincrement
Database Name: yScrollIncrement
Database Class: ScrollIncrement
Specifies an increment for vertical scrolling, in any of the
usual forms permitted for screen distances. If the value of
this option is greater than zero, the vertical view in the win‐
dow will be constrained so that the canvas y coordinate at the
top edge of the window is always an even multiple of
-yscrollincrement; furthermore, the units for scrolling (e.g.,
the change in view when the top and bottom arrows of a scrollbar
are selected) will also be -yscrollincrement. If the value of
this option is less than or equal to zero, then vertical
scrolling snaps to the top of an item, or part of an item if
items are taller than the contentbox.
Command-Line Switch: -yscrollsmoothing
Database Name: yScrollSmoothing
Database Class: ScrollSmoothing
Specifies whether scrolling should be done as if -yscrollincre‐
ment=1 whenever scrolling is performed by non-unit amounts.
When the value of this option is true and the yview command is
called to scroll by "units", scrolling occurs according to the
-yscrollincrement option, and all other scrolling is done as if
the -yscrollincrement option was set to 1. The effect is that
when dragging the scrollbar thumb scrolling is very smooth, but
when clicking the scrollbar buttons scrolling is done in coarser
increments. The default value is false.
THE CANVAS
Throughout this manual page the term canvas is sometimes used. The
canvas can be thought of as the virtual sheet of paper upon which all
visible items are drawn. The treectrl window displays different areas
of the canvas within its borders as the list is scrolled.
ITEM AND COLUMN TAGS
Columns and items may have any number of tags associated with them. A
tag is just a string of characters, and it may take any form, including
that of an integer, although the characters '(', ')', '&', '|', '^' and
'!' should be avoided.
The same tag may be associated with many columns or items. This is com‐
monly done to group items in various interesting ways; for example, in
a file browser all directories might be given the tag "directory".
Tag expressions are used in column descriptions and item descriptions
to specify which columns and items to operate on. A tag expression can
be a single tag name or a logical expression of tags using operators
'&&', '||', '^' and '!', and parenthesized subexpressions. For exam‐
ple:
or equivalently:
will return the unique ids of any items with either "a" or "b" tags,
but not both.
Within a tag expression a tag name may be enclosed in double quotes to
avoid special processing of the operator characters. For example:
will return the unique ids of any items with either "a&&b" or "c" tags;
in this example the && is not treated as an operator. A double-quote
may be escaped within a quoted tag name using a backslash '\'.
Tag operators may be bypassed completely by setting the -columntagexpr
and -itemtagexpr options. This can be useful if your application has
column or item tags containing arbitrary text.
WIDGET COMMAND
The treectrl command creates a new Tcl command whose name is the same
as the path name of the treectrl's window. This command may be used to
invoke various operations on the widget. It has the following general
form:
pathName option ?arg arg ...?
PathName is the name of the command, which is the same as the treectrl
widget's path name. Option and the args determine the exact behavior
of the command. The following commands are possible for treectrl wid‐
gets:
pathName activate itemDesc
Sets the active item to the one described by itemDesc, and
switches on the state active for that item. The active item can
be referred to by the item description active. If this command
changes which item is active an <ActiveItem> event is generated.
If the active item is deleted the root item becomes the new
active item.
pathName bbox ?area?
Returns a list with four elements giving the bounding box (left,
top, right and bottom) of an area of the window. If area is not
specified, then the result is the bounding box of the entire
window. If area is content, then the result is the part of the
window not including borders, headers, or locked columns. If
area is header, then the result is the part of the window not
including borders where column titles are displayed. If area is
left, then the result is the part of the window not including
borders or headers where left-locked columns are displayed. If
area is right, then the result is the part of the window not
including borders or headers where right-locked columns are dis‐
played.
If area is one of header.left, header.none or header.right then
the area of the column headers occupied by columns with
-lock=left, -lock=none or -lock=right is returned.
An empty string is returned if the display area has no height or
width, which can be true for various reasons such as the window
is too small, or the header is not displayed, or there aren't
any locked columns.
pathName canvasx windowx
Translates the given window x-coordinate windowx in the treectrl
to canvas coordinate space. The marquee command expects canvas
coordinates.
pathName canvasy windowy
Translates the given window y-coordinate windowy in the treectrl
to canvas coordinate space. The marquee command expects canvas
coordinates.
pathName cget option
Returns the current value of the configuration option given by
option. Option may have any of the values accepted by the tree
command.
pathName collapse ?-recurse? ?itemDesc ...?
Deprecated. Use item collapse instead.
pathName column option column ?arg ...?
This command is used to manipulate the columns of the treectrl
widget (see section COLUMNS below). The exact behavior of the
command depends on the option argument that follows the column
argument. The following forms of the command are supported:
pathName column bbox columnDesc
Returns a list with four elements giving the bounding box
of the header of the column specified by the column
description columnDesc. The returned coordinates are
relative to the top-left corner of the widget. If the
column option -visible=false or if the widget option
-showheader=false, then an empty list is returned.
pathName column cget columnDesc option
This command returns the current value of the option
named option for the column specified by the column
description columnDesc, ColumnDesc may also be the string
tail to specify the tail column. Option may have any of
the values accepted by the column configure widget com‐
mand.
pathName column configure columnDesc ?option? ?value? ?option
value ...?
This command is similar to the configure widget command
except that it modifies options associated with the col‐
umns specified by the column description columnDesc
instead of modifying options for the overall treectrl
widget. ColumnDesc may be the string tail to specify the
tail column. If columnDesc refers to more than one col‐
umn, then at least one option-value pair must be given.
If no option is specified, the command returns a list
describing all of the available options for columnDesc
(see Tk_ConfigureInfo for information on the format of
this list). If option is specified with no value, then
the command returns a list describing the one named
option (this list will be identical to the corresponding
sublist of the value returned if no option is specified).
If one or more option-value pairs are specified, then the
command modifies the given option(s) to have the given
value(s) for columnDesc; in this case the command returns
an empty string.
See COLUMNS below for details on the options available
for columns.
For compatibility with older versions of treectrl (which
did not support more than one row of column headers) any
of the configuration options mentioned in the HEADERS
section, such as -arrow, -text, etc, may be passed to the
top header-row through this command.
pathName column compare column1 op column2
For both column descriptions column1 and column2 the
index is retrieved (as returned from the column order
widget command). Then these indexes are compared using
the operator op, which must be either <, <=, ==, >=, >,
or !=. The return value of this command is 1 if the com‐
parison evaluated to true, 0 otherwise.
pathName column count ?columnDesc?
If no additional arguments are given, the result is a
decimal string giving the number of columns created by
the column create widget command which haven't been
deleted by the column delete widget command; in this case
the tail column is not counted. If columnDesc is given,
then the result is the number of columns that match that
column description.
pathName column create ?option value ...?
This command creates a new column in the treectrl widget.
The new column is placed to the right of all other col‐
umns (except the tail column). Any option-value arguments
configure the new column according to the column config‐
ure command. The return value is the unique identifier of
the new column.
pathName column delete first ?last?
Deletes the specified column(s). First and last must be
valid column descriptions. If both first and last are
specified, then they may refer to a single column only.
The tail column cannot be deleted and it is an error to
specify it. The order of first and last doesn't matter,
and first may be equal to last.
pathName column dragcget option
Deprecated. Use header dragcget instead.
pathName column dragconfigure ?option? ?value? ?option value
...?
Deprecated. Use header dragconfigure instead.
pathName column index columnDesc
Deprecated. Use column id instead.
pathName column id columnDesc
This command resolves the column description columnDesc
into a list of unique column identifiers. If the col‐
umn(s) described by columnDesc don't exist, this command
returns an empty list.
pathName column list ?-visible?
This command returns a list of identifiers for every col‐
umn (except the tail) from left to right. If -visible is
given, only columns whose -visible option is true are
returned.
pathName column move columnDesc beforeDesc
Moves the column specified by columnDesc to the left of
the column specified by beforeDesc. Both columnDesc and
beforeDesc must be valid column descriptions. If before‐
Desc is the string tail, the column columnDesc will
become the last column.
pathName column neededwidth columnDesc
This command returns a decimal string giving the needed
width of the column specified by the column description
columnDesc. The needed width is the maximum of the width
of the column header and the width of the widest style in
any visible item.
When an item style or column header spans multiple col‐
umns, the needed width of a column is affected by the
widths of other columns in the span, in which case the
result of this command isn't particularly useful.
pathName column order columnDesc ?-visible?
This command returns a decimal string giving the position
of the column specified by the column description column‐
Desc in the list of columns starting from zero for the
leftmost column. If -visible is given, only columns
whose -visible option is true are considered, and -1 is
returned if columnDesc's -visible option is false.
pathName column tag option ?arg arg ...?
This command is used to manipulate tags on columns. The
exact behavior of the command depends on the option argu‐
ment that follows the column tag argument. The following
forms of the command are supported:
pathName column tag add columnDesc tagList
Adds each tag in tagList to the columns specified
by the column description columnDesc. Duplicate
tags are ignored. The list of tags for a column
can also be changed via a column's -tags option.
pathName column tag expr columnDesc tagExpr
Evaluates the tag expression tagExpr against every
column specified by the column description column‐
Desc. The result is 1 if the tag expression evalu‐
ates to true for every column, 0 otherwise.
pathName column tag names columnDesc
Returns a list of tag names assigned to the col‐
umns specified by the column description column‐
Desc. The result is the union of any tags assigned
to the columns.
pathName column tag remove columnDesc tagList
Removes each tag in tagList from the columns spec‐
ified by the column description columnDesc. It is
not an error if any of the columns do not use any
of the tags. The list of tags for a column can
also be changed via a column's -tags option.
pathName column width columnDesc
This command returns a decimal string giving the width in
pixels of the column specified by the column description
columnDesc, even if the treectrl is configured to not
display the column headers by means of the -showheader
option.
pathName compare itemDesc1 op itemDesc2
Deprecated. Use the item compare command instead.
pathName configure ?option? ?value option value ...?
Query or modify the configuration options of the widget. If no
option is specified, returns a list describing all of the avail‐
able options for pathName (see Tk_ConfigureInfo for information
on the format of this list). If option is specified with no
value, then the command returns a list describing the one named
option (this list will be identical to the corresponding sublist
of the value returned if no option is specified). If one or
more option-value pairs are specified, then the command modifies
the given widget option(s) to have the given value(s); in this
case the command returns an empty string. Option may have any
of the values accepted by the treectrl command.
pathName contentbox
Returns a list with four elements giving the bounding box of the
screen area used to display items. This is the area of the win‐
dow not including borders, column headers, or locked columns. An
empty string is returned if the display area has no height or
width, which can happen if the window is too small. The result
of this command is the same as that of bbox content.
pathName debug option ?arg arg ...?
This command is used to facilitate debugging of the treectrl
widget. The exact behavior of the command depends on the option
argument that follows the debug argument. The following forms
of the command are supported:
pathName debug alloc
Returns a string giving partial statistics on memory
allocations, if the package was built with TREECTRL_DEBUG
defined.
pathName debug cget option
This command returns the current value of the debugging
option named option. Option may have any of the values
accepted by the debug configure widget command.
pathName debug configure ?option? ?value? ?option value ...?
This command is similar to the configure widget command
except that it modifies debugging options instead of mod‐
ifying options for the overall treectrl widget. If no
option is specified, the command returns a list describ‐
ing all of the available debugging options (see Tk_Con‐
figureInfo for information on the format of this list).
If option is specified with no value, then the command
returns a list describing the one named option (this list
will be identical to the corresponding sublist of the
value returned if no option is specified). If one or
more option-value pairs are specified, then the command
modifies the given debugging option(s) to have the given
value(s); in this case the command returns an empty
string.
The following debugging options are supported:
-displaydelay millis
Specifies a time duration in milliseconds, which
should be waited after something has been drawn to
the screen. Setting this option has only an
effect, if the debugging options -enable and -dis‐
play are switched on.
-data boolean
If this option is switched on (together with the
debugging option -enable), at various places a
consistence check on the internal data structure
is made (e.g. for every item is checked, if the
registered number of children is equal to the num‐
ber of child items). If an inconsistency was
found, a Tcl background error is raised.
-display boolean
If this option is switched on (together with the
debugging option -enable), at varios places addi‐
tional debugging output is printed to stdout.
-drawcolor color
When specified, areas of the window are painted
with this color when drawing in those areas is
about to occur. Setting this option has only an
effect if the debugging options -enable and -dis‐
play are switched on.
-enable boolean
All other debugging options only take effect if
this option is also switched on.
-erasecolor color
When specified, areas of the window which have
been marked as "invalid" (for example, when part
of the window is exposed) are painted with this
color. If you use an unusual color for this
option (like pink), superflous screen redraws can
be spotted more easily. Setting this option has
only an effect if the debugging options -enable
and -display are switched on.
-span boolean
Debugging related to column spanning.
-textlayout boolean
Debugging related to text-element layout.
pathName debug dinfo option
Returns a string describing display-related stuff. Option
must be one of alloc, ditem, onscreen or range.
pathName debug expose x1 y1 x2 y2
Causes the area of the window bounded by the given win‐
dow-coords to be marked as invalid. This simulates uncov‐
ering part of the window.
pathName depth ?itemDesc?
If the additional argument itemDesc is given, then the result is
a decimal string giving the depth of the item described by
itemDesc. If no itemDesc is specified, then the maximum depth
of all items in the treectrl widget is returned instead. Depth
is defined as the number of ancestors an item has.
pathName dragimage option ?arg ...?
This command is used to manipulate the drag image, which is used
to provide feedback when items are drag-and-dropped within the
window. The drag image is displayed as the dotted outlines of
one or more items, columns and/or elements. The exact behavior
of the command depends on the option argument that follows the
dragimage argument. The following forms of the command are sup‐
ported:
pathName dragimage add itemDesc ?column? ?element?
Adds the shapes of the item described by itemDesc to the
shapes of the dragimage. Specifying additional arguments
reduces the number of rectangles that are added to the
dragimage. If no additional arguments is specified, for
every element of the item in every column a dotted rec‐
tangles is added. If column is specified, all elements
in other columns are ignored. If also element is speci‐
fied, only a rectangle for this one element of the speci‐
fied item in the given column is added.
pathName dragimage cget option
This command returns the current value of the dragimage
option named option. Option may have any of the values
accepted by the dragimage configure widget command.
pathName dragimage clear
Removes all shapes (if there are any) from the dragimage.
This command does not modify the dragimage offset.
pathName dragimage configure ?option? ?value? ?option value ...?
This command is similar to the configure widget command
except that it modifies the dragimage options instead of
modifying options for the overall treectrl widget. If no
option is specified, the command returns a list describ‐
ing all of the available dragimage options (see Tk_Con‐
figureInfo for information on the format of this list).
If option is specified with no value, then the command
returns a list describing the one named dragimage option
(this list will be identical to the corresponding sublist
of the value returned if no option is specified). If one
or more option-value pairs are specified, then the com‐
mand modifies the given dragimage option(s) to have the
given value(s); in this case the command returns an empty
string.
The following dragimage options are supported:
-visible boolean
Specifies a boolean value which determines whether
the dragimage should currently be visible.
pathName dragimage offset ?x y?
Returns a list containing the x and y offsets of the
dragimage, if no additional arguments are specified. The
dragimage offset is the screen distance the image is dis‐
played at relative to the item(s) its shape is derived
from. If two coordinates are specified, sets the dragim‐
age offset to the given coordinates x and y.
pathName element option ?element? ?arg arg ...?
This command is used to manipulate elements (see ELEMENTS AND
STYLES below). The exact behavior of the command depends on the
option argument that follows the element argument. The follow‐
ing forms of the command are supported:
pathName element cget element option
This command returns the current value of the option
named option associated with the element given by ele‐
ment. Option may have any of the values accepted by the
element configure widget command.
This command also accepts the -statedomain option.
pathName element configure element ?option? ?value? ?option
value ...?
This command is similar to the configure widget command
except that it modifies options associated with the ele‐
ment given by element instead of modifying options for
the overall treectrl widget. If no option is specified,
the command returns a list describing all of the avail‐
able options for element (see Tk_ConfigureInfo for infor‐
mation on the format of this list). If option is speci‐
fied with no value, then the command returns a list
describing the one named option (this list will be iden‐
tical to the corresponding sublist of the value returned
if no option is specified). If one or more option-value
pairs are specified, then the command modifies the given
option(s) to have the given value(s) in element; in this
case the command returns an empty string. See ELEMENTS
AND STYLES below for details on the options available for
elements.
pathName element create name type ?option value ...?
Creates a new master element of type type with the unique
user-defined name name and configures it with zero or
more option/value pairs. See the subsections on individ‐
ual element types in ELEMENTS AND STYLES for the options
that are valid for each type of element. This command
returns the name of the new element (the same as the name
argument).
This command also accepts the -statedomain option with a
value of either header or item to specify where this ele‐
ment will be displayed.
pathName element delete ?element ...?
Deletes each of the named elements and returns an empty
string. If an element is deleted while it is still con‐
figured as an element of one or more styles by means of
the style elements widget command, it is also removed
from the element lists of these styles.
pathName element names
Returns a list containing the names of all existing ele‐
ments.
pathName element perstate element option stateList
This command returns the value of the per-state option
named option for element for a certain state. StateList
is a list of state names (static and dynamic, see STATES)
which specifies the state to use.
pathName element type element
Returns the type of the element given by element, such as
rect or text.
pathName expand ?-recurse? ?itemDesc ...?
Deprecated. Use item expand instead.
pathName gradient option ?arg ...?
This command is used to manipulate color gradients. See GRADI‐
ENTS for more information about using gradients. The exact
behavior of the command depends on the option argument that fol‐
lows the gradient argument. The following forms of the command
are supported:
pathName gradient cget gradient option
Returns the current value of the configuration option for
the gradient specified by gradient whose name is option.
Option may have any of the values accepted by the gradi‐
ent configure command.
pathName gradient configure gradient ?option value ...?
If no option is specified, the command returns a list
describing all of the available gradient options (see
Tk_ConfigureInfo for information on the format of this
list). If option is specified with no value, then the
command returns a list describing the one named gradient
option (this list will be identical to the corresponding
sublist of the value returned if no option is specified).
If one or more option-value pairs are specified, then the
command modifies the given gradient option(s) to have the
given value(s); in this case the command returns an empty
string.
The following options are supported (see gradient create
for the meaning of each option):
-bottom coordSpec
-left coordSpec
-orient direction
-right coordSpec
-steps stepCount
-stops stopsList
-top coordSpec
pathName gradient create name ?option value ...?
Creates a new gradient with the name name, which must be
a unique name not used by another gradient created by
this treectrl widget.
The following options are supported:
-bottom coordSpec
-left coordSpec
-right coordSpec
-top coordSpec
Each of these options specifies one edge of the
gradient brush. If the option is specified as an
empty string (the default), the gradient brush's
edge is the same as that of whatever rectangle is
being painted using the gradient. See GRADIENT
COORDINATES for details on gradient brush coordi‐
nates.
The format of each of these options is a list of 2
or more values {value coordType ?arg ...?}, where
value is a floating point number (usually from 0.0
to 1.0) and coordType is one of area, canvas, col‐
umn or item. The area keyword must be followed by
one of the same area names that the bbox command
accepts. The column keyword may be followed by a
column description specifying exactly one column.
The item keyword may be followed by an item
description specifying exactly one item.
-orient direction
This option specifies the direction a linear gra‐
dient changes color in. Must be either horizontal
(the default) or vertical or an abbreviation of
one of these.
-steps stepCount
Specifies the number of bands of color drawn for
each color stop described by the -stops option.
The default value is 1, the maximum is 25. This
option has no effect if gradients are drawn using
something better than Tk API calls. See GRADIENTS
for more on this.
-stops stopsList
Specifies the color stops along this gradient. The
argument stopsList has the following form:
{{offset color ?opacity?} {offset color ?opacity?} ...}
Each offset is a floating point number from 0.0 to
1.0 specifying the distance from the start of the
gradient where the color begins. Each color is a
Tk color name or description. Each optional opac‐
ity is a floating point number from 0.0 to 1.0
specifying how transparent the gradient is.
If stopsList is non-empty there must be at least
two stops specified, and the first offset must be
0.0 and the last offset must be 1.0. Any other
stop offsets must be listed in increasing order.
Specifying opacity has no effect if gradients are
drawn using Tk API calls. See GRADIENTS for more
on this.
pathName gradient delete ?name ...?
Deletes each gradient specified by name. If the gradient
is still being used then it is not actually deleted until
all elements etc using the gradient have stopped using
it. A deleted-but-in-use gradient is not recognized by
the various gradient commands. Creating a new gradient
with the same name as a deleted-but-in-use gradient res‐
urrects the deleted gradient.
pathName gradient names
Returns a list of names of all the gradients that have
been created by this treectrl widget.
pathName gradient native ?preference?
Without any arguments, this command returns a boolean
indicating whether or not the platform supports native
transparent gradients. The preference argument is a
boolean that indicates whether native gradients should be
used; this can be used to test the appearance of the
application.
pathName header option ?arg ...?
This command is used to manipulate column headers. The exact
behavior of the command depends on the option argument that fol‐
lows the header argument. The following forms of the command
are supported:
pathName header bbox headerDesc ?column? ?element?
See the item bbox command.
pathName header compare headerDesc1 op headerDesc2
See the item compare command.
pathName header configure headerDesc ?arg ...?
There are two forms of this command distinguished by
whether or not a column description appears after the
headerDesc argument. If the first argument after head‐
erDesc begins with a '-' character it is assumed to be an
option name, not a column description, in which case the
command applies to the header-row. If the first argument
after headerDesc does not being with a '-' it is assumed
to be a column description, in which case the command
applies to a header-column.
pathName header configure headerDesc ?option? ?value?
?option value ...?
If no option is specified, returns a list describ‐
ing all of the available options for the header
given by headerDesc (see Tk_ConfigureInfo for
information on the format of this list). If option
is specified with no value, then the command
returns a list describing the one named option
(this list will be identical to the corresponding
sublist of the value returned if no option is
specified).
If one or more option-value pairs are specified,
then the command modifies the given option(s) to
have the given value(s); in this case the command
returns an empty string. This is the only case
where headerDesc may refer to multiple header-
rows.
The following options are supported by this com‐
mand (see header create for the meaning of each
option):
-height height
-tags tagList
-visible boolean
pathName header configure headerDesc column ?option?
?value? ?option value ...?
If no option is specified, returns a list describ‐
ing all of the available options for the single
column column of the header-row given by head‐
erDesc (see Tk_ConfigureInfo for information on
the format of this list). If option is specified
with no value, then the command returns a list
describing the one named option (this list will be
identical to the corresponding sublist of the
value returned if no option is specified).
If one or more option-value pairs are specified,
then the command modifies the given option(s) to
have the given value(s); in this case the command
returns an empty string. This is the only case
where both headerDesc may refer to multiple
header-rows and column may refer to multiple
header-columns.
The following options are supported by this com‐
mand (see HEADERS) for the meaning of each
option):
-arrow direction
-arrowbitmap bitmap
-arrowgravity direction
-arrowimage image
-arrowpadx amount
-arrowpady amount
-arrowside side
-background color
-bitmap bitmap
-borderwidth size
-button boolean
-font fontName
-image image
-imagepadx amount
-imagepady amount
-justify justification
-state state
-text text
-textcolor color
-textlines count
-textpadx amount
-textpady amount
pathName header count ?headerDesc?
If no additional arguments are given, the result is a
decimal string giving the number of header-rows created
by the header create widget command which haven't been
deleted by the header delete widget command, plus 1 for
the ever-present top header-row created along with the
widget. If the optional argument headerDesc is given,
then the result is the number of header-rows that match
that header description.
pathName header create ?option value?
Creates a new header-row and returns its unique identi‐
fier. The following configuration options are supported:
-height height
Specifies a fixed height for the header-row in any
of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPixels. Must be
>= 0. If height is zero then the header-row's
height is the maximum height of all of its column
headers. Defaults to 0.
-tags tagList
TagList is a list of tag names to be added to the
new header-row. The header tag command can also
be used to manipulate this list of tags.
-visible boolean
Boolean must have one of the forms accepted by
Tcl_GetBoolean. It indicates whether or not the
header-row should be displayed. If the widget
option -showheader is false then the header-row
will not be displayed regardless of the value of
this option.
pathName header delete headerDesc
Deletes the header-rows given by the header description
headerDesc. Attempts to delete the ever-present top
header-row are ignored without raising an error.
pathName header dragcget ?arg ...?
There are two forms of this command distinguished by
whether or not a header description appears as the first
argument. If the first argument begins with a '-' char‐
acter it is assumed to be an option name, not a header
description, in which case the command applies to the
header-drag-and-drop options for the widget. If the
first argument does not being with a '-' it is assumed to
be a header description, in which case the command
applies to a header-row.
pathName header dragcget option
This command returns the current value of the
header-drag-and-drop option named option for the
widget. The following configuration options are
supported (see header dragconfigure for the mean‐
ing of each option):
-enable boolean
-imagealpha alpha
-imagecolor background
-imagecolumn column
-imageoffset offset
-imagespan count
-indicatorcolor color
-indicatorcolumn column
-indicatorside side
-indicatorspan count
pathName header dragcget headerDesc option
This command returns the current value of the
header-drag-and-drop option named option for a
header-row. The following configuration options
are supported (see header dragconfigure for the
meaning of each option):
-draw boolean
-enable boolean
pathName header dragconfigure ?arg ...?
There are two forms of this command distinguished by
whether or not a header description appears as the first
argument. If the first argument begins with a '-' char‐
acter it is assumed to be an option name, not a header
description, in which case the command applies to the
header-drag-and-drop options for the widget. If the
first argument does not being with a '-' it is assumed to
be a header description, in which case the command
applies to a header-row.
pathName header dragconfigure ?option? ?value? ?option
value ...?
This command queries and sets header-drag-and-drop
options for the widget, not for individual header-
rows. The following configuration options are
supported:
-enable boolean
Controls whether the user is allowed to
rearrange columns by drag-and-drop. The
default is false. Each header-row also has
an -enable dragconfigure option.
-imagealpha alpha
Alpha is an integer from 0 (invisible) to
255 (opaque) controlling the transparency
of the drag image. Any value outside this
range is clipped. The default is 200.
-imagecolor background
Unused.
-imagecolumn column
Column specifies the column to create the
drag image from.
-imageoffset offset
Offset is the horizontal screen distance
the drag image is offset from its starting
position.
-imagespan count
Count is the number of columns, starting
with -imagecolumn, that will be dragged as
a group.
-indicatorcolor color
Unused.
-indicatorcolumn column
The 2-pixel-thick line will be drawn over
the left or right edge of column.
-indicatorside side
Unused.
-indicatorspan count
Count is the number of columns, starting
with -indicatorcolumn, that will be dis‐
placed as a group by the dragged column(s)
pathName header dragconfigure header ?option? ?value?
?option value ...?
This command queries and sets header-drag-and-drop
options for header-rows, not for the widget as a
whole. The following configuration options are
supported:
-draw boolean
Controls whether a header-row displays any
feedback during header drag-and-drop. The
default is true.
-enable boolean
Controls whether clicking and dragging in
this header-row initiates drag-and-drop.
The default is true. If the -enable option
for the widget is false (see above) then
this option has no effect.
pathName header element ?arg ...?
See the item element command.
pathName header id headerDesc
This command resolves the header description headerDesc
into a list of unique header-row identifiers. If head‐
erDesc doesn't refer to any existing header-rows, then
this command returns an empty list.
pathName header image headerDesc ?column? ?image? ?column image
...?
The behavior of this command depends on whether or not a
column header was assigned a style containing an image
element. If a column header has no style or no style
with an image element then this command operates on the
same -image option as header configure. Otherwise this
command operates on the -image option of the first image
element in a column header's style. See the item image
command.
pathName header span headerDesc ?column? ?numColumns? ?column
numColumns ...?
See the item span command.
pathName header state command headerDesc ?arg ...?
See the item state command.
pathName header style command headerDesc ?arg ...?
See the item style command.
pathName header text headerDesc ?column? ?text? ?column text
...?
The behavior of this command depends on whether or not a
column header was assigned a style containing a text ele‐
ment. If a column header has no style or no style with a
text element then this command operates on the same -text
option as header configure. Otherwise this command oper‐
ates on the -text option of the first text element in a
column header's style. See item text.
pathName header tag command headerDesc ?arg ...?
See the item tag command.
pathName identify ?-array varName? x y
This command returns information about the what is displayed at
the given window coordinates x and y. When the -array option is
used to specify the name of an array variable, elements of the
array variable are set as follows:
[1] If the coordinates are outside the window, over the bor‐
ders, or over any whitespace in the window, then:
$varName(where) is ""
[2] If the coordinates are over a column header, then:
$varName(where) is header
$varName(header) is the unique id of the header-row
$varName(column) is the unique id of the column
$varName(element) is the name of an element, or ""
$varName(side) is left or right if the coordinates are
close to the edge of the column header, otherwise ""
[3] If the coordinates are over an item, then:
$varName(where) is item
$varName(item) is the unique id of the item
$varName(column) is the unique id of the column
$varName(element) is the name of an element, or ""
$varName(button) is a boolean indicating whether or not
the coordinates are over the item's expand/collapse but‐
ton
$varName(line) is the unique id of an ancestor of the
item (but not the parent of the item) if the coordinates
are over a line descending from that ancestor. If the
coordinates are not over such a line then $varName(line)
is "". This is used to collapse the ancestor when the
line is clicked on.
When the -array option is not used, this command returns a list
describing what is displayed at the given window coordinates. The for‐
mat of this list can be like one of the following:
[1] {}
An empty list is returned if the coordinates are outside
the window, over the borders, or over any whitespace in
the window.
[2] header C ?left|right?
header C elem E ?left|right?
header H column C ?left|right?
header H column C elem E ?left|right?
Only when there is more than one header-row is there a
unique id of a header-row H followed by the keyword col‐
umn. This is for compatibility with older versions when
there was only one row of column headers allowed.
[3] item I column C
[4] item I column C elem E
[5] item I button
This is the result when the coordinates are over the
expand/collapse button next to an item.
[6] item I line I2
This is the result when the coordinates are over a line
descending from an ancestor I2 of the item I (but not the
parent of that item). This is used to collapse the ances‐
tor when the line is clicked on.
pathName index itemDesc
Deprecated. Use item id instead.
pathName item option ?arg ...?
This command is used to manipulate items. The exact behavior of
the command depends on the option argument that follows the item
argument. The following forms of the command are supported:
pathName item ancestors itemDesc
Returns a list containing the item ids of the ancestors
of the item specified by itemDesc. The first list value
is the parent, the second is the parent's parent, an so
on. The last list value will be the root item if itemDesc
is a descendant of the root item.
pathName item bbox itemDesc ?column? ?element?
Returns a list with four elements giving the bounding box
of the item described by itemDesc. If no further argument
is specified, the bbox spans the area of the item over
all non-locked columns. If a column is specified, only
the area of the item in this column is considered. If an
additional element is specified, the area of this element
in column of the specified item is returned. The
returned coordinates are relative to the top-left corner
of the widget. If the item is not visible for any rea‐
son, the result in an empty string.
pathName item buttonstate itemDesc ?state?
If state is specified, this command sets the state of the
expand/collapse button for the single item specified by
itemDesc. The state argument may be one of active, nor‐
mal or pressed. The current (or newly-set) state of the
button is returned. The button state is used by the sys‐
tem theme, if any, to change the appearance of the but‐
ton.
pathName item cget itemDesc option
Returns the current value of the configuration option for
the item specified by itemDesc whose name is option.
Option may have any of the values accepted by the item
configure command.
pathName item children itemDesc
Returns a list containing the item ids of all children of
the item specified by itemDesc in the correct order from
the first child to the last child.
pathName item collapse itemDesc ?-animate? ?-recurse?
Switches off the open state of the item(s) described by
itemDesc. If an item has descendants, then they are no
longer displayed. If an item is already closed, then
this command has no effect on that item. If -animate is
specified, then the item's button will animate as it
transitions between states if the theme supports it; in
this case only one item may be specified. If -recurse is
specified, then all descendants of the items described by
itemDesc will also be collapsed. For every item that
actually will be collapsed, two events are generated: a
<Collapse-before> event before the item state is changed,
and a <Collapse-after> event after the item state was
changed.
pathName item compare itemDesc1 op itemDesc2
From both items described by the itemDescs the index is
retrieved (as returned from the item order widget com‐
mand). Then these indexes are compared using the opera‐
tor op, which must be either <, <=, ==, >=, >, or !=.
The return value of this command is 1 if the comparison
evaluated to true, 0 otherwise.
pathName item complex itemDesc ?list...?
This horrible command is now deprecated. Use item element
configure instead. For every column of the treectrl there
may be specified one list. Each list should look like
this:
{ {element option value ...} {element option value ...} ...}
Every option must be known by the element's type (see
ELEMENTS AND STYLES below). Each option will be set to
value for the element in this one column in this item.
pathName item configure itemDesc ?option? ?value? ?option value
...?
If no option is specified, returns a list describing all
of the available options for the item given by itemDesc
(see Tk_ConfigureInfo for information on the format of
this list). If option is specified with no value, then
the command returns a list describing the one named
option (this list will be identical to the corresponding
sublist of the value returned if no option is specified).
If one or more option-value pairs are specified, then the
command modifies the given item option(s) to have the
given value(s); in this case the command returns an empty
string. This is the only case where itemDesc may refer to
multiple items.
The following options are supported by this command (see
item create for the meaning of each option):
-button boolean|auto
-height height
-tags tagList
-visible boolean
-wrap boolean
pathName item count ?itemDesc?
If no additional arguments are given, the result is a
decimal string giving the number of items created by the
item create widget command which haven't been deleted by
the item delete widget command, plus 1 for the ever-
present root item. If the optional argument itemDesc is
given, then the result is the number of items that match
that item description.
pathName item create ?option value ...?
Creates some new items and optionally returns a list of
unique identifiers for those items. The new items have
the states open and enabled set by default. If the
treectrl widget currently has the focus, the state focus
is also set.
The following options are supported by this command:
-button boolean|auto
The value of this option must have one of the
forms accepted by Tcl_GetBoolean or be the word
auto (or any abbreviation of it). It indicates
whether or not an expand/collapse button should be
drawn next to the item, typically to indicate that
the item has children. If the value of this
option is auto, then a button is displayed next to
the item whenever the item has any children whose
item option -visible is true. The button will
only be displayed if:
[1] the column specified by the treectrl option
-treecolumn is visible, and
[2] the treectrl option -showbuttons is true,
and
[3] for the root item, the treectrl option
-showrootbutton is true, and
[4] for immediate children of the root item,
the treectrl option -showrootchildbuttons
is true.
-count numItems
Specifies the number of items to create. Must be
>= 0. Defaults to 1.
-enabled boolean
Specifies whether the items should be enabled.
Default is true.
-height height
Specifies a fixed height in any of the forms
acceptable to Tk_GetPixels. Must be >= 0. If
height is zero then the item's height is unspeci‐
fied. Defaults to 0. See also the widget options
-itemheight and -minitemheight.
-nextsibling itemDesc
Specifies the item before which the new items will
be inserted. The new items will have the same par‐
ent as itemDesc.
-open boolean
Specifies whether the items should be open or
closed. Default is true.
-parent itemDesc
Specifies the item which the new items will be the
children of. The new items will be appended to the
list of children of itemDesc. When no parent is
specified, the new items are orphan items (see the
widget command orphans) and will not be displayed
in the list.
-prevsibling itemDesc
Specifies the item after which the new items will
be inserted. The new items will have the same par‐
ent as itemDesc.
-returnid boolean
Specifies whether or not to return a list of item
identifiers for the newly created items. Specify‐
ing false is useful when creating a large number
of items in the console or to improve performance.
Default is true.
-tags tagList
TagList is a list of tag names to be added to the
new items. The item tag command can also be used
to manipulate this list of tags.
-visible boolean
Boolean must have one of the forms accepted by
Tcl_GetBoolean. It indicates that the item should
be displayed in the list. The item will only be
displayed if:
[1] each ancestor is a descendant of the root
item (not an orphan), and
[2] each ancestor's -visible option is true
-wrap boolean
Boolean must have one of the forms accepted by
Tcl_GetBoolean. It indicates that this item should
be the first one in a horizontal range or vertical
range of items. See also the widget option -wrap.
pathName item delete first ?last?
Deletes the specified item(s). First and last must be
valid item descriptions. If last isn't specified, then
first may specify multiple items. If both first and last
are specified, they must each decribe a single item with
a common ancestor; then the range of items between first
and last is deleted. The order of first and last doesn't
matter.
Deleting an item deletes any child items of the deleted
item recursively. If the current active item is deleted,
the root item becomes the new active item. If the cur‐
rent selection anchor item is deleted, the root item
becomes the new anchor item. There is no way to delete
the root item of the treectrl widget; in all cases the
specification of the root item is ignored.
For each call to this command, two events may be gener‐
ated. If any of the deleted items are selected, then
they are removed from the selection and a <Selection>
event is generated just before the items are deleted. If
any items are going to be deleted, then an <ItemDelete>
event is generated just before the items are deleted.
pathName item descendants itemDesc
Returns a list containing the item ids of the descendants
of the item specified by itemDesc, i.e. the children,
grandchildren, great-grandchildren etc, of the item.
pathName item dump itemDesc
Debug command. Returns a list with 4 words in the form
index index indexVis indexVis.
pathName item element command itemDesc column element ?arg ...?
This command is used to manipulate elements of the item.
The exact behavior of the command depends on the command
argument that follows the element argument. The follow‐
ing forms of the command are supported:
pathName item element actual itemDesc column element
option
Deprecated. Use item element perstate instead.
pathName item element cget itemDesc column element option
This command returns the value of the option named
option associated with element inside column of
the item described by itemDesc, if it was already
configured for the actual item. Option may have
any of the values accepted by the type of the
specified element (see ELEMENTS AND STYLES below)
pathName item element configure itemDesc column element
?option? ?value? ?option value ...?
This command modifies configuration options for an
element in a column of an item. If no option is
specified, the command returns a list describing
all of the available options for the element (see
Tk_ConfigureInfo for information on the format of
this list). If option is specified with no value,
then the command returns a list describing the one
named option (this list will be identical to the
corresponding sublist of the value returned if no
option is specified).
If one or more option-value pairs are specified,
then the command modifies the given option(s) to
have the given value(s) in the element inside col‐
umn of the item(s) described by itemDesc; in this
case the command returns an empty string. This is
the only case where itemDesc may refer to multiple
items.
It is possible to configure multiple elements in
multiple columns with a single call. To configure
another element in the same column, append a ´+'
argument followed by the element name. To config‐
ure elements in another column, append a ',' argu‐
ment followed by the column. For example:
$C1 $E1 -text "hello" + $E2 -text "world" , \
$C2 $E3 -fill Blue , \
$C3 $E1 -text "apples and oranges"
Each of the column description arguments to this
command may refer to multiple columns if at least
one option-value pair is given.
pathName item element perstate itemDesc column element
option ?stateList?
This command returns the current value of the per-
state option named option for element inside col‐
umn of the item described by itemDesc. If
stateList is specified, the list of state names
(static and dynamic, see STATES) is used in place
of the current state for item and column.
pathName item enabled itemDesc ?boolean?
Returns 1 if the item described by itemDesc has the state
enabled switched on, 0 otherwise. If boolean is speci‐
fied, then the enabled state of every item described by
the item description itemDesc is set accordingly. New
items are enabled by default when created. Disabled items
cannot be selected, and are ignored by the default key-
navigation and mouse bindings.
pathName item expand itemDesc ?-animate? ?-recurse?
Switches on the open state of the item(s) described by
itemDesc. If an item has descendants, then they are now
displayed. If an item is already open, then this command
has no effect on that item. If -animate is specified,
then the item's button will animate as it transitions
between states if the theme supports it; in this case
only one item may be specified. If -recurse is speci‐
fied, then all descendants of the items described by
itemDesc will also be expanded. For every item that
actually will be expanded, two events are generated: an
<Expand-before> event before the item state is changed,
and an <Expand-after> event after the item state was
changed.
pathName item firstchild parent ?child?
If child is not specified, returns the item id of the
first child of the item described by parent. If child is
specified, it must describe an item that is neither the
root item nor an ancestor of parent. Then it will become
the new first child of parent.
pathName item id itemDesc
This command resolves the item description itemDesc into
a list of unique item identifiers. If itemDesc doesn't
refer to any existing items, then this command returns an
empty list.
pathName item image itemDesc ?column? ?image? ?column image ...?
This command sets or retrieves the value of the per-state
-image option for the first image element in one or more
columns. If no column is specified, this command returns
a list of values, one per column. If no image is speci‐
fied, this command returns the value for column.
If one or more column-image pairs is specified, then the
value of the -image option in each column is set to
image. In this case itemDesc may refer to multiple items
and each column may refer to multiple columns.
Note that this command is provided as a convenience. Use
the item element configure or item element cget commands
if you want to set or retrieve the value of the -image
option for a specific image element.
pathName item isancestor itemDesc descendant
Returns 1 if the item described by itemDesc is a direct
or indirect parent of the item decribed by descendant, 0
otherwise.
pathName item isopen itemDesc
Returns 1 if the item described by itemDesc has the state
open switched on, 0 otherwise.
pathName item lastchild parent ?child?
If child is not specified, returns the item id of the
last child of the item described by parent. If child is
specified, it must describe an item that is not an ances‐
tor of parent. Then it will become the new last child of
parent.
pathName item nextsibling sibling ?next?
If next is not specified, returns the item id of the next
sibling of the item described by sibling. If next is
specified, it must describe an item that is not an ances‐
tor of sibling. Then it will become the new next sibling
of sibling.
pathName item numchildren itemDesc
Returns the number of children of the item described by
itemDesc.
pathName item order itemDesc ?-visible?
This command returns the position of the item itemDesc
relative to its toplevel ancestor (usually the root item,
unless the ancestor is an orphan). If you imagine all the
items flattened into a vertical list, the result of this
command is the row the item falls in. If the optional
argument -visible is given, only the items whose ances‐
tors are expanded, and whose -visible option is true, get
counted; in this case -1 is returned if the item is not
visible.
pathName item parent itemDesc
Returns the item id of the parent of the item described
by itemDesc.
pathName item prevsibling sibling ?prev?
If prev is not specified, returns the item id of the pre‐
vious sibling of the item described by sibling. If prev
is specified, it must describe an item that is not an
ancestor of sibling. Then it will become the new previ‐
ous sibling of sibling.
pathName item range first last
Returns a list containing the item ids of all items in
the range between first and last, inclusive. The order
between first and last doesn't matter, and the result is
always sorted by the increasing order of the items (as
returned by the item order command). The items specified
by first and last must share a common ancestor.
pathName item remove itemDesc
Removes the item described by itemDesc from the list of
children of its parent, so that it will become an orphan.
pathName item rnc itemDesc
Returns a list of two integers, which corresponds to the
row and column of the item described by itemDesc. The row
and column corresponds to the on-screen arrangement of
items as determined by the -orient and -wrap options. If
the item is not displayed, this command returns an empty
string.
pathName item sort itemDesc ?option ...?
Sorts the children of the item described by itemDesc, and
redisplays the tree with the items in the new order.
The range of items which should be sorted can be
restricted by means of the -first and/or -last options,
which should be children of the item described by
itemDesc; the order between these two limiting items
doesn't matter.
The sort column can be specified by means of the -column
option; this option can be used repeatedly to define a
multicolumn sort. The sorting is done by looking at the
text of the element specified by the -element option,
which must be a text element defined in the style of the
sorting column, by default the first text element is
used.
If the -notreally option is specified, no rearranging of
the items is done; instead the sorted items are returned
as result of the command.
By default ASCII sorting is used with the result returned
in increasing order. Any of the following options may be
specified to control the sorting process of the previ‐
ously specified column (unique abbreviations are
accepted):
-ascii Use string comparison with ASCII collation order.
This is the default.
-command command
Use command as a comparison command. To compare
two items, evaluate a Tcl script consisting of
command with the numerical ids of the two items
appended as additional arguments. The script
should return an integer less than, equal to, or
greater than zero if the first item is to be con‐
sidered less than, equal to, or greater than the
second, respectively.
-decreasing
Sort the items in decreasing order ("largest"
items first).
-dictionary
Use dictionary-style comparison. This is the same
as -ascii except (a) case is ignored except as a
tie-breaker and (b) if two strings contain embed‐
ded numbers, the numbers compare as integers, not
characters. For example, in -dictionary mode,
bigBoy sorts between bigbang and bigboy, and x10y
sorts between x9y and x11y.
-increasing
Sort the items in increasing order ("smallest"
items first). This is the default.
-integer
Convert to integers and use integer comparison.
-real Convert to floating-point values and use floating
comparison.
pathName item span itemDesc ?column? ?numColumns? ?column num‐
Columns ...?
This command sets or retrieves the number of columns that
a style covers. If no column is specified, the return
value is a list of spans, one per column. If no num‐
Columns is specified, the return value is the span for
column.
If one or more column-numColumns pairs is specified, the
span for each column is set to numColumns. In this case
itemDesc may refer to multiple items and each column may
refer to multiple columns.
pathName item state command itemDesc ?arg ...?
This command is used to manipulate the states of an item.
The exact behavior of the command depends on the command
argument that follows the style argument. The following
forms of the command are supported:
pathName item state define stateName
Defines a new state with the name stateName, which
must not be the name of an existing state.
pathName item state forcolumn itemDesc column ?stat‐
eDescList?
Just like item state set but manipulates dynamic
states for a single item column, not the item as a
whole. If stateDescList is unspecified, this com‐
mand returns a list containing the names of all
the dynamic states which are switched on in col‐
umn.
If stateDescList is specified, then itemDesc may
refer to multiple items and column may refer to
multiple columns.
pathName item state get itemDesc ?stateName?
If no stateName is specified, returns a list con‐
taining the names of all (static and dynamic)
states which are currently switched on for the
item described by itemDesc. If a stateName is
specified, 1 is returned if the specified state is
currently switched on for the item, 0 otherwise.
pathName item state linkage stateName
Returns a string indicating whether the specified
state is user-defined by means of the item state
define widget command (dynamic) or predefined by
the treectrl widget itself (static).
pathName item state names
Returns a list containing the names of all user-
defined states.
pathName item state set itemDesc ?lastItem? stateDescList
Every element of stateDescList must be the name of
a dynamic state (see STATES below), optionally
preceded by a ~ or ! character. Every state with
a leading ! will be switched off for the item
described by itemDesc, every state with a leading
~ will be toggled, and every state without leading
! or ~ will be switched on. If lastItem is speci‐
fied, the state changes will be made for all items
in the range between itemDesc and lastItem. If
lastItem unspecified, then the state changes are
made for all items described by itemDesc.
pathName item state undefine ?stateName ...?
Every stateName must be the name of a user-defined
state. Removes this state from the list of user-
defined states.
pathName item style command itemDesc ?arg ...?
This command is used to manipulate the styles of an item.
The exact behavior of the command depends on the command
argument that follows the style argument. The following
forms of the command are supported:
pathName item style elements itemDesc column
This command returns a list containing the names
of elements which were configured by the item ele‐
ment configure command for the item described by
itemDesc in column. If there is no style assigned
to column an error is returned.
pathName item style map itemDesc column style map
Like the item style set command, this command may
be used to assign a style to a specific column of
an item. Unlike item style set, this command can
transfer configuration values of elements in the
current style to elements in the new style speci‐
fied by style. Map must be a list of elementOld-
elementNew pairs, where elementOld is an element
in the current style, and elementNew is an element
in the style specified by style. Both elementOld
and elementNew must be of the same type (bitmap,
text etc). ItemDesc may refer to multiple items
and column may refer to multiple columns.
pathName item style set itemDesc ?column? ?style? ?column
style ...?
This command sets or retrieves the style assigned
to one or more columns. If no column is speci‐
fied, this command returns a list containing the
names of the styles set for all columns of the
item described by itemDesc. If no style is speci‐
fied, this command returns the name of the style
set for the item described by itemDesc in column.
If one or more column-style pairs is specified,
then the style in each column is set to style. In
this case itemDesc may refer to multiple items and
each column may refer to multiple columns.
pathName item tag option ?arg arg ...?
This command is used to manipulate tags on items. The
exact behavior of the command depends on the option argu‐
ment that follows the item tag argument. The following
forms of the command are supported:
pathName item tag add itemDesc tagList
Adds each tag in tagList to the items specified by
the item description itemDesc. Duplicate tags are
ignored. The list of tags for an item can also be
changed via an item's -tags option.
pathName item tag expr itemDesc tagExpr
Evaluates the tag expression tagExpr against every
item specified by the item description itemDesc.
The result is 1 if the tag expression evaluates to
true for every item, 0 otherwise.
pathName item tag names itemDesc
Returns a list of tag names assigned to the items
specified by the item description itemDesc. The
result is the union of any tags assigned to the
items.
pathName item tag remove itemDesc tagList
Removes each tag in tagList from the items speci‐
fied by the item description itemDesc. It is not
an error if any of the items do not use any of the
tags. The list of tags for an item can also be
changed via an item's -tags option.
pathName item text itemDesc ?column? ?text? ?column text ...?
This command sets or retrieves the value of the -text
option for the first text element in one or more columns.
If no column is specified, this command returns a list of
values, one per column. If no text is specified, this
command returns the value for column.
If one or more column-text pairs is specified, then the
value of the -text option in each column is set to text.
In this case itemDesc may refer to multiple items and
each column may refer to multiple columns.
Note that this command is provided as a convenience. Use
the item element configure or item element cget commands
if you want to set or retrieve the value of the -text
option for a specific text element.
pathName item toggle itemDesc ?-animate? ?-recurse?
Changes the open state of the item(s) described by
itemDesc. If the open state is currently switched off,
then this command does the same as the item expand widget
command; otherwise the same as the item collapse widget
command. If -animate is specified, then the item's but‐
ton will animate as it transitions between states if the
theme supports it; in this case only one item may be
specified. If -recurse is specified, then the open state
of all descendants of the items described by itemDesc
will also be toggled.
pathName marquee option ?arg ...?
This command is used to manipulate the marquee, which can be
used to implement a resizable selection rectangle, in a file
browser for example. One corner point of the marquee is fixed
as long as the marquee is visible and called the anchor; the
diagonally opposite corner is dragged with the mouse while
resizing the marquee and simply called the corner.
All coordinates handled by this widget command are canvas coor‐
dinates, i.e. the canvasx or canvasy widget command should be
used to translate window coordinates to canvas coordinates.
By default, the marquee is displayed as a 1-pixel thick dotted
rectangle. If either of the -fill or -outline options is speci‐
fied, then the marquee is drawn as a filled and/or outlined rec‐
tangle of the specified color(s). The -fill option should
specify a transparent gradient to avoid hiding what is inside
the marquee. See GRADIENTS for more info.
The exact behavior of the command depends on the option argument
that follows the marquee argument. The following forms of the
command are supported:
pathName marquee anchor ?x y?
Returns a list containing the x and y coordinates of the
anchor, if no additional arguments are specified. If two
coordinates are specified, sets the anchor to the given
coordinates x and y.
pathName marquee cget option
This command returns the current value of the marquee
option named option. Option may have any of the values
accepted by the marquee configure widget command.
pathName marquee configure ?option? ?value? ?option value ...?
This command is similar to the configure widget command
except that it modifies the marquee options instead of
modifying options for the overall treectrl widget. If no
option is specified, the command returns a list describ‐
ing all of the available marquee options (see Tk_Config‐
ureInfo for information on the format of this list). If
option is specified with no value, then the command
returns a list describing the one named marquee option
(this list will be identical to the corresponding sublist
of the value returned if no option is specified). If one
or more option-value pairs are specified, then the com‐
mand modifies the given marquee option(s) to have the
given value(s); in this case the command returns an empty
string.
The following marquee options are supported:
-fill color
Specifies the color to fill the marquee rectangle
with. See the comments above about using a trans‐
parent gradient here.
-outline color
Specifies the color to outline the marquee rectan‐
gle with.
-outlinewidth color
Specifies the width of the outline drawn inside
the marquee's rectangle. The outline is not drawn
if this value is less than 1. This option has no
effect if the -outline option is unspecified,
i.e., the default dotted rectangle is unaffected
by this option. outlineWidth may be in any of the
forms acceptable to Tk_GetPixels. Defaults to 1.
-visible boolean
Specifies a boolean value which determines whether
the marquee is displayed.
pathName marquee coords ?x1 y1 x2 y2?
Returns a list containing the x and y coordinates of the
anchor followed by the x and y coordinates of the corner,
if no additional arguments are specified. If four coor‐
dinates are specified, sets the anchor to the given coor‐
dinates x1 and y1 and the corner to the coordinates x2
and y2.
pathName marquee corner ?x y?
Returns a list containing the x and y coordinates of the
corner, if no additional arguments are specified. If two
coordinates are specified, sets the corner to the given
coordinates x and y.
pathName marquee identify
Returns a list with information about any items inter‐
secting the marquee. The format of the returned list is:
{
{item {column element element ...} {column element element ...} ...}
{item {column element element ...} {column element element ...} ...}
...
}
There may be zero sublists following an item id if the
marquee is in the button/line area of an item. There may
be zero element names following a column id if the item-
column has no style or if the marquee does not intersect
any elements in that column.
pathName notify option ?arg ...?
Many Tk widgets communicate with the outside world via -command
callbacks and/or virtual events. For example, the Text widget
evaluates its -yscrollcommand when the view in the widget
changes, and generates a <<Modified>> virtual event when text is
inserted or deleted. A treectrl widget replaces both methods of
communication with its own event mechanism accessed through the
notify subcommands.
The exact behavior of the command depends on the option argument
that follows the notify argument. The following forms of the
command are supported:
pathName notify bind ?object? ?pattern? ?+??script?
This command associates Tcl scripts with events generated
by a treectrl widget. If all three arguments are speci‐
fied, notify bind will arrange for script (a Tcl script)
to be evaluated whenever the event(s) specified by pat‐
tern are generated by this treectrl widget. If script is
prefixed with a "+", then it is appended to any existing
binding for pattern; otherwise script replaces any
existing binding. If script is an empty string then the
current binding for pattern is destroyed, leaving pattern
unbound. In all of the cases where a script argument is
provided, notify bind returns an empty string.
If pattern is specified without a script, then the script
currently bound to pattern is returned, or an empty
string is returned if there is no binding for pattern. If
neither pattern nor script is specified, then the return
value is a list whose elements are all the patterns for
which there exist bindings for object.
The object argument determines which window(s) the bind‐
ing applies to. If object begins with a dot, as in
.a.b.c, then it must be the path name for a window; oth‐
erwise it may be an arbitrary string. Like the regular
bind command, bindings on window names are automatically
removed if that window is destroyed.
pathName notify configure object pattern ?option? ?value?
?option value ...?
This command sets and retrieves options for bindings cre‐
ated by the notify bind command.
If no option is specified, the command returns a list
with option-value pairs describing all the available
binding options for pattern on object. If option is
specified with no value, then the command returns the
current value of that option. If one or more option-
value pairs are specified, then the command modifies the
given option(s) to have the given value(s) for the bind‐
ing; in this case the command returns an empty string.
The following binding options are supported:
-active boolean
Specifies if the binding should be active. As
long as this option is specified as false, a bind‐
ing script will not be evaluated when the corre‐
sponding event is generated.
pathName notify detailnames eventName
Returns a list containing the names of all details, which
are installed for the event with the name eventName by
means of the notify install widget command or by the
treectrl widget itself.
pathName notify eventnames
Returns a list containing the names of all events, which
are installed by means of the notify install widget com‐
mand or by the treectrl widget itself.
pathName notify generate pattern ?charMap? ?percentsCommand?
This command causes the treectrl widget to generate an
event. This command is typically used to generate dynamic
events created by the notify install command, but may be
used to generate static events also. The event specified
by pattern is generated, and any active binding scripts
on the event are evaluated after undergoing %-substitu‐
tion. If there are details defined for the event, pat‐
tern must describe an <eventName-detail> pair, otherwise
pattern should be <eventName>.
The optional charMap is a list of char-value pairs as in
the form returned by array get. Each char has to be
exactly one character. The charMap is used in %-substi‐
tution.
If percentsCommand is specified, then it will be used to
perform %-substitution on any scripts bound to the event.
If percentsCommand is not specified and the event is
dynamic, then the %-subtitution command passed to notify
install will be used if it was provided. If the event is
static or no %-substitution command is available, then
all %-substitution is done using charMap only . See
notify install for a description of percentsCommand.
pathName notify install pattern ?percentsCommand?
This command installs a new event or detail specified by
pattern. Events created by this command are called
dynamic, whereas events created by the treectrl widget
itself are called static. This command may be called to
set or retrieve the percentsCommand for an existing
dynamic event.
The optional percentsCommand is a list containing the
name of a Tcl command, plus any optional arguments, to
which five additional arguments will be appended. The
command will be called to perform %-substitution on any
scripts bound to the event specified by pattern (see
EVENTS AND SCRIPT SUBSTITUTIONS). PercentsCommand should
be defined as follows:
proc percentsCommand {?arg arg ...? char object event detail charMap} {
switch -- $char {
...
}
return $value
}
The optional arg arguments are part of the percentsCom‐
mand list. Char is the %-character to be substituted.
Object is the same as the argument to notify bind. Event
and detail specify the event. CharMap is the same as the
argument to notify generate. PercentsCommand should
return the value to replace the %-character by. If an
error occurs evaluating percentsCommand, the %-character
is replaced by itself.
notify install returns the current percentsCommand for
the event, or an error if the event is not dynamic.
pathName notify install detail eventName detail ?percentsCom‐
mand?
Deprecated. Use notify install with a pattern of <event‐
Name-detail> instead.
pathName notify install event eventName ?percentsCommand?
Deprecated. Use notify install with a pattern of <event‐
Name> instead.
pathName notify linkage pattern
Returns a string indicating whether the specified event
or detail is created by means of the notify install wid‐
get command (dynamic) or by the treectrl widget itself
(static).
pathName notify linkage eventName ?detail?
Deprecated. Use notify linkage with a pattern of <event‐
Name> or <eventName-detail> instead.
pathName notify unbind object ?pattern?
If no pattern is specified, all bindings on object are
removed. If pattern is specified, then the current bind‐
ing for pattern is destroyed, leaving pattern unbound.
pathName notify uninstall pattern
If the event or detail specified by pattern is static
(i.e. created by the treectrl widget itself), an error is
generated. Otherwise the dynamic event or detail is
removed. If an event name is specified without a detail,
all details for that event are also removed.
pathName notify uninstall detail eventName detail
Deprecated. Use notify uninstall with a pattern of
<eventName-detail> instead.
pathName notify uninstall event eventName
Deprecated. Use notify uninstall with a pattern of
<eventName> instead.
pathName numcolumns
Deprecated. Use the column count command instead.
pathName numitems
Deprecated. Use the item count command instead.
pathName orphans
Returns a list containing the item ids of all items which have
no parent. When an item is created, it has no parent by
default, and can later become an orphan by means of the item
remove widget command. The root item is not returned.
pathName range first last
Deprecated. Use the item range command instead.
pathName scan option args
This command is used to implement scanning on treectrls. It has
two forms, depending on option:
pathName scan mark x y
Records x and y and the treectrl's current view; used in
conjunction with later scan dragto commands. Typically
this command is associated with a mouse button press in
the widget and x and y are the coordinates of the mouse.
It returns an empty string.
pathName scan dragto x y ?gain?
This command computes the difference between its x and y
arguments (which are typically mouse coordinates) and the
x and y arguments to the last scan mark command for the
widget. It then adjusts the view by gain times the dif‐
ference in coordinates, where gain defaults to 10. This
command is typically associated with mouse motion events
in the widget, to produce the effect of dragging the
treectrl at high speed through its window. The return
value is an empty string.
pathName see itemDesc ?columnDesc? ?option value ...?
Adjust the view in the treectrl so that the item described by
itemDesc is visible. If the item is already visible then the
command has no effect; otherwise the treectrl scrolls to bring
the item into view, and the corresponding <Scroll-x> and/or
<Scroll-y> events are generated. If columnDesc is specified then
a specific column of the item is scrolled into view instead of
the entire item.
The following options are supported:
-center flags
Flags is a string that contains zero or more of the char‐
acters x or y. This option is used to center the item
horizontally and/or vertically in the window. The item
will be centered regardless of whether it is already vis‐
ible.
pathName selection option args
This command is used to adjust the selection within a treectrl.
It has several forms, depending on option:
pathName selection add first ?last?
First and last (if specified) must be valid item descrip‐
tions. If both first and last are specified, then they
may refer to a single item only; in this case the command
adds every unselected item in the range between first and
last, inclusive, to the selection without affecting the
selected state of items outside that range. If only
first is specified, then every unselected item specified
by first is added to the selection. A <Selection> event
is generated if any items were added to the selection.
pathName selection anchor ?itemDesc?
If itemDesc is specified, the selection anchor is set to
the described item. The selection anchor is the end of
the selection that is fixed while dragging out a selec‐
tion with the mouse. The item description anchor may be
used to refer to the anchor item. This command doesn't
modify the selection state of any item. Returns the
unique id of the selection anchor item.
pathName selection clear ?first? ?last?
First and last (if specified) must be valid item descrip‐
tions. If both first and last are specified, then they
may refer to a single item only; in this case any
selected items between first and last (inclusive) are
removed from the selection without affecting the selected
state of items outside that range. If only first is
specified, then every selected item specified by first is
removed from the selection. If neither first nor last
are specified, then all selected items are removed from
the selection. A <Selection> event is generated if any
items were removed from the selection.
pathName selection count
Returns an integer indicating the number of items in the
treectrl that are currently selected.
pathName selection get ?first? ?last?
When no additional arguments are given, the result is an
unsorted list containing the item ids of all of the items
in the treectrl that are currently selected. If there
are no items selected in the treectrl, then an empty
string is returned. The optional arguments first and
last are treated as indices into the sorted list of
selected items; these arguments allow in-place lindex and
lrange operations on the selection. For example:
pathName selection includes itemDesc
Returns 1 if the item described by itemDesc is currently
selected, 0 if it isn't.
pathName selection modify select deselect
Both arguments select and deselect are a possibly-empty
list of item descriptions. Any unselected items in
select are added to the selection, and any selected items
in deselect are removed from the selection (except for
those items which are also in select). A <Selection>
event is generated if any items were selected or dese‐
lected.
pathName state option args
This command is used to manipulate the list of user-defined item
states, see section STATES below. Item states can also be man‐
aged using the item state command. To manage states for header-
rows, use the header state widget command. The exact behavior
of the command depends on the option argument that follows the
state argument. The following forms of the command are sup‐
ported:
pathName state define stateName
Defines a new state with the name stateName, which must
not be the name of an existing state.
pathName state linkage stateName
Returns a string indicating whether the specified state
is user-defined by means of the state define widget com‐
mand (dynamic) or predefined by the treectrl widget
itself (static).
pathName state names
Returns a list containing the names of all user-defined
states.
pathName state undefine ?stateName ...?
Every stateName must be the name of a user-defined state.
Removes this state from the list of user-defined states.
pathName style option ?element? ?arg arg ...?
This command is used to manipulate styles, which can be thought
of as a geometry manager for elements. The exact behavior of
the command depends on the option argument that follows the
style argument. The following forms of the command are sup‐
ported:
pathName style cget style option
This command returns the current value of the option
named option associated with the style given by style.
Option may have any of the values accepted by the style
configure widget command.
This command also accepts the -statedomain option.
pathName style configure style ?option? ?value? ?option value
...?
This command is similar to the configure widget command
except that it modifies options associated with the style
given by style instead of modifying options for the over‐
all treectrl widget. If no option is specified, the com‐
mand returns a list describing all of the available
options for style (see Tk_ConfigureInfo for information
on the format of this list). If option is specified with
no value, then the command returns a list describing the
one named option (this list will be identical to the cor‐
responding sublist of the value returned if no option is
specified). If one or more option-value pairs are speci‐
fied, then the command modifies the given option(s) to
have the given value(s) in style; in this case the com‐
mand returns an empty string.
The following options are supported:
-buttony offset
Specifies the distance from the top of the item
that the expand/collapse button should be drawn.
If offset is an empty string (the default) then
the button is centered vertically in the item.
The value may have any of the forms acceptable to
Tk_GetPixels. This option only has effect when
the style is set in an item in the tree column.
-orient varName
This option specifies which orientation should be
used when laying out the elements associated with
this style. Must be either horizontal (the
default) or vertical or an abbreviation of one of
these.
pathName style create name ?option value ...?
Creates a new style with the unique user-defined name
name. After name there may be any number of option-value
pairs, each of which sets one of the configuration
options for the style. See the style configure command
for the possible options. The result of this command is
the name of the new style (the same as the name option).
This command also accepts the -statedomain option with a
value of either header or item to specify where this
style will be displayed.
pathName style delete ?style ...?
Deletes each of the named styles and returns an empty
string. If a style is deleted while it is still used to
display one or more items, it is also removed from the
style list of these items.
pathName style elements style ?elementList?
Specifies the elements which should be layed out by this
style. Each element of elementList must be the name of
an element created by the widget command element create.
Duplicate names in elementList are ignored. An element
which was specified in a former call of this command for
style but is not included in elementList, will be deleted
from the elements layed out by style.
Every element used by a style must have been created with
the same value for the -statedomain option.
If the elementList argument is not specified, a list is
returned containing the currently defined elements of
style.
pathName style layout style element ?option? ?value? ?option
value ...?
This command is similar to the configure widget command
except that it modifies options used by style for laying
out element instead of modifying options for the overall
treectrl widget. If no option is specified, the command
returns a list with option-value pairs describing all of
the available options for the layout. If option is spec‐
ified with no value, then the command returns the value
of the named option. If one or more option-value pairs
are specified, then the command modifies the given
option(s) to have the given value(s) for the layout; in
this case the command returns an empty string.
The options of a layout have effect on exactly the one
element element managed by style. The following options
are supported:
-detach boolean
Specifies whether the element should be positioned
by itself, i.e. independent from the other ele‐
ments. The default is false.
-center flags
Flags is a string that contains zero or more of
the characters x or y. x causes the element to be
centered horizontally, y causes the element to be
centered vertically. When more than one element
has -center layout, all the elements between the
first and last with -center layout in the style's
list of elements are centered as a group. Con‐
sider the following when there is another element
to the right of MyElement:
With the first call, MyElement will be centered
only within the space that is not occupied by the
other element, so MyElement will appear off-center
towards the left of the style. With the second
call, MyElement will be centered within the style
so long as it doesn't overlap the other element.
-draw boolean
This is a per-state option that determines whether
an element should be drawn. If the value of the
option evaluates to false for a given item state,
then the element is not drawn, although it still
consumes space in the layout.
-expand flags
This option allows the external padding around the
element to increase when a style has more screen
space than it needs. Flags is a string that con‐
tains zero or more of the characters n, s, w or e.
Each letter refers to the padding on the top, bot‐
tom, left, or right that should be allowed to
increase. This option is typically used to jus‐
tify an element. The default is an empty string.
-iexpand flags
This option allows the internal padding of the
element and the display area of the element to
increase when a style has more screen space than
it needs. Flags is a string that contains zero
or more of the characters x, y, n, s, w or e. For
n, s, w and e, each letter refers to the padding
on the top, bottom, left, or right that should be
allowed to increase. For x and y, each letter
refers to the horizontal and vertical screen space
the element can display itself in (i.e., the space
between the padding). Note that if the -union
option is specified for this element, then the x
and y flags have no effect, since the size of an
element with -union layout is determined by the
elements it surrounds. The default is an empty
string.
-indent boolean
For item styles, this option specifies whether the
element should be positioned to the right of the
button/line area in the tree column. When false,
the element is displayed beneath the buttons and
lines in the tree column. This option is ignored
unless the -detach option is true.
For header styles, this option specifies whether
the element should be positioned to the right of
the -canvaspadx padding. This option is ignored
unless the -detach option is true or the -union
option is specified.
The default is true.
-ipadx amount
-ipady amount
Amount specifies how much internal padding to
leave on the left and right (for -ipadx) or top
and bottom (for -ipady) sides of the element.
Amount may be a list of two values to specify pad‐
ding for the two sides separately. The default
value is 0. This option is typically used with
the -union layout option, to create space around
the enclosed elements.
-minheight pixels
-height pixels
-maxheight pixels
Specifies the minimum, fixed, and maximum height
of the display area of the element. The default
is unspecified.
-minwidth pixels
-width pixels
-maxwidth pixels
Specifies the minimum, fixed, and maximum width of
the display area of the element. The default is
unspecified.
-padx amount
-pady amount
Amount specifies how much external padding to
leave on the left and right (for -padx) or top and
bottom (for -pady) sides of the element. Amount
may be a list of two values to specify padding for
the two sides separately. The default value is 0.
-squeeze flags
This option allows the display area of an element
to decrease when a style has less space than it
needs. Flags is a string that contains zero or
more of the characters x or y. x allows display
area to decrease horizontally, y allows display
area to decrease vertically. This option is typi‐
cally used for text elements and will cause the
text element to display an ellipsis (...) and/or
wrap lines. The default is an empty string.
-sticky flags
This option controls how the actual display infor‐
mation (image, text, etc) of an element is posi‐
tioned (or stretched) within its display area.
Flags is a string that contains zero or more of
the characters n, s, w or e. Each letter refers to
the top, bottom, left or right side of the display
area that the display information should "stick"
to. The default is nswe.
-union elementList
Specifies a list of other elements which this ele‐
ment will surround. The size of an element with
-union layout is determined by the size and posi‐
tion of the elements in elementList. The -ipadx
and -ipady options in this case refer to the dis‐
tance of the edges of the display area of this
element from those elements it surrounds. This
option is typically used to display a selection
rectangle around a piece of text. If none of the
elements in elementList are visible, then the ele‐
ment is not displayed.
-visible boolean
This is a per-state option that controls visibil‐
ity of an element. If the value of the option
evaluates to false for a given item state, then
the element is not displayed and consumes no space
in the layout.
pathName style names
Returns a list containing the names of all existing
styles.
pathName theme option ?arg ...?
This command is used to interact with the platform-specific
theme. The exact behavior of the command depends on the option
argument that follows the theme argument. The following forms
of the command are supported:
pathName theme platform
Returns the API used to draw themed parts of the treec‐
trl. On Mac OS X the result is always aqua. On MS Win‐
dows the result is visualstyles if the uxtheme.dll was
loaded and visual themes are in use, otherwise X11 is
returned to indicate the Tk Xlib calls are drawing the
themed parts. On Unix systems the result is gtk if the
Gtk+ version of treectrl was built, otherwise X11 is
returned.
pathName theme setwindowtheme appname
The command is available on MS Windows only. If appname
is "Explorer" then the item buttons look like those in
the Explorer file browser (disclosure triangles under
Windows Vista/7). If appname is an empty string then the
buttons revert to their default appearance according to
the system's current visual style.
pathName toggle ?-recurse? ?itemDesc ...?
Use item toggle instead.
pathName xview ?args?
This command is used to query and change the horizontal position
of the information displayed in the treectrl's window. It can
take any of the following forms:
pathName xview
Returns a list containing two elements. Each element is
a real fraction between 0 and 1; together they describe
the horizontal span that is visible in the window. For
example, if the first element is .2 and the second ele‐
ment is .6, 20% of the tree's area is off-screen to the
left, the middle 40% is visible in the window, and 40% of
the tree is off-screen to the right. These are the same
values passed to scrollbars via the -xscrollcommand
option.
pathName xview moveto fraction
Adjusts the view in the window so that fraction of the
total width of the tree is off-screen to the left. Frac‐
tion must be a fraction between 0 and 1. A <Scroll-x>
event is generated.
pathName xview scroll number what
This command shifts the view in the window left or right
according to number and what. Number must be an integer.
What must be either units or pages or an abbreviation of
one of these. If what is units, the view adjusts left or
right in units determined by the -xscrollincrement option
(which may be zero, see the description of that option).
If what is pages then the view adjusts in units of nine-
tenths the window's width. If number is negative then
information farther to the left becomes visible; if it
is positive then information farther to the right becomes
visible. A <Scroll-x> event is generated.
pathName yview ?args?
This command is used to query and change the vertical position
of the information displayed in the treectrl's window. It can
take any of the following forms:
pathName yview
Returns a list containing two elements. Each element is
a real fraction between 0 and 1; together they describe
the vertical span that is visible in the window. For
example, if the first element is .6 and the second ele‐
ment is 1.0, the lowest 40% of the tree's area is visible
in the window. These are the same values passed to
scrollbars via the -yscrollcommand option.
pathName yview moveto fraction
Adjusts the view in the window so that fraction of the
tree's area is off-screen to the top. Fraction is a
fraction between 0 and 1. A <Scroll-y> event is gener‐
ated.
pathName yview scroll number what
This command adjusts the view in the window up or down
according to number and what. Number must be an integer.
What must be either units or pages. If what is units,
the view adjusts up or down in units of the
-yscrollincrement option (which may be zero, see the
description of that option). If what is pages then the
view adjusts in units of nine-tenths the window's height.
If number is negative then higher information becomes
visible; if it is positive then lower information
becomes visible. A <Scroll-y> event is generated.
HEADERS
A treectrl widget can display zero or more rows of column headers.
When a treectrl widget is created, a single row of column headers (aka
a header-row) is created as well; this top header-row cannot be
deleted. Additional header-rows can be created with the header create
command and deleted with header delete.
There are no commands for changing the order of header-rows; they are
displayed from top to bottom in the order they were created.
Drag-and-drop reordering of column headers is supported within a wid‐
get. To control column header drag-and-drop, use the header dragcon‐
figure command.
Header-rows in a treectrl may be specified in a number of ways. See
HEADER DESCRIPTION below.
The appearance of individual column headers within a header-row may be
customized in two different ways:
[1] By configuring various column header options with the header
configure command
[2] By assigning a style to a column header with the header style
command.
When one of the options below is specified as per-state, the state
names are those described in STATES for headers only, i.e. do not use
item state names.
The following options are supported for each individual column header:
-arrow direction
Indicates whether or not a sort arrow should be drawn in the
column header. Direction must have one of the values none (the
default), up, or down.
-arrowbitmap bitmap
Specifies as a per-state option the name of a bitmap to use to
draw the arrow if this column's -arrow option is not none.
-arrowgravity direction
Indicates onto which side the sort arrow should be packed, if
there is more space available for drawing the arrow then needed.
direction must be either left (the default) or right.
-arrowimage image
Specifies as a per-state option the name of an image to use to
draw the sort arrow if this column's -arrow option is not none.
If an image is specified for a certain state, it overrides the
-arrowbitmap option.
-arrowpadx amount
Amount specifies how much padding to leave on the left and right
of the sort arrow. Amount may be a list of two values to spec‐
ify padding for left and right separately; it defaults to 6.
-arrowpady amount
Amount specifies how much padding to leave on the top and bottom
of the sort arrow. Amount may be a list of two values to spec‐
ify padding for top and bottom separately; it defaults to 0.
-arrowside side
Indicates on which side of the bitmap/image/text the sort arrow
should be drawn. Side must be either left or right (the
default).
-bitmap bitmap
Specifies the name of a bitmap to display to the left of the
column title.
-background color
Specifies as a per-state option the color to use for the back‐
ground of the column header.
-borderwidth size
Specifies a non-negative value indicating the width of the 3-D
border to draw around the outside of the column header (if such
a border is being drawn; the -relief column option determines
this). The value may have any of the forms acceptable to
Tk_GetPixels.
-button boolean
Indicates whether or not the column header should be treated
like a pushbutton. When this option is true, the default bind‐
ings track <Button-1> events in the header and generate a
<Header-invoke> event when a <ButtonRelease-1> event occurs in
the header. See DYNAMIC EVENTS.
-font fontName
Specifies the font to use for displaying the column title inside
the column header. When the value of this option is unspeci‐
fied, the font specified by the widget option -headerfont is
used.
-image image
Specifies the name of an image to display to the left of the
column title. This option overrides the -bitmap column option.
-imagepadx amount
Amount specifies how much padding to leave on the left and right
of the image (or bitmap). Amount may be a list of two values to
specify padding for left and right separately; it defaults to 6.
-imagepady amount
Amount specifies how much padding to leave on the top and bottom
of the image (or bitmap). Amount may be a list of two values to
specify padding for top and bottom separately; it defaults to 0.
-justify justification
This option determines how the image and text in the column
header are positioned. Must be one of left (the default), cen‐
ter, or right.
-state state
Specifies one of three states for the column header: normal,
active, or pressed. The active state is used when the mouse is
over the header. The pressed state is used when the mouse but‐
ton is pressed in the header.
Changing the value of this option also affects the current set
of header states for the column header, which may affect both
the per-state options mentioned here (such as -arrowimage) as
well as the elements in any style that may be assigned to the
column header.
-text text
Specifies a text string to be displayed as the column title.
-textcolor color
Specifies as a per-state option the color to display the column
title with. When the value of this option is unspecified, the
title will be drawn according to the system theme color, if any,
otherwise the widget option -headerforeground is used. The
default is unspecified.
-textlines count
Specifies the maximum number of lines of text to display in the
column title. If this value is zero, the number of lines dis‐
played is determined by any newline characters and the effects
of wrapping when the column width is less than needed. The
default is 1. Note: Under OSX/Aqua this value is always set to 1
when the treectrl's -usetheme option is true, because the
Appearance Manager uses a fixed height for the column header;
there is only room for a single line of text.
-textpadx amount
Amount specifies how much padding to leave on the left and right
of the text. Amount may be a list of two values to specify pad‐
ding for left and right separately; it defaults to 6.
-textpady amount
Amount specifies how much padding to leave on the top and bottom
of the text. Amount may be a list of two values to specify pad‐
ding for top and bottom separately; it defaults to 0.
HEADER DESCRIPTION
Many of the commands for a treectrl take as an argument a description
of which header-rows to operate on. A header description is a prop‐
erly-formed tcl list of keywords and arguments. The first word of a
header description must be one of the following:
id Specifies a unique header-row identifier, where id should be the
return value of a prior call of the header create widget com‐
mand, or 0 to specify the ever-present top header-row.
QUALIFIERS
Specifies a list of qualifiers. This gives the same result as
all followed by QUALIFIERS; i.e., every header-row is tested for
a match.
tagExpr QUALIFIERS
TagExpr is a tag expression (see ITEM AND COLUMN TAGS) against
which every header-row's tags are tested for a match. You may
run into trouble if tagExpr looks like a header-row id or other
keyword; also, tagExpr must look like a single list element
since header-row descriptions are properly-formed lists. To be
safe you may want to use the tag qualifier followed by tagExpr.
all QUALIFIERS
Matches every header-row which satisfies QUALIFIERS.
first QUALIFIERS
Indicates the top header-row of the treectrl, or the first
header-row starting from the top that satisfies QUALIFIERS.
end QUALIFIERS
last QUALIFIERS
Indicates the last header-row which satisfies QUALIFIERS.
The word QUALIFIERS above represents a series of zero or more of the
following terms that changes which header-row is chosen:
tag tagExpr
TagExpr is a tag expression (see ITEM AND COLUMN TAGS) against
which a header-row's tags are tested for a match.
visible
When this qualifier is given, only header-rows that are dis‐
played are matched. A header-row is displayed only if both the
-showheader widget option and -visible header-row option are
true. Also, if only the tail column is visible, then header-
rows are not displayed.
!visible
When this qualifier is given, only header-rows that are *not*
displayed are matched.
COLUMNS
A treectrl widget is capable of displaying multiple columns next to
each other. An item can be considered as a row, which reaches over all
columns.
Columns in a treectrl may be specified in a number of ways. See COLUMN
DESCRIPTION below.
There is always one special column, the tail column, which fills all
space to the right of the last ordinary column. This column has no
unique ID; it can only be specified by the keyword tail.
For compatibility with older versions of treectrl (which did not sup‐
port more than one row of column headers) any of the configuration
options mentioned in the HEADERS section, such as -arrow, -text, etc,
may be passed to the top header-row through the column configure com‐
mand and queried with the column cget command.
The following options are supported for columns:
-expand boolean
Indicates whether or not any extra horizontal space should be
distributed to this column. This option has no effect if the
-width option is set.
-gridleftcolor color
-gridrightcolor color
Specifies the color of the lines drawn down the left and right
edges of the column. These so-called "grid lines" are drawn
over the elements of each item style in the column and down into
the whitespace region below any items. The default value for
each option is an empty string meaning no lines are drawn.
-itembackground colorList
Specifies a list of zero or more colors, which are used as
alternating background colors for items in this column. See
also the -backgroundmode widget option for more on this.
-itemjustify justification
This option determines how the item styles in this column are
aligned horizontally. Must be one of left, center, or right.
The default value is an empty string (for compatibility with
older versions), in which case the column option -justify is
used to align item styles in this column.
-itemstyle style
Style is the name of a style that should be set in this column
for newly-created items.
-justify justification
This option determines how item styles in this column are
aligned horizontally unless overriden by the -itemjustify option
for this column. Must be one of left (the default), center, or
right.
For compatibility with older versions of treectrl (which did not
allow multiple rows of column headers), changing the value of
this option also changes the -justify option of the column
header in the top header-row.
-lock lock
This option allows a column to stick to the left or right edge
of the window. A locked column scrolls vertically but not hori‐
zontally. Must be one of none (the default), left, or right.
-maxwidth size
Specifies the maximum size, in screen units, that will be per‐
mitted for this column. If size is an empty string, then there
is no limit on the maximum size of the column. This option has
no effect if the -width option is set.
-minwidth size
Specifies the minimum size, in screen units, that will be per‐
mitted for this column. If size is an empty string, then the
minimum size of the column is zero. This option has no effect
if the -width option is set.
-resize boolean
Specifies a boolean value that indicates whether the user should
be allowed to resize the column by dragging the edge of the col‐
umn's header. Default is true.
-squeeze boolean
Specifies a boolean value that indicates whether or not the col‐
umn should shrink when the content width of the treectrl is less
than the total needed width of all visible columns. Defaults to
false, which means the column will not get smaller than its
needed width. The column will not get smaller than the value of
its -minwidth option, if specified. This option has no effect if
the -width option is set.
-stepwidth size
Deprecated. Use the treectrl's -itemwidthmultiple option
instead.
-tags tagList
TagList is a list of tag names that can be used to identify the
column. See also the column tag command.
-uniform group
When a non-empty value is supplied, this option places the col‐
umn in a uniform group with other columns that have the same
value for -uniform. The space for columns belonging to a uniform
group is allocated so that their sizes are always in strict pro‐
portion to their -weight values. This option is based on the
grid geometry manager.
-visible boolean
Indicates whether or not the column should be displayed.
-weight integer
Sets the relative weight for apportioning any extra space among
columns. A weight of zero (0) indicates the column will not
deviate from its requested size. A column whose weight is two
will grow at twice the rate as a column of weight one when extra
space is allocated to columns. This option is based on the grid
geometry manager.
-width size
Specifies a fixed width for the column. If this value is an
empty string, then the column width is calculated as the maximum
of: a) the width requested by items; b) the width requested by
the column's header; and c) the column's -minwidth option. This
calculated width is also affected by the -expand, -squeeze,
-uniform and -weight options. In any case, the calculated width
will not be greater than the -maxwidth option, if specified.
-widthhack boolean
Deprecated. Use the treectrl's -itemwidthequal option instead.
COLUMN DESCRIPTION
Many of the commands and options for a treectrl take as an argument a
description of which column to operate on. See the EXAMPLES section
for examples. The initial part of a column description must begin with
one of the following terms:
id Specifies the unique column identifier, where id should be the
return value of a prior call of the column create widget com‐
mand. See also the -columnprefix option.
QUALIFIERS
Specifies a list of qualifiers. This gives the same result as
all followed by QUALIFIERS; i.e., every column is tested for a
match.
tagExpr QUALIFIERS
TagExpr is a tag expression (see ITEM AND COLUMN TAGS) against
which every column's tags are tested for a match. This keyword
cannot be followed by any modifiers unless a single column is
matched. You may run into trouble if tagExpr looks like a column
id or other keyword; also, tagExpr must look like a single list
element since column descriptions are properly-formed lists. To
be safe you may want to use the tag qualifier followed by tag‐
Expr.
all QUALIFIERS
Indicates every column, including the tail column if the command
allows it, which match QUALIFIERS.
first QUALIFIERS
Indicates the leftmost column of the treectrl which matches
QUALIFIERS.
end QUALIFIERS
last QUALIFIERS
Indicates the rightmost column of the treectrl (but not the tail
column) which matches QUALIFIERS.
list columnDescs
ColumnDescs is a list (a single argument, i.e. "list {a b c}"
not "list a b c") of other column descriptions. This keyword
cannot be followed by any modifiers unless a single column is
matched.
order n QUALIFIERS
Indicates the nth column in the list of columns as returned by
the column order command.
range first last QUALIFIERS
First and last specify a range of columns. This keyword cannot
be followed by any modifiers unless a single column is speci‐
fied.
tail Indicates the ever-present tail column of the treectrl.
tree Indicates the column specified by the -treecolumn option of the
treectrl.
The initial part of the column description (matching any of the values
above) may be followed by one or more modifiers. A modifier changes
the column used relative to the description up to this point. It may
be specified in any of the following forms:
next QUALIFIERS
Use the column to the right matching QUALIFIERS.
prev QUALIFIERS
Use the column to the left matching QUALIFIERS.
span N QUALIFIERS
Starting with (and counting) the single column specified by the
column description so far, walk at most N columns rightwards,
stopping if any of the following conditions is met:
[1] A column does not match QUALIFIERS.
[2] A column's -lock option does not match the first column's
-lock option.
The word QUALIFIERS above represents a sequence of zero or more of the
following terms that changes which column is chosen:
tag tagExpr
TagExpr is a tag expression (see ITEM AND COLUMN TAGS) against
which a column's tags are tested for a match.
!tail When this qualifier is given, the tail column is not matched.
visible
When this qualifier is given, only columns whose -visible option
is TRUE are considered.
!visible
When this qualifier is given, only columns whose -visible option
is FALSE are considered.
STATES
For every column header and every item a set of boolean states is man‐
aged. These states play an integral role in the appearance of headers
and items; that role is described in detail in PER-STATE OPTIONS. The
set of states available to headers is separate from the set of states
available to items.
HEADER STATES
The following states are predefined for every column header:
active
normal
pressed
These states mirror the value of a column header's con‐
figuration option -state. Exactly one of these states is
set at any time in each column header.
down
up These states mirror the value of a column header's con‐
figuration option -arrow. If the -arrow option is none,
then neither of these states is set.
background
This state is set for every header-row if the toplevel
window containing the treectrl is not the foreground
active window. This state cannot be modified by means of
a widget command, but is maintained in reaction to the
<Activate> and <Deactivate> windowing system events.
focus This state is set for every header-row if the treectrl
widget currently has the focus. It cannot be modified by
means of a widget command, but is maintained in reaction
to the <FocusIn> and <FocusOut> windowing system events.
ITEM STATES
The following states are predefined for every item:
active At all times this state is set for exactly one item. The
active item is used with keyboard navigation. When the
treectrl widget is created or when the active item is
deleted, the root item will become the active item. This
state can be modified by means of the widget command
activate.
enabled
This state is set for every item when it is created.
Disabled items cannot be selected and are ignored by the
default bindings when navigating via the keyboard. This
state can be modified by means of the widget command item
enabled.
focus This state is set for every item if the treectrl widget
currently has the focus. It cannot be modified by means
of a widget command, but is maintained in reaction to the
<FocusIn> and <FocusOut> events.
open If this state is switched on, the descendants of the item
are displayed - the item is expanded. If this state is
switched off, the descendants of the item are not dis‐
played - the item is collapsed. For a new item this
state is switched on by default. This state can be modi‐
fied by means of the widget commands item expand, item
collapse, or item toggle.
selected
This state is set for every item included in the selec‐
tion. It can be modified by means of the widget command
selection.
By means of the state define widget command, up to 27 additional states
can be defined.
PER-STATE OPTIONS
The visual appearance of an item can change depending on the state the
item is in, such as being the active item, being included in the selec‐
tion, being collapsed, or some combination of those or other states.
When a configuration option is described as per-state, it means the
option describes a value which varies depending on the state of the
item. If a per-state option is specified as a single value, the value
is used for all states. Otherwise the per-state option must be speci‐
fied as an even-numbered list. For example, to use the font "Times 12
bold" in a text element regardless of the item state you can write:
$T element configure MyTextElement -font {{Times 12 bold}}
However, to use a different font when the item is selected you could
write:
$T element configure MyTextElement -font {{Courier 10} selected {Times 12 bold} {}}
In the example above, the -font option reads "value stateList value
stateList". If stateList is an empty list, the preceding value is used
regardless of the item state. A non-empty stateList specifies a list of
states which must be set for the item in order to use the preceding
value. Each stateList can also include state names preceded by a !
sign, indicating the state must *not* be set for the item. For example:
$T element configure MyRectElement -fill {blue {selected focus} gray {selected !focus}}
In the example above, the rect element is filled with blue when the
treectrl has the focus and the item is selected. If the treectrl does
not have the focus, the example specifies that gray should be used for
selected items. Also note that if the item is not selected, no color is
specified for the -fill option.
Each value-stateList pair is checked in order from left to right. The
value associated with the first stateList that matches the current item
state is used. So stateLists should be listed from most-specific to
least-specific.
$T element configure MyRectElement -fill {gray {selected} blue {selected focus}}
Written this way, gray will always be used for selected items since it
appears first, and blue will never be used for selected items regard‐
less of the focus.
A value followed by an empty stateList should always be last since it
will be chosen regardless of the item's state.
ELEMENTS AND STYLES
Elements and styles are the core visual building blocks that determine
the appearance of items (and optionally column headers). An element
can be of type bitmap, border, header, image, rect, text or window.
One or more elements can be assigned to a style which manages the lay‐
out of those elements. It may be helpful to think of an element as a
Tk widget and a style as a Tk geometry manager such as grid, pack or
place.
When an element is created by the element create command, that element
is referred to as a master element. Similarly, a style that is created
by style create is called a master style. When a master style is
assigned to a column of an item by the item style set command, a new
instance style is allocated which refers back to the master style and
its master elements. In this way, a single master style may be shared
by multiple columns of multiple items. If a master element or master
style is modified, those changes affect all the items whose instance
styles and elements refer to those masters.
Although you probably want the font and selection-rectangle colors to
be shared by all items, you most likely don't want the text to be the
same for every column of every item. The item element configure com‐
mand can be used to override a master element's configuration options
for a specific column of an item. When you call item element configure
(or item text or item image), a new instance element is allocated, if
one wasn't already, and that instance element's options will override
the master element's.
All of the element configuration options described below are unspeci‐
fied by default, meaning that no value whatsoever has been given to the
option. It may seem strange to you that a boolean option would be
unspecified instead of simply "true" or "false". The reason for this is
that when an instance element used by an item has no value specified
for an option, that instance element refers to the master element for
the value of that option. This allows items which are displaying a
certain element to be redisplayed when the master element's options
change. The benefits of this are that you don't need to configure the
font or text color for every item in a treectrl individually, saving
CPU cycles and memory.
You may be thinking that to change the color of a selection rectangle
you would call item element configure when an item was selected, but
that is not usually the case. It would be wasteful to allocate a new
instance element for a selection rectangle just because an item became
selected. The solution is to allow the appearance of the selection
rectangle master element to change based on the selected state of the
item. This is described in PER-STATE OPTIONS.
For each element type there is a section below describing the options
which can modify an element of that type.
BITMAP ELEMENT
An element of type bitmap can be used to display a bitmap in an item.
The following options are supported for bitmap elements:
-background color
Specifies as a per-state option the color to use for each of the
bitmap's '0' valued pixels. If the value for a certain state is
an empty string (the default), the bitmap is drawn transparent.
-bitmap bitmap
Specifies as a per-state option the bitmap to display in the
element.
-draw boolean
Deprecated; use the style layout option -draw instead. Speci‐
fies as a per-state option whether to draw the element. If the
value for a certain state is an empty string (the default), it
is treated as true and the element will be drawn.
-foreground color
Specifies as a per-state option the color to use for each of the
bitmap's '1' valued pixels. If the value for a certain state is
an empty string (the default), the bitmap's foreground color is
black.
BORDER ELEMENT
An element of type border can be used to display a 3D border in an
item. The following options are supported for border elements:
-background color
Specifies as a per-state option the color to use for the back‐
ground of the border. If the value for a certain state is an
empty string (the default), the element will not be drawn.
-draw boolean
Deprecated; use the style layout option -draw instead. Speci‐
fies as a per-state option whether to draw the element. If the
value for a certain state is an empty string (the default), it
is treated as true and the element will be drawn.
-filled boolean
Specifies whether the interior of the border should be filled
with the background color. If this option is unspecified (the
default), it it treated as false which means that only the edges
of the border will be drawn.
-height size
Specifies the height of the border. If this value is unspecified
(the default), the border will be exactly as tall as its display
area as determined by the style layout options.
-relief relief
Specifies as a per-state option the relief of the border. If the
value for a certain state is an empty string (the default), it
is treated as flat. For acceptable values see the description
of the -relief option in the options manual page.
-thickness thickness
Specifies the thickness of the edges of the border.
-width size
Specifies the width of the border. If this value is unspecified
(the default), the border will be exactly as wide as its display
area as determined by the style layout options.
HEADER ELEMENT
An element of type header can be used to display a themed (or non-
themed) column header background and sort arrow. Header elements are
best used surrounding other elements via the style layout option
-union, so that the sort arrow can be displayed correctly.
Some of the options for this type of element get their default values
from the header state flags that are set in the column header in which
the element is displayed. In particular, the -arrow option gets its
default value by checking the up and down state flags, and the -state
option gets its default value by checking the active, normal, and
pressed state flags. If elements of this type are displayed in an item
instead of a column header, then this behavior isn't used since those
state flags aren't meaningful for items.
The following options are supported for header elements:
-arrow direction
Indicates whether or not a sort arrow should be drawn. Direction
must have one of the values none, up, or down. If unspecified,
the value defaults to none (but see the note above regarding
header states).
-arrowbitmap bitmap
Specifies as a per-state option the name of a bitmap to use to
draw the sort arrow if this element's -arrow option is not none.
This option is ignored when drawing themed headers on Mac OS X.
-arrowgravity direction
Indicates onto which side the sort arrow should be packed, if
there is more space available for drawing the arrow than needed.
Direction must be either left or right. If unspecified, the
value defaults to left. This option is ignored when drawing
themed headers on Mac OS X.
-arrowimage image
Specifies as a per-state option the name of an image to use to
draw the sort arrow if this element's -arrow option is not none.
If an image is specified for a certain state, it overrides the
-arrowbitmap option. This option is ignored when drawing themed
headers on Mac OS X.
-arrowpadx amount
Amount specifies how much padding to leave on the left and right
of the sort arrow. Amount may be a list of two values to specify
padding for the left and right separately. If unspecified, the
value defaults to 6. Padding to the right of the sort arrow is
ignored when drawing themed headers on Mac OS X.
-arrowpady amount
Amount specifies how much padding to leave on the top and bottom
of the sort arrow. Amount may be a list of two values to spec‐
ify padding for the top and bottom separately. If unspecified,
the value defaults to 0. This option is ignored when drawing
themed headers on Mac OS X.
-arrowside side
Indicates on which side of the element the sort arrow should be
drawn. Side must be either left or right. If unspecified, the
value defaults to right.
-background color
Specifies as a per-state option the color to use for the non-
themed background and 3D border. If unspecified, the value
defaults to either the Tk button widget's -background or
-activebackground color.
-borderwidth size
Specifies a non-negative value indicating the width of the non-
themed 3D border to draw around the inner edges of the element
(if such a border is being drawn; the -relief option determines
this). The value may have any of the forms acceptable to
Tk_GetPixels. If unspecified, the value defaults to 2.
-state state
Specifies one of three states for the element: normal, active,
or pressed. The active state is used when the mouse is over the
header. The pressed state is used when the mouse button is
pressed in the header. If unspecified, the value defaults to
normal (but see the note above regarding header states).
IMAGE ELEMENT
An element of type image can be used to display an image in an item.
The following options are supported for image elements:
-draw boolean
Deprecated; use the style layout option -draw instead. Speci‐
fies as a per-state option whether to draw the element. If the
value for a certain state is an empty string (the default), it
is treated as true and the element will be drawn.
-height size
Specifies the requested height of the display area for this ele‐
ment. If unspecified (the default), the element requests a
height equal to the height of the image, or zero if there is no
image.
-image image
Specifies as a per-state option the image to display in the ele‐
ment.
-tiled boolean
Specifies a boolean indicating whether or not the image should
be tiled horizontally and vertically within the display area for
the element. The default is false.
-width size
Specifies the requested width of the display area for this ele‐
ment. If unspecified (the default), the element requests a
width equal to the width of the image, or zero if there is no
image.
RECTANGLE ELEMENT
An element of type rect can be used to display a rectangle in an item.
The following options are supported for rectangle elements:
-draw boolean
Deprecated; use the style layout option -draw instead. Speci‐
fies as a per-state option whether to draw the element. If the
value for a certain state is an empty string (the default), it
is treated as true and the element will be drawn.
-fill color
Specifies as a per-state option the color to be used to fill the
rectangle's area. If the color for a certain state is an empty
string (the default), then the rectangle will not be filled (but
the outline may still be drawn).
-height size
Specifies the height of the rectangle. If this value is unspeci‐
fied (the default), the rectangle will be exactly as tall as its
display area as determined by the style layout options.
-open open
Specifies as a per-state option which edges of the rectangle
should be left open. This option may be used to get an incom‐
plete drawing of the outline and rounded corners, often to give
the appearance of the rectangle extending over adjacent columns
or items. Open is a string that contains zero or more of the
characters n, s, e or w. Each letter refers to an edge (north,
south, east, or west) on which the outline and rounded corners
will not be drawn. The default is the empty string, which
causes all rounded corners and the outline to be drawn.
-outline color
Specifies as a per-state option the color to be used to draw the
outline of the rectangle. If the color for a certain state is
an empty string (the default), then no outline is drawn for the
rectangle.
-outlinewidth outlineWidth
Specifies the width of the outline to be drawn around the rec‐
tangle's region. outlineWidth may be in any of the forms
acceptable to Tk_GetPixels. If this option is specified as an
empty string (the default), then no outline is drawn.
-rx radius
-ry radius
Specifies the x and y radius of each corner of a rounded rectan‐
gle in any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPixels.
-showfocus boolean
Specifies a boolean value indicating whether a "focus ring"
should be drawn around the rectangle, if the item containing the
rectangle is the active item and the treectrl widget currently
has the focus. If this option is specified as an empty string
(the default), then a focus rectangle is not drawn.
-width size
Specifies the width of the rectangle. If this value is unspeci‐
fied (the default), the rectangle will be exactly as wide as its
display area as determined by the style layout options.
TEXT ELEMENT
An element of type text can be used to display a text in an item. The
following options are supported for text elements:
-draw boolean
Deprecated; use the style layout option -draw instead. Speci‐
fies as a per-state option whether to draw the element. If the
value for a certain state is an empty string (the default), it
is treated as true and the element will be drawn.
-data data
Specifies a value that together with the -datatype and -format
options will be displayed as text.
-datatype dataType
Specifies the type of information in the -data option. Accept‐
able values are double, integer, long, string, or time.
-fill color
Specifies as a per-state option the foreground color to use when
displaying text.
In items, if the color for a certain state is an empty string
(the default), then the text will be displayed using the color
specified by the treectrl's -foreground option.
In headers, if the color for a certain state is an empty string,
then the text will be displayed using the system theme color on
Gtk+; if that color is not specified then the -headerforeground
option is used.
-font font
Specifies as a per-state option the font to use when displaying
the text. If the font for a certain state is an empty string,
the text is displayed using the font specified by the treectrl's
-font option in items or the -headerfont option in headers.
-format formatString
This option specifies the format string used to display the
value of the -data option. If -datatype is time, formatString
should be a valid format string for the Tcl clock command. For
all other -datatype values formatString should be a valid format
string for the Tcl format command. If this value is unspecified
the following defaults are used: for -datatype double "%g", for
-datatype integer "%d", for -datatype long "%ld", for -datatype
string "%s", and for -datatype time the default format string of
the Tcl clock command.
-justify how
Specifies how to justify the text when multiple lines are dis‐
played. How must be one of the values left, right, or center.
If this option is specified as an empty string (the default),
left is used.
-lines lineCount
Specifies the maximum number of lines to display. If more than
lineCount lines would be displayed, the last line will be trun‐
cated with an ellipsis at the right. If this option is speci‐
fied as zero or an empty string (the default), there is no limit
to the number of lines displayed.
-lmargin1 pixels
Pixels is a screen distance that specifies how much a line of
text should be indented. If a line of text wraps, this option
only applies to the first line on the display; the -lmargin2
option controls the indentation for subsequent lines. If this
option is specified as zero or an empty string (the default),
then the line is not indented. This option was based on the Tk
Text widget tag option of the same name.
-lmargin2 pixels
Pixels is a screen distance that specifies how much a line of
text should be indented. If a line of text wraps, this option
only applies to the second and later display lines for a line of
text. If this option is specified as zero or an empty string
(the default), then the line is not indented. This option was
based on the Tk Text widget tag option of the same name.
-text string
String specifies a string to be displayed by the element.
String may contain newline characters in which case multiple
lines of text will be displayed. If this option is specified,
the -data, -datatype, -format, and -textvariable options are
ignored.
-textvariable varName
Specifies the name of a variable. The value of the variable is
a string to be displayed by the element; if the variable value
changes then the element will automatically update itself to
display the new value. If this option is specified, the -data,
-datatype, and -format options are ignored.
-underline charIndex
Specifies the integer index of a character to underline. 0 cor‐
responds to the first character. If charIndex is unspecified
(the default), less than zero or greater than the index of the
last displayed character, the underline is not drawn.
-width size
Specifies the maximum line length in any of the forms acceptable
to Tk_GetPixels. For text to wrap lines the value of the -width
option must be less than the needed width of the text, or the
display area for this element must be less than the needed width
of the text. For the display area to be less than the needed
width of the text, one of the style layout options -maxwidth,
-width or -squeeze must be used.
-wrap mode
Mode specifies how to handle lines in the text that are longer
than the maximum line length. Acceptable values are none, char
or word. If this option is unspecified (the default), word is
used. See the -width option for a description of how the maxi‐
mum line length is determined.
WINDOW ELEMENT
An element of type window can be used to display a Tk window in an
item. The following options are supported for window elements:
-clip boolean
Specifies whether the associated Tk window is a borderless frame
which should be used to clip its child window so it doesn't
overlap the header, borders, or other items or columns. When
this option is true, the treectrl manages the geometry of both
the -window widget and its first child widget; in this case the
-window widget (which should be a borderless frame) is kept
sized and positioned so that it is never out-of-bounds.
-destroy boolean
Specifies whether the associated Tk window should be destroyed
when the element is deleted. The element is deleted when the
item containing the element is deleted, when the column contain‐
ing the element is deleted, or when the style assigned to the
item's column is changed. If this option is unspecified (the
default), it is treated as false and the Tk window will not be
destroyed.
-draw boolean
Deprecated; use the style layout option -draw instead. Speci‐
fies as a per-state option whether to draw the element. If the
value for a certain state is an empty string (the default), it
is treated as true and the element will be drawn.
-window pathName
Specifies the window to associate with this element. The window
specified by pathName must either be a child of the treectrl
widget or a child of some ancestor of the treectrl widget. Path‐
Name may not refer to a top-level window. This option cannot be
specified by the element create or element configure commands,
only by the item element configure command; i.e., the element
must be associated with a particular item.
ITEM DESCRIPTION
Many of the commands for a treectrl take as an argument a description
of which items to operate on. An item description is a properly-formed
tcl list of keywords and arguments. The first word of an item descrip‐
tion must be one of the following:
id Specifies the unique item identifier, where id should be the
return value of a prior call of the item create widget command,
or 0 to specify the ever-present root item. See also the -item‐
prefix option.
QUALIFIERS
Specifies a list of qualifiers. This gives the same result as
all followed by QUALIFIERS; i.e., every item is tested for a
match.
tagExpr QUALIFIERS
TagExpr is a tag expression (see ITEM AND COLUMN TAGS) against
which every item's tags are tested for a match. This keyword
cannot be followed by any modifiers unless a single item is
matched. You may run into trouble if tagExpr looks like an item
id or other keyword; also, tagExpr must look like a single list
element since item descriptions are properly-formed lists. To be
safe you may want to use the tag qualifier followed by tagExpr.
active Indicates the item that is currently active, i.e. normally the
item specified as argument of the last successful activate wid‐
get command, or the root item if no such call happened yet.
anchor Indicates the anchor item of the selection, i.e. normally the
item specified as argument of the last successful selection
anchor widget command, or the root item if no such call happened
yet.
all QUALIFIERS
Indicates every item including orphans which match QUALIFIERS.
This keyword cannot be followed by any modifiers unless a single
item is matched.
first QUALIFIERS
Indicates the first item of the treectrl (the root item), or the
first item matching QUALIFIERS.
end QUALIFIERS
last QUALIFIERS
Indicates the last item which matches QUALIFIERS.
list itemDescs
ItemDescs is a list (a single argument, i.e. "list {a b c}" not
"list a b c") of other item descriptions. This keyword cannot
be followed by any modifiers unless a single item is matched.
nearest x y
Indicates the item nearest to the point given by x and y.
rnc row column
Indicates the item in the given row and column. The row and
column corresponds to the on-screen arrangement of items as
determined by the -orient and -wrap options. You can memorize
rnc as an abbreviation of "row 'n' column".
range first last QUALIFIERS
First and last specify a range of items. This keyword cannot be
followed by any modifiers unless a single item is matched.
root Indicates the root item of the treectrl.
The initial part of the item description (matching any of the values
above) may be followed by one or more modifiers. A modifier changes
the item used relative to the description up to this point. It may be
specified in any of the following forms:
above Use the item one row above in this column.
ancestors QUALIFIERS
Use the ancestors of the item (like item ancestors but QUALI‐
FIERS may change which ancestors match). This keyword cannot be
followed by any modifiers.
below Use the item one row below in this column.
bottom Use the item in the last row of this column.
child n QUALIFIERS
Use the nth child of the item.
children QUALIFIERS
Use the children of the item (like item children but QUALIFIERS
may change which children match). This keyword cannot be fol‐
lowed by any modifiers.
descendants QUALIFIERS
Use the descendants of the item (like item descendants but QUAL‐
IFIERS may change which descendants match). This keyword cannot
be followed by any modifiers.
firstchild QUALIFIERS
Use the first child of the item.
lastchild QUALIFIERS
Use the last child of the item.
left Use the item one column to the left in the same row.
leftmost
Use the item of the first column in the same row.
next QUALIFIERS
Use the next item, which is the first item from the following
list: the first child, the next sibling or the next sibling of
the nearest ancestor which has one.
nextsibling QUALIFIERS
Use the next sibling of the item.
parent Use the parent of the item.
prev QUALIFIERS
Use the last child of the previous sibling, or the parent if
there is no previous sibling.
prevsibling QUALIFIERS
Use the previous sibling of the item.
right Use the item one column to the right in the same row.
rightmost
Use the item of the last column in the same row.
sibling n QUALIFIERS
Use the nth child of the item's parent.
top Use the item in the first row of this column.
The word QUALIFIERS above represents a series of zero or more of the
following terms that changes which item is chosen:
depth depth
Matches items whose depth (as returned by the depth command) is
equal to depth.
state stateList
StateList is a list of item state names (static and dynamic, see
STATES). Only items that have the given states set (or unset if
the '!' prefix is used) are considered.
tag tagExpr
TagExpr is a tag expression (see ITEM AND COLUMN TAGS) against
which an item's tags are tested for a match.
visible
When this qualifier is given, only items that are displayed are
considered.
!visible
When this qualifier is given, only items that are *not* dis‐
played are considered.
To get the first item in the list that is enabled:
$T item id "first state enabled"
To get the ancestors that are not open of the last item in the list:
$T item id "last ancestors state !open"
To get the visible descendants of the root item:
$T item id "root descendants visible"
To get the every hidden item with tag "a" or "b":
$T item id "all !visible tag a||b"
$T item id "!visible tag a||b"
$T item id "tag a||b !visible"
$T item id "a||b !visible"
EVENTS AND SCRIPT SUBSTITUTIONS
The script argument to notify bind is a Tcl script, which will be eval‐
uated whenever the given event is generated. Script will be executed in
the same interpreter that the notify bind command was executed in, and
it will run at global level (only global variables will be accessible).
If script contains any % characters, then the script will not be evalu‐
ated directly. Instead, a new script will be generated by replacing
each %, and the character following it, with information from the cur‐
rent event. Unlike the regular Tk bind mechanism, each event generated
by a treectrl widget has its own set of %-substitutions.
The following %-substitutions are valid for all static events:
%% Replaced with a single %
%d The detail name
%e The event name
%P The pattern, either <event> or <event-detail>
%W The object argument to the notify bind command
%T The treectrl widget which generated the event
%? A list of the format {char value char value ...} for each %-sub‐
stitution character and the value it is replaced by
The following events may be generated by a treectrl widget:
<ActiveItem>
Generated whenever the active item changes.
%c The current active item
%p The previous active item
<Collapse-before>
Generated before an item is collapsed.
%I The item id
<Collapse-after>
Generated after an item is collapsed.
%I The item id
<Expand-before>
Generated before an item is expanded. This event is useful if
you want to add child items to the item just before the item is
expanded.
%I The item id
<Expand-after>
Generated after an item is expanded.
%I The item id
<ItemDelete>
Generated when items are about to be deleted by the item delete
command.
%i List of items ids being deleted.
<ItemVisibility>
Generated when items become visible on screen and when items are
no longer visible on screen. This event is useful if you have a
very large number of items and want to assign styles only when
items are actually going to be displayed.
%h List of items ids which are no longer visible.
%v List of items ids which are now visible.
<Scroll-x>
Generated whenever the view in the treectrl changes in such a
way that a horizontal scrollbar should be redisplayed.
%l Same as the first fraction appended to -xscrollcommand.
Think lower.
%u Same as the second fraction appended to -xscrollcommand.
Think upper.
<Scroll-y>
Generated whenever the view in the treectrl changes in such a
way that a vertical scrollbar should be redisplayed.
%l Same as the first fraction appended to -yscrollcommand.
Think lower.
%u Same as the second fraction appended to -yscrollcommand.
Think upper.
<Selection>
Generated whenever the selection changes. This event gives
information about how the selection changed.
%c Same as the selection count widget command
%D List of newly-deselected item ids
%S List of newly-selected item ids
DYNAMIC EVENTS
In addition to the pre-defined static events such as <ActiveItem> and
<Selection>, new dynamic events can be created by using the notify
install command.
The library scripts provide an example of using a dynamic event called
<Header-invoke>, which is generated when the mouse button is clicked
and released over a column header.
# Example application code
treectrl .t
puts "column header %C clicked in header-row %H in treectrl %T"
}
# Library code in treectrl.tcl
proc ::TreeCtrl::Release1 {w x y} {
...
$w notify generate <Header-invoke> [list H $Priv(header) C $Priv(column)] \
[list ::TreeCtrl::PercentsCmd $w]
...
}
In the example above, a new treectrl widget is created and the <Header-
invoke> event is installed. A script is bound to the event with notify
bind which will print out the column ID, header ID and widget name to
the console. In a real application, any script bound to <Header-
invoke> would be used to sort the list based on the column header that
was clicked.
Note there is no percentsCommand argument to notify install; instead,
the call to notify generate specifies the %-substitution command. The
charMap argument to notify generate provides a list of %-substitution
characters and values which is used by ::TreeCtrl::PercentsCmd. In the
example, any %C in any script bound to the <Header-invoke> event would
be replaced by the value of $Priv(column), and %H would be replaced by
$Priv(header). The library procedure ::TreeCtrl::PercentsCmd also sup‐
ports the same common %-substitution characters as the built-in static
events, such as %T, %P, %? etc.
The following dynamic events may be generated by the library scripts:
<ColumnDrag-begin>
This event is generated just after the user begins dragging a
column header. At the time this event is generated, the header
dragconfigure option -imagecolumn is set to the unique ID of the
column being dragged, the -imageoffset option is set to the hor‐
izontal distance the mouse pointer has moved, and the -imagespan
option is set to the span of the column header that was ini‐
tially clicked.
<ColumnDrag-indicator>
This event is generated each time a new place to drop the
dragged column header is found. At the time this event is gener‐
ated, the header dragconfigure option -indicatorcolumn is set to
the unique ID of the column before or after which the dragged
column will be dropped, and the -indicatorspan option is set to
the span of the column header for this newly-chosen indicator
column.
<ColumnDrag-receive>
This event is generated when the user has successfully dragged
and dropped a column header to a new position. The library
scripts do not actually move the dragged column. You must bind a
script to this event to move the column. See EXAMPLES.
<ColumnDrag-end>
This event is generated after the user finally releases the left
mouse button while dragging a column header. This event is gen‐
erated after all the other <ColumnDrag> events even when the
column wasn't dragged to a new location (i.e., even when no
<ColumnDrag-receive> event was generated).
%H The header-row that contains the column header.
%C The column whose header is dragged within the header-row.
%b The column to move the dragged column(s) before. Valid
for <ColumnDrag-receive> only.
<Drag-begin>
<Drag-receive>
<Drag-end>
Generated whenever the user drag-and-drops a file into a direc‐
tory. This event is generated by the filelist-bindings.tcl
library code, which is not used by default. See the "Explorer"
demos.
%I The item that the user dropped the dragged items on.
%l (lowercase L) The list of dragged items.
<Edit-begin>
<Edit-accept>
<Edit-end>
The filelist-bindings.tcl code will display a text-editing win‐
dow if the user clicks on a selected file/folder name. See the
"Explorer" demos.
%I The item containing the edited text element.
%C The column containing the edited text element.
%E The name of the edited text element.
%t The edited text.
<Header-invoke>
Generated whenever the user clicks and releases the left mouse
button in a column header if the column header's -button option
is true. You can bind a script to this event to sort the list.
%H The header-row that contains the column header.
%C The column whose header was clicked.
<Header-state>
Generated when the column header option -state is changed by the
library scripts during Motion and Button events.
%H The header-row that displays the column header.
%C The column within the header-row whose header option
-state changed.
%s The new value of the column header option -state.
DEFAULT BINDINGS
Tk automatically creates class bindings for treectrl widgets that give
them the following default behavior.
[1] Clicking mouse button 1 over an item positions the active cursor
on the item, sets the input focus to this widget, and resets the
selection of the widget to this item, if it is not already in
the selection.
[2] Clicking mouse button 1 with the Control key down will reposi‐
tion the active cursor and add the item to the selection without
ever removing any items from the selection.
[3] If the mouse is dragged out of the widget while button 1 is
pressed, the treectrl will automatically scroll to make more
items visible (if there are more items off-screen on the side
where the mouse left the window).
[4] The Left and Right keys move the active cursor one item to the
left or right; for an hierarchical tree with vertical orienta‐
tion nothing will happen, since it has no two items in the same
row. The selection is set to include only the active item. If
Left or Right is typed with the Shift key down, then the active
cursor moves and the selection is extended to include the new
item.
[5] The Up and Down keys move the active cursor one item up or down.
The selection is set to include only the active item. If Up or
Down is typed with the Shift key down, then the active cursor
moves and the selection is extended to include the new item.
[6] The Next and Prior keys move the active cursor forward or back‐
wards by one screenful, without affecting the selection.
[7] Control-Next and Control-Prior scroll the view right or left by
one page without moving the active cursor or affecting the
selection. Control-Left and Control-Right behave the same.
[8] The Home and End keys scroll to the left or right end of the
widget without moving the active cursor or affecting the selec‐
tion.
[9] The Control-Home and Control-End keys scroll to the top or bot‐
tom of the widget, they also activate and select the first or
last item. If also the Shift key is down, then the active cur‐
sor moves and the selection is extended to include the new item.
[10] The Space and Select keys set the selection to the active item.
[11] Control-/ selects the entire contents of the widget.
[12] Control-\\ clears any selection in the widget.
[13] The + and - keys expand or collapse the active item, the Return
key toggles the active item.
[14] The mousewheel scrolls the view of the widget four lines up or
down depending on the direction, the wheel was turned. The
active cursor or the selection is not affected.
GRADIENTS
Color gradients are an easy way to give your lists a more modern
appearance. Since Tk provides no support for drawing gradients, the
TkPath extension was used as a guide when implementing gradients in
TkTreeCtrl. The current implementation has some limitations, however:
[1] Only linear gradients are supported.
[2] Gradients can only be painted left-to-right or top-to-bottom,
not at arbitrary angles.
[3] Gradients look bad on low-color displays. Before using gradi‐
ents, you should check that the display's color depth is at
least 15 or 16 by calling the winfo depth command.
[4] Gradients are fully opaque when XFillRectangle() is used to draw
them (see below). This means the opacity value of each color
stop is ignored. Keep that in mind if your application is
cross-platform.
[5] Rounded rectangles cannot be filled or outlined with a gradient
when XFillRectangle() is used to draw gradients (see below).
Instead, the rounded rectangle is painted with the gradient's
first -stops color.
Gradients may be used in the following places:
[1] The -gridleftcolor and -gridrightcolor options of columns.
[2] The -itembackground option of columns.
[3] The -fill and -outline options of rect elements.
[4] The -fill and -outline options of the marquee configure command.
On Microsoft Windows, GDI+ is used where it is available (gdiplus.dll
is dynamically loaded at run-time). On Mac OS X, CoreGraphics is used
to draw gradients. With the Gtk+ build of treectrl, libcairo is used
to draw gradients. When native gradient support is available, all the
talk below about -steps can safely be ignored.
When no native support for gradients is available, gradients are drawn
simply by filling sub-rectangles using XFillRectangle(). The number of
sub-rectangles drawn and number of colors that make up the displayed
gradient are controlled by the gradient's -steps and -stops options.
The number of sub-rectangles is equal to the length of the -stops
option multiplied by the value of the -steps option. For example:
$T gradient create myGradient -stops {{0 white} {1 gray}} -steps 8
This gradient will be drawn with 2x8=16 sub-rectangles of color. The
higher the -steps value, the smoother the color transitions will be,
and the slower the gradient will be to draw. For the best appearance,
make the number of sub-rectangles drawn less than or equal to the
height or width of the gradient being drawn. So if you have a rect
element 18 pixels tall, use a vertical gradient that has steps X
stops=18. Avoid using gradients with steps X stops greater than the
height or width of the rectangle being drawn, because then colors will
overlap.
GRADIENT COORDINATES
By default, a gradient brush is exactly the same size as whatever rec‐
tangle is being painted. For example, if a column's -itembackground
option specifies a gradient name, then the background of an item is
painted with all the colors of the gradient. So a vertical gradient
from blue to green will start blue at the top and end with green at the
bottom of every item.
By specifying any of the -bottom, -left, -right or -top gradient
options the size of the gradient brush does not need to match that of
the rectangle being painted. These options can be used to make a gra‐
dient appear to span across the entire width or height of the treectrl
window, or across the entire canvas, for example.
There is no point specifying -left or -right if the gradient is verti‐
cal, since the gradient's colors are constant horizontally, so changing
the horizontal size of the brush won't change the appearance of the
gradient. The same reasoning applies for the -top and -bottom options
for a horizontal gradient.
package require treectrl
set T [treectrl .t -itemheight 20 -showheader no]
$T gradient create G1 -orient vertical -top {0.0 canvas} -bottom {1.0 canvas} \
-stops {{0.0 blue} {0.5 green} {1.0 red}} -steps 25
$T column create -expand yes -itembackground G1
pack $T -expand yes -fill both
EXAMPLES
Get the unique identifier for the leftmost visible column:
set id [$T column index "first visible"]
Delete the leftmost column:
$T column delete "order 0"
Take the visible column that is to the left of the last column, and
move that column in front of the tail column:
$T column move "last prev visible" tail
Get the unique identifier for the first visible item:
set id [$T item index "first visible"]
Delete the parent of the item that is under the point x,y:
$T item delete "nearest $x $y parent"
Add the 10th child of the second child of the root item to the selec‐
tion:
$T selection add "root firstchild nextsibling child 10"
Move a column that the user drag-and-dropped:
$T header dragconfigure -enable yes
$T notify install <ColumnDrag-receive>
$T notify bind MyTag <ColumnDrag-receive> {
%T column move %C %b
}
SEE ALSObind(n), bitmap(n), image(n), listbox(n), options(n)KEYWORDS
tree, widget
treectrl 2.4.1 treectrl(n)
