Tips for Saving User Settings Using PySimpleGUI

PySimpleGUI is a simple yet powerful GUI framework for Python that makes it easy to create GUI applications with a few lines of code. One common feature in GUI applications is the ability to save user settings so that they are preserved between sessions. In this tutorial, we’ll go over how to save user settings in a PySimpleGUI application.

Step 1: Import the necessary modules
To use PySimpleGUI to save user settings, you’ll need to import the PySimpleGUI module as well as any other modules you’ll need for your application. Here’s an example of the basic imports you might need:

import PySimpleGUI as sg
import json

Step 2: Define your settings dictionary
Next, you’ll need to define a dictionary to store your user settings. This dictionary will store key-value pairs for each setting you want to save. Here’s an example of how you might define a settings dictionary:

settings = {
    "username": "",
    "theme": "Light",
    "font_size": 12
}

Step 3: Load user settings from a file
To load user settings from a file when your application starts up, you can create a load_settings function that reads the settings from a JSON file. Here’s an example of how you might define a load_settings function:

def load_settings():
    try:
        with open("settings.json", "r") as file:
            data = json.load(file)
            settings.update(data)
    except FileNotFoundError:
        pass

Step 4: Save user settings to a file
To save user settings to a file when your application closes, you can create a save_settings function that writes the settings to a JSON file. Here’s an example of how you might define a save_settings function:

def save_settings():
    with open("settings.json", "w") as file:
        json.dump(settings, file)

Step 5: Use the settings in your application
Now that you have your settings dictionary and functions for loading and saving settings, you can use the settings in your application. For example, you could use the settings to set the theme of your GUI or the font size. Here’s an example of how you might use the settings in a PySimpleGUI application:

# Load settings when the application starts
load_settings()

# Create a PySimpleGUI window
layout = [
    [sg.Text("Username"), sg.InputText(settings["username"])],
    [sg.Text("Theme"), sg.InputCombo(["Light", "Dark"], default_value=settings["theme"])],
    [sg.Text("Font Size"), sg.InputText(settings["font_size"])],
    [sg.Button("Save Settings")]
]

window = sg.Window("Settings Demo", layout)

# Event loop
while True:
    event, values = window.read()

    if event == sg.WIN_CLOSED:
        break

    if event == "Save Settings":
        settings["username"] = values[0]
        settings["theme"] = values[1]
        settings["font_size"] = values[2]
        save_settings()

window.close()

By following these steps, you can easily save user settings in a PySimpleGUI application. This allows users to customize their experience and ensures that their preferences are preserved between sessions. Happy coding!