cli2gui 2023

Use this module to convert a cli program to a gui

Cli2Gui

Use this module to convert a CLI program to a GUI

• Comparison to similar projects
  • Parser Support
  • GUI Toolkit Support
  • GUI Feature Support
• Roadmap
• Using Cli2Gui in your project
  • Decorator
  • Function
  • run_function (optional)
  • auto_enable (optional)
  • parser (optional)
  • gui (optional)
  • theme (optional)
  • darkTheme (optional)
  • sizes (optional)
  • image (optional)
  • program_name (optional)
  • program_description (optional)
  • max_args_shown (optional)
  • menu (optional)
• Click2Gui
  • run_function (required)
  • parser (not applicable)
• Data Structures
• Documentation
• Install With PIP
• Language information
  • Built for
• Install Python on Windows
  • Chocolatey
  • Windows - Python.org
• Install Python on Linux
  • Apt
  • Dnf
• Install Python on MacOS
  • Homebrew
  • MacOS - Python.org
• How to run
  • Windows
  • Linux/ MacOS
• Building
• Download Project
  • Clone
    • Using The Command Line
    • Using GitHub Desktop
  • Download Zip File
• Screenshots
  • Desktop
  • Themes
• Community Files
  • Licence
  • Changelog
  • Code of Conduct
  • Contributing
  • Security
  • Support
  • Rationale

Comparison to similar projects

Do let me know if any of these are incorrect. Some of the comparisons are based off documentation/ the readme

Parser Support

Parser	Cli2Gui	Gooey	Quick
Argparse	✔	✔	❌
Optparse	✔	❌	❌
DocOpt	✔	❌	❌
Click	✔ *	❌	✔
GetOpt	✔	❌	❌
Dephell Argparse	✔	❌	❌

* Partial support (use [Click2Gui](#click2gui))

This works for simpler programs but sadly falls flat for more complex programs

GUI Toolkit Support

GUI Toolkits	Cli2Gui	Gooey	Quick
Tkinter	✔	❌	❌
WxWidgets	❌	✔	❌
Qt	✔	❌	✔
Gtk	❌	❌	❌
Web	✔	❌	❌

GUI Feature Support

Basic GUI	Cli2Gui	Gooey	Quick
Override name/ description	✔	✔	❌
Theming	✔	⚠ Limited	⚠ Limited
DarkMode	✔	❌	✔
Window Size	✔	✔	❌
Element Size	✔	❌	❌
Custom Images	✔	✔	❌

Cli2Gui is pretty lacking in these features and will probably remain that way to ease maintainability - the primary aim is to support multiple argparse libraries over fancy widgets

Advanced GUI	Cli2Gui	Gooey	Quick
Dropdown	✔	✔	✔
Slider	❌	✔	✔
Tabs	❌	✔	✔
Menus	✔	✔	❌
Max Args before Scroll	✔	❌	❌

Roadmap

For completed components, see the changelog (link below)

Feature	Description	Status
Python Fire	https://github.com/google/python-fire	Under consideration

Using Cli2Gui in your project

from cli2gui import Cli2Gui

Decorator

@Cli2Gui(run_function, auto_enable=False, parser="argparse", gui="pysimplegui",
		theme="", darkTheme="", sizes="", image="", program_name="",
		program_description="", max_args_shown=5, **kwargs)

Function

Cli2Gui is a function factory. It takes keywords arguments like run_function and auto_enable, and returns a decorator function.

The decorator function takes a function like main and returns a new function:

# main.py

def run(args):
	print(args.arg)

# The main function can be used as a CLI entrypoint
# Example: python -m mymodule:main.main
def main():
	parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="this is an example parser")
	parser.add_argument("arg", type=str, help="positional arg")
	args = parser.parse_args()
	run(args)

decorator_function = Cli2Gui(
	run_function=run,
	auto_enable=True,
)

# The gui function can be used as a GUI entrypoint
# Example: python -m mymodule:main.gui
gui = decorator_function(main)

if __name__ == "__main__":
	# When main.py is called as script, run the GUI version
	# Example: python main.py
	# Example: ./main.py
	gui()

run_function (optional)

The function to call when the user clicks Start. Defaults to None. If not specified, program continues as normal (can only run once)

def run(args):
	print(args.arg)

@Cli2Gui(run_function=run)
def main():
	# Typically, the main function has no arguments,
	# but parses arguments from sys.argv,
	# which happens in parser.parse_args()
	parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="this is an example parser")
	parser.add_argument("arg", type=str, help="positional arg")
	args = parser.parse_args()
	run(args)

auto_enable (optional)

Enable the GUI by default. Defailt is False.

To enable GUI, add --cli2gui. To disable GUI, add --disable-cli2gui.

@Cli2Gui(auto_enable=False)

parser (optional)

Override the parser to use, defaults to argparse. Current options are: "argparse", "getopt", "optparse", "docopt", "dephell_argparse"

@Cli2Gui(parser="argparse")

gui (optional)

Override the gui to use. Current options are: "pysimplegui", "pysimpleguiqt","pysimpleguiweb". Defaults to "pysimplegui".

pysimplegui is the recommended option

@Cli2Gui(gui="pysimplegui")

theme (optional)

Set a base24 theme. Can also pass a base24 scheme file. eg. one-light.yaml

@Cli2Gui(theme=["#e7e7e9", "#dfdfe1", "#cacace", "#a0a1a7", "#696c77",
		"#383a42", "#202227", "#090a0b", "#ca1243", "#c18401", "#febb2a",
		"#50a14f", "#0184bc", "#4078f2", "#a626a4", "#986801", "#f0f0f1",
		"#fafafa", "#ec2258", "#f4a701", "#6db76c", "#01a7ef", "#709af5",
		"#d02fcd"])

darkTheme (optional)

Set a base24 dark theme variant. Can also pass a base24 scheme file. eg. one-dark.yaml

@Cli2Gui(darkTheme=["#282c34", "#3f4451", "#4f5666", "#545862", "#9196a1",
		"#abb2bf", "#e6e6e6", "#ffffff", "#e06c75", "#d19a66", "#e5c07b",
		"#98c379", "#56b6c2", "#61afef", "#c678dd", "#be5046", "#21252b",
		"#181a1f", "#ff7b86", "#efb074", "#b1e18b", "#63d4e0", "#67cdff",
		"#e48bff"])

sizes (optional)

Set the UI sizes such as the button size

@Cli2Gui(sizes={
		"title_size": 28,
		"label_size": (30, None),
		"input_size": (30, 1),
		"button":(10, 1),
		"padding":(5, 10),
		"helpText_size": 14,
		"text_size": 11})

image (optional)

Set the program icon. File extensions can be any that PIL supports

@Cli2Gui(image="path/to/image.png")

program_name (optional)

Override the program name

@Cli2Gui(program_name="custom name")

program_description (optional)

Override the program description

@Cli2Gui(program_description="this is a custom description")

max_args_shown (optional)

Maximum number of args shown before using a scrollbar

@Cli2Gui(max_args_shown=5)

menu (optional)

Add a menu to the program. Defaults to None. eg.

THIS_DIR = str(Path(__file__).resolve().parent)
menu={"File": THIS_DIR + "/file.md"}

Works significantly better with pysimplegui than pysimpleguiqt

@Cli2Gui(menu={"File": THIS_DIR + "/file.md", "Another File": THIS_DIR + "/another_file.md", })

Click2Gui

def Click2Gui(run_function, gui="pysimplegui", theme="", darkTheme="",
		sizes="", image="", program_name="", program_description="",
		max_args_shown=5, menu="", **kwargs):

Very similar to the decorator but with the following differences...

run_function (required)

Specify the click function to use. (attempts were made to offer full program support however this behaved very poorly)

parser (not applicable)

As this is exclusively for click, this option is not present

Data Structures

See the DATA_STRUCTURES for more information.

Documentation

A high-level overview of how the documentation is organized organized will help you know where to look for certain things:

• The Technical Reference documents APIs and other aspects of the machinery. This documentation describes how to use the classes and functions at a lower level and assume that you have a good high-level understanding of the software.

Install With PIP

pip install cli2gui

Head to https://pypi.org/project/cli2gui/ for more info

Language information

Built for

This program has been written for Python versions 3.8 - 3.11 and has been tested with both 3.8 and 3.11

Install Python on Windows

Chocolatey

choco install python

Windows - Python.org

To install Python, go to https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/ and download the latest version.

Install Python on Linux

Apt

sudo apt install python3.x

Dnf

sudo dnf install python3.x

Install Python on MacOS

Homebrew

brew install python@3.x

MacOS - Python.org

To install Python, go to https://www.python.org/downloads/macos/ and download the latest version.

How to run

Windows

• Module py -3.x -m [module] or [module] (if module installs a script)

• File py -3.x [file] or ./[file]

Linux/ MacOS

• Module python3.x -m [module] or [module] (if module installs a script)

• File python3.x [file] or ./[file]

Building

This project uses https://github.com/FHPythonUtils/FHMake to automate most of the building. This command generates the documentation, updates the requirements.txt and builds the library artefacts

Note the functionality provided by fhmake can be approximated by the following

handsdown  --cleanup -o documentation/reference
poetry export -f requirements.txt --output requirements.txt
poetry export -f requirements.txt --with dev --output requirements_optional.txt
poetry build

fhmake audit can be run to perform additional checks

Download Project

Clone

Using The Command Line

1. Press the Clone or download button in the top right

2. Copy the URL (link)

3. Open the command line and change directory to where you wish to clone to

4. Type 'git clone' followed by URL in step 2

   git clone https://github.com/FHPythonUtils/Cli2Gui
   

More information can be found at https://help.github.com/en/articles/cloning-a-repository

Using GitHub Desktop

1. Press the Clone or download button in the top right
2. Click open in desktop
3. Choose the path for where you want and click Clone

More information can be found at https://help.github.com/en/desktop/contributing-to-projects/cloning-a-repository-from-github-to-github-desktop

Download Zip File

1. Download this GitHub repository
2. Extract the zip archive
3. Copy/ move to the desired location

Screenshots

Desktop

Themes

Light	Dark	Black

Community Files

Licence

MIT License Copyright (c) FredHappyface (See the LICENSE for more information.)

Changelog

See the Changelog for more information.

Code of Conduct

Online communities include people from many backgrounds. The Project contributors are committed to providing a friendly, safe and welcoming environment for all. Please see the Code of Conduct for more information.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome, please see the Contributing Guidelines for more information.

Security

Thank you for improving the security of the project, please see the Security Policy for more information.

Support

Thank you for using this project, I hope it is of use to you. Please be aware that those involved with the project often do so for fun along with other commitments (such as work, family, etc). Please see the Support Policy for more information.

Rationale

The rationale acts as a guide to various processes regarding projects such as the versioning scheme and the programming styles used. Please see the Rationale for more information.