This how-to assumes basic knowledge of how to use Glade. However, even if you've never used it before, rest assured that it's quite easy.

Glade is a graphical tool for creating a GTK user interface by dragging widgets onto a canvas or into other widgets (in which case they become children) and then optionally selecting widgets and modifying their properties. The result is an XML file with the .gladeextension that contains a description of the user interface that can be imported into various languages, including Python. After importing the .glade file, you can access the widgets using the names you gave them in Glade and then use them programmatically.

As noted, one important point is how to deal with the fact that Glade cannot create a Hildon Window. It can only create a GTK Window, and indeed it requires one as a parent for most other widgets (but not menus). So, in Glade, you create the GTK Window and add widgets to it, then, in your Python you "reparent" the GTK Window's child widgets to your real Hildon Window. To minimize reparenting, this example program's root window has only one child, a GTK VBox widget, which in turn contains child widgets. So, this VBox must be reparented from the GTK Window to a Hildon Window.

Let's take a look at these steps in a little more detail, but first let's review the Python program's basic structure.