Python Tkinter entry widget won´t accept input

Question

I have run into a very weird Problem with Tkinter entry widgets. When I try to enter something into them they don´t accept my input.

After some PC restarting and Python reinstalling I figured out why this happens: I had a messagebox just before the root.mainloop() in the code. The code looks something like this:

def xyz():
    if not messagebox.askyesno("Title","Some text"):
        exit()
xyz()
root.mainloop()

I found, to resolve the issue you can just manually focus on a different window and then back again. I would like to know if there is some better way to do this? I would like to keep my messagebox, AND dont´t want the unelegant solution of manually changing window focus.

Python does not do any magic, so does not know which window you want switched, so you have to code things yourself (whether is it unelegant or not), i.e. focus_set() whatever you want focused. — , Mar 26 '16 at 17:47
I think this is a known bug. I'm guessing you're on Windows, because I think that's the only platform that has this bug. What if you do `root.after_idle(xyz)` instead of calling `xyz()` directly? That gives `mainloop` a chance to start up, but still shows the messagebox as soon as the GUI starts up. — Bryan Oakley, Mar 26 '16 at 18:38
@BryanOakley Thanks, your solution worked perfectly! I didn´t know about `after_idle()` before. — Sebastian Hietsch, Mar 26 '16 at 20:55
@CurlyJoe Thanks for you reply! What I didn´t mention in my post is that the `root` window is in focus automatically, yet the entry widget doesn´t work. — Sebastian Hietsch, Mar 26 '16 at 20:59

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 27 '16 at 12:42

1

You can fix the code like this:

def xyz():
    if not messagebox.askyesno("Title","Some text"):
        exit()
root.after(10,xyz) #show the messagebox after root.mainloop()
root.mainloop()

answered Mar 27 '16 at 12:42

Lev Leontev

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Python Tkinter entry widget won´t accept input

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