ComponentAPI

The ComponentAPI class manages the lifecycle of UI objects. Accessible via engine.components, it provides methods to create, configure, retrieve, and delete components.

Component Types

TUIX Core supports three component types:

Creating Components

Use create(type, id) to register a new component. Raises ValueError if the ID already exists or the type is unknown.

engine.components.create('choice', 'my_menu')
engine.components.create('progress_bar', 'loader')
engine.components.create('text_input', 'name_field')

Each created component is initialized with default layout parameters: width_modifier=0.5, height_modifier=0.5, margin_top_modifier=0.0, margin_left_modifier=0.0, and both margin modes set to 'custom'.

Setting Properties

Use set_property(id, param, value) to configure a component. The method validates that the param exists and is applicable for the component's type.

# Choice menu
engine.components.set_property(id='my_menu', param='label', value='Pick one:')
engine.components.set_property(id='my_menu', param='choices', value=[
    [{'name': 'Option A', 'action': 'a'}],
    [{'name': 'Option B', 'action': 'b'}, {'name': 'Option C', 'action': 'c'}]
])

# Progress bar
engine.components.set_property(id='loader', param='progress', value=75)

# Text input
engine.components.set_property(id='name_field', param='default_text', value='John')

Property Compatibility

Choices Structure

The choices property is a list of rows. Each row is a list of button dictionaries with 'name' (display text) and 'action' (identifier) keys. Buttons in the same row are rendered side by side; different rows appear on separate lines.

# Two rows: first has 2 buttons, second has 1 button
choices = [
    [{'name': 'Save', 'action': 'save'}, {'name': 'Load', 'action': 'load'}],
    [{'name': 'Quit', 'action': 'quit'}]
]

Retrieving & Deleting

Use get(id) to retrieve the component dictionary and delete(id) to remove it. Both raise ValueError if the ID does not exist.

obj = engine.components.get('my_menu')
print(obj['type'])  # 'choice'

engine.components.delete('my_menu')

Default Layout Parameters

Every component is created with the following default layout values:

Current Limitations