£okì has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

As some of you probably know, I've been working on a Win32 application now for a couple days using Tk for the GUI interface. I finally have everything working aside from updating my Entry fields. The way my script is working, I build the window with all fields. Once one field is filled out and a button is pressed, it filles the remaining fields from a database. Pretty simple to be honest. However, for some reason I can not get those Entry boxes to fill. I've seen varrious ways to fill them such as using $widget->configure(-text => "hello world"); or $widget_textvariable = "hello world";. However, i have been thus far completely unsuccessful at getting them to update. In fact, I don't seem to be able to add text to the Entry Boxes when I first build them. If you would like to give me a hand here and let me know what I'm doing wrong, I would appreciate it. My code minus the irrelevant subroutines is below.

use strict;
use Tk 800.00;
use Mysql;
require Tk::Frame;
require Tk::TextUndo;
require Tk::Text;
require Tk::Scrollbar;
require Tk::Menu;
require Tk::Menubutton;
require Tk::Adjuster;
require Tk::DialogBox;
require Tk::JComboBox;


# Main Window
my $mw = new MainWindow;
$mw->geometry('800x600');

# Frames Setup
my $lf = $mw->Frame->pack(qw/-side left -fill y/);
my $rf = $mw->Frame->pack(qw/-side right -fill y/);

# Menu Bar Setup
my $mb = $mw->Menu(-menuitems => &menubar_menuitems() );
$mw->configure(-menu => $mb);
$mw->title("INSCO Inventory Control");

#Set Up Client Information
my %field;
my @names = (qw/po client contact phone email address city state zip i
+d model/);
my @labls = ("PO:", "Client:", "Contact:", "Contact Phone Number:", "C
+ontact Email Address:", "Contact Post Address:", "", "" , "", "Client
+ Specified ID", "Model");
my @position = (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11); 
foreach (@names) {
    my $position = int(shift(@position));
    $field{$_}{txvar} = '';
    $field{$_}{label} = $rf->Label(
        -text => shift( @labls ))
    ->grid(-row => $position,
        -col => '0',
    );
}
my $current_city = "San Juan";
my $tf_po      = $rf->Entry(-width=>30, -textvariable=>'current_po')->
+grid(-row => '1', -col => '2');
my $tf_client  = $rf->Entry(-width=>30, -textvariable=>'current_client
+')->grid(-row => '2', -col => '2');
my $tf_contact = $rf->Entry(-width=>30, -textvariable=>'current_contac
+t')->grid(-row => '3', -col => '2');
my $tf_phone   = $rf->Entry(-width=>30, -textvariable=>'current_phone'
+)->grid(-row => '4', -col => '2');
my $tf_email   = $rf->Entry(-width=>30, -textvariable=>'current_email'
+)->grid(-row => '5', -col => '2');
my $tf_address = $rf->Entry(-width=>30, -textvariable=>'current_addres
+s')->grid(-row => '6', -col => '2');
my $tf_city    = $rf->Entry(-width=>30, -textvariable=>'current_city')
+->grid(-row => '7', -col => '2');
my $tf_state   = $rf->Entry(-width=>30, -textvariable=>'current_state'
+)->grid(-row => '8', -col => '2');
my $tf_zip     = $rf->Entry(-width=>30, -textvariable=>'current_zip')-
+>grid(-row => '9', -col => '2');
my $tf_id      = $rf->Entry(-width=>30, -textvariable=>'current_id')->
+grid(-row => '10', -col => '2');
my $tf_model   = $rf->Entry(-width=>30, -textvariable=>'current_model'
+)->grid(-row => '11', -col => '2');

#Set Up Serial Query Information
my $label_input   = $lf->Label(-text=>'Serial Number: ',)->pack(qw/-si
+de top/);
my $tf_serial     = $lf->Entry(-width=>30)->pack(qw/-side top/);
my $label_space   = $lf->Label(-text=>'',)->pack(qw/-side top/);
my $returned      = "";
my $current_client = "hello world";
my $button_submit = $lf->Button(
    -text => 'Search',
    -command => sub{get_data($tf_client,$tf_contact,$tf_phone,$tf_emai
+l,$tf_address,$tf_city,$tf_state,$tf_zip,$tf_id,$tf_model)}
)->pack;

my $spacer0 = $rf->Label(-text => '')->grid(-row => 12, -col => 1);
my $spacer1 = $rf->Label(-text => '')->grid(-row => 13, -col => 1);

my $jcb_experiments = $rf->JComboBox(
    -relief => 'groove',
    -popuprelief => 'groove',
    -highlightthickness => 0,
    -choices => ''
)->grid(-row => 14, -col => '5');
$jcb_experiments->removeAllItems();

    
my $jcb_employees = $rf->JComboBox(
    -relief => 'groove',
    -popuprelief => 'groove',
    -highlightthickness => 0,
    -choices => ''
)->grid(-row => 14, -col => '7');
$jcb_employees->removeAllItems();


# Set up Labs Menu
my $label_labs = $rf->Label(-text => 'Lab:', -width => '10')->grid(-ro
+w => 14, -col => 1);
my @labs = get_labs();
my $jcb_labs = $rf->JComboBox(
  -relief => 'groove',
  -popuprelief => 'groove',
  -highlightthickness => 0,
  -choices => '',
  -scmd => sub{ get_employees(), get_experiments();}
)->grid(-row => 14, -col => '2');
foreach(@labs){
    $jcb_labs->addItem($_);
}
$jcb_labs->setSelectedIndex(0);

# Set Up Experiements Menu
my $label_experiments = $rf->Label(-text => 'Experiments:')->grid(-row
+ => 14, -col => 3);
my $label_employees = $rf->Label(-text => 'Employee:')->grid(-row => 1
+4, -col => 6);
my $button_load_up = $rf->Button(
    -text => 'Place Work Order',
    -command => \&place_order,
    -state => 'disabled'
    
)->grid(-row=>17, -col =>3);
my $status = $tf_po->get;
if($status ne ""){
    $button_load_up->configure(-state => 'active');
}
MainLoop;
exit 0;

sub get_data {
    my ($tf_client,$tf_contact,$tf_phone,$tf_email,$tf_address,$tf_cit
+y,$tf_state,$tf_zip,$tf_id,$tf_model) = @_;
    my $entered = $tf_serial->get;
    my $dbh = Mysql->connect("localhost", "insco_inventory", "INSCO", 
+"******") or
        die("Could Not Connect To Server");
    my $query = qq~SELECT * FROM inventory WHERE serial='$entered'~;
    my $sth = $dbh->query($query);
    my @arr = $sth->fetchrow;
    my $current_client = "hello world";
}

sub get_employees {
    my $index = $jcb_labs->getSelectedIndex();
    my $lab = $jcb_labs->getItemNameAt($index);
    my $dbh = Mysql->connect("localhost", "insco_inventory", "INSCO", 
+"******") or
        die("Could Not Connect To Server");
    my $query = qq~SELECT name FROM employees WHERE lab='$lab' ORDER B
+Y workload~;
    my $sth = $dbh->query($query);
    my @arr;
    my @return_vals;
    while(@arr = $sth->fetchrow) {
        push(@return_vals,$arr[0]);
    }
    $jcb_employees->removeAllItems();
    foreach(@return_vals){
        $jcb_employees->addItem($_);
    }
    $jcb_employees->setSelectedIndex(0);

}
sub get_labs {
    my $dbh = Mysql->connect("localhost", "insco_inventory", "INSCO", 
+"******") or
        die("Could Not Connect To Server");
    my $query = qq~SELECT * FROM labs~;
    my $sth = $dbh->query($query);
    my @arr;
    my @return_vals;
    while(@arr = $sth->fetchrow) {
        push(@return_vals,$arr[1]);
    }
    return(@return_vals);
}

sub get_experiments {
    my $index = $jcb_labs->getSelectedIndex();
    my $lab = $jcb_labs->getItemNameAt($index);
    my $dbh = Mysql->connect("localhost", "insco_inventory", "INSCO", 
+"hernagra") or
        die("Could Not Connect To Server");
    my $query = qq~SELECT tests FROM labs WHERE name='$lab'~;
    my $sth = $dbh->query($query);
    my $arr = $sth->fetchrow;
    my @return_vals;
    my @experiments = split(/\|/, $arr);
    foreach(@experiments){
        push(@return_vals,$_);
    }
    $jcb_experiments->removeAllItems();
    foreach(@return_vals){
        $jcb_experiments->addItem($_);
    }
    $jcb_experiments->setSelectedIndex(0);
    
}

[download]

Edit by tye, title, add READMORE

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Before you get what you want. . . .
by Nitrox (Chaplain) on Mar 21, 2003 at 13:58 UTC
    Take a look at your usage of the -textvariable attribute, I belive the snippet below does what you want. 

    use strict;
use warnings;

use Tk;

my ($name, $frame, $entry);
my $main = MainWindow->new();
my $frameEntry = $main->Frame()->grid();

$entry = $frameEntry -> Entry(-textvariable => \$name)->grid(-column =
+> 1, -row => 5);

$name = "Updated after";

MainLoop;

    [download]
    -Nitrox
[reply]
[d/l]
    OMG
    by £okì (Scribe) on Mar 21, 2003 at 14:10 UTC
      Sometimes it is incredible to me how I can just miss the little things. . I can't tell you how long I spent messing with something almost exactly the same but I never took the single quotes from around -textvariable=>'\$name'
      Thanks for the help but I still have one more thing. How can I edit them from a Subroutine? Do I have to register them as globals or is there some, better way?
[reply]
[d/l]
        they are already globaly defined
[reply]

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