I've been playing around with Tkinter this week. What is Tkinter? Tkinter allows you to build GUI based applications in Python. It's not the only GUI library for Python, but it is included when you install Python. So pretty much any install of Python is going to include Tkinter. I just repeated myself didn't I? Oh well. So why build GUI based applications. Well for ease of use. Most end-users today, would laugh if you gave them a console application. Despite the fact console applications can often be more efficient than GUI based ones. But at the end of the day, GUI applications just look and feel better.
After playing around with Tkinter, I found I was impressed with how simple it was to get a basic form going. It was so simple, that it was fun. Doing the same in .NET forms would have taken a bit more time. Honestly, unless you need a lot of bells and whistles, Tkinter just works. There have been many times where I needed a simple forms application to make doing certain tasks easier. For example data collection. But sometimes we just don't have time to build tools. This is where I think Tkinter could come in. I thought, what if I made myself a template for data collection. So I did and I'm happy to share it with you.
I present to you, "Quick Form." It's very simple to edit. It doesn't validate what you input, but if you need something quick and dirty to collect some data. This will do the trick! All you need to do is edit the following script, change or add the field names and Bob's your uncle. You can even edit the call back function to do whatever you need. It will pass the data from the form to your call back function. The call back I wrote in the example below creates or appends a CSV file with the data entered in the form. After clicking submit, the call back is called, the form is cleared and the focus is returned to the first field. You can enter hundreds of entries without ever touching your mouse. Now that's what I call efficiency.
This script is free for your use. Just has always, we're not responsible for possible damages. Till next time, happy programing!
import tkinter as tk
import os, csv
class formField:
def __init__(self, name, description):
self.name = name
self.description = description
class form:
def __init__(self, title, formFields, callback):
self.title = title
self.formFields = formFields
self.callback = callback
self.window = tk.Tk()
self.window.title("Quick Form")
self.window.columnconfigure(1, minsize=250)
self.fields = []
for idx, formField in enumerate(self.formFields):
label = tk.Label(master=self.window, text=formField.description)
label.grid(row=idx, column=0, padx=5, pady=5, sticky="w")
entry = tk.Entry(master=self.window)
entry.grid(row=idx, column=1, padx=5, pady=5, sticky="we")
self.fields.append(entry)
self.lblMessages = tk.Label(master=self.window, text="")
self.lblMessages.grid(row=len(self.fields), column=0, columnspan=2, padx=5, pady=5)
self.btnSubmit = tk.Button(master=self.window, text="Submit")
self.btnSubmit.grid(row=len(self.fields)+1, column=0, columnspan=2, padx=5, pady=5)
self.btnSubmit.bind("", self.submit)
self.fields[0].focus()
# clear messages when new data is entered
self.window.bind('', self.clearMessages)
self.window.mainloop()
def clearMessages(self, event):
self.lblMessages.config(text="")
def submit(self, event):
self.lblMessages.config(text="")
values = self.getFieldValues()
message = self.callback(values)
self.lblMessages.config(text=message)
self.clearForm()
self.fields[0].focus()
# returns an dictionary of form field values, keyed by field name
def getFieldValues(self):
values = {}
for idx, field in enumerate(self.fields):
values[self.formFields[idx].name] = field.get()
return values
def clearForm(self):
for idx, field in enumerate(self.fields):
field.delete(0, len(field.get()))
def callback(values):
filename = "output.csv"
# does the file exist?
exists = os.path.exists(filename)
try:
with open(filename, "a" if exists else "w") as csvfile:
writer = csv.DictWriter(csvfile, fieldnames=list(values.keys()), lineterminator="\n")
if not exists: writer.writeheader()
writer.writerow(values)
return "Wrote 1 Line"
except IOError:
return "I/O error"
formFields = []
formFields.append(formField(name="field1", description="Field 1"))
formFields.append(formField(name="field2", description="Field 2"))
formFields.append(formField(name="field3", description="Field 3"))
formFields.append(formField(name="field4", description="Field 4"))
formFields.append(formField(name="field5", description="Field 5"))
formFields.append(formField(name="field6", description="Field 6"))
form = form(title="Quick Form", formFields=formFields, callback=callback)
While working on the Matching Quiz, I realized Javascript is missing one of my favorite Python functions: Range. For those who don't use Python, Range allows you to generate a list of numbers. It doesn't sound useful on the surface, but trust me it is. Note I will be using the term list and array interchangeably throughout this article. I'm lazy like that. In Python, range is often used to generate enumeration for loops. In my case I needed to generate a list of numbers in random order. This controls the sorting for the Matching Quiz. Now Python's Range function doesn't do randomization by default, it's something extra I added for my use case. So how do you use Range? It's simple, let's walk through the parameters.
Parameters
The start parameter is the lowest number in your generated set of numbers. For example if you're wanting a list of numbers from 1 to 10, you would specify 1 for the start parameter. Next is the stop parameter. This tells the script to stop generating numbers, however it is not included in the list of numbers. For example if you wanted a list of numbers from 1 - 10, you would have to specify 11 for the stop parameter. This behavior may seem odd at first, but this is how Python implements the function. Next is the step parameter. This parameter is optional. But this allows you to control how many steps between each number in the list. For example, say you want only odd numbers from 1 - 10 in your list. You would start with 1, stop with 11 and step with 2 (range(1, 11, 2)). The end result would be [1, 3, 5, 7, 9]. Pretty neat huh? Ok Matt, what's the random parameter? "randomize_order" is an optional bonus parameter I added for my use case. I needed the numbers to be returned in a random order. It defaults to false, so if you don't pass it. You'll end up with a standard list of numbers.
function range(start, stop, step = 1, randomize_order = false) {
let arr = [];
for(let i = start; i < stop; i += step) {
arr.push(i);
}
if(randomize_order) arr = arr.sort(() => Math.random() - 0.5);
return arr;
}
Conclusion
Feel free to grab and use the code as you like. As always it's not our responsibility for damages (if they happen). Yotta yotta. But this is a great away to have the best of both worlds when switching back and forth between Python and Javascript.
Every now and then, you find yourself doing a repetitive task. After about the third or four time, you're like "I can automate this." I find myself doing this all the time. Sometimes I can find ways to automate, sometimes I'm just out of luck. But this time I was able to. So I thought I would share this script I wrote and have found useful. Let me try to explain what it does.
The Problem
I write another blog about tv and movie cars. Every so often, I do post about upcoming streaming offerings of movies and tv shows that feature cars. I like to feature the posters of the movies in the post as a panel. Or at least that's the only terminology I can think of to describe it. You can see an example of this above. If you can think of a better name or know the proper name. Let me know! For years, I would throw the posters into MS-Paint. I would find the smallest poster by height and then add them all manually. For a three or four poster panel this would take me a few minutes. I finally said, enough is enough. Let's automate this. But how?
The Solution
For the last year or so, I have been studying Python. Just so happen to stumble across a Python library called Pillow. This library is just for working with images. It can do all kinds of stuff! So after thinking through the steps I would have done in MS-Paint, I was able to recreate that process in a Python script. Feel free to checkout the result below and copy or use it for your own use. As always, no warranties and we assume no reasonability for damages.
# Name: paneler
# Description: Merges all of the images in the 'files' directory into a single inline panel image.
import os
from PIL import Image
dir = "files"
files = os.listdir(dir)
smallestHeight = None
# load images into an list
images = []
for idx, file in enumerate(files):
images.append(Image.open(f"{dir}/{file}"))
# track the smallest height
if smallestHeight == None or images[idx].height < smallestHeight:
smallestHeight = images[idx].height
newWidth = 0
newHeight = smallestHeight
# resize all other images to match smallest height
for idx, image in enumerate(images):
if image.width != smallestHeight:
image.thumbnail(size=(images[idx].width, smallestHeight), resample=Image.Resampling.LANCZOS)
newWidth += images[idx].width
# build a new image
newImage = Image.new(mode="RGB", size=(newWidth, newHeight), color=(0,0,255))
left = 0
# add images to new image, increase left by current width
for idx, image in enumerate(images):
newImage.paste(image, (left, 0))
left += image.width
newImage.save(f"{dir}/newimage.jpg")
I've been using regular expression a lot lately. I like to use it to generate code. I generally use Notepad++ for this operation. However I've found situations where I repeat the same set of operations. I constantly have to re-enter or dropdown to the previous expression. Often forgetting which order the operations need to be ran in. I figured there has to be a better way. So I wrote a quick web app to help with this. I present to you RegBox. A simple tool for chaining regex find and replace operations. Not only will it chain these operations, but it will allow you to export and import operation chains. This app supports JavaScript regular expression flavor.
How To Use It
Cut and paste the text you want to perform regular expression find and replace on in the "Input/Output" box.
Enter the "Match" and "Replace" criteria.
Set which options you may need (gim - g for global, i for case insensitive, m for multiline by default).
Click "Run" to execute and text will change.
Additional Notes
You can add additional operations by clicking the "Add" button. If you need to disable an operation uncheck the checkbox at the end of the operation line. If multiple operations exist the script will run each operation based on the results of the previous operation (chaining). If you wish to run these operations again in the future, you can export a configuration file containing your operation configuration. Just use the "Export Config" button. You can reimport them later. Need the results of your scripts in a file? Just use the "Export Results" button to save to a text file.
Final Thoughts
This tool is provided as is. No warranty. Use at your own risk. I just built this to solve a problem I have. This may not work for you. But I'm happy to share it with you.
PHP MySQLDump Browser allows users/system admins to browse through MySQL Database Backups (Dump Files).
Users can view and extract individual table structures and or data from MySQL database dumps.
Use this script to avoid restoring entire backups to recover individual tables.
Database dumps complied by mysqldump and phpMyAdmin are compatible with this tool.
Note: This is an unoffical tool released under the GNU General Public License.
PHP MySQLDump Browser creators have no affiliation with Sun Microsystems.
INSTRUCTIONS:
Place the script on your webserver or webhost in the same directory as your MySQL backup dumps.
Run the script.
Choose which backup file you want to search. The script will search through the
dump file for table structures and data. Depending on the size of the dump, this may take some time.
Once the script has finished indexing the dump file, you may choose which table you wish to extract or
view. By default the results of your query will display in the iframe at the bottom of the page. However
you may download the results to file by clicking the download link above the iframe.
IMPORTANT: Remove PHP MySQLDump Browser as soon as you are finished.
COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER:
THIS SCRIPT IS PROVIDED AS IS, WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OR GUARANTEE OF ANY KIND
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option)
any later version. If you change this script or add any features please tell me.
Introduction
Introduction