An Introduction to Kivy

A tutorial of sorts

Neil Muller

4 October 2013
Introduction

I Why?
Introduction

I Why?
I I want to write software that works on my phone
Introduction

I Why?
I I want to write software that works on my phone

I In general, I'd rather be writing python

Introduction

I Why?
I I want to write software that works on my phone

I In general, I'd rather be writing python

I What is kivy?
Introduction

I Why?
I I want to write software that works on my phone

I In general, I'd rather be writing python

I What is kivy?
I Kivy - Open source Python library for rapid development of

applications that make use of innovative user interfaces, such

as multi-touch apps. - www.kivy.org
Introduction

I Why?
I I want to write software that works on my phone

I In general, I'd rather be writing python

I What is kivy?
I Kivy - Open source Python library for rapid development of

applications that make use of innovative user interfaces, such

as multi-touch apps. - www.kivy.org

I Input stack is designed around touch interfaces

I Cross platform (Linux, MacOSX, Windows, Android, iOS)
I GPU accelerated (OpenGL ES 2)
Outline

I A very basic kivy application

I The kv language
I Properties & Events
I Widget Layout
I Dealing with media
I Conguration and other nifty stu
I Dealing with the hardware
I Deployment
A Very Basic Kivy App

I Hello World
A Very Basic Kivy App

I Hello World
I Important points
I Single window application
I Build returns root widget - single widget holding everything

else
I Most housekeeping tasks automatic, so focus is on the

application logic
A Very Basic Kivy App

I Hello World
I Important points
I Single window application
I Build returns root widget - single widget holding everything

else
I Most housekeeping tasks automatic, so focus is on the

application logic

I A more complex example

KV Language

I Describes the layout of the application

I More complicated logic lives in the python le
KV Language

I Describes the layout of the application

I More complicated logic lives in the python le

I Layout dened by a series of rules

I Each rule describes a widget tree
KV Language

I Describes the layout of the application

I More complicated logic lives in the python le

I Layout dened by a series of rules

I Each rule describes a widget tree
I Access to application (app), root widget of tree (root) and the

current widget (self )

I Can provide access to individual widgets if required
KV Language

I Describes the layout of the application

I More complicated logic lives in the python le

I Layout dened by a series of rules

I Each rule describes a widget tree
I Access to application (app), root widget of tree (root) and the

current widget (self )

I Can provide access to individual widgets if required

I Can also evaluate bits of code, so quite complex functionality

can live in here

I Can also play with the canvas here
Properties

I Provide Validation & Value / Bounds checking

Properties

I Provide Validation & Value / Bounds checking

I Can observe changes on the property
Properties

I Provide Validation & Value / Bounds checking

I Can observe changes on the property
I Needs to be associated with an EventDispatcher for this to

work
I Fortunately, pretty much everything of interest in kivy is a

subclass of EventDispatcher
Properties

I Provide Validation & Value / Bounds checking

I Can observe changes on the property
I Needs to be associated with an EventDispatcher for this to

work
I Fortunately, pretty much everything of interest in kivy is a

subclass of EventDispatcher

I Useful set of default properties

I StringProperty, NumericProperty, BoundedNumericProperty,

OptionProperty, etc.

I Easy to create custom properties

Events

I Basic event is MotionEvent

I Although TouchEvent subclass is what we're almost always

want
Events

I Basic event is MotionEvent

I Although TouchEvent subclass is what we're almost always

want

I Can identify source and extra information from event prole

I Handlers can be added either via subclassing, or via bind
Events

I Basic event is MotionEvent

I Although TouchEvent subclass is what we're almost always

want

I Can identify source and extra information from event prole

I Handlers can be added either via subclassing, or via bind

I NB: Touch events are not limited to only the widgets they

overlap with

I Handle this logic yourself if it's the right thing to do

Events

I Basic event is MotionEvent

I Although TouchEvent subclass is what we're almost always

want

I Can identify source and extra information from event prole

I Handlers can be added either via subclassing, or via bind

I NB: Touch events are not limited to only the widgets they

overlap with

I Handle this logic yourself if it's the right thing to do

I Expected set of widget created events

I on_press for buttons, etc.

Widget Layout

I By default, layout is global to the root window

I No automatic management of widget layout
I Need to respond to scroll or scale events manually
Widget Layout

I By default, layout is global to the root window

I No automatic management of widget layout
I Need to respond to scroll or scale events manually
I Layout's provide widget containers which can handle some of
this
I Allow the use of relative positioning (pos_hint & size_hint)
Widget Layout

I By default, layout is global to the root window

I No automatic management of widget layout
I Need to respond to scroll or scale events manually
I Layout's provide widget containers which can handle some of
this
I Allow the use of relative positioning (pos_hint & size_hint)

I Large number of layout's available

I BoxLayout - arranges widgets horizontally or vertically

I FloatLayout - Free positioning with layout advantages

I GridLayout - what it says on the tin
I RelativeLayout - position stays relative to the layout, which

simplies scrolling
I And so on
Media

I Kivy provides easy image loading and manipulation functions

I Also support for sound & video
Media

I Kivy provides easy image loading and manipulation functions

I Also support for sound & video
I Very useful cache implementation as well
Media

I Kivy provides easy image loading and manipulation functions

I Also support for sound & video
I Very useful cache implementation as well
I For many cases, you dont want to do this by hand
I Especially for images, look at kivy's atlas
Conguration and other nifty stu

I Conguration system is based o CongParser

I Nifty mostly automatic cong screen setup
Conguration and other nifty stu

I Conguration system is based o CongParser

I Nifty mostly automatic cong screen setup

I Power management events can be handled by watching

application events
I on_pause / on_resume
Conguration and other nifty stu

I Conguration system is based o CongParser

I Nifty mostly automatic cong screen setup

I Power management events can be handled by watching

application events
I on_pause / on_resume

I NB: current default pause behaviour to stop the application

I on_resume can require some care, especially for GL heavy apps
Conguration and other nifty stu

I Conguration system is based o CongParser

I Nifty mostly automatic cong screen setup

I Power management events can be handled by watching

application events
I on_pause / on_resume

I NB: current default pause behaviour to stop the application

I on_resume can require some care, especially for GL heavy apps

I Other useful application events - on_stop, on_start,

on_cong_changed
Dealing with hardware

I Current state of play

I pyjnius provides access to the native interfaces for Android
I hw = jnius.autoclass('org.renpy.android.Hardware')
I Still need to know all the java interface details
I Things work dierently on other platforms (pyobjus for iOS,

etc)
Dealing with hardware

I Current state of play

I pyjnius provides access to the native interfaces for Android
I hw = jnius.autoclass('org.renpy.android.Hardware')
I Still need to know all the java interface details
I Things work dierently on other platforms (pyobjus for iOS,

etc)

I The better future (still a work in progress)

Dealing with hardware

I Current state of play

I pyjnius provides access to the native interfaces for Android
I hw = jnius.autoclass('org.renpy.android.Hardware')
I Still need to know all the java interface details
I Things work dierently on other platforms (pyobjus for iOS,

etc)

I The better future (still a work in progress)

I plyer
I Abstraction layer over common functionality

I Current aim is to support Camera, Accelerometer,

Notications and Text to Speech

I Under reasonably active development - android support

reasonably eshed out, but other platforms need work

Deployment to Android

I For ddling with kivy, kivy-launcher is great

I But not a genuine deployment option
Deployment to Android

I For ddling with kivy, kivy-launcher is great

I But not a genuine deployment option

I Need to compile android-for-python to generate an apk

I Lots of documentation and howtos
I Still all a bit tedious, though
Deployment to Android

I For ddling with kivy, kivy-launcher is great

I But not a genuine deployment option

I Need to compile android-for-python to generate an apk

I Lots of documentation and howtos
I Still all a bit tedious, though

I Recently started project - buildozer

I Unies a lot of the grunt work
I Everything handled by a single spec le
I Handles android and iOS targets
Deployment to Android

I For ddling with kivy, kivy-launcher is great

I But not a genuine deployment option

I Need to compile android-for-python to generate an apk

I Lots of documentation and howtos
I Still all a bit tedious, though

I Recently started project - buildozer

I Unies a lot of the grunt work
I Everything handled by a single spec le
I Handles android and iOS targets

I Will download missing components if needed when building

the apk
I i.e. use with great care when behind a slow network connection