Using tab panels

A tab panel (style: tabpanel) is a container element that organizes child elements into named tabs. Only one tab is visible at a time; the user switches between tabs by clicking the tab headers.

Basic structure

- style: tabpanel
  position: {x: 10, y: 10, width: -10, height: 160}
  tab:
  - text: Settings
    module: settings_callbacks
    element:
    - style: edit
      position: {x: 10, y: 10, width: 200, height: 24}
      variable: dx
      text: Resolution

  - text: Results
    module: results_callbacks
    element:
    - style: text
      position: {x: 10, y: 10, width: 300, height: 20}
      variable: status

Tab keys

Key	Type	Default	Description
text	str		Tab header label (string also accepted for backward compatibility)
module	str	inherited	Callback module for all elements in this tab
variable_group	str	inherited	Variable group for all elements in this tab
element	list / str		Child elements — either inline list or a path to an external YAML file
dependency	list		Conditional enable/visible rules for the tab itself

Loading elements from external files

For large applications it is convenient to split each tab’s elements into a separate YAML file. Set the element key to a filename (relative to the main config file):

- style: tabpanel
  position: {x: 10, y: 10, width: -10, height: 160}
  tab:
  - text: Grid
    module: grid_callbacks
    element: grid.yml

  - text: Boundaries
    module: boundary_callbacks
    element: boundaries.yml

  - text: Output
    module: output_callbacks
    element: output.yml

The referenced file contains only an element list (no window key):

# grid.yml
element:
- style: spinbox
  position: {x: 10, y: 10, width: 120, height: 24}
  variable: dx
  text: Resolution (m)
  method: update_grid

Tab dependencies

Individual tabs can be shown/hidden or enabled/disabled using dependency rules. This is useful for hiding tabs that are not relevant for the current application state:

tab:
- text: Advanced
  module: advanced_callbacks
  element: advanced.yml
  dependency:
  - action: visible
    checkfor: all
    check:
    - variable: expert_mode
      operator: eq
      value: true

See Element dependencies for the full dependency syntax.

Nested tab panels

Tab panels can be nested — a tab can contain another tabpanel element in its element list. This is useful for building hierarchical interfaces.