Is there an option to recieve the data from a UI window to a variable?

Question

I saw that it is possible to print the data that has been written in the user interface window, however, when I searched in the internet, none of the options were like that, to retrieve the data into a variable.

This is a very simple window code - '

def printTxtField ( fieldID ):

    print cmds.textField( fieldID, query=True, text=True)

winID = 'kevsUI'


if cmds.window(winID, exists=True):

    cmds.deleteUI(winID)


cmds.window(winID)

cmds.columnLayout()


whatUSay = cmds.textField()
cmds.button(label='Confirm', command='printTxtField(whatUSay)')

cmds.showWindow()

'

I want to retrieve the data from the text field into a variable, once the confirm button is pressed.

Up in the cmds.button line, you can see in the command - 'print TxtField'. I know that if there is an option to print what was written in the text field, so there must be an option to put it in a variable instead. However, I didn't find it.Does anybody knows how to do it?

Sorry for the prev. question.

Answer 1

You have to use partial module to pass variable through button command (or lambda function)

from functools import partial

Here is the same question : maya python + Pass variable on button press

Answer 2

From Python doc:

print evaluates each expression in turn and writes the resulting object to standard output. If an object is not a string, it is first converted to a string using the rules for string conversions. The (resulting or original) string is then written.

---

To sum up in a few words:

The print statement expects a expression after writing it. This can be a string, int, object...

In your case:

What you are printing in your printTxtField funtion is the return value of a function (cmds.textField( fieldID, query=True, text=True)).

When writing this :

cmds.textField( fieldID, query=True, text=True) you are telling Maya to:

1. Find the textField called fieldID's value
2. Do a query on it (the query flag is set to True
3. Query it's text (what's written in it)
4. Returns this value

To conclude:

Instead of printing a returned value, you can easily assigned this value to a variable: myVar = cmds.textField( fieldID, query=True, text=True)

---

Your modified code:

def printTxtField ( fieldID ):
    #here is the modification made
    myVar = cmds.textField( fieldID, query=True, text=True)

---

I've commented and reorganized your code to have something more clean:

import maya.cmds as cmds

KEVS_TEXTFIELD_VALUE = None

####################################################
# This function retrieve the value of Kevs_TextField
# and set this value to KEVS_TEXTFIELD_VALUE
####################################################
def retrieveData():
    # We use the query flag on the text attribute
    KEVS_TEXTFIELD_VALUE = cmds.textField("Kevs_TextField", query=True, text=True)
    print u"KEVS_TEXTFIELD_VALUE =" + KEVS_TEXTFIELD_VALUE

####################################################
# This function will create a show a new UI
####################################################
def drawUI():
    winID = 'kevsUI'

    if cmds.window(winID, exists=True): #If the window exists
        cmds.deleteUI(winID)            #Delete it
    cmds.window(winID)                  #Then create a new one

    cmds.columnLayout("Kevs_ColLayout") #Create a columnLayout to sort our widgets  

    # Now let's add some widgets in our columnLayout
    cmds.textField("Kevs_TextField")    #Add a textfied in the columnLayout
    #Then create a button that calls the retrieveData function when pressed
    cmds.button("Kevs_Button", label="Confirm", command=retrieveData)
    cmds.showWindow() #Show the window


drawUI() # Let's create a new UI

Answer 3

It's possible, but there are a couple of issues in the way you're going about it. @DrHaze's example shows the right thing to do, which is to use the actual python functions instead of strings.

You will also need to think about the visibility of different functions: it's easy to get things working in the listener where all the code is in one place, but once there are multiple functions or modules involved keeping track of gui widget names becomes harder.

For small tools you can define the callback function -- the one that gets used by the button, in this case -- right in the same place that the gui widgets are created. This will use python's rules for closures to keep track of the widgets for you:

def window_example(title):
    if cmds.window(title, exists=True):
        cmds.deleteUI(title)
    win = cmds.window(title)
    cmds.columnLayout()
    whatUSay = cmds.textField()

    #defining this hear gives it access to 'whatUSay'
    def print_text_contents(ignore):
        print cmds.textField( whatUSay, query=True, text=True)

    cmds.button(label='Confirm', command=print_text_contents)
    cmds.showWindow(win)
window_example('kevsUI')

for longer tools you probably want to learn about doing this with classes.

Here's much more background info with some different strategies to check out.