4.1 Set default status of radiobuttons, Comboboxes...
A config file is a nice way to store the settings in your program. At next startup, it will show the settings like you left them last time.
By default, gtkdialog always activates the first <radiobutton> and the first list-item for <combobox>.
An easy way to use a config file is to run it like an ordinary bash-script, and include variable definitions in it. It is most common to keep config files in home directory as a hidden file ($HOME/.testrc). The file might look like this:
COMBOBOX="item 3" ENTRY="default text" RADIOBUTTON1="false" RADIOBUTTON2="true"
Now let's go to the main script. For the <radiobutton> and the <entry>, we set the <default> tag to the corresponding variable in the config file. Since the <combobox> doesn't support the <default> tag, we need a workaround. We simply build the <combobox> item-list so show our saved variable first.
#in case no testc file (first run), build the file [ ! -s $HOME/.testrc ] && echo -e -n 'COMBOBOX="item 3"\nENTRY="default text"\nRADIOBUTTON1="false"\nRADIOBUTTON2="true"\n' > $HOME/.testrc . $HOME/.testrc #define combobox list items COMBOBOX_ITEMS="<item>$COMBOBOX</item>" #stored value should be first in list for I in 1 2 3 4; do COMBOBOX_ITEMS=`echo "$COMBOBOX_ITEMS<item>item $I</item>"`; done export main=" <window title=\"The benefits of a config file\"> <vbox> <frame The first item of list is the default choice in a Combobox> <combobox> <variable>COMBOBOX</variable> $COMBOBOX_ITEMS </combobox> </frame> <frame If nothing else is set, the first radiobutton is the active one> <radiobutton> <variable>RADIOBUTTON1</variable> <label>Yes I am</label> <default>$RADIOBUTTON1</default> </radiobutton> <radiobutton> <variable>RADIOBUTTON2</variable> <label>No I'm not</label> <default>$RADIOBUTTON2</default> </radiobutton> </frame> <frame Fetch entry-value from config file> <entry> <variable>ENTRY</variable> <default>$ENTRY</default> </entry> </frame> <hbox> <button ok></button> </hbox> </vbox> </window>" gtkdialog -p main > $HOME/.testrc
The last codeline redirects output (variable values) to our config file instead of to the terminal.
Note that line 2 starts with a dot. It makes a huge difference if you skip it.
. $HOME/.config - run script as a childprocess as the main process. The variable values in the config file are reachable for the main script.
$HOME/.config - run script as a new process as the main process. The variable values in the config file will NOT be reachable for the main script.
