I've just been developing application in QtCreator with Qt5 for a short amount of time, and have just learned how to connect a signal with a slot. From what I understood, there are a few ways:
Using the connect() method:
Using connect() method provided by QObject class :
connect(
sender, SIGNAL( valueChanged( QString, QString ) ),
receiver, SLOT( updateValue( QString ) )
);
Or with Qt5:
connect(
sender, &Sender::valueChanged,
receiver, &Receiver::updateValue
);
Clicking a widget in "Design" window, choosing "Go to slot..." and a function will be created. For example, choosing signal Clicked() will generate the following code:
void MainWindow::on_pushButton_clicked() { }
Using "Edit Signal/Slot" mode directly in the "Design" window.
So my questions are:
What's the standard way of connecting signals and slots?
What's the point of other method? And when do we use those?
Sources: Qt connect method
Related
I have eight list widgets in a tab widget. They have similar names, and Designer's "Go to slot" mechanism has made links to slots it names (in the "private slots" section of "mainwindow.h") like:
void on_SR0listWidget_itemClicked(QListWidgetItem *item);
I saw warnings that "Slots named on_foo_bar are error-prone," and now I need to change their names in order to discover if that's the cause of the weird behaviour I'm getting.
I tried simply refactoring the names, but that stopped the slot code from working. I used Designer's graphical "Edit Signal/Slot" mechanism and was able to connect a newly added list widget's "itemClicked(QListWidgetItem *item)" signal to a newly added slot, and it looks OK in the graphical representation, but there's no debug message (that I set up in the Slot function) when an item is clicked.
I also use those widgets' "entered" signals, so there will be at least 16 to fix. I would write a script if it could be done by parsing the relevant files.
One example of exactly how to rename one of my replacement slots and connect an "item clicked" or "entered" signal to it (and where it should go) would be a great help.
Signals/slots setup through the designer rely on the names of the widgets involved. This can lead to problems if the widget names are changed. There are times when using the designer method will lead to code that compiles but doesn't actually make the connections you expect. This is why you are getting that warning.
You can get more reliable behavior by connecting the signals and slots programmatically. For example, let's say you have a class header such as:
#include <QMainWindow>
namespace Ui {
class MyWindow;
};
class QListWidgetItem;
class MyWindow : public QMainWindow {
Q_OBJECT
public:
explicit MyWindow(QWidget* parent = nullptr);
~MyWindow() override;
private:
void handleItemClicked(QListWidgetItem* item); // this is your slot
Ui::MyWindow* ui;
};
You can connect the signal/slot together in the cpp file like this:
#include "MyWindow.h"
#include "ui_MyWindow.h"
#include <QDebug>
MyWindow::MyWindow(QWidget* parent)
: QWidget(parent),
ui(new Ui::MyWindow()) {
ui->setupUi(this);
// connect() has many overloads, but in this case we are passing:
// 1. the object emitting the signal
// 2. the signal being emitted
// 3. the object whose slot we want to call
// 4. the slot to connect to
connect(
ui->listWidget, &QListWidget::itemClicked,
this, &MyWindow::handleItemClicked);
}
MyWindow::~MyWindow() {
delete ui;
}
void MyWindow::handleItemClicked(QListWidgetItem* item) {
qDebug() << "item clicked";
}
You can still use the designer to layout your UI - but prefer to manage connections directly in code rather than through the designer.
Im having trouble figuring out how to use variables across slots. I have read the signals and slots page a few times over and haven't been able to figure out exactly how to use the connect function. I'm trying to have one button to select the directory, and then have it sent over to the other slot for when I hit print, so it can use that directory. Thanks for the help.
void MainWindow::on_pushButton_clicked()
{
QApplication app(int argc, char** argv());
int n = 107;
for (int q = 1; q <= n; q++)
{
QString fileName =(folderName + "/batch_%1.jpg").arg(q);
// QPrinter printer;
//QPrintDialog *dlg = new QPrintDialog(&printer,0);
//if(dlg->exec() == QDialog::Accepted) {
QPrinter printer(QPrinter::HighResolution);
printer.setResolution(300);
printer.setCopyCount(1);
printer.setDoubleSidedPrinting(false);
printer.setDuplex(QPrinter::DuplexNone);
printer.setColorMode(QPrinter::Color);
printer.setPageSize(QPrinter::Letter);
printer.setPaperSize(QPrinter::Letter);
printer.setPaperSource(QPrinter::Auto);
printer.setOrientation(QPrinter::Portrait);
printer.setPageMargins(0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, QPrinter::Inch);
QString outputFileName = QStringLiteral("/Users/alexdotzler/Desktop/testing/test%1.pdf").arg(q);
printer.setOutputFileName(outputFileName);
printer.setOutputFormat(QPrinter::PdfFormat);
QImage img(fileName);
QPainter painter(&printer);
painter.drawImage(QPoint(0,0),img);
painter.end();
}
//delete dlg;
}
void MainWindow::on_pushButton_2_clicked()
{
QString folderName = QFileDialog::getExistingDirectory(0, ("Select file"), QDir::currentPath());
}
At first, remember about Minimal reproducible example. This is not only about example, but also about minimal. In this case, your printing code is not nessessary.
Following your question, slot is just a function of class. And in your case, you can jist create printing function, that will be called from both pushButton 1 and 2.
Also, don't be await of real magic from sig/slots. It looks like, but not. Connect slot to signal is just virtual call to function B when function A called.
Then let's go a bit deeply into the world of signals and slots.
You can connect (slots or signals) to signals . No other way.
Basically, signals and slots used to pass data between different objects or to inform them about something.
// foo.h
class First {
...
signals:
void newData(QVariant val);
};
// bar.h
class Another {...
public slots:
void getNewData(QVariant val);
};
// main.cpp
Another another1;
First first1;
QObject::connect(first1, &First::newData, another1, &Another::getNewData);
You can also create something can be called "Connections tree", when signal [Another::sig1] connected to [Third::sig2], which connected to signal [Fourth::sig3] and slot [Fifth::slot1], and so on. I'm not sure someone really need it, but be free to play with.
AFAIK, the only reason to use signal/slot connection inside single class, is when you need to pass some data to GUI thread from another thread running in GUI. Please, don't do that in real projects.
Make folderName a member of your MainWindow class so it will be accessible by your pushButton clicked slots. Then you can read/write it as necessary from those slots.
I have implemented a QTreeview with QAbstractItemModel how can i be notified if i click on the tree view item with left mouse click.Do we have any function like OnLButtonDown() avalible for the tree view.
WavefrontRenderer::WavefrontRenderer(TreeModel* model , QWidget *parent) :
QMainWindow(parent)
{
setupUi(this);
treeView->setModel(model);
treeView->setDragEnabled(true);
treeView->setAcceptDrops(true);
treeView->installEventFilter(this);
connect(pushButtonAddGroup, SIGNAL(clicked()), this, SLOT(insertRow()));
connect(pushButtonAddChild , SIGNAL(clicked()), this,
SLOT(insertChild()));
connect(pushButtonDeleteGroup , SIGNAL(clicked()), this,
SLOT(removeRow()));
connect( ButtonSphere, SIGNAL(clicked()), this, SLOT(AddSphere()));
connect(treeView , SIGNAL(clicked()), this, SLOT(message()));
}
I tried to connect the treeview to clicked slot but this did not work for me.
Since i am new to qt i am not sure if we connect the treeview same way as we connect buttons to the clicked slots.
You should always check your connections:
bool ok = connect(...);
Q_ASSERT(ok);
If you do that, you'll find that connecting to the clicked() signal doesn't work.
If you then take a look at your error console you'll see a Qt message that the signal clicked() is not found in QTreeView.
That's because the parameters need to be included in the SIGNAL(...) macro.
Either put them there but just the type without the parameter name:
bool ok = connect(treeView, SIGNAL(clicked(const QModelIndex &)), this, SLOT(message()));
or avoid this pitfall by using the new connect syntax:
bool ok = connect(treeView, &QAbstractItemView::clicked, this, &WavefrontRenderer::message);
This will give you a compiler error if the signal or slot doesn't exist.
My GUI consists of a LineEdit and a PushButton. When the PushButton is clicked, the slot clicked() is called. I want to setup a signal-slot relationship between clicked() as the signal and doSomething() as the slot. The issue is that doSomething() does not have access to the UI and doSomething() relies on the text of LineEdit to work.
I see two solutions:
Grant doSomething() access to the UI.
I want to be able to pass a QString to doSomething() as an argument. clicked() does not accept any arguments. Qsignalmapper might be what I'm looking for. However, it seems like the mapper only passes arguments based on what the signal is. The arguments therefore need to be setup in advance and it seems like it does not help me here.
How would I do solution 2?
Assuming a C++ solution, you might consider using an intermediate signal like the following for #2:
connect(thisWidget, SIGNAL(clicked()),
thisWidget, SLOT(slotClickHandler()));
then:
void slotClickHandler()
{
QString s = "my variable string here";
emit sigDoSomething(s);
}
and them:
void slotDoSomething(const QString &s)
{
// Do something interesting with s here
}
Note that this snippet assumes you've defined a new signal sigDoSomething(const QString &) and a private slot void slotDoSomething(const QString &).
I am having some difficulty fully grasping how signals and slots are used in Qt. I am sure it is really basic but I'm just no getting it today.
I have a set of widgets a bit like this:
MainWindow
-->StackedWidget
-->ChildForms
Now the idea is that there are some actions on the Child widgets that will cause the stacked widget to display a different page.
So if I understand it properly I thought the way to connect signals and slots is to use the connect() at the scope that knows about the objects but what I have managed to get working doesn't do it this way. At the moment in my child form I use parentWidget() to access the slot of the StackedWidget but I am not very happy with really because it is giving the child information about the parent which it shouldn't have:
void TaskSelectionForm::setButtonMappings()
{
// Set up a mapping between the buttons and the pages
QSignalMapper *mapper = new QSignalMapper(this);
connect(mapper, SIGNAL(mapped(int)), parentWidget(), SLOT(setCurrentIndex(int)));
mapper->setMapping(ui->utilitiesButton, 2); // Value of the index
connect(ui->utilitiesButton, SIGNAL(clicked()), mapper, SLOT(map()));
}
But I am not really sure how I should do this and connect it up. Do I need to have signals at each level and emit through the tree?
A Bit of Signal-Slot Theory
The signal-slot connections are oblivious to parent-child relationships between QObjects, and any such relationship doesn't matter. You're free to connect objects to their children, to their siblings, to their parents, or even to QObjects that are in a separate hierarchy, or to lone QObjects that have neither parents nor children. It doesn't matter.
A signal-slot connection connects a signal on a particular instance of QObject to slot on another instance of QObject. To use the connect method, you need the pointers to the instance of sender QObject and the instance of receiver QObject. You then use the static QObject::connect(sender, SIGNAL(...), receiver, SLOT(...)). Those connections have nothing to do with any hierarchy there is between the sender and receiver.
You can also connect a signal to a signal, to forward it -- for example from a private UI element to a signal that's part of the API of the class. You cannot connect a slot to a slot, because it'd incur a bit of runtime overhead for a rarely-used case. The overhead would be an extra bool member in QObjectPrivate, plus a failed if (bool) test. If you want to forward slots to slots, there are at least two ways to do it:
Emit a signal in the source slot and connect that signal to the destination slot.
Obtain a list of all signals connected to the source slot, iterate on it and connect them to to the target slot. There's no easy way to maintain such connections when further signals are connected or disconnected from the source slot. Unfortunately, QObject only has a connectNotify(const char*) protected function, but not a signal -- so you can't hook up to it unless you would modify src/corelib/kernel/qobject[.cpp,_p.h,.h] to emit such a signal. If you truly need it, just modify the Qt source, you have access it for a reason, after all. Hacking the vtable without modifying Qt is possible, but discouraged for obvious reasons.
The Answer
Below is a self contained example that shows how to do what you want. Turns out I have answers to quite a few questions from my various experiments I've done in Qt in the past. I'm a packrat when it comes to test code. It's all SSCCE to boot :)
// https://github.com/KubaO/stackoverflown/tree/master/questions/signal-slot-hierarchy-10783656
#include <QtGui>
#if QT_VERSION >= QT_VERSION_CHECK(5,0,0)
#include <QtWidgets>
#endif
class Window : public QWidget
{
QSignalMapper m_mapper;
QStackedLayout m_stack{this};
QWidget m_page1, m_page2;
QHBoxLayout m_layout1{&m_page1}, m_layout2{&m_page2};
QLabel m_label1{"Page 1"}, m_label2{"Page 2"};
QPushButton m_button1{"Show Page 2"}, m_button2{"Show Page 1"};
public:
Window(QWidget * parent = {}) : QWidget(parent) {
// the mapper tells the stack which page to switch to
connect(&m_mapper, SIGNAL(mapped(int)), &m_stack, SLOT(setCurrentIndex(int)));
// Page 1
m_layout1.addWidget(&m_label1);
m_layout1.addWidget(&m_button1);
// tell the mapper to map signals coming from this button to integer 1 (index of page 2)
m_mapper.setMapping(&m_button1, 1);
// when the button is clicked, the mapper will do its mapping and emit the mapped() signal
connect(&m_button1, SIGNAL(clicked()), &m_mapper, SLOT(map()));
m_stack.addWidget(&m_page1);
// Page 2
m_layout2.addWidget(&m_label2);
m_layout2.addWidget(&m_button2);
// tell the mapper to map signals coming from this button to integer 0 (index of page 1)
m_mapper.setMapping(&m_button2, 0);
connect(&m_button2, SIGNAL(clicked()), &m_mapper, SLOT(map()));
m_stack.addWidget(&m_page2);
}
};
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
QApplication a(argc, argv);
Window w;
w.show();
return a.exec();
}
Connect(stackedwidget->currentactivewidget,SIGNAL(OnAction()),this,SLOT(PrivateSlot()));
PrivateSlot() is a slot declared privately. So in this function, you can add your code to change the page of stackedwidget corresponding to the action produced by currentactivewidget.
Again if you really want to pass the signal up the heirarchy, emit a publicsignal() at the end of private slot function.
Connect(this,SIGNAL(publicsignal()),Parentwidgetofstackedwidget(here mainwindow),SLOT(mainwindow_slot()));