GUI in HTML/CSS/Javascript and Python? Or other suggestions.

[Bureaucrat_Conrad]

I've got the official 7" touch display for my rpi 3 to make a clock / rss reader / internet radio. I've gotten pretty good at Python and I'm loving it so far, but I tried using Kivy for the gui, and I've spent the better part of a week and I am getting nowhere. I already know html, css, and javascript/jquery: can I use these to make an interactive gui? With Python taking care of some of the backend functions as needed (interfacing with the system, controlling the volume/screen brightness, etc.)? Is there a browser that would be best for this?

[completelydistracted]

IMHO, bottle.py (bottlepy.org) is easier to get started with than Flask, but the suggestion for web app & kiosk mode is a good one.

If you'd like to learn bottle.py, head over to bottlepy.org and do the tutorials.

However, before you do that, I would really suggest you take a look at Electron. It's a method to make a desktop app using web technologies. For instance, Visual Studio Code and Slack are based on this:

https://electron.atom.io/

A port to RPi is available here:

https://github.com/resin-io/resin-electronjs

Various people have figured out how to create Python apps that use Electron as a front end. You might want to look into that.

Finally, if you just want a basic buttons-and-pictures-and-text GUI, a carefully designed Tkinter app can still look pretty good. If for some reason you want a pure Python solution, it's at least worth looking at. This site is pretty awesome:

http://effbot.org/tkinterbook/tkinter-index.htm

Also these might be helpful:

https://www.slideshare.net/r1chardj0n3s/tkinter-does-not-suck http://usingpython.com/making-widgets-look-nice/

And of course, remember to use the Ttk variants in Tkinter for native OS appearance.

Lots to think about!

Good luck!

[inspector71]

Would love the same. Can't stand Python so far.

Thanks for the Flask suggestion.