Feature request (with code example): Textbox widget with closable entries

[Alexboiboi]

Hi there,

I had the wish to have a Textbox widget where keywords could be cleared individually by clicking on it.

I quickly made a widget class implementing this idea using also the very nice new combobox widget. I know it is not the way I should make a custom widget but I am not much of a programmer and don't really have the time to do it properly. I thought I'd throw the base idea here.

class SelectorWidget:
    def __init__(self, value='', description = ''):
        self.T = widgets.Combobox(options=[v + ' ' for v in value.split()], layout=widgets.Layout(width='80px'))
        self.T.observe(self.on_T_change, names='value')
        self.buttons= widgets.HBox()
        
        widget = widgets.HBox([self.buttons, self.T], layout=widgets.Layout(border='solid 1px', margin='1px'))
        self.widget = widgets.HBox([widgets.Label(value=description, layout=widgets.Layout(width='60px')), widget])
        self.T.value = value +' '
        self._value = value  
        
    @property
    def value(self):
        return self._value

    @value.setter
    def value(self, val):
        self._value = self.set_widget_value(val, override=True)
        
    
    def set_widget_value(self, val, override=False):
        if override==False:
            buttons_list = [child for child in self.buttons.children]
        else:
            buttons_list = []
        options_list = [o for o in self.T.options] + [v +' ' for v in val.split()]
        self.T.options = list(dict.fromkeys(options_list))
        if val.split() != []:
            for v in val.split():
                if v not in [btn.description for btn in buttons_list]:
                    button = widgets.Button(description = v, icon='window-close',layout=widgets.Layout(width='auto'))
                    button.on_click(self.on_button_click)
                    buttons_list.append(button)
            self.buttons.children = buttons_list
            self.T.value = ''
        return ' '.join([child.description for child in self.buttons.children]) + ' '
   
    def on_button_click(self, b):
        self.buttons.children = [btn for btn in self.buttons.children if btn.description!=b.description]
        self.T.Value = ''
        
   
    def on_T_change(self, change):
        if change.new.rstrip() != change.new:
            self.set_widget_value(change.new.strip())
    
    def _ipython_display_(self):
        display(self.widget)

I would be happy to get some feed back, at least about the idea. Or if I missed a similar feature request somewhere.

Greetings from Austria, and keep up the great job

Alex-

[pbugnion]

Thanks for raising this! Is this addressed by #2591 ?

[Alexboiboi]

Hi @pbugnion, sorry for the late response, I really like what you did here and especially the fact that you can drag and drop between different widgets. I would love to see it implemented in the main ipywidgets package.
I will definitely use it in my projects! Thanks

[Alexboiboi]

Closing, as adressed by #2591