treectrl - Man Page

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 numColumns ...?

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

Description

treectrl pathName ?options?

The treectrl command creates a new window (given by the pathName argument) 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-column 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 columns of items.

Multiple rows of column headers are supported. Column headers have platform-native appearance on Windows, Mac OS X, and Gtk+. The appearance 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 feedback during drag-and-drop operations. Both of these are features commonly 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 background 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/collapse 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 buttons 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_GetPixels. The option value may be a list of one or two screen distances 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_GetPixels. The option value may be a list of one or two screen distances 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 specified 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 columns. Each list element should be a valid style name or an empty string to indicate no style should be applied to a specific 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 compatibility. 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 vertical, 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_GetPixels. 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 connecting 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 elements 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 specified 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 acceptable to Tk_GetPixels. This option is used by the default bindings 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 bindings 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 displays 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 manager. 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=horizontal).

It is also possible to cause wrapping to occur on a per-item basis by using the item option -wrap.  See the item create command 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 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:-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 -xscrollincrement=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 values 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 window 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 -yscrollincrement=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 commonly 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 example:

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 widgets:

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 displayed.

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 command.

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 columns 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 column, 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 comparison 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 columns (except the tail column). Any option-value arguments configure the new column according to the column configure 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 column(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 column (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 beforeDesc 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 columns, 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 columnDesc 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 argument 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 columnDesc. The result is 1 if the tag expression evaluates to true for every column, 0 otherwise.

pathName column tag names columnDesc

Returns a list of tag names assigned to the columns specified by the column description columnDesc. 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 specified 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 available 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 window 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 modifying options for the overall treectrl widget. If no option is specified, the command returns a list describing all of the available debugging 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 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 -display 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 number 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 additional 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 -display 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 window-coords to be marked as invalid. This simulates uncovering 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 supported:

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 rectangles is added. If column is specified, all elements in other columns are ignored. If also element is specified, only a rectangle for this one element of the specified 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 describing all of the available dragimage 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 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 command 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 displayed at relative to the item(s) its shape is derived from. If two coordinates are specified, sets the dragimage 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 following 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 element. 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 element 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 available options for 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 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 individual 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 element 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 configured 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 elements.

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 Gradients for more information about using gradients. The exact behavior of the command depends on the option argument that follows 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 gradient 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 coordinates.

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, column 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 gradient 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 opacity 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 resurrects 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 follows 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 headerDesc 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 describing 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 command (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 describing all of the available options for the single column column of the header-row 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 both headerDesc may refer to multiple header-rows and column may refer to multiple header-columns.

The following options are supported by this command (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 identifier. 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 '-' character 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 meaning 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 '-' character 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 displaced 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 headerDesc 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 element.  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 operates 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 borders, 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 button

$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 format 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 column. 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 ancestor 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 reason, 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, normal or pressed. The current (or newly-set) state of the button is returned.  The button state is used by the system theme, if any, to change the appearance of the button.

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 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 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 unspecified. 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 parent 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 parent as itemDesc.

-returnid boolean

Specifies whether or not to return a list of item identifiers for the newly created items. Specifying 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 current 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 generated. 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 following 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 column 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 configure elements in another column, append a ',' argument 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 column 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 specified, 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 specified, 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 specified, 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 ancestor 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 ancestor 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 ancestors 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 previous 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 previous 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 previously 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 considered 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 embedded 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 numColumns ...?

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 numColumns 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 ?stateDescList?

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 command returns a list containing the names of all the dynamic states which are switched on in column.

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 containing 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 specified, 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 element 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 specified 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 specified, 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 specified, 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 argument 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 specified 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 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 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 coordinates, 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 specified, then the marquee is drawn as a filled and/or outlined rectangle 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 describing all of the available marquee 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 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 command 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 transparent gradient here.

-outline color

Specifies the color to outline the marquee rectangle 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 coordinates are specified, sets the anchor to the given coordinates 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 intersecting 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 specified, notify bind will arrange for script (a Tcl script) to be evaluated whenever the event(s) specified by pattern 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 binding applies to. If object begins with a dot, as in .a.b.c, then it must be the path name for a window; otherwise 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 created 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 binding; 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 binding script will not be evaluated when the corresponding 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 command 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 %-substitution. If there are details defined for the event, pattern 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 %-substitution.

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 percentsCommand 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 ?percentsCommand?

Deprecated. Use notify install with a pattern of <eventName-detail> instead.

pathName notify install event eventName ?percentsCommand?

Deprecated. Use notify install with a pattern of <eventName> instead.

pathName notify linkage pattern

Returns a string indicating whether the specified event or detail is created by means of the notify install widget command (dynamic) or by the treectrl widget itself (static).

pathName notify linkage eventName ?detail?

Deprecated. Use notify linkage with a pattern of <eventName> 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 binding 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 difference 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 characters 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 visible.

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 descriptions. 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 selection 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 descriptions. 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 deselected.

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 managed 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 supported:

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 command (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 supported:

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 overall treectrl widget. If no option is specified, the command 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 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 style; in this case the command 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 specified 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 elements.  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.  Consider 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 contains zero or more of the characters n, s, w or e. Each letter refers to the padding on the top, bottom, left, or right that should be allowed to increase. This option is typically used to justify 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 padding 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 typically 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 information (image, text, etc) of an element is positioned (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 element will surround. The size of an element with -union layout is determined by the size and position of the elements in elementList. The -ipadx and -ipady options in this case refer to the distance 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 element is not displayed.

-visible boolean

This is a per-state option that controls visibility 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 treectrl.  On Mac OS X the result is always aqua.  On MS Windows 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 element 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. Fraction 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 element 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 generated.

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 widget. To control column header drag-and-drop, use the header dragconfigure 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 specify 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 specify 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 background 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 bindings 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 unspecified, 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), center, 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 button 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 displayed 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 padding 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 padding 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 properly-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 command, 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 displayed 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 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 the column configure command 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 horizontally. Must be one of none (the default), left, or right.

-maxwidth size

Specifies the maximum size, in screen units, that will be permitted 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 permitted 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 column's header. Default is true.

-squeeze boolean

Specifies a boolean value that indicates whether or not the column 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 column 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 proportion 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 command. 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 tagExpr.

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 specified.

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 managed. 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 configuration 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 configuration 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 displayed - the item is collapsed. For a new item this state is switched on by default. This state can be modified by means of the widget commands item expand, item collapse, or item toggle.

selected

This state is set for every item included in the selection. 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 selection, 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 specified 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 regardless 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 layout 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 command 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 unspecified 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. Specifies 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 background 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. Specifies 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 specify 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. Specifies 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 element. 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 element.

-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 element. 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. Specifies 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 unspecified (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 incomplete 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 rectangle'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 rectangle 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 unspecified (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. Specifies 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. Acceptable 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 displayed. 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 truncated with an ellipsis at the right. If this option is specified 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 corresponds 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 maximum 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 containing 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. Specifies 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. PathName 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 description 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 -itemprefix 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 widget 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 QUALIFIERS 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 followed by any modifiers.

descendants QUALIFIERS

Use the descendants of the item (like item descendants but QUALIFIERS 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* displayed 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 evaluated 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 evaluated directly.  Instead, a new script will be generated by replacing each %, and the character following it, with information from the current 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 %-substitution 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 supports 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 horizontal distance the mouse pointer has moved, and the -imagespan option is set to the span of the column header that was initially 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 generated, 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 generated 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 directory. 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 window 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 reposition 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 orientation 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 backwards 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 selection.

[9]

The Control-Home and Control-End keys scroll to the top or bottom of the widget, they also activate and select the first or last item. If also the Shift key is down, then the active cursor 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 gradients, 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 rectangle 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 gradient 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 vertical, 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 selection:

$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 Also

bind(n), bitmap(n), image(n), listbox(n), options(n)

Keywords

tree, widget

Info

2.4.1 Tk Commands