In this article I will show you how to build a graphical user interface (GUI) using the Python programming language that you can use for a chat bot. So no, this won’t be an actual chat bot, I will be focusing on just the graphical user interface components. This is a good exercise to get familiar with creating GUI’s using Python. The graphical user interface (GUI) is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicators such as primary notation, instead of text-based user interfaces, typed command labels or text navigation. -wikipedia

Let’s start programming !

The first thing that I like to do before writing a single line of code is to put in a description in comments of what the code does. This way I can look back on my code and know exactly what it does.

#Description: This is a chat bot GUI

Next I will load the library that I will need to create this GUI.

#Import the library
from tkinter import *

Next I will create the tkinter object. This represents the parent window.

root = Tk()

Now, I will give the Window a title, a shape, and make it such that it can’t be resized.

root.title("Chat Bot")
root.geometry("400x500")
root.resizable(width=FALSE, height=FALSE)

Let’s create the main menu.

main_menu = Menu(root)

Add some sub menus to the main menu.

# Create the submenu 
file_menu = Menu(root)

# Add commands to submenu
file_menu.add_command(label="New..")
file_menu.add_command(label="Save As..")
file_menu.add_command(label="Exit")
main_menu.add_cascade(label="File", menu=file_menu)
#Add the rest of the menu options to the main menu
main_menu.add_command(label="Edit")
main_menu.add_command(label="Quit")
root.config(menu=main_menu)

Create a window for the conversation and place it on the parent window.

chatWindow = Text(root, bd=1, bg="black",  width="50", height="8", font=("Arial", 23), foreground="#00ffff")
chatWindow.place(x=6,y=6, height=385, width=370)

Create the text area where the messages will be entered and place it on the parent window.

messageWindow = Text(root, bd=0, bg="black",width="30", height="4", font=("Arial", 23), foreground="#00ffff")
messageWindow.place(x=128, y=400, height=88, width=260)

Create a scroll bar and place it on the parent window.

scrollbar = Scrollbar(root, command=chatWindow.yview, cursor="star")
scrollbar.place(x=375,y=5, height=385)

Create a button to send the message and place it on the parent window.

Button= Button(root, text="Send",  width="12", height=5,
                    bd=0, bg="#0080ff", activebackground="#00bfff",foreground='#ffffff',font=("Arial", 12))
Button.place(x=6, y=400, height=88)

Run the main loop.

root.mainloop()

That’s it, we are done creating this program !

Originally published by randerson112358 at medium

#python