How do you refresh the contents of an R gWidget?

Question

I'm creating a GUI in R using gWidgets (more specifically gWidgetstcltk). I'd like to know how to update the contents of selection-type widgets, such as gdroplist and gtable. I currently have a rather hackish method of deleting the widget and re-creating it. I'm sure there's a better way.

This simple example displays all the variables in the global environment.

library(gWidgets)
library(gWidgetstcltk)

create.widgets <- function()
{
  grp <- ggroup(container = win)
  ddl <- gdroplist(ls(envir = globalenv()), 
    container = grp)
  refresh <- gimage("refresh", 
    dirname   = "stock",
    container = grp,
    handler   = function(h, ...)
    {
      if(exists("grp") && !is.null(grp)) 
      {
        delete(win, grp)
      }
      create.widgets()   
    }
  )
}

win <- gwindow()
create.widgets()

Answer 1

AFAIK those refresh events are often owned by the window manager so this may be tricky.

Answer 2

I spoke to John Verzani, creator of the gWidgets* packages, and the answer is incredibly simple (though not entirely intuitive). You access the contents of list-type widgets with widget_name[].

library(gWidgets)
library(gWidgetstcltk)

get_list_content <- function() ls(envir = globalenv())  # or whatever

win <- gwindow()
grp <- ggroup(container = win)
ddl <- gdroplist(get_list_content(), container = grp)
refresh <- gimage("refresh", 
  dirname   = "stock",
  container = grp,
  handler   = function(h, ...) ddl[] <- get_list_content()   
)

Note that there are some restrictions: radio button lists must remain the same length.

win <- gwindow()
rb <- gradio(1:10, cont = win)
rb[] <- 2:11     # OK
rb[] <- 1:5      # Throws an error; can't change length.