Tkinter: How to use threads to preventing main event loop from "freezing"

Question

I have a small GUI test with a "Start" button and a Progress bar. The desired behavior is:

• Click Start
• Progressbar oscillates for 5 seconds
• Progressbar stops

The observed behavior is the "Start" button freezes for 5 seconds, then a Progressbar is displayed (no oscillation).

Here is my code so far:

class GUI:
    def __init__(self, master):
        self.master = master
        self.test_button = Button(self.master, command=self.tb_click)
        self.test_button.configure(
            text="Start", background="Grey",
            padx=50
            )
        self.test_button.pack(side=TOP)

    def progress(self):
        self.prog_bar = ttk.Progressbar(
            self.master, orient="horizontal",
            length=200, mode="indeterminate"
            )
        self.prog_bar.pack(side=TOP)

    def tb_click(self):
        self.progress()
        self.prog_bar.start()
        # Simulate long running process
        t = threading.Thread(target=time.sleep, args=(5,))
        t.start()
        t.join()
        self.prog_bar.stop()

root = Tk()
root.title("Test Button")
main_ui = GUI(root)
root.mainloop()

Based on the information from Bryan Oakley here, I understand that I need to use threads. I tried creating a thread, but I'm guessing that since the thread is started from within the main thread, it doesn't help.

I had the idea to place the logic portion in a different class, and instantiate the GUI from within that class, similar to the example code by A. Rodas here.

My question:

I can't figure out how to code it so that this command:

self.test_button = Button(self.master, command=self.tb_click)

calls a function that is located in the other class. Is this a Bad Thing to do or is it even possible? How would I create a 2nd class that can handle the self.tb_click? I tried following along to A. Rodas' example code which works beautifully. But I cannot figure out how to implement his solution in the case of a Button widget that triggers an action.

If I should instead handle the thread from within the single GUI class, how would one create a thread that doesn't interfere with the main thread?

Answer 1

When you join the new thread in the main thread, it will wait until the thread finishes, so the GUI will block even though you are using multithreading.

If you want to place the logic portion in a different class, you can subclass Thread directly, and then start a new object of this class when you press the button. The constructor of this subclass of Thread can receive a Queue object and then you will be able to communicate it with the GUI part. So my suggestion is:

1. Create a Queue object in the main thread
2. Create a new thread with access to that queue
3. Check periodically the queue in the main thread

Then you have to solve the problem of what happens if the user clicks two times the same button (it will spawn a new thread with each click), but you can fix it by disabling the start button and enabling it again after you call self.prog_bar.stop().

import Queue

class GUI:
    # ...

    def tb_click(self):
        self.progress()
        self.prog_bar.start()
        self.queue = Queue.Queue()
        ThreadedTask(self.queue).start()
        self.master.after(100, self.process_queue)

    def process_queue(self):
        try:
            msg = self.queue.get(0)
            # Show result of the task if needed
            self.prog_bar.stop()
        except Queue.Empty:
            self.master.after(100, self.process_queue)

class ThreadedTask(threading.Thread):
    def __init__(self, queue):
        threading.Thread.__init__(self)
        self.queue = queue
    def run(self):
        time.sleep(5)  # Simulate long running process
        self.queue.put("Task finished")