Introduction#

Project Overview#

Clera is a Python-based framework for rapidly building cross-platform GUI applications. Built atop PySide6, it simplifies creating visually appealing and interactive applications with minimal effort. Clera’s focus is on:

  • Rapid Prototyping: Quickly create GUI applications with minimal code.

  • Simplicity: Intuitive syntax and streamlined design for fast learning and prototyping.

  • Flexibility: Customizable widgets and layouts for a wide range of use cases.

  • Quality: Native look and feel on all supported platforms (Windows, Linux, macOS).

  • Efficiency: Reduce development time while ensuring robustness.

Why is it useful?#

  • Simplifies GUI development with reusable components.

  • Reduces development time with prebuilt widgets and layouts.

  • Provides flexibility for both beginners and advanced users.

What’s New in v0.3.0#

Version 0.3.0 is the first developer beta release and introduces several new widgets and layout features:

  • Splitter — resizable split panes with live drag support.

  • TreeView — hierarchical tree widget with drag-and-drop, inline editing, and sorting.

  • SpinBox — numeric input with integer and float modes, prefix and suffix.

  • cursor() — custom cursor support per widget or window.

  • font() — load external font files for use in CSS.

  • Context menus — built-in and custom right-click menus on Image, ListWidget, Select, and Table.

  • Box and Grid — now accept css, size, fixed_size, min_size, max_size, and id.

  • Window — new radius, alignment, hide_cursor, fullscreen(), and multi-window support via instance and child parameters.

  • MenuBar — renamed from Menubar (old alias still supported).

Target Audience#

Clera is designed for:

  • Developers who want to create GUI applications without extensive experience in GUI frameworks.

  • Beginners exploring Python for GUI development and want an easy-to-use GUI framework.

  • Advanced users looking for a framework to prototype and deploy quickly.

  • GUI application creators, ranging from beginners to advanced users.

Scope#

This guide covers:

  1. Installation and setup.

  2. Quick start examples.

  3. Beginner and advanced usage guides

  4. In-depth usage of widgets and layouts.

  5. Tutorials, FAQs, and troubleshooting tips.