How to Prevent Multiple Windows in PySimpleGUI for Your Python Application

Discover the solution to prevent PySimpleGUI from opening multiple windows in your application. Learn how to streamline your GUI process while maintaining user input functionality!
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Stop PySimpleGUI from Opening New Windows: A Simple Guide

Are you struggling with PySimpleGUI creating new windows every time you submit a form? If you are attempting to add a graphical user interface (GUI) to your web scraper and find that each submission opens a new window, you’re not alone! This issue can be frustrating as it forces the user to navigate between multiple identical windows, causing confusion and preventing efficient use of input and output functionalities.

In this guide, we will dive into a clear solution to prevent multiple windows from opening and ensure that your existing window remains usable. Let’s look into the problem and break down the solution step-by-step.

Understanding the Problem

In the original setup, the window creation code is located within a while True loop. This means every iteration of the loop constructs a new instance of the window along with its associated layout and widgets. This repetitive creation is what leads to the unwanted behavior of opening new windows.

Key Symptoms to Recognize:

Submitting data leads to multiple identical window instances.

Older windows become non-functional, ignoring any input after a new window pops up.

The Solution: Restructure Your Code

To achieve a single-window experience, we need to refactor the code by moving the window creation outside the loop. This ensures that only one window is maintained, and you can interact with it consistently. Here’s how you can do just that:

Step 1: Extract Window Creation from the Loop

Instead of generating a new window every time in the loop, create the window once before the loop starts. Here's a modification of your code:

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Step 2: Handle Input and Output Properly

This solution will stop new windows from being created. However, you must be aware that using twisted reactors (for Scrapy) will throw an error if you try to restart them. You may need to implement additional methods to handle this if you wish to submit subsequent URLs after the first has been processed.

Conclusion

By initializing your GUI window outside the input loop, you can maintain user engagement and streamline your application's workflow. Remember, the primary goal is to provide a clear interface that doesn't overwhelm users with repetitive windows. With the adjustments suggested, you should now have the functionality you seek without the chaos of multiple windows!

If you have any more questions or need further assistance regarding PySimpleGUI, feel free to ask! Happy coding!