PyWinBox

Cross-Platform module which allows to manage window areas (position and size) and all their properties, as well as any rectangular area on screen.

PyWinBox is similar to PyGame.Rect object, but extended with some useful features:

• Supports window areas, even if the window belongs to a foreign application
• Invokes custom callbacks whenever any area property is queried or changed
• Works in multi-monitor setups
• Manages both Rect and Box structs
• Provides convenient named-tuple structs to ease handling geometry properties and their attributes

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1. Rectangular Areas
2. Window Areas
   1. Window Handle Formats
   2. Default Callbacks
   3. Custom Callbacks
3. Class Properties
4. Data Structs
5. Install
6. Support
7. Using this code
8. Test

Rectangular Areas

You just need to instantiate the PyWinBox class, passing custom callbacks to be called when any property is queried (onQuery) or set (onSet).

myBox = pywinbox.PyWinBox(onQuery=customOnQuery, onSet=customOnSet)

For rectangular areas, it is necessary to pass custom (not default) callbacks which actually manage the box struct values, or the struct will be empty and/or useless.

Window Areas

To manage window areas, you need to also pass the window handle when instantiating the class.

Window Handle Formats

Platform	Handle format
MS-Windows	int (window id) or str (as returned by e.g. PyQt's winId() method)
Linux	int (window id) or X-Window object
macOS / foreign window	tuple of strings (appName, windowTitle) — to manage a window from another application
macOS / own window	NSWindow object — to manage your own application window

Search for cross-platform modules if you need a cross-platform handle. For instance, you can obtain handles using PyWinCtl's getHandle(), getAppName() or title methods.

Default Callbacks

When a window handle is provided, you can use the built-in default methods by passing None:

Callback	Behavior
default onQuery	Updates the window position and size values when any property is queried
default onSet	Moves and/or resizes the window when any property is set

myBox = pywinbox.PyWinBox(onQuery=None, onSet=None, handle=windowHandle)

Custom Callbacks

You can define and pass your own callback functions if you need to perform additional actions on these events.

Important: If your custom functions do not properly retrieve or set the actual window position and size, the information contained in the PyWinBox class — and returned by all properties — will likely become obsolete.

You can call the built-in methods from within your custom callbacks to keep the struct in sync:

def customOnQuery():
    currBox = myBox.onQuery()  # Retrieves the current window's box
    # ... do your stuff ...
    return currBox

def customOnSet(newBox: Box):
    myBox.onSet(newBox)  # Actually moves/resizes the window
    # ... do your stuff ...

myBox = pywinbox.PyWinBox(onQuery=customOnQuery, onSet=customOnSet, handle=windowHandle)

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Class Properties

All position and size properties are readable and writable. Setting any property will trigger the onSet callback; reading any property will trigger the onQuery callback.

Properties	Description
left, top, right, bottom	Individual edge coordinates
width, height	Dimensions
size	(width, height)
topleft, topright, bottomleft, bottomright	Corner coordinates as (x, y)
midtop, midleft, midbottom, midright	Mid-edge coordinates as (x, y)
center	Center point as (x, y)
centerx, centery	Individual center coordinates
box	(left, top, width, height)
rect	(left, top, right, bottom)

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Data Structs

These named tuples provide a convenient way to manage and pass geometry values throughout your code:

Struct	Fields
Box	left, top, width, height
Rect	left, top, right, bottom
Size	width, height
Point	x, y

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Install

To install this module on your system, you can use pip:

python -m pip install pywinbox

or using uv:

uv add pywinbox

Alternatively, you can download the wheel file (.whl) available in the Download page and the dist folder, and run this (don't forget to replace 'x.x.xx' with the proper version number):

python -m pip install PyWinBox-x.x.xx-py3-none-any.whl

You may want to add --force-reinstall to be sure you are installing the right dependencies version.

Then, you can use it on your own projects just importing it:

import pywinbox

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Support

In case you have a problem, comments or suggestions, do not hesitate to open issues on the project homepage.

Using this code

If you want to use this code or contribute, you can either:

• Create a fork of the repository, or
• Download the repository, uncompress, and open it on your IDE of choice (e.g. PyCharm)

Be sure you install all dev dependencies by running:

uv sync

or

python -m venv .venv
python -m pip install -e . --group=dev

Test

To test this module on your own system, cd to the tests folder and run:

uv run test_pywinbox.py

For macOS NSWindow, you can also test using:

uv run test_MacNSBox.py