# 11. Support for Glade, the Gtk GUI builder

## 11.1. Introduction

GtkAda now comes with support for the GUI builder Glade-3. Glade-3 provides a graphical interface for designing windows and dialogs. The interface description is saved in an XML file which can be loaded at run-time by your GtkAda application. With this approach, there is no need to write or generate Ada code to describe the interface, all is needed is to write the callbacks for various actions.

## 11.2. Launching Glade

Under UNIX and Linux, Glade is invoked by the command-line script glade-3 which is located in the bin directory of your GtkAda installation. Under Windows, Glade is invoked by clicking on the executable glade-3.exe, also located in the bin directory of your GtkAda installation.

## 11.3. Building your interface

In Glade-3 the interface is done by point-and-clicking. The first step is to create one or more toplevel window and then placing widgets in these windows.

Detailed tutorials can be found at: https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Glade/Tutorials

In the Preferences for your project (menu Edit->Preferences), make sure that the preference “Project file format” is set to “GtkBuilder”.

## 11.4. Using the interface in your application.

Once the interface is built and saved in an XML file, you can use it in your GtkAda application. You will need to use objects defined in the package Gtkada.Builder to load the interface file and to connect subprograms defined in your application to signals emitted by the interface. See the detailed explanations and examples in gtkada-builder.ads