from PyQt4 import QtGui, QtCore
import sys

class GUI:
    CHANNELS = [
        { "c":  "channel 1",    "g":    "command" },
        { "c":  "channel 2",    "g":    "command" },
        { "c":  "channel N",    "g":    "general" }
    ]

    CHANNEL_NAME = "c"
    CHANNEL_GROUP = "g"

class Handler(QtGui.QMainWindow):
    #button_map = QtCore.pyqtSignal()
    signalMapper = QtCore.QSignalMapper()

    def __init__(self):
        super(Handler,self).__init__()
        self.setupGui()
        self.generate_channels()

    def setupGui(self):
        w = QtGui.QWidget(self)
        layout = QtGui.QHBoxLayout(w)
        self.commandLayout = QtGui.QVBoxLayout()
        self.generalLayout = QtGui.QVBoxLayout()
        layout.addLayout(self.commandLayout)
        layout.addLayout(self.generalLayout)
        self.setCentralWidget(w)


    def generate_channels(self):
        for i in range(0,len(GUI.CHANNELS)):
            self.button = QtGui.QPushButton(GUI.CHANNELS[i][GUI.CHANNEL_NAME])
            self.signalMapper.setMapping(self.button, GUI.CHANNELS[i][GUI.CHANNEL_NAME])
            self.button.clicked.connect(self.signalMapper.map)
            if GUI.CHANNELS[i][GUI.CHANNEL_GROUP] == "command":
                self.commandLayout.addWidget(self.button)
            elif GUI.CHANNELS[i][GUI.CHANNEL_GROUP] == "general":
                self.generalLayout.addWidget(self.button)

        #self.signalMapper.mapped.connect(self.button_map)
        #self.button_map.connect(self.channel_clicked)
        self.signalMapper.mapped[str].connect(self.channel_clicked)
        #                        /\ -- connecting overloaded signals


    def channel_clicked(self, channel):
        print("I got here!")
        print(channel)


app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
h = Handler()
h.show()
app.exec_()