custom_viewer.md

Combine Existing Components

This guide addresses how to build custom components that are combinations of existing components.

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The simplest way to extend Panel is to implement a so called Viewer component that can wrap multiple existing Panel components into an easily reusable unit that behaves like a native Panel component.

Let's create a composite EditableRange component made up of two FloatInput widgets. First, we will create the widgets:

:emphasize-lines: 13-14

import param
import panel as pn
from panel.viewable import Viewer
pn.extension() # for notebook

class EditableRange(Viewer):

    value = param.Range(doc="A numeric range.")

    width = param.Integer(default=300)

    def __init__(self, **params):
        self._start_input = pn.widgets.FloatInput()
        self._end_input = pn.widgets.FloatInput(align='end')
        super().__init__(**params)
        self._layout = pn.Row(self._start_input, self._end_input)

Then, we set up callbacks to sync the parameters on the underlying widgets with the parameters on the Viewer component.

:emphasize-lines: 17, 19-29

import param
import panel as pn
from panel.viewable import Viewer
pn.extension() # for notebook

class EditableRange(Viewer):

    value = param.Range(doc="A numeric range.")

    width = param.Integer(default=300)

    def __init__(self, **params):
        self._start_input = pn.widgets.FloatInput()
        self._end_input = pn.widgets.FloatInput(align='end')
        super().__init__(**params)
        self._layout = pn.Row(self._start_input, self._end_input)
        self._sync_widgets()

    @param.depends('value', 'width', watch=True)
    def _sync_widgets(self):
        self._start_input.name = self.name
        self._start_input.value = self.value[0]
        self._end_input.value = self.value[1]
        self._start_input.width = self.width//2
        self._end_input.width = self.width//2

    @param.depends('_start_input.value', '_end_input.value', watch=True)
    def _sync_params(self):
        self.value = (self._start_input.value, self._end_input.value)

Finally, we'll implement the required __panel__ method, which returns the Panel layout to be rendered. Panel will call this method when displaying the component.

import param
import panel as pn

from panel.viewable import Viewer

pn.extension() # for notebook

class EditableRange(Viewer):

    value = param.Range(doc="A numeric range.")

    width = param.Integer(default=300)

    def __init__(self, **params):
        self._start_input = pn.widgets.FloatInput()
        self._end_input = pn.widgets.FloatInput(align='end')
        super().__init__(**params)
        self._layout = pn.Row(self._start_input, self._end_input)
        self._sync_widgets()

    def __panel__(self):
        return self._layout

    @param.depends('value', 'width', watch=True)
    def _sync_widgets(self):
        self._start_input.name = self.name
        self._start_input.value = self.value[0]
        self._end_input.value = self.value[1]
        self._start_input.width = self.width//2
        self._end_input.width = self.width//2

    @param.depends('_start_input.value', '_end_input.value', watch=True)
    def _sync_params(self):
        self.value = (self._start_input.value, self._end_input.value)

range_widget = EditableRange(name='Range', value=(0, 10))

pn.Column(
    '#### This is a custom widget',
    range_widget
)

Related Resources

• To create custom components from scratch, check out How To > Build Components from Scratch and read the associated Explanation > Building Custom Components for further explanation.