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Guides

Guides teach you how to build applications with bootstack — workflow-oriented, example-driven, opinionated.

Where things live

bootstack documentation is organized so that each topic has a single canonical home. Knowing which section to look in saves a lot of searching.

  • Guides teach you how to build. Read these first.
  • Widgets document what each widget does and its parameters.
  • Design System catalogs the design tokens (colors, typography, variants).
  • Capabilities (under API Reference) document widget-trait mixins (bind, after, focus, grab, pack, grid) for users who need precise mixin behavior.
  • Platform explains Tk/ttk fundamentals — read when integrating with raw Tk or debugging deep behavior.
  • Tooling covers the CLI, project structure, and packaging.
  • API Reference is the autogenerated source of truth.

When a topic appears in two places, the guide is canonical and the others link to it.

Available guides

Application

  • App Structure — How a bootstack application is organized: windows, layout, state, and lifecycle.
  • App Settings — Configuring application-wide settings and preferences.

Layout

  • Layout — Building layouts with Frame, PackFrame, GridFrame, and Card.
  • Spacing & Alignment — Padding, gap, alignment, sizing, and auto-flow in bootstack containers.
  • Navigation — Tabs, stacked pages, and sidebar navigation patterns.

Data

  • DataSource — Managing data with filtering, sorting, pagination, and CRUD operations.
  • Data Tables — Wiring TableView to a DataSource: columns, selection, filtering, pagination, and exporting.
  • Reactivity — Signals, callbacks, and events — what each is for, and how to combine them.
  • Forms & Input — Picking input widgets, layout patterns, submit handling, and error display.
  • Validation — Validating user input with rules, triggers, and form-level checks.

Visual design

  • Color & Theming — Accent, variant, and surface tokens; theme palettes; runtime switching; custom themes.
  • Typography — Using font tokens, modifiers, and the Font class.
  • Icons — Using icons effectively — named resources, Bootstrap Icons catalog, theme integration.

Internationalization

  • Formatting — Locale-aware number, date, and time formatting.
  • Localization — Making applications language-aware with message catalogs.

Operations

  • Debugging — Practical debugging strategies for bootstack applications.
  • Performance — Performance considerations and event-loop awareness.

How to use guides

Guides assume you understand the basics — they focus on showing patterns, not explaining syntax from scratch.

  1. Start with a guide that matches your current task.
  2. Adapt the examples; they are runnable.
  3. Use the linked Widget, Design System, and Reference docs for details.
  4. Return to Guides when you encounter new patterns.

If you're new to bootstack, read App Structure first to understand how applications are organized, then Layout for the recommended approach to building UIs.