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Archived discussions · Captured October 28, 2026

Is it possible to make the 'box_select' tool the default (initially selected) tool?

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forest_bremer
forest_bremer

I am working with a bokeh-server app derived from the stock_app example, and the most used pan/drag functionality is the ‘box_select’ tool.
I would like to make this the default tool without having to remove all other pan/drag tools.

Is this possible?

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Bryan
Bryan

Not currently. Tools are grouped by gesture, then sorted by their "default_order", and then the first tool of each gesture is activated:

  https://github.com/bokeh/bokeh/blob/msater/bokehjs/src/coffee/common/tool_manager.coffee#L97

Unfortunately "default_order" is not exposed on the python side. If it were, you could change the default_order of the "box_select" tool so that it came first in the list and was thus activated by default. Fortunately this would be a trivia change to make. Can you make a GH issue for this feature?

  Issues · bokeh/bokeh · GitHub

If you are feeling up to it, I would be happy to help you with a Pull Request to implement this change. Otherwise, we will schedule it for an upcoming release as soon as we can.

Note: a fuller solution would let you specify the default tool independently from the order in the toolbar, but this would take more effort to accomplish.

Bryan

···

On Jul 30, 2015, at 7:57 PM, forest bremer <forest.bremer@gmail.com> wrote:

I am working with a bokeh-server app derived from the stock_app example, and the most used pan/drag functionality is the 'box_select' tool.
I would like to make this the default tool without having to remove all other pan/drag tools.

Is this possible?

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siddhartha.a.gandhi
siddhartha.a.gandhi

Has anything changed regarding this “issue” in the past year since this was originally posted?

···

On Thursday, July 30, 2015 at 9:14:56 PM UTC-4, Bryan Van de ven wrote:

Not currently. Tools are grouped by gesture, then sorted by their “default_order”, and then the first tool of each gesture is activated:

    [https://github.com/bokeh/bokeh/blob/msater/bokehjs/src/coffee/common/tool_manager.coffee#L97](https://github.com/bokeh/bokeh/blob/msater/bokehjs/src/coffee/common/tool_manager.coffee#L97)

Unfortunately “default_order” is not exposed on the python side. If it were, you could change the default_order of the “box_select” tool so that it came first in the list and was thus activated by default. Fortunately this would be a trivia change to make. Can you make a GH issue for this feature?

    [https://github.com/bokeh/bokeh/issues](https://github.com/bokeh/bokeh/issues)

If you are feeling up to it, I would be happy to help you with a Pull Request to implement this change. Otherwise, we will schedule it for an upcoming release as soon as we can.

Note: a fuller solution would let you specify the default tool independently from the order in the toolbar, but this would take more effort to accomplish.

Bryan

On Jul 30, 2015, at 7:57 PM, forest bremer forest...@gmail.com wrote:

I am working with a bokeh-server app derived from the stock_app example, and the most used pan/drag functionality is the ‘box_select’ tool.

I would like to make this the default tool without having to remove all other pan/drag tools.

Is this possible?

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For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/a/continuum.io/d/optout.

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Bryan
Bryan

Hi, yes this is in the docs:
  
  http://bokeh.pydata.org/en/latest/docs/user_guide/tools.html#setting-the-active-tools

Thanks,

Bryan

···

On Aug 19, 2016, at 10:02 AM, siddhartha.a.gandhi@gmail.com wrote:

Has anything changed regarding this "issue" in the past year since this was originally posted?

On Thursday, July 30, 2015 at 9:14:56 PM UTC-4, Bryan Van de ven wrote:
Not currently. Tools are grouped by gesture, then sorted by their "default_order", and then the first tool of each gesture is activated:

        https://github.com/bokeh/bokeh/blob/msater/bokehjs/src/coffee/common/tool_manager.coffee#L97

Unfortunately "default_order" is not exposed on the python side. If it were, you could change the default_order of the "box_select" tool so that it came first in the list and was thus activated by default. Fortunately this would be a trivia change to make. Can you make a GH issue for this feature?

        Issues · bokeh/bokeh · GitHub

If you are feeling up to it, I would be happy to help you with a Pull Request to implement this change. Otherwise, we will schedule it for an upcoming release as soon as we can.

Note: a fuller solution would let you specify the default tool independently from the order in the toolbar, but this would take more effort to accomplish.

Bryan

> On Jul 30, 2015, at 7:57 PM, forest bremer <forest...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I am working with a bokeh-server app derived from the stock_app example, and the most used pan/drag functionality is the 'box_select' tool.
> I would like to make this the default tool without having to remove all other pan/drag tools.
>
> Is this possible?
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Bokeh Discussion - Public" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bokeh+un...@continuum.io.
> To post to this group, send email to bo...@continuum.io.
> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/continuum.io/d/msgid/bokeh/7f58f4bb-9e6c-4310-ad06-2e7c285aa917%40continuum.io\.
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/a/continuum.io/d/optout\.

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