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It all started innocently enough. The notebook didn't fit in my pocket, and my N93 was already there.

UI in Python using listbox

kevin_s2f | 10 July, 2007 00:57

I want the tasting journal application to open with a UI that presents two simple options:

record an experience
view past experiences

The easiest way that I’ve seen to do that in PyS60 is with a listbox control. The UI in PyS60 is implemented in the appuifw module, which according to the documentation available at sourceforge:

The appuifw module offers an interface to the S60 UI application framework. Figure 5.1 provides an

overview of the Python for S60 environment for UI application programming.

Note: The services of this interface may only be used in the context of the main thread, that is, the

initial thread of a UI application script.

So whether you are new to Python (like me) or just new to Python on S60, this module will be new to you. As I was downloading and installing the execution environment on the N93 and the SDK on my PC, I also downloaded and extracted the source files. Unzipping that package revealed a hidden treasure of example files that I found in directory …srcextrasexamples*.py. Three of the examples in that directory provide good UI overviews – I began with GUI_exaple_2.py, extracted all the peripheral material, and came up with a basic skeleton of a UI for the journal: a list box with two options. I posted that skeleton in the Wiki here.

Then I went in to the Wiki to find the most basic multimedia functionality – quickly snap a pic (here) and record a track (here). Inserting those snippets into the UI skeleton results in this code:

import e32

import appuifw

choices =[(u"New experience", "new"),

(u"Add comment", "comment")]

choices_labels = [x[0] for x in choices]

def takepic(filename):

import camera

im = camera.take_photo() # use all default values

im.save(filename)

def recordaudio(filename):

import e32, audio

print(u"Hello from inside recordaudio fn")

s = audio.Sound.open(filename) # if file exists, append sound to end

s.record() # start recording

e32.ao_sleep(5) # do if for 5 seconds

s.stop() # stop recording

# the file is now created, ready to be played

s.play()

def handle_selection():

index = lb.current()

code = choices[index][1]

lb.set_list([u"Please wait..."])

if code == "new":

appuifw.note(u"here is where we process a new experience", 'info')

takepic (u"e:test.jpg")

recordaudio (u"e:test.amr")

elif code == "comment":

appuifw.note(u"here is where we add a comment", 'info')

recordaudio (u"e:test.amr")

else:

appuifw.note(u"no valide code detected", 'info')

lb.set_list(choices_labels)

def handle_add():

pass

def handle_delete():

pass

def exit_key_handler():

app_lock.signal()

lb = appuifw.Listbox(choices_labels, handle_selection)

old_title = appuifw.app.title

appuifw.app.title = u"Tasty Multimedia Journal"

appuifw.app.body = lb

appuifw.app.menu = [(u"Add new item", handle_add),

(u"Delete item", handle_delete)]

appuifw.app.exit_key_handler = exit_key_handler

app_lock = e32.Ao_lock()

app_lock.wait()

appuifw.app.title = old_title

Next steps:

Work with a more sophisticated image capture script (here) which provides viewfinder functionality.
Control media filenames to associate audio tracks with the images they describe.