Home Security/Automation System - Monitor Screen

Monitor Screen - under development

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As mentioned on the previous post, I'm performing the GUI portion of the Home Security/Automation System using Kivy.

I've had quite a learning curve to get the Monitor Screen (below) to the point where it is now.  While I like Kivy, the documentation is still a struggle for me, so I have to build a lot of simple GUIs and work with them, then gradually adding complexity.

The screen below is a mockup of what I'm envisioning.  It doesn't have any logic behind it, just ability to show the zone buttons and checkboxes.

I don't like the way the checkboxes are being displayed.  With the buttons, it's easy to see the button boundary, but the checkboxes just all run together to me; can't really tell where one zone's checkboxes ends and another's begins.

So I'm researching, trying to find a way to add some sort of visual delimiter that separates the zone's checkboxes from the next zone's checkboxes.

Here's what I've got so far (first the picture, then the code - note: Kivy code is two part; a Python portion (*.py) and a Kivy language portion (*.kv).  I've posted both below.

First - the picture of the Monitor Screen (currently titled as 'Dynamic Button Text')

Here's the Python code:

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
#
#  DynamicButtonText.py
#
#  http://BBQandBanjos.blogspot.com
#  

# Given a Dictionary of dynamic names,
# pick each up and assign it to the Button text.
# 

from kivy.app import App
from kivy.uix.boxlayout import BoxLayout
from kivy.uix.gridlayout import GridLayout
from kivy.uix.button import Button
from kivy.uix.label import Label
from kivy.uix.checkbox import CheckBox

class ZoneList():
    _zoneL = ["Basement","Sun Room","Den","Living Room","Front Door"]

class ZoneElements(GridLayout):
    pass

class ZoneCheckBoxes(GridLayout):
    _instance_count = -1
    _zoneNames = ZoneList._zoneL

    def __init__(self, **kwargs):
        super(ZoneCheckBoxes, self).__init__(**kwargs)
        ZoneCheckBoxes._instance_count += 1
    

class ZoneButton(Button):
    _instance_count = -1
    _zoneNames = ZoneList._zoneL
    
    def __init__(self, **kwargs):
        super(ZoneButton, self).__init__(**kwargs)
        ZoneButton._instance_count += 1

class ZoneLayout(BoxLayout):
    def __init__(self, **kwargs):
        super(ZoneLayout, self).__init__(**kwargs)
        for i in range(len(ZoneList._zoneL)):
            self.add_widget(ZoneElements())

class DynamicButtonText(App):
    pass

def main():
    DynamicButtonText().run()   #run kivy app
    
    return 0

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

    

========

And here's the Kivy code:


#dynamicbuttontext.kv

ZoneLayout:

:
    orientation: 'vertical'
            
:
    text: "Zone " + str(root._instance_count + 1) + ": " + root._zoneNames[root._instance_count]
#    text: "Button: "
        
:
    cols:2
    CheckBox:
        active: True
        group: "Zone " + root._zoneNames[root._instance_count]
    Label:
        text: "Active"
        
    CheckBox:
        group: "Zone " + root._zoneNames[root._instance_count]
    Label:
        text: "Inactive"
    
    CheckBox:
        group: "Zone " + root._zoneNames[root._instance_count]
    Label:
        text: "Bypass"
    
    CheckBox:
        group: "Zone " + root._zoneNames[root._instance_count]
    Label:
        text: "Monitor"
    
    CheckBox:
        group: "Zone " + root._zoneNames[root._instance_count]
    Label:
        text: "Test"


:
    cols: 2
    ZoneButton:

    ZoneCheckBoxes: