Create Mac App Python

The first step in creating desktop applications with PyQt is getting a window to show up on your desktop. Thankfully, with PyQt that is pretty simple.

Py2app - create Mac OS executables from Python. Py2app is similar in purpose and design to py2exe for Windows. PyQt5 is a Python package that provides a wrapper for accessing the Qt framework libraries. Qt is a cross platform widget toolkit that allows creating graphical user interfaces. It supports Windows, Android, Linux and Mac. Several options exist for developing GUI applications using Python. Save this Python script as topnews.py (as we import it by this name in our desktop notifier app). Installations Now, in order to create a desktop notifier, you need to install a third party Python module, notify2. Python Launcher. By default, macOS comes with Python 2.7.3 installed. That’s not the newest version of Python, however. If you’ve installed Python 3, you’ll have access to a few more software tools. These include the Python Launcher, a GUI program that runs Python scripts. If it is installed on your Mac, you can run Python scripts from.

Below are a few short examples to creating PyQt apps and getting a window on the screen. If this works you know you have Qt set up correctly & you can start creating your applications!The following examples are written for Python 3 with PyQt5, but can be easily adapted for other versions.

Creating an application

Below is a bare-minimum PyQt application, which actually doesn't even include a window. If you run it 'nothing' will happen, but it should work.

  • PyQt5
  • PySide2

Stepping through the code line-by-line, we start by importing the PyQt5 classes that we need for the application, from the QtWidgets submodule.

Next we create an instance of QApplication, passing in sys.arg (which containscommand line arguments). This allows us to pass command line arguments to ourapplication. If you know you won't be accepting command line arguments you canpass in an empty list instead, e.g.

python

Finally, we call app.exec_() to start up the event loop. If you watch the console while your application is running you'll notice it does not reach the print('Finished') until you exit the app. This is because Qt sits in the app.exec_() event loop until the application is quit.

If you need anything to happen during start-up it should be before this line. Usually a simple solution is to handle setup during the __init__ for your main window object.

Creating a window

The last example was pretty boring, because there was nothing to see. Let's add a window to our desktop application so we have something to look at. The code below is a bare-minimum single-window application in PyQt.

Python Create File

  • PyQt5
  • PySide2

Any QWidget without a parent (containing widget) is it's own window. This is a fine way to create windows, however there is also a specific QMainWindow class. This has a few advantages for use as a main window in an application including support for toolbars, status bars and dockable widgets. To use QMainWindow just swap it out in the code:

  • PyQt5
  • PySide2

Running the above you should see an empty window on your desktop, the below is the appearance on Mac OS. Exciting isn't it?

An empty PyQt Window on MacOS

My first widget

So that was still pretty dull, just opening up an empty window on your desktop. Let's make it a little bit more interesting by adding a basic text QLabel widget. A QMainWindow can only hold a single widget, which you set via .setCentralWidget().

If you want to add more widgets and arrange them, you need to use Qt layouts.

python

When you run this you should see the window on your desktop as before, but this time also with the label from the QLabel visible in the middle. The window is resizeable by dragging the edges, and the alignment setting should keep the text centered in the window.

A PyQt Window with a QLabel widget on MacOS

PyQt is a module to make desktop software with Python. This works on all desktop systems including Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.

If you want to make desktop apps with Python, PyQt is the module you need to make them. After creating your app, you can create an installation program with fbs.

/how-to-un-update-a-mac-app.html. Related Course:Create GUI Apps with Python PyQt5

Tutorial

What is PyQt?

Create Mac App From Python Script

PyQt is a port of the Qt library (C++). Qt is a very powerful GUI library. PyQt is not a single module, but a collection of modules.

These modules include:
QtCore, QtGui, QtWidgets, QtMultimedia, QtBluetooth, QtNetwork, QtPositioning, Enginio, QtWebSockets, QtWebKit, QtWebKitWidgets, QtXml, QtSvg, QtSql and QtTest.

So what’s in these modules?

  • Qtcore contains the core non-GUI code.

  • QtGui has everything for window management like event handling and graphics.

  • QtWidgets has a many UI widgets like buttons, labels, textinput and other things you’d see in a desktop window.

  • QtMultimedia for multimedia content and camera.

  • QtBluetooth scan bluetooth devices and connect.

  • QtNetwork a cross-platform solution for network programming. Set up a socket server or client that works on all desktop systems. Supports both the TCP/IP stack and UDP.

  • QtPositioning determine a position by using a position (WiFi, Satellite)

  • QtWebSockets implementation of the websocket protocol.

  • QtWebKit web browser implementation. You can use this to render a webpage. This is based on WebKit2. WebKit is used in the Safari browser, by KDE and others.

  • QtWebKitWidgets Deprecated. WebKit1 version of web browser implementation

  • QtXml use XML files, reading/writing and so on.

  • QtSvg svg graphics (Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). A type of image format.

  • QtSql work with databases.

  • QtTest unit testing

If you are new to Python PyQt, then I highly recommend this book.

Installing PyQt

You can easily make desktop software with PyQt. There are two ways to install PyQt: with an installer and from code.

Compling PyQt from source can be a tedious process, recommend you to install using the installer or package manager. (an end-user can simply run a setup program to install your software)

Python Mac Gui

You can view the tutorial on PyQt installation.

Creating Apps

Python App Download

After PyQt is installed, you can create all kind of desktop software. PyQt has many widgets including buttons, input fields, combobox, webview and tons of others.

This is straightforward and you will learn how to do that in the next tutorials.

Related Course:Create GUI Apps with Python PyQt5