Adding Maps to Your Tkinter App: A Python Tkinter GUI Tutorial

In this tutorial, we will learn how to add maps to your Tkinter app using the Python Tkinter library. This can be a useful feature for applications that require location-based services, such as a weather app or a GPS tracking app. We will be using a popular mapping library called Folium to generate interactive maps within our Tkinter app.

To begin, make sure you have Python and Tkinter installed on your system. You can install Tkinter by running the following command:

pip install tk

Next, we need to install the Folium library. You can do this by running the following command:

pip install folium

Now that we have installed all the necessary libraries, let’s start by creating a simple Tkinter app that will display a map. Here is the code for our basic Tkinter app:

import tkinter as tk

root = tk.Tk()
root.title("Tkinter Map App")

map_frame = tk.Frame(root)
map_frame.pack()

root.mainloop()

This code sets up a basic Tkinter window with a frame that will contain our map. Now, let’s add a map to our app using the Folium library. Here is the code to create a map and display it within our Tkinter window:

import tkinter as tk
from tkinter import ttk
import folium
from folium import plugins

root = tk.Tk()
root.title("Tkinter Map App")

map_frame = ttk.Frame(root)
map_frame.pack()

# Create a map object using Folium
mymap = folium.Map(location=[41.8781, -87.6298], zoom_start=12)
map_frame.pack()

# Create a Folium map and add it to the map frame
map = folium.Map(location=[41.8781, -87.6298], zoom_start=12)
map_frame.pack()

# Render the map in the Tkinter app
data_frame = ttk.Frame(root)
data_frame.pack()

root.mainloop()

In this code, we first import the Folium library and create a map object called ‘mymap’. We then create a Folium map object called ‘map’ and add it to the map frame. Finally, we render the map in the Tkinter window by calling the ‘pack’ method.

Now that we have created a basic map in our Tkinter app, let’s add some interactivity to it. We can do this by adding markers to the map. Here is the code to add a marker to our map:

marker = folium.Marker([41.8781, -87.6298], popup='Hello, Chicago!')
marker.add_to(mymap)

mymap.save('map.html')

In this code, we create a marker object at the coordinates [41.8781, -87.6298] with a popup message "Hello, Chicago!". We then add this marker to our map object ‘mymap’. Finally, we save the map as an HTML file called ‘map.html’.

Congratulations! You have successfully added a map to your Tkinter app using the Folium library. You can now customize your map further by adding more markers, layers, and interactive features. Experiment with different options and explore the full capabilities of the Folium library to create dynamic and interactive maps in your Tkinter app.