PySimpleGUI/DemoPrograms/Demo_Multithreaded_Queued.py

from queue import Queue
from threading import Thread
from time import sleep

import PySimpleGUI as sg

"""
    DESIGN PATTERN - Multithreaded GUI
    One method for running multiple threads in a PySimpleGUI environment.
    The PySimpleGUI code, and thus the underlying GUI framework, runs as the primary, main thread
    Other parts of the software are implemented as threads
    
    A queue.Queue is used by the worker threads to communicate with code that calls PySimpleGUI directly.
    The PySimpleGUI code is structured just like a typical PySimpleGUI program.  A layout defined,
        a Window is created, and an event loop is executed.
    What's different is that within this otherwise normal PySimpleGUI Event Loop, there is a check for items
        in the Queue.  If there are items found, process them by making GUI changes, and continue.
    
    This design pattern works for all of the flavors of PySimpleGUI including the Web and also repl.it
    You'll find a repl.it version here: https://repl.it/@PySimpleGUI/Async-With-Queue-Communicationspy
"""


def worker_thread(thread_name, run_freq,  gui_queue):
    """
    A worker thrread that communicates with the GUI
    These threads can call functions that block withouth affecting the GUI (a good thing)
    :param thread_name: Text name used  for displaying info
    :param run_freq: How often the thread should run in milliseconds
    :param gui_queue: Queue used to communicate with the GUI
    :return:
    """
    print('Starting thread - ', thread_name)
    i = 0
    while True:
        sleep(run_freq/1000)
        gui_queue.put('{} - {}'.format(thread_name, i))
        i += 1


def the_gui(gui_queue):
    """
    starts and executes the GUI.  Returns when the user exits / closes the window
    reads data from a Queue and displays the data
    :param gui_queue: Queue the GUI should read from
    :return:
    """
    layout = [ [sg.Text('Your GUI Window')],
               [sg.Text('', size=(15,1), key='_OUTPUT_')],
               [sg.Button('Exit')],]

    window = sg.Window('Window Title').Layout(layout)

    while True:             # Event Loop
        event, values = window.Read(timeout=100)        # wait for up to 200 ms for a GUI event
        if event is None or event == 'Exit':
            break
        #--------------- Handle stuff coming in from threads ---------------
        while True:                 # loop executes until runs out of messages in Queue
            try:                    # see if something has been posted to Queue
                message = gui_queue.get_nowait()
            except:                 # will get exception when Queue is empty
                break               # break from the loop if no more messages are queued up
            # if message received from queue, display the message in the Window
            if message:
                window.Element('_OUTPUT_').Update(message)
                window.Refresh()

    # if user exits the window, then close the window and exit
    window.Close()


if __name__ == '__main__':
    #-- Create a Queue to communicate with GUI --
    gui_queue = Queue()             # queue used to communicate between the gui and the worker
    #-- Start worker threads, one runs twice as often as the other
    Thread(target=worker_thread, args=('Thread 1', 500, gui_queue,),  daemon=True).start()
    Thread(target=worker_thread, args=('Thread 2', 200, gui_queue,),  daemon=True).start()
    #-- Start the GUI passing in the Queue --
    the_gui(gui_queue)