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Views and Components⚓︎

Components are interactive elements that can be added to messages your bot or app sends to users. Components allow you to leverage discord's built-in UI elements to create interactive messages that users can interact with.

View is a interface defined by discord.py that allows you to manage components and their interactions/callbacks. They are a necessary tool to create interactive messages.

All tools for creating components are located in the discord.ui module.

Here are all the components you can create:

Creating a View⚓︎

To create a view, you must instantiate a subclass of discord.ui.View or discord.ui.View itself.

Before creating a View it's necessary to take a look at few of its methods:

  • discord.ui.View.add_item(item) - Adds a component to the view.
  • discord.ui.View.interaction_check(interaction) - A check that is called when an interaction is received. If the check returns True, the interaction is processed. If the check returns False, the interaction is ignored.
  • discord.ui.View.on_error(interaction, error, item) - A method that is called when an error occurs while processing an interaction, discord.py doesn't handle errors that occur in views, so you must handle them yourself.
  • discord.ui.View.on_timeout() - A method that is called when the view times out.
  • discord.ui.View.stop() - Stops the view.
  • discord.ui.View.wait() - Waits for the view to stop. A view is stopped when discord.ui.View.stop() is called or when the view times out.

Basic View⚓︎

So keeping these methods in mind, let's create a view:

Python
from __future__ import annotations

import logging
import typing

import discord


class MyView(discord.ui.View):
    message: discord.Message | None = None
    count = 0

    def __init__(self, user: discord.User | discord.Member, timeout: float = 60.0) -> None:
        super().__init__(timeout=timeout)
        self.user = user

    # checks for the view's interactions
    async def interaction_check(self, interaction: discord.Interaction[discord.Client]) -> bool:
        # this method should return True if all checks pass, else False is returned
        # for example, you can check if the interaction was created by the user who
        # ran the command:
        if interaction.user == self.user:
            return True
        # else send a message and return False
        await interaction.response.send_message(f"The command was initiated by {self.user.mention}", ephemeral=True)
        return False

    # do stuff on timeout
    async def on_timeout(self) -> None:
        # this method is called when the period mentioned in timeout kwarg passes.
        # we can do tasks like disabling buttons here.
        for button in self.children:
            button.disabled = True  # type: ignore
        # and update the message with the update View.
        if self.message:
            await self.message.edit(view=self)

    # adding a component using it's decorator
    @discord.ui.button(label="0", style=discord.ButtonStyle.green, )
    async def counter(self, inter: discord.Interaction, button: discord.ui.Button[MyView]) -> None:
        self.count+=1
        button.label = str(self.count)
        await inter.response.edit_message(view=self)

    # error handler for the view
    async def on_error(
        self, interaction: discord.Interaction[discord.Client], error: Exception, item: discord.ui.Item[typing.Any]
    ) -> None:
        tb = "".join(traceback.format_exception(type(error), error, error.__traceback__))
        message = f"An error occurred while processing the interaction for {str(item)}:\n```py\n{tb}\n```"
        await interaction.response.send_message(message)

@bot.command()
async def test(ctx: commands.Context[commands.Bot]) -> None:
    view = MyView(ctx.author)
    view.message = await ctx.send(
        embed=discord.Embed(
            title="Button Counter", description="Click on the button to count", color=discord.Color.blurple()
        ),
        view=view,
    )

Basic Counter

Working with Views⚓︎

This is an advance version of the same view system with better content and error handling.

Python
# Our objectives:
# - Create a view that handles errors
# - Create a view that disables all components after timeout
# - Make sure that the view only processes interactions from the user who invoked the command

from __future__ import annotations

import typing
import traceback

import discord
from discord.ui.select import BaseSelect


class BaseView(discord.ui.View):
    interaction: discord.Interaction | None = None
    message: discord.Message | None = None

    def __init__(self, user: discord.User | discord.Member, timeout: float = 60.0):
        super().__init__(timeout=timeout)
        # We set the user who invoked the command as the user who can interact with the view
        self.user = user

    # make sure that the view only processes interactions from the user who invoked the command
    async def interaction_check(self, interaction: discord.Interaction) -> bool:
        if interaction.user.id != self.user.id:
            await interaction.response.send_message(
                "You cannot interact with this view.", ephemeral=True
            )
            return False
        # update the interaction attribute when a valid interaction is received
        self.interaction = interaction
        return True

    # to handle errors we first notify the user that an error has occurred and then disable all components

    def _disable_all(self) -> None:
        # disable all components
        # so components that can be disabled are buttons and select menus
        for item in self.children:
            if isinstance(item, discord.ui.Button) or isinstance(item, BaseSelect):
                item.disabled = True

    # after disabling all components we need to edit the message with the new view
    # now when editing the message there are two scenarios:
    # 1. the view was never interacted with i.e in case of plain timeout here message attribute will come in handy
    # 2. the view was interacted with and the interaction was processed and we have the latest interaction stored in the interaction attribute
    async def _edit(self, **kwargs: typing.Any) -> None:
        if self.interaction is None and self.message is not None:
            # if the view was never interacted with and the message attribute is not None, edit the message
            await self.message.edit(**kwargs)
        elif self.interaction is not None:
            try:
                # if not already responded to, respond to the interaction
                await self.interaction.response.edit_message(**kwargs)
            except discord.InteractionResponded:
                # if already responded to, edit the response
                await self.interaction.edit_original_response(**kwargs)

    async def on_error(self, interaction: discord.Interaction, error: Exception, item: discord.ui.Item[BaseView]) -> None:
        tb = "".join(traceback.format_exception(type(error), error, error.__traceback__))
        message = f"An error occurred while processing the interaction for {str(item)}:\n```py\n{tb}\n```"
        # disable all components
        self._disable_all()
        # edit the message with the error message
        await self._edit(content=message, view=self)
        # stop the view
        self.stop()

    async def on_timeout(self) -> None:
        # disable all components
        self._disable_all()
        # edit the message with the new view
        await self._edit(view=self)

Note

While all of this seems pretty laborious, it's pretty much just a lot of boilerplate code that you would be having to write over and over again. It's recommended to create a base view class that you can inherit from and then create your own views.

Testing our view⚓︎

Now that we have created our view, let's test out wether it works as intended or not:

  • Lets start by testing out the interaction_check method:

    Python
    @bot.command()
async def test(ctx: commands.Context):
    """A command to test our view"""
    # we will set it to the bot user so that the interaction check fails
    view = BaseView(bot.user)
    view.add_item(discord.ui.Button(label="Test", style=discord.ButtonStyle.blurple))
    view.message = await ctx.send("Testing", view=view)

    Interaction Check

  • Now let's test out the on_error method by raising an error in the callback:

    Python
    @bot.command()
async def test(ctx: commands.Context):
    """A command to test our view"""
    view = BaseView(ctx.author)
    view.add_item(discord.ui.Button(label="Test", style=discord.ButtonStyle.blurple))

    async def callback(interaction: discord.Interaction):
        raise Exception("Test")

    # children is a list of all components in the view
    view.children[0].callback = callback
    view.message = await ctx.send("Testing", view=view)

    On Error

  • Now let's test out the on_timeout method by setting the timeout to 5 seconds:

    Python
    @bot.command()
async def test(ctx: commands.Context):
    """A command to test our view"""
    view = BaseView(ctx.author, timeout=5.0)
    view.add_item(discord.ui.Button(label="Test", style=discord.ButtonStyle.blurple))
    view.message = await ctx.send("Testing", view=view)

    On Timeout

Using our view⚓︎

Now that we have created our view, let's use it to make a few simple commands:

Python
@bot.command()
async def counter(ctx: commands.Context):
    """A counter that counts from 0 to 10"""
    # create a view
    view = BaseView(ctx.author)
    # create a button
    button = discord.ui.Button(label="0", style=discord.ButtonStyle.blurple)
    # create a callback for the button
    async def callback(interaction: discord.Interaction):
        # update the button label
        button.label = str(int(button.label) + 1)
        # edit the message with the new view
        if button.label == "10":
            self._disable_all()
            await self._edit(view=self)
            self.stop()
        else:
            await self._edit(view=self)
    # add the callback to the button
    button.callback = callback
    view.add_item(button)
    # send the message with the view
    view.message = await ctx.send("0-10 Counter", view=view)

Now here's the same example but slightly modified to subclass our BaseView class:

Python
class CounterView(BaseView):
    @discord.ui.button(label="0", style=discord.ButtonStyle.blurple)
    async def count(self, interaction: discord.Interaction, button: discord.ui.Button[BaseView]):
        button.label = str(int(str(button.label)) + 1)
        if button.label == "10":
            self._disable_all()
            await self._edit(view=self)
            self.stop()
        else:
            await self._edit(view=self)

@bot.command()
async def counter(ctx: commands.Context):
    """A counter that counts from 0 to 10"""
    view = CounterView(ctx.author)
    view.message = await ctx.send("0-10 Counter", view=view)

Would you look at that, it's so much cleaner and easier to read.

Counter

Python
@bot.command()
async def confirm(ctx: commands.Context[CustomBot], user: discord.User | discord.Member):
    """A confirmation view"""
    view = BaseView(ctx.author)
    confirm = discord.ui.Button[BaseView](label="Confirm", style=discord.ButtonStyle.gray, emoji="✅", custom_id="yes")
    cancel = discord.ui.Button[BaseView](label="Cancel", style=discord.ButtonStyle.gray, emoji="❌", custom_id="no")

    async def callback(interaction: discord.Interaction):
        view.confirmed = interaction.data["custom_id"] == "yes"
        view._disable_all()
        await view._edit(view=view)
        view.stop()

    confirm.callback = cancel.callback = callback
    view.add_item(confirm)
    view.add_item(cancel)
    view.message = await ctx.send("Are you sure you want to confirm?", view=view)
    # wait for the view to stop
    await view.wait()
    await ctx.send("Confirmed" if view.confirmed else "Cancelled")

And here's the same example but slightly modified to subclass our BaseView class:

Python
class ConfirmationView(BaseView):
    confirmed: bool | None = None

    @discord.ui.button(label="Confirm", style=discord.ButtonStyle.gray, emoji="✅", custom_id="yes")
    async def confirm(self, interaction: discord.Interaction, button: discord.ui.Button[BaseView]):
        self.confirmed = True
        self._disable_all()
        await self._edit(view=self)
        self.stop()

    @discord.ui.button(label="Cancel", style=discord.ButtonStyle.gray, emoji="❌", custom_id="no")
    async def cancel(self, interaction: discord.Interaction, button: discord.ui.Button[BaseView]):
        self.confirmed = False
        self._disable_all()
        await self._edit(view=self)
        self.stop()

@bot.command()
async def confirm(ctx: commands.Context[CustomBot], user: discord.User | discord.Member):
    """A confirmation view"""
    view = ConfirmationView(ctx.author)
    view.message = await ctx.send("Are you sure you want to confirm?", view=view)
    # wait for the view to stop
    await view.wait()
    await ctx.send("Confirmed" if view.confirmed else "Cancelled")

Confirmation

Buttons⚓︎

Buttons are interactive components that render in messages. They can be clicked by users, and send an interaction to your app when clicked. A single message can have up to 25 buttons, 5 in each row.

Buttons have the following attributes:

  • label - The text that appears on the button.
  • style - The style of the button. Can be one of discord.ButtonStyle.primary, discord.ButtonStyle.secondary, discord.ButtonStyle.success, discord.ButtonStyle.danger or discord.ButtonStyle.link.
  • emoji - The emoji that appears on the button.
  • url - The url that the button links to if the style is discord.ButtonStyle.link.
  • disabled - Whether the button is disabled or not.
  • custom_id - The unique identifier for the button. This is used to identify the button when an interaction is received.

Buttons

Creating a Button⚓︎

Buttons can be created either of two ways:

  • By instantiating a discord.ui.Button object and adding it to a view.
  • By using the discord.ui.button decorator to decorate a qualified callback in a subclass of discord.ui.View.
Python
@bot.command()
async def all_buttons(ctx: commands.Context):
    """A command to test all button styles"""
    view = BaseView(ctx.author)
    styles = [
        discord.ButtonStyle.primary,
        discord.ButtonStyle.secondary,
        discord.ButtonStyle.success,
        discord.ButtonStyle.danger,
    ]
    for style in styles:
        view.add_item(discord.ui.Button(label=style.name.title(), style=style))
    view.message = await ctx.send("All Buttons", view=view)

All Buttons

Python
@bot.command()
async def link_button(ctx: commands.Context):
    """A command to test link buttons"""
    view = BaseView(ctx.author)
    view.add_item(discord.ui.Button(label="Link", style=discord.ButtonStyle.link, url="https://google.com"))
    view.message = await ctx.send("Link Button", view=view)

Link Button

Python
@bot.command()
async def emoji_button(ctx: commands.Context):
    """A command to test emoji buttons"""
    view = BaseView(ctx.author)
    emojis = ['⏮️', '◀️', '⏹️', '▶️', '⏭️']
    for emoji in emojis:
        view.add_item(discord.ui.Button(label=emoji, style=discord.ButtonStyle.gray, emoji=emoji))
    view.message = await ctx.send("Emoji Buttons", view=view)
Emoji Buttons

Note

You can use any emoji as a button emoji, even custom emojis. To get the emoji code for a custom emoji, type \:emoji: in discord and send the message. Then copy the emoji code and paste it in the emoji parameter of the discord.ui.Button constructor.

Python
@bot.command()
async def custom_emoji_button(ctx: commands.Context):
    """A command to test custom emoji buttons"""
    view = BaseView(ctx.author)
    view.add_item(discord.ui.Button(style=discord.ButtonStyle.gray, emoji="<a:loveroll:632598533316542465>"))
    view.message = await ctx.send("Custom Emoji Button", view=view)

Custom Emoji Button

Buttons can have custom_ids, which are unique identifiers that can be used to identify a button. In a given message, all buttons must have unique custom_ids. If two buttons have the same custom_id, an error will be raised.

Python
@bot.command()
async def custom_id_button(ctx: commands.Context):
    """A command to test custom id buttons"""
    view = BaseView(ctx.author)
    view.add_item(discord.ui.Button(label="Custom ID", style=discord.ButtonStyle.gray, custom_id="custom_id"))

    async def callback(interaction: discord.Interaction):
        await view._edit(content=str(interaction.data))

    view.children[0].callback = callback
    view.message = await ctx.send("Custom ID Button", view=view)

Custom ID Button

One major use of custom ids is to create create persistent views. Persistent views are views that work even after the bot restarts and has no time limit.

Persistent Buttons⚓︎

In order for a view to be persistent, it must meet the following criteria:

  • The timeout must be set to None.
  • Every component in the view must have a unique custom_id.
  • The view must be added to the bot's persistent views.
Python
class PersistentView(discord.ui.View):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__(timeout=None)  
        colors = [
            discord.ButtonStyle.red,
            discord.ButtonStyle.blurple,
            discord.ButtonStyle.green,
            discord.ButtonStyle.grey,
        ]
        for color in colors:
            self.add_item(discord.ui.Button(label=color.name.title(), style=color, custom_id=color.name))
            self.children[-1].callback = self.callback

    async def callback(self, interaction: discord.Interaction) -> None:
        await interaction.response.send_message(f"You clicked {interaction.data['custom_id']}", ephemeral=True)


@bot.command()
async def persistent(ctx: commands.Context):
    """A command to test persistent views"""
    await ctx.send("Persistent View", view=PersistentView())

Warning

The persistent view needs to be added to the bot's persistent views, otherwise it will not work.

Python
async def setup_hook():
    bot.add_view(PersistentView())

bot.setup_hook = setup_hook
There are multiple places to add the persistent view, you can add it in the setup_hook or in one of the cog's cog_load methods. Just make sure that the view is added before the bot starts.

Persistent View

Warning

At the time of writing this guide, the following part of persistent buttons tutorial requires the development version of discord.py. So you will have to install the development version of discord.py to DynamicItems.

Bash
pip install -U git+https://github.com/Rapptz/discord.py

Why did we not use our BaseView class? Well, the BaseView class has attributes such as message, interaction and user these don't persist after the bot restarts. So to say persistent views don't have any memory of the previous state of the view. Also a large part of our base view class is dedicated to handling timeouts and disabling components after timeout, which is not necessary for persistent views.

Ok so now that we know that memory is not persistent, how do we make it persistent? Well, one way to do it is to use a database to store the state of the view and it's related attributes such as guild_id, channel_id, message_id and view_state. Then when the bot restarts, we can fetch the view state from the database and recreate the view in the interaction_check method. But this is a lot of work and requires a database.

So is there a simpler way to do this? Well, yes there is. Is it recommended? Well, depends the amount of data you want to store. So in order to deal with such cases discord.py provides a discord.ui.DynamicItem class which uses the custom_id of the component to store data. It takes a parameter template which receives a regex pattern and uses it to extract data from the custom_id of the component.

Here's an example:

Python
data = "counter:0:user:1234567890" # this is the data in the custom_id counter:<count>:user:<user_id>
template = re.compile(r"counter:(?P<count>\d+):user:(?P<user_id>\d+)") # this is the regex pattern
match = template.match(data) # match the data with the pattern
print(match.groupdict()) # print the matched data

Important

You can have a maximum of 100 characters in the custom_id of a component.

Matched Data

Now that we know how to extract data from the custom_id of a component, let's create a persistent counter:

Python
from __future__ import annotations

import re
import typing


# DynamicItem is used to work with custom ids of components that store the required data
class DynamicCounter(discord.ui.DynamicItem[discord.ui.Button[discord.ui.View]], template=r"counter:(?P<count>\d+):user:(?P<user_id>\d+)"):
    def __init__(self, count: int, user_id: int):
        self.count = count
        self.user_id = user_id
        super().__init__(
            discord.ui.Button(
                style=discord.ButtonStyle.blurple, label=str(count), custom_id=f"counter:{count}:user:{user_id}"
            )
        )

    # This method needs to be implemented when subclassing DynamicItem
    @classmethod
    async def from_custom_id(cls, interaction: discord.Interaction, item: Item[typing.Any], match: re.Match[str]) -> discord.ui.DynamicItem[typing.Any]:
        return cls(int(match.group("count")), int(match.group("user_id")))

    async def interaction_check(self, interaction: discord.Interaction) -> bool:
        return interaction.user.id == self.user_id

    async def callback(self, interaction: discord.Interaction) -> None:
        self.count += 1
        self.item.label = str(self.count)
        self.item.custom_id = f"counter:{self.count}:user:{self.user_id}"
        await interaction.response.edit_message(view=self.view)


@bot.command()
async def persistent_counter(ctx: commands.Context):
    """A command to test persistent counters"""
    view = discord.ui.View(timeout=None)
    view.add_item(DynamicCounter(0, ctx.author.id))
    await ctx.send("Persistent Counter", view=view)

Persistent Counter

Warning

Similar to persistent views, dynamic items also need to be added to the bot's dynamic items.

Python
async def setup_hook():
    bot.add_dynamic_items(DynamicCounter)

bot.setup_hook = setup_hook

There are multiple places to add the dynamic item, you can add it in the setup_hook or in one of the cog's cog_load methods. Just make sure that the dynamic item is added before the bot starts.

Select Menus⚓︎

Select menus are interactive components that allow users to select one or more options from a dropdown list in messages. A single message can have up to 5 select menus and each select menu can have up to 25 options.

Select menus have the following attributes:

  • placeholder - The text that appears on the select menu when no option is selected.
  • min_values - The minimum number of options that can be selected.
  • max_values - The maximum number of options that can be selected.
  • options - The options that appear in the select menu.
  • disabled - Whether the select menu is disabled or not.
  • custom_id - The unique identifier for the select menu. This is used to identify the select menu when an interaction is received.
  • values - The values of the selected options it's a list of strings.

Select Menus

Creating a Select Menu⚓︎

Select menus can be created either of two ways:

  • By instantiating a discord.ui.Select object and adding it to a view.
  • By using the discord.ui.select decorator to decorate a qualified callback in a subclass of discord.ui.View.
Python
class Menu(BaseView):
    @discord.ui.select(
        cls=discord.ui.Select,
        options=[discord.SelectOption(emoji=f"{chr(127462 + i)}", label=f"{chr(65 + i)}") for i in range(26)][:25],
        placeholder="Select a letter",
        min_values=1,
        max_values=1,
    )
    async def select(self, interaction: discord.Interaction, select: discord.ui.Select[Menus]) -> None:
        await interaction.response.defer()
        await interaction.followup.send(f"You selected {select.values[0]}", ephemeral=True)


@bot.command()
async def select_menu(ctx: commands.Context):
    """A command to test select menus"""
    view = Menu(ctx.author)
    view.message = await ctx.send("Select Menu", view=view)

Select Menu

Python
class ChannelMenu(BaseView):
    @discord.ui.select(
        cls=discord.ui.ChannelSelect,
        placeholder="Select a channel",
        min_values=1,
        max_values=1,
    )
    async def channel_select(self, interaction: discord.Interaction, select: discord.ui.ChannelSelect[Menus]) -> None:
        await interaction.response.defer()
        await interaction.followup.send(f"You selected {select.values[0]}", ephemeral=True)


@bot.command()
async def channel_select_menu(ctx: commands.Context):
    """A command to test channel select menus"""
    view = ChannelMenu(ctx.author)
    view.message = await ctx.send("Channel Select Menu", view=view)

Channel Select Menu

Python
class RoleMenu(BaseView):
    @discord.ui.select(
        cls=discord.ui.RoleSelect,
        placeholder="Select a role",
        min_values=1,
        max_values=1,
    )
    async def role_select(self, interaction: discord.Interaction, select: discord.ui.RoleSelect[Menus]) -> None:
        await interaction.response.defer()
        await interaction.followup.send(f"You selected {select.values[0]}", ephemeral=True)


@bot.command()
async def role_select_menu(ctx: commands.Context):
    """A command to test role select menus"""
    view = RoleMenu(ctx.author)
    view.message = await ctx.send("Role Select Menu", view=view)

Role Select Menu

Python
class UserMenu(BaseView):
    @discord.ui.select(
        cls=discord.ui.UserSelect,
        placeholder="Select a user",
        min_values=1,
        max_values=1,
    )
    async def user_select(self, interaction: discord.Interaction, select: discord.ui.UserSelect[Menus]) -> None:
        await interaction.response.defer()
        await interaction.followup.send(f"You selected {select.values[0]}", ephemeral=True)


@bot.command()
async def user_select_menu(ctx: commands.Context):
    """A command to test user select menus"""
    view = UserMenu(ctx.author)
    view.message = await ctx.send("User Select Menu", view=view)

User Select Menu

Python
class MentionableMenu(BaseView):
    @discord.ui.select(
        cls=discord.ui.MentionableSelect,
        placeholder="Select a mentionable",
        min_values=1,
        max_values=1,
    )
    async def mentionable_select(self, interaction: discord.Interaction, select: discord.ui.MentionableSelect[Menus]) -> None:
        await interaction.response.defer()
        await interaction.followup.send(f"You selected {select.values[0]}", ephemeral=True)


@bot.command()
async def mentionable_select_menu(ctx: commands.Context):
    """A command to test mentionable select menus"""
    view = MentionableMenu(ctx.author)
    view.message = await ctx.send("Mentionable Select Menu", view=view)

Mentionable Select Menu

Persistent Select Menus⚓︎

In order for a view to be persistent, it must meet the following criteria:

  • The timeout must be set to None.
  • Every component in the view must have a unique custom_id.
  • The view must be added to the bot's persistent views.
Python
class PersistentMenu(discord.ui.View):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__(timeout=None)
        self.menu = discord.ui.Select[PersistentMenu](
            custom_id="persistent_menu",
            placeholder="Select a letter",
            min_values=1,
            max_values=1,
            options=[discord.SelectOption(emoji=f"{chr(127462 + i)}", label=f"{chr(65 + i)}") for i in range(26)][:25],
        )
        self.menu.callback = self.callback
        self.add_item(self.menu)

    async def callback(self, interaction: discord.Interaction) -> None:
        await interaction.response.defer()
        assert interaction.data is not None and "custom_id" in interaction.data, "Invalid interaction data"
        await interaction.followup.send(f"You clicked {self.menu.values[0]}", ephemeral=True)


@bot.command()
async def persistent_select_menu(ctx: commands.Context):
    """A command to test persistent select menus"""
    await ctx.send("Persistent Select Menu", view=PersistentMenu())

Persistent Select Menu

Warning

Similar to persistent views, persistent select menus also need to be added to the bot's persistent views.

Python
async def setup_hook():
    bot.add_view(PersistentMenu())

bot.setup_hook = setup_hook

There are multiple places to add the persistent select menu, you can add it in the setup_hook or in one of the cog's cog_load methods. Just make sure that the view is added before the bot starts.

Warning

At the time of writing this guide, the following part of persistent menus tutorial requires the development version of discord.py. So you will have to install the development version of discord.py to DynamicItems.

Bash
pip install -U git+https://github.com/Rapptz/discord.py

Similar to how we used discord.ui.DynamicItem to create persistent counters with buttons, we can use discord.ui.DynamicItem to work with menus as well.

Python
from __future__ import annotations

import re
import typing

class DynamicSelect(discord.ui.DynamicItem[discord.ui.Select[discord.ui.View]], template=r"select-user:(?P<user_id>\d+)"):
    def __init__(self, user_id: int):
        self.user_id = user_id
        super().__init__(
            discord.ui.Select(
                custom_id=f"select-user:{user_id}",
                placeholder="Select a letter",
                min_values=1,
                max_values=1,
                options=[discord.SelectOption(emoji=f"{chr(127462 + i)}", label=f"{chr(65 + i)}") for i in range(26)][:25],
            )
        )

    # This method needs to be implemented when subclassing DynamicItem
    @classmethod
    async def from_custom_id(cls, interaction: discord.Interaction, item: Item[typing.Any], match: re.Match[str]) -> discord.ui.DynamicItem[typing.Any]:
        return cls(int(match.group("user_id")))

    async def interaction_check(self, interaction: discord.Interaction) -> bool:
        return interaction.user.id == self.user_id

    async def callback(self, interaction: discord.Interaction) -> None:
        await interaction.response.defer()
        assert interaction.data is not None and "custom_id" in interaction.data, "Invalid interaction data"
        await interaction.followup.send(f"You clicked {self.item.values[0]}", ephemeral=True)


@bot.command()
async def persistent_dynamic_select_menu(ctx: commands.Context):
    """A command to test persistent dynamic select menus"""
    view = discord.ui.View(timeout=None)
    view.add_item(DynamicSelect(ctx.author.id))
    await ctx.send("Persistent Dynamic Select Menu", view=view)

Persistent Dynamic Select Menu

Warning

Similar to persistent views, dynamic items also need to be added to the bot's dynamic items.

Python
async def setup_hook():
    bot.add_dynamic_items(DynamicSelect)

bot.setup_hook = setup_hook

There are multiple places to add the dynamic item, you can add it in the setup_hook or in one of the cog's cog_load methods. Just make sure that the dynamic item is added before the bot starts.

Modals⚓︎

Modals are how you can prompt users for further detailed input. They act as form popups, and work in tandem with interactive components called Text Inputs. These inputs can have various formats to accept information from the user on prompt, and use the callback to process that information. A modal can only have Text Input components.

Like views, we need to take a look at a few of the methods of the discord.ui.Modal class to understand how to create a modal:

  • on_error(interaction, error, item) - A method that is called when an error occurs while processing an interaction, discord.py doesn't handle errors that occur in modals, so you must handle them yourself.
  • on_submit(interaction) - A method that is called when the modal is submitted.
  • interaction_check(interaction) - A check that is called when an interaction is received. If the check returns True, the interaction is processed. If the check returns False, the interaction is ignored.
  • stop() - Stops the modal.
  • wait() - Waits for the modal to stop. A modal is stopped when discord.ui.Modal.stop() is called or when the modal times out.

So now just like how we created a base view class, let's create a base modal class:

Python
from __future__ import annotations

import traceback

import discord

class BaseModal(discord.ui.Modal):
    _interaction: discord.Interaction | None = None

    # sets the interaction attribute when a valid interaction is received i.e modal is submitted
    # via this we can know if the modal was submitted or it timed out
    async def on_submit(self, interaction: discord.Interaction) -> None:
        # if not responded to, defer the interaction
        if not interaction.response.is_done():
            await interaction.response.defer()
        self._interaction = interaction
        self.stop()

    # make sure any errors don't get ignored
    async def on_error(self, interaction: discord.Interaction, error: Exception) -> None:
        tb = "".join(traceback.format_exception(type(error), error, error.__traceback__))
        message = f"An error occurred while processing the interaction:\n```py\n{tb}\n```"
        try:
            await interaction.response.send_message(message, ephemeral=True)
        except discord.InteractionResponded:
            await interaction.edit_original_response(content=message, view=None)
        self.stop()

    @property
    def interaction(self) -> discord.Interaction | None:
        return self._interaction

Modals can only have text inputs, so let's take a look at the discord.ui.TextInput class:

  • label - The text that appears above the text input.
  • placeholder - The text that appears in the text input when no text is entered.
  • min_length - The minimum length of the text that can be entered.
  • max_length - The maximum length of the text that can be entered.
  • style - The style of the text input. Can be one of discord.TextStyle.short, discord.TextStyle.long or discord.TextStyle.paragraph which is just an alias for discord.TextStyle.long.
  • value - The value of the text input.

With that out of the way, let's delve into testing and working with modals.

Testing our modal⚓︎

Now that we have created our modal, let's test out whether it works as intended or not:

  • Lets start by testing out the on_error method by raising an error in the callback:

    Python
    import typing

@bot.tree.command()
async def modal(inter: discord.Interaction):
    """A command to test modals"""
    mymodal = BaseModal(title="Error Modal")

    async def callback(interaction: discord.Interaction) -> None:
        raise RuntimeError(typing.cast(discord.ui.TextInput[BaseModal], mymodal.children[0]).value)

    mymodal.add_item(discord.ui.TextInput(label="Error", placeholder="Enter an error message", min_length=1, max_length=100))
    mymodal.on_submit = callback
    await inter.response.send_modal(mymodal)

    Modal Error Error Modal

  • Now let's test out the on_timeout method by setting the timeout to 5 seconds:

    Python
    import typing

@bot.tree.command()
async def modal(inter: discord.Interaction):
    """A command to test modals"""
    mymodal = BaseModal(title="Timeout Modal", timeout=5.0)
    mymodal.add_item(discord.ui.TextInput(label="Timeout", placeholder="Enter a timeout message", min_length=1, max_length=100))
    await inter.response.send_modal(mymodal)
    await mymodal.wait()
    await inter.followup.send("Modal Timed Out" if mymodal.interaction is None else "Modal Submitted")

    Modal Timeout Timeout Modal

Using our modal⚓︎

Now that we have created our modal, let's use it to make a simple Tag Creation system:

Python
class TagModal(BaseModal, title="Tag Creation"):
    tag_title = discord.ui.TextInput(label="Tag Title", placeholder="Enter a tag title", min_length=1, max_length=100, style=discord.TextStyle.short)
    tag_content = discord.ui.TextInput(label="Tag Content", placeholder="Enter a tag content", min_length=1, max_length=300, style=discord.TextStyle.long)

    async def on_submit(self, interaction: discord.Interaction) -> None:
        embed = discord.Embed(title=self.tag_title.value, description=self.tag_content.value, color=discord.Color.blurple())
        embed.set_thumbnail(url=interaction.user.display_avatar)
        embed.timestamp = discord.utils.utcnow()
        await interaction.response.send_message(embed=embed, ephemeral=True)
        await super().on_submit(interaction)


@bot.tree.command()
async def tag(inter: discord.Interaction):
    """A command to test modals"""
    await inter.response.send_modal(TagModal())

Tag Message Tag Modal

Note

A modal can have a total of 5 text inputs. Text inputs can have a maximum of 4000 characters.

Conclusion⚓︎

This concludes the basics of utilizing discord components in your bot. You can use these components to create interactive commands and menus, pagination system, games, etc. The possibilities are endless.

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