---
id: e55cbf5b5116abf3a5fc62c1af99e19b
author: Yunjin Lee
title: Implementing a Multi-File Listbox-Based Image Viewer with Go and Tcl/Tk 9.0
description: This implementation adds Tcl listbox command bindings and virtual event handlers to modernc.org/tk9.0 to create a GUI image viewer capable of opening multiple image files, switching selections, and deleting list items.
language: en
date: 2024-11-19T11:51:05.279238471Z
path: /blog/posts/creating-a-image-viewer-with-tk-in-go-z279238471Z
category: gui
---

In the previous post, we briefly looked at the CGo-Free Tcl/Tk library.
This time, we will build on the example from last time to create an image viewer.

## Image Viewer Plan

1. The image display from last time had no image deletion feature, so the window ran out of space as more images were loaded.
   Let's delete labels that are no longer used.
2. If we are going to list multiple images in the image display, let's create a list.
3. It would be good to load multiple images at once.
4. Let's also implement removing images from the list that we no longer want to view.
5. Let's create a feature that selects and displays a specific image from multiple images.

## Modified Tcl/Tk 9.0 Library

The existing library's Listbox implementation is insufficient, making it difficult to display the image list.
Let's download the modified library.
If the Git CLI is not installed, you may download it as a tarball or zip file.

```bash
git clone https://github.com/gg582/tk9.0
```

First, let's look at some of the added features.

Before looking at the new functions, let's briefly examine the structure of the existing functions through the Destroy function at line 1017 of tk.go.

```go
func Destroy(options ...Opt) {
	evalErr(fmt.Sprintf("destroy %s", collect(options...)))
}
```

This function is implemented by passing an action to the evalErr function in the form of a Tcl script.
That means that to implement the desired functionality, you only need to pass the command in the corresponding Tcl script format.

As an example, let's implement a method that adds an item to a listbox.
First, for Tcl scripting, let's look at insert, one of the commands available for listbox in the official manual.

[insert command](https://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.6/TkCmd/listbox.htm#M29)

Looking at the description page for the insert command, insert inserts the listed items at a specific index.
Then, to implement this, we can write code like the following:

```go
func (l *ListboxWidget) AddItem(index int, items string) {
	evalErr(fmt.Sprintf("%s insert %d %s", l.fpath, index, items))
}
```

Now that we understand the general implementation principle, let's explain the additional features for Listbox.

### List: Insertion/Deletion

```go
package main
import . "modernc.org/tk9.0"

func main() {
    length := 3
    l := Listbox()
    l.AddItem(0, "item1 item2 item3")
    b1 := TButton(Txt("Delete Multiple Items, index (0-1)"), Command( func(){
        if length >= 2 {
            l.DeleteItems(0,1)
            length-=2
        }
    }))
    b2 := TButton(Txt("Delete One Item, index (0)"), Command( func () {
        if length > 0 {
            l.DeleteOne(0)
            length-=1
        }
    }))
    Pack(TExit(),l,b1,b2)
    App.Wait()
}

```

In the program above, AddItem inserts the distinct items separated by spaces, starting from index 0 in order.
item1 through item3 will have indices 0, 1, and 2, respectively.
Let's run the example to see how item deletion works.

### List: Getting Selected Items

Now let's retrieve the items selected in the Listbox and check them.

```go
package main

import . "modernc.org/tk9.0"

func main() {
    l := Listbox()
    l.SelectMode("multiple")
    l.AddItem(0, "item1 item2 item3")
    btn := TButton(Txt("Print Selected"), Command( func() {
        sel := l.Selected()
        for _, i := range sel {
            println(l.GetOne(i))
        }
    }))

    Pack(TExit(), l, btn)
    App.Wait()
}
```

The Selected method retrieves the indices of all items currently selected in the Listbox.
The GetOne method retrieves the value of the item at the corresponding index.
This can be confirmed by the result printed to the console.
For reference, the similar Get method takes a start and end index and retrieves the values of all items within the range.

Next, let's change the colors of the listbox.

First, let's look at the example below.

```go
package main

import . "modernc.org/tk9.0"

func main() {
    l := Listbox()
    l.Background("blue")
    l.Foreground("yellow")
    l.SelectBackground("black")
    l.SelectForeground("white")
    l.Height(20)
    l.Width(6)
    l.AddItem(0, "item1 item2 item3")
    l.ItemForeground(0,"red")
    l.ItemBackground(0,"green")
    l.ItemSelectBackground(0,"white")
    l.ItemSelectForeground(0,"black")
    l.Relief("ridged")
    Pack(TExit(),l)
    App.Wait()
}
```

![Color application result](/assets/images/go-tk-imageviewer/listbox_color.png)

As written in the code above, the height has increased.
You can also see that the colors have been applied correctly.
Here, options that change colors only for specific items are set,
so you can see that only the first line has a different color applied.

Also, although the difference is not large, using the Relief method allows you to change the border style of the widget to one of flat, groove, raise, ridge, solid, or sunken.

## Image Viewer Example

Now, using the widgets we have just learned, let's create an image viewer.
The example program is as follows:

```go
package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "log"
    "os"
    "runtime"
    "strings"
    "path"

    . "modernc.org/tk9.0"
)

var pbuttons []*TButtonWidget
var extensions []FileType
var pbutton *TButtonWidget = nil
var listbox, listbox2 *ListboxWidget
var cur *LabelWidget = nil
var imagesLoaded []*LabelWidget
func PhotoName(fileName string) string {
        fileName = path.Base(fileName)
        return fileName[:len(fileName)-len(path.Ext(fileName))]
}

func handleFileOpen() {
    res := GetOpenFile(Multiple(true),Filetypes(extensions)) //다중 선택을 활성화하고 필터를 켭니다.
    s := make([]string,0,1000)
    for _, itm := range res {
        if itm != "" {
            tmp := strings.Split(itm," ")
            s = append(s,tmp...)
        }
    }

    for _, photo := range s {
        formatCheck := strings.Split(photo, ".")
        format := formatCheck[len(formatCheck)-1]

        if (strings.Compare(format, "png") == 0) || (strings.Compare(format, "ico") == 0) {
            picFile, err := os.Open(photo)
            if err != nil {
                log.Println("Error while opening photo, error is: ", err)
            }

            pictureRawData := make([]byte, 10000*10000)
            picFile.Read(pictureRawData)

            imageLabel := Label(Image(NewPhoto(Data(pictureRawData))))
                        imagesLoaded = append(imagesLoaded,imageLabel)
            var deleteTestButton *TButtonWidget
            deleteTestButton = TButton(
                Txt("Unshow Image"),
            Command(func() {
                GridForget(imageLabel.Window)
                GridForget(deleteTestButton.Window)
            }))

            pbuttons = append(pbuttons,deleteTestButton)

                        listbox.AddItem(len(imagesLoaded)-1,PhotoName(photo))
                        listbox2.AddItem(len(imagesLoaded)-1,PhotoName(photo))
            picFile.Close()
        }
    }
}

func DeleteSelected () {
    s:=listbox.Selected()
    if len(s) == 0 {
        return
        }
    for _, i := range s {
        listbox.DeleteOne(i)
        listbox2.DeleteOne(i)
        if len(imagesLoaded)-1>i {
            continue
        }
        if cur == imagesLoaded[i] {
            pbutton = nil
            cur = nil
        }
        Destroy(imagesLoaded[i])
        Destroy(pbuttons[i])
                imagesLoaded = append(imagesLoaded[:i],imagesLoaded[i+1:]...)
        pbuttons = append(pbuttons[:i], pbuttons[i+1:]...)
    }
}

func SelectImage() {
        s:=listbox2.Selected()
        if len(s) == 0 {
                return
        }

    if len(imagesLoaded) -1 < s[0] {
        return
    }
    if imagesLoaded[s[0]] == nil {
        return
    }
    if cur != nil {
            GridForget(cur.Window)
    }
    if pbutton != nil {
        GridForget(pbutton.Window)
    }

        Grid(imagesLoaded[s[0]], Row(0), Column(2))
    Grid(pbuttons[s[0]], Row(0), Column(3))
    cur = imagesLoaded[s[0]]
    pbutton = pbuttons[s[0]]
}

func SelectIndex(index int) {

    if len(imagesLoaded) -1 <index {
        return
    }
    if imagesLoaded[index] == nil {
        return
    }
    if cur != nil {
            GridForget(cur.Window)
    }
    if pbutton != nil {
        GridForget(pbutton.Window)
    }

        Grid(imagesLoaded[index], Row(0), Column(2))
    Grid(pbuttons[index], Row(0), Column(3))
    cur = imagesLoaded[index]
    pbutton = pbuttons[index]
}

func main() {
    menubar := Menu()
    //DefaultTheme("awdark","themes/awthemes-10.4.0")
    //테마를 사용하고 싶을 때에는 테마 명과 경로를 지정해 줍니다.
    fileMenu := menubar.Menu()
    extensions = make([]FileType,0,1)
    extensions = append(extensions, FileType{ "Supported Images", []string {".png",".ico"}, "" } )
    //필터에 png와 ico를 넣어 줍니다.
    fileMenu.AddCommand(Lbl("Open..."), Underline(0), Accelerator("Ctrl+O"), Command(func () {
        handleFileOpen()
        SelectIndex(len(imagesLoaded)-1)
    } ))
    Bind(App, "<Control-o>", Command(func() { fileMenu.Invoke(0) }))
    fileMenu.AddCommand(Lbl("Exit"), Underline(1), Accelerator("Ctrl+Q"), ExitHandler())
    Bind(App, "<Control-q>", Command(func() { fileMenu.Invoke(1) }))
    menubar.AddCascade(Lbl("File"), Underline(0), Mnu(fileMenu))
        imagesLoaded = make([]*LabelWidget, 0, 10000)
    pbuttons = make([]*TButtonWidget,0,10000)
    var scrollx, scroll, scroll2, scrollx2 *TScrollbarWidget
        listbox = Listbox(Yscrollcommand(func(e *Event) { e.ScrollSet(scroll)}) , Xscrollcommand( func(e *Event) { e.ScrollSet(scrollx)}))
        listbox2 = Listbox(Yscrollcommand(func(e *Event) { e.ScrollSet(scroll2)}), Xscrollcommand(func(e *Event) { e.ScrollSet(scrollx2)}))
        listbox.SelectMode("multiple")
        listbox2 = Listbox()
        listbox.Background("white")
        listbox.SelectBackground("blue")
        listbox.SelectForeground("yellow")
        listbox2.Background("grey")
        listbox2.SelectBackground("green")
    listbox2.SelectForeground("blue")
    listbox2.SelectBackground("brown")
        listbox.Height(5)
        listbox.Width(4)
        listbox2.Height(5)
        listbox2.Width(4)
        delBtn := Button(Txt("Delete"), Command(func () { DeleteSelected() }))
        selBtn := Button(Txt("Select"), Command(func () { SelectImage() }))
        scroll = TScrollbar(Command(func(e *Event) { e.Yview(listbox) }))
        scrollx = TScrollbar(Orient("horizontal"),Command(func(e *Event) { e.Xview(listbox) }))
    scroll2 = TScrollbar(Command(func(e *Event) { e.Yview(listbox2) }))
        scrollx2 = TScrollbar(Orient("horizontal"),Command(func(e *Event) { e.Xview(listbox2) }))
        Grid(listbox,Row(1),Column(0), Sticky("nes"))
        Grid(scroll,Row(1),Column(1), Sticky("nes"))
    Grid(scrollx,Row(2),Column(0),  Sticky("nes"))
        Grid(delBtn,Row(3),Column(0), Sticky("nes"))
        Grid(listbox2,Row(1),Column(2), Sticky("nes"))
        Grid(scroll2,Row(1),Column(3), Sticky("nes"))
    Grid(scrollx2,Row(2),Column(2), Sticky("nes"))
        Grid(selBtn,Row(3),Column(2), Sticky("nes"))
    App.WmTitle(fmt.Sprintf("%s on %s", App.WmTitle(""), runtime.GOOS))
    App.Configure(Mnu(menubar), Width("80c"), Height("60c")).Wait()
}

```

![Image viewer execution result](/assets/images/go-tk-imageviewer/imageviewer.png)

In this example, to keep the implementation simple, all image widgets are created in advance when loaded,
and duplicate files are not checked.
You may improve on the problems mentioned above,
and you may also try changing the theme using the DefaultTheme method in the commented-out section.
We encourage you to practice by writing a new program that improves these aspects.

## Summary

In this post, we looked at how command invocation works in the Tcl/Tk library for Go,
and created an image viewer with a listbox added.

1. How Tcl/Tk library command invocation works
2. How to use the listbox
3. Changing listbox widget properties
4. Writing an image viewer

We encourage you to apply this approach to modifying other libraries as well, and to write a complete program with the features you have added.