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<div class="chapter" title="Chapter 23. Glade and Gtk::Builder">
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<a name="chapter-builder"></a>Chapter 23. Glade and Gtk::Builder</h2></div></div></div>
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<p><b>Table of Contents</b></p>
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<li><span class="sect1"><a href="chapter-builder.html#sec-builder-loading-glade-file">Loading the .glade file</a></span></li>
<li><span class="sect1"><a href="sec-builder-accessing-widgets.html">Accessing widgets</a></span></li>
<li><span class="sect1"><a href="sec-builder-using-derived-widgets.html">Using derived widgets</a></span></li>
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<p>
Although you can use C++ code to instantiate and arrange widgets, this
can soon become tedious and repetitive. And it requires a recompilation to show
changes. The <span class="application">Glade</span> application allows you to layout
widgets on screen and then save an XML description of the arrangement. Your
application can then use the <span class="application">Gtk::Builder</span> API to load
that XML file at runtime and obtain a pointer to specifically named widget
instances.
</p>
<p>
This has the following advantages:
</p>
<div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="1">
<li class="listitem">Less C++ code is required.</li>
<li class="listitem">UI changes can be seen more quickly, so UIs are able to improve.</li>
<li class="listitem">Designers without programming skills can create and edit UIs.</li>
</ol></div>
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</p>
<p>
You still need C++ code to deal with User Interface changes triggered by user
actions, but using <span class="application">Gtk::Builder</span> for the widget
layout allows you to focus on implementing that functionality.
</p>
<div class="sect1" title="Loading the .glade file">
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<a name="sec-builder-loading-glade-file"></a>Loading the .glade file</h2></div></div></div>
<p>
<code class="classname">Gtk::Builder</code> must be used via a
<code class="classname">Glib::RefPtr</code>. Like all such classes, you need to use a
<code class="methodname">create()</code> method to instantiate it. For instance,
</p>
<pre class="programlisting">
Glib::RefPtr<Gtk::Builder> builder = Gtk::Builder::create("basic.glade");
</pre>
<p>
This will instantiate the windows defined in the .glade file, though they will
not be shown immediately unless you have specified that via the <span class="guilabel">Properties</span>
window in <span class="application">Glade</span>.
</p>
<p>To instantiate just one window, or just one of the child widgets, you can specify the name of a widget as the second parameter. For instance,
</p>
<pre class="programlisting">
Glib::RefPtr<Gtk::Builder> builder = Gtk::Builder::create("basic.glade", "treeview_products");
</pre>
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