ContentSwitcher

Added in version 0.14.0

A widget for containing and switching display between multiple child widgets.

• Focusable
• Container

Example

The example below uses a ContentSwitcher in combination with two Buttons to create a simple tabbed view. Note how each Button has an ID set, and how each child of the ContentSwitcher has a corresponding ID; then a Button.Clicked handler is used to set ContentSwitcher.current to switch between the different views.

Outputcontent_switcher.pycontent_switcher.tcss

from textual.app import App, ComposeResult
from textual.containers import Horizontal, VerticalScroll
from textual.widgets import Button, ContentSwitcher, DataTable, Markdown

MARKDOWN_EXAMPLE = """# Three Flavours Cornetto

The Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy is an anthology series of British
comedic genre films directed by Edgar Wright.

## Shaun of the Dead

| Flavour | UK Release Date | Director |
| -- | -- | -- |
| Strawberry | 2004-04-09 | Edgar Wright |

## Hot Fuzz

| Flavour | UK Release Date | Director |
| -- | -- | -- |
| Classico | 2007-02-17 | Edgar Wright |

## The World's End

| Flavour | UK Release Date | Director |
| -- | -- | -- |
| Mint | 2013-07-19 | Edgar Wright |
"""


class ContentSwitcherApp(App[None]):
    CSS_PATH = "content_switcher.tcss"

    def compose(self) -> ComposeResult:
        with Horizontal(id="buttons"):  # (1)!
            yield Button("DataTable", id="data-table")  # (2)!
            yield Button("Markdown", id="markdown")  # (3)!

        with ContentSwitcher(initial="data-table"):  # (4)!
            yield DataTable(id="data-table")
            with VerticalScroll(id="markdown"):
                yield Markdown(MARKDOWN_EXAMPLE)

    def on_button_pressed(self, event: Button.Pressed) -> None:
        self.query_one(ContentSwitcher).current = event.button.id  # (5)!

    def on_mount(self) -> None:
        table = self.query_one(DataTable)
        table.add_columns("Book", "Year")
        table.add_rows(
            [
                (title.ljust(35), year)
                for title, year in (
                    ("Dune", 1965),
                    ("Dune Messiah", 1969),
                    ("Children of Dune", 1976),
                    ("God Emperor of Dune", 1981),
                    ("Heretics of Dune", 1984),
                    ("Chapterhouse: Dune", 1985),
                )
            ]
        )


if __name__ == "__main__":
    ContentSwitcherApp().run()

1. A Horizontal to hold the buttons, each with a unique ID.
2. This button will select the DataTable in the ContentSwitcher.
3. This button will select the Markdown in the ContentSwitcher.
4. Note that the initial visible content is set by its ID, see below.
5. When a button is pressed, its ID is used to switch to a different widget in the ContentSwitcher. Remember that IDs are unique within parent, so the buttons and the widgets in the ContentSwitcher can share IDs.

Screen {
    align: center middle;
    padding: 1;
}

#buttons {
    height: 3;
    width: auto;
}

ContentSwitcher {
    background: $panel;
    border: round $primary;
    width: 90%;
    height: 1fr;
}

DataTable {
    background: $panel;
}

MarkdownH2 {
    background: $primary;
    color: yellow;
    border: none;
    padding: 0;
}

When the user presses the "Markdown" button the view is switched:

Reactive Attributes

Name	Type	Default	Description
current	str | None	None	The ID of the currently-visible child. None means nothing is visible.

Messages

This widget posts no messages.

Bindings

This widget has no bindings.

Component Classes

This widget has no component classes.

---

textual.widgets.ContentSwitcher class

def __init__(
    self,
    *children,
    name=None,
    id=None,
    classes=None,
    disabled=False,
    initial=None
):

Bases: Container

A widget for switching between different children.

Note

All child widgets that are to be switched between need a unique ID. Children that have no ID will be hidden and ignored.

Parameters

Parameter	Default	Description
*children Widget	()	The widgets to switch between.
name str | None	None	The name of the content switcher.
id str | None	None	The ID of the content switcher in the DOM.
classes str | None	None	The CSS classes of the content switcher.
disabled bool	False	Whether the content switcher is disabled or not.
initial str | None	None	The ID of the initial widget to show, None or empty string for the first tab.

Note

If initial is not supplied no children will be shown to start with.

current instance-attribute class-attribute

current: reactive[str | None] = reactive[Optional[str]](
    None, init=False
)

The ID of the currently-displayed widget.

If set to None then no widget is visible.

Note

If set to an unknown ID, this will result in NoMatches being raised.

visible_content property

visible_content: Widget | None

A reference to the currently-visible widget.

None if nothing is visible.

watch_current method

def watch_current(self, old, new):

React to the current visible child choice being changed.

Parameters

Parameter	Default	Description
old str | None	required	The old widget ID (or None if there was no widget).
new str | None	required	The new widget ID (or None if nothing should be shown).