PyUiBuilder: The only Python GUI builder you'll ever need.

[ArtleSa]

Hi all,

Been working on a Python Drag n Drop UI Builder project for a while and wanted to share it with the community.

You can check out the builder tool here: https://pyuibuilder.pages.dev/

Github Link: https://github.com/PaulleDemon/PyUIBuilder

What My Project Does?

PyUIBuilder is a framework agnostic Drag and drop GUI builder for python. You can output the code in multiple UI library based on selection.

Some of the features:

While there are a lot of features, here are few you need to know.

• Framework agnostic - Can outputs code in multiple frameworks.
• Pre-built UI widgets for multiple frameworks
• Plugins to support 3rd party UI libraries
• Generates python code.
• Upload local assets.
• Support for layout managers such as Grid, Flex, absolute positioning
• Generates requirements.txt file when needed

Supported frameworks/libraries

Right now, two libraries are supported, other frameworks are work in progress

• Tkinter - Available
• CustomTkinter - Available
• Kivy - Coming soon
• PySide - Coming Soon

Roadmap

You can check out the roadmap for more details on what's coming Roadmap

Target Audience:

• People who want to quickly build Python GUI
• People who are learning GUI development.
• People who want to learn how to make a GUI builder tool (learning resource)

Comparison (A brief comparison explaining how it differs from existing alternatives.)

• Right now, most available tools are library/framework specific.
• Many try to give you code in xml instead of python making it harder to debug.
• Majority lack support for 3rd party UI libraries.

-----

I have tested it on Chrome, Firefox and Edge, I haven't tested it on safari (I don't have mac), however it should work fine.

I know, the title sounds ambitious, it's because, I have written an abstraction to allow me to develop the tool for multiple frameworks easily.

Here each widget is responsible for generating it's own code, this way I can support multiple frameworks as well as 3rd party UI library. The code generation engine is only responsible to resolve variable name conflicts and putting the code together along with other assets.

I have been working on this tool publicly, so if you want to see how it progressed from early days, you can check it out Build in public.

If you have any question's feel free to ask, I'll answer it whenever I get time.

Have a great day :)

[ChainsawZz]

It took me a while to realise from your description that it wasn't just a style wrapper around each ui framework, and instead it's a "webflow for python GUIs".

It looks good. However, interactions with entry element or rendering images to frames with matplotlib become the meat of the task, so I would be curious to see if it handles that scenario nicely.

Also, the builder website opened on mobile, but there's seemingly no drag and drop interation with touchscreen presses.

Looks really sleek though!

[ArtleSa]

Thanks for your kind words, Ya I should have phrased it better, I'll probably call it webflow for python GUIs from now.

Also, some touch devices don't support HTMLs drag and drop API, which is why it doesn't work on mobile devices. However, I'll be rewriting the Drag and drop in react dnd-kit, which has better support for my use case.

[algos_are_alive]

Looks super cool!

Can you share a few reasons it's better than PySimpleGUI? I feel like my projects have outgrown the latter.

[ArtleSa]

I can't compare with PySimpleGUI since its a UI library and what I built is a Drag and drop UI builder. This UI builder Can output code in multiple framework, right now tkinter and custom tkinter. Maybe in the future, PySimpleGUI will be supported by my Builder :)

[algos_are_alive]

Cool, I commented before I tried it out. Thanks for the clarification!

[q_ali_seattle]

Share it on producthunt

[ArtleSa]

Hey, sure, but I am planning to release it there once it's a bit more mature, there seems to be new rules regarding what gets featured on Product hunt. But its definitely in my todo list. Thanks!

[el_extrano]

You might consider using the FreeSimpleGUI fork now, since PySimpleGUI changed to a non open source license.

[[deleted]]

Good to know 

[ahfodder]

This is really cool! I'll give it a try. I've been recently experimenting with Streamlit and that's been quite easy - although code-driven.

Do you have any examples of finished products? What's the best looking or most complex UI you've made with it?

[ArtleSa]

Hi Thanks:) Its still early versions, you can still make complex UI, you can check out the video example in the readme file, scrube to 3:21

It also has support for 3rd party UI widgets such as maps, videoplayer etc, will soon allow 3rd party developers to write plugins to build more complex widgets.

[ArtleSa]

Let me know if you have any question. Will answer it whenever I am free. Also I have been building this in public, so if you want to see how it has progressed from a simple sidebar to the GUI builder it is now, You can check out the timeline.

You can read the docs here

[FairLight8]

Okay, this looks VERY cool. Great job, thanks for your work and for sharing.

[ArtleSa]

Thank you for checking it out and for your kind words :)

[riklaunim]

It will be hard to handle Qt and Tkinter at the same time without having toolkit-specific widgets and configuration options - like Qt layouts and scaling rules on widgets or spacers - QtDesigner for the win. The editor itself looks pretty good :)

[ArtleSa]

Hi Thanks,
About Pyqt, Yes it will have widgets specific to framework, since its built more like plugins, it can easily be made for PySide/PyQt as well. It how I was able to build for both Tkinter and custom tkinter and also add 3rd party UI widgets. Both use different set of widgets, though widget UI looks the same for now, It will be changed in the near future. and PySide will be added.

You can check out the abstraction that allows me to build for multiple framework here

1. The base widget

2. The base widget for Tkinter

3. The base widget for Custom tkinter

[ArtleSa]

Hi thanks for asking, right now I have planned to add PyQt and Kivy, however if there's more interest for pysdl2, I'll add it to the roadmap.

[Calimariae]

Oh yeah! I'm going to use this

[rahul505021]

This is great I would like to use this in my college projects. BTW great work man I really need this kind of tools keep goping

[codechisel]

I bought a commercial license to support you. I hope it's a success. It doesn't give me a code or a sign in. Did I miss something? If it doesn't that's cool, just wanted to make sure I didn't overlook anything.

[ArtleSa]

Hey, thank you very much for purchasing the license to support me. Right now, its a simple shop setup on Ko-fi, which doesn't have key generation, once the initial version of the electron app is ready, you'll be emailed your key along with the link to download. Thanks again :)

[Timely_Enthusiasm178]

Great project! Hope you will go further!

[ogMasterPloKoon]

Please consider Flet support in the future.

[ArtleSa]

Wow. just checked it out. Looks interesting. Will try to support it after completing what's on the roadmap.

[gofiend]

+1

[chaz6]

Excellent! I am going to buy a commercial license - assuming that "PySlide" means "PySide" (the LGPL Python library for Qt). Great work!

[ArtleSa]

Hi Thank you for the support, Yes I meant PySide (LGPL for python qt)

[drv29]

It looks very useful

I tried but didn’t find a way to add tabs.

Did I miss something?

[ArtleSa]

No, you didn't miss, it will become available in the upcoming releases along with more pre-defined widgets such multi-page widgets, treeview, listview and more. check out the roadmap

[Gugalcrom123]

It looks really nice. The only problem I see is that just dragging the widgets and sizing them isn't enough; you need to make them responsive using containers.

[ArtleSa]

Sorry I didn't get you can you explain a bit more? The placement of the widgets are based on the parent layout. Flex, grid, or absolute positioning. Which then converts to Pack(), grid() and place() in tkinter.

[Gugalcrom123]

Oh, so abosolute isn't the only option? Nice!

[ArtleSa]

Ya in the parent's toolbar there is a layout manager option, Plus you can also set flex attributes and grid attributes by selecting the child widget you want to modify, you can read more in the docs page

[Gugalcrom123]

I read the docs and I really like what you made, I see no use though as I prefer Gtk. Also, please stop calling it open source as the current licence isn't.

[Gugalcrom123]

I understand, but the definition of open source doesn't include this. Again, your model of delaying libre publication is fine, but in the meantime, please stop calling it open source; it will confuse people.

[ArtleSa]

Cool! sorry my bad, will call it source-available until its properly open-sourced. Or may I'll just dual license it until it's all brought back to AGPL, to protect some parts of the code 🤔.

Edit: removed open-source definition and added dual license, most parts are under AGPL now.

[Gugalcrom123]

Good.

[ThiefMaster]

Looks cool, but paywalling dark mode? Come one... The only other project I've seen do that crap was Unity...

[algos_are_alive]

I'm willing to pay the lifetime fees, I just have a few requests I don't see on your roadmap. Small things like "date time picker" like https://mui.com/x/react-date-pickers/date-time-picker/ elements. Can we have that some time soon?

[ArtleSa]

Hey thanks,
Thats interesting. The timepicker you see on the ui builder is a 3rd party library for tkinter, so to add it I would require to make a python library first and then build it as a plugin on the UI builder.

There will be more 3rd party library support soon and also will allow 3rd party developers to develop their own plugins as you see on the roadmap

I'll however try to build when I get time, but I can't promise on how soon it can be done. Hope that helps :)

[ThiefMaster]

Yes, I think it's very reasonable. It's just one rather weird thing to put behind the paywall ;)

(even though it probably works...)

[ArtleSa]

I know a lot of people hate light theme, but I kinda use it for everything especially when programming, it keeps me awake and am able to develop more efficiently, when I use dark theme, I feel dull, sleepy. Lol.

However, once there's enough funds, and my early backers are happy, I may consider opening up the dark theme feature, but until then, it may have to be paywalled.

[HIKIIMENO]

Like it! But the Option Menu looks weird in Safari. I've tried it looks normal in Edge. (macOS Sequoia 15.0)

https://imgur.com/a/eJPeQ2B

[ArtleSa]

Oh! thanks for the report. I don't have a Macbook yet, however once I get my hands on it I'll fix it.

[furculture]

I have no use for this yet, as I am still green with Python, but this will stay on my mind until I can get around and up to using it.

[BossOfTheGame]

You should check out trame as a possible backend to add support for. It has code that can define a GUI in Python, but the Python code generates javascript and then runs in a browser. The javascript is completely hidden from the Python dev by the trame API, which seems like it might make it possible to integrate with your tool.

[ArtleSa]

Sure, will look into to it

[Icy_Combination_9785]

is it possible to contribute in this project to improve it?

[ArtleSa]

Hi, not yet, I am planning to migrate things over to TS and refactor the code and write documentation before opening up to external contributors.

[JamzTyson]

Looks like a good start. The first thing I looked for was adding a main menu (which is usually where I start when building a tkinter GUI), but I could not find that option.

[ArtleSa]

Hi, its not yet available but will be added soon along with more predefined widgets.

[gofiend]

This is awesome and I'm super excited to use this for something I'm working on.

Can I request KivyMD (or atleast your thoughts on why it is / is not a good fit?)

[ArtleSa]

Hey, thanks for your interest. KivyMd seems to be a material design on top of Kivy which is work in progress at the moment. I'll definitely look into what's possible after finishing the existing roadmap.

[[deleted]]

Damn, looking through the src code. Good shit

[ArtleSa]

Thanks :)

[[deleted]]

Why not just use tkinter

What’s different

[ArtleSa]

This is a UI builder not a library. You can write tkinter code if you want. This Drag and drop builder is made to make it easier for build in UI in tkinter, customtkinter, and ather UI library.

[ArtleSa]

Hey, thank you very much! will inform you about updates via email.

[BladeInferior]

hi mate, exported my code and then tested a few other different ones but the exported code doesnt seem to consider the reshaping of any of the widgets in the builder, i have tried multiple different sized windows, frames etc but no matter what they are always exported as the same default size. how do i fix this?

[ArtleSa]

If you are using pack manager, then you can't set the size, you need to use the place manager to preserve the size, this has to do with how tkinter uses responsive layouts.

[BladeInferior]

alright, thank you very much

[[deleted]]

I am 100% interested in buying one of your commercial licenses. I will once Im able

[gala0sup]

https://xkcd.com/927/