Qt/QML: std::vector<int> handling - qt

Edit: problem was with 5.6 only, which has a reduced set of supported "native" types according to https://doc.qt.io/qt-5.6/qtqml-cppintegration-data.html vs the latest version ...
According to this page: https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtqml-cppintegration-data.html, std::vector<int> is suppported by QML if registered with qRegisterMetaType() and exposed/accessed as a property. However, I cannot get this to work.
My class (which can be instantiated by QML, so this level works) has declarations like:
// prop decl
Q_PROPERTY(std::vector<int> myVector READ myVector NOTIFY myVectorChanged)
// read accessor
Q_INVOKABLE std::vector<int> recordTime() const;
// signal (in signal section)
void myVectorChanged();
Registration via
qRegisterMetaType<std::vector<int> >("std::vector<int>");
When I push something into the vector and try accessing myVector.length or myVector.size, it returns 'undefined' (size() is not callable). How do I iterate over the elements? The page linked above says "Certain C++ sequence types are supported transparently in QML to behave like JavaScript Array types" (and mentions std::vector<int> in the list), so I expected length and index access to work.

The documentation says this container will be converted to a JS array automatically. You don't need to register anything.
Of course, the conversion will be a copy, so modifying it will not modify the original array, and the way you use that is the same way you use a regular JS array. It definitely should have a length (not length()) property and support index access via [].
Update:
After your stories of failure I decided to actually run a simple test:
class Test : public QObject {
Q_OBJECT
public slots:
std::vector<int> test() { return std::vector<int> {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}; }
};
// in main.cpp
qmlRegisterType<Test>("Core", 1, 0, "Test");
// in qml
Test {
Component.onCompleted: {
var t = test()
console.log(t.length, t) // qml: 7 [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
}
}
As you can see, it gives the expected output, no need to register anything whatsoever.
IIRC there was a problem with Qt that for some reason caused those automatic conversions to not kick in when you use a Q_PROPERTY interface. I suppose that issue is still valid, the solution thankfully is to simply not use a property but a simple return value.
If your problems persist, I suggest to carefully examine your code, or if necessary, clean and rebuild your project, because the conversion is definitely working out as expected, aside from the property related issue.

Related

How to fire a signal with QMetaObject::activate

I found an interesting article on how to impement QObject with dynamic properties (see C++ class DynamicObject). The code from the article works fine, the properties of DynamicObject are get and set successfully from both C++ and QML, but the only thing I cannot figure out is how to fire dynamic signals.
I tried to fire "nameChanged()" signal with the following code:
bool DynamicObject::emitDynamicSignal(char *signal, void **arguments)
{
QByteArray theSignal = QMetaObject::normalizedSignature(signal);
int signalId = metaObject()->indexOfSignal(theSignal);
if (signalId >= 0)
{
QMetaObject::activate(this, metaObject(), signalId, arguments);
return true;
}
return false;
}
myDynamicObject->emitDynamicSignal("nameChanged()", nullptr);
the index of the signal is found and signalId is assigned to 5, but the signal is not fired. But if I do, for example,
myDynamicObject->setProperty("name", "Botanik");
the property is changed and the signal is fired successfully.
What is wrong in my code? What should I pass as 'arguments' parameter of QMetaObject::activate ?
EDIT1:
The full source code is temporarily available here.
A signal is also a method. You can invoke it from the meta object.
So, replace your line QMetaObject::activate(...) by:
metaObject()->method(signalId).invoke(this);
And let Qt handles the call to activate().
There is also an issue in DynamicObject::qt_metacall(): you are handling only QMetaObject::ReadProperty and QMetaObject::WriteProperty calls.
You have to add QMetaObject::InvokeMetaMethod if you want to emit your signal.

How to run animation with blocked UI thread in Qt Widgets app?

In QML you can use Animator type to "animate on the scene graph's rendering thread even when the UI thread is blocked."
How can I achieve the same thing for Qt Widgets?
Basically, I want something like:
1) start loading screen / splash-screen
2) start GUI-blocking operation
3) stop loading screen / splash-screen
It is not possible to move the ui-blocking operation to a separate thread (Widgets are being created). I cannot modify this part.
I tried QQuickWidget and QQuickView containing the splash-screen scene with an Animator inside but it didn't work - they got blocked as well.
EDIT: In the separate thread I read the file containing the UI description. Then I recursively create hundreds of Widgets (including QQuickWidgets, QLabels for images, Web views etc.).
Point of the question was to see if there is a "workaround" for that (e.g. displaying the aforementioned QML scene in some separate window with an own event loop). Unfortunately at this point not much more can be done about the overall design of the above.
Probably the widgets you're creating do too much work. You have to specify exactly how many widgets you're creating, and how. Show some example code. In general, the GUI thread is for cooperative multitasking - if you have something that "blocks", break it down into tiny chunks. For example, suppose that you're processing some XML or json file to build the UI. You could have that task do it one widget at a time, and be invoked each time the event loop is about to block (i.e. use a zero-duration "timer" and invert control).
You should also do the maximum possible amount of work outside of the gui thread. I.e. the UI description should be read and converted to an efficient representation that encapsulates the work to be done in the main thread. This conversion has to be done asynchronously.
The simplest way to accomplish that is to encapsulate each widget's creation in a lambda that refers to some context object. Such a lambda would have the signature [...](BatchContext &ctx). The vector of those lambdas would be kept by the CreationContext object as well:
class BatchContext : public QObject {
Q_OBJECT
public:
using Op = std::function<void(CreationContext &)>;
using QObject::QObject;
// useful for Op to keep track of where things go
void push(QWidget *w) { m_stack.push_back(w); }
QWidget *pop() { return m_stack.isEmpty() ? nullptr : m_stack.takeLast(); }
QWidget *top() const { return m_stack.isEmpty() ? nullptr : m_stack.last(); }
int stackSize() const { return m_stack.size(); }
bool stackEmpty() const { return m_stack.isEmpty(); }
Q_SLOT void startExec() {
if (m_execIndex < ops.size())
m_execTimer.start(0, this);
}
template <typename F>
void addOp(F &&op) { m_ops.push_back(std::forward<F>(op)); }
...
private:
QVector<Op> m_ops;
QVector<QWidget *> m_stack;
QBasicTimer m_execTimer;
int m_execIndex = 0;
void timerEvent(QTimerEvent *ev) override {
if (ev->timerId() == m_execTimer.timerId())
if (!exec())
m_execTimer.stop();
}
/// Does a unit of work, returns true if more work is available
bool exec() {
if (m_execIndex < m_ops.size())
m_ops.at(m_execIndex++)(*this);
return m_execIndex < ops.size();
}
};
After the context is created asynchronously, it can be passed to the main thread where you can then invoke startExec() and the widgets will be created one-at-a-time. The stack is but an example of how you might implement one aspect of widget creation process - the tracking of what widget is the "current parent".

How can I pass a QML object reference into Qt C++?

I am attempting to create something like jQuery's autocomplete as a widget in QML and Qt C++. Toward that end, I created a C++ AutoCompleteListener child of QObject and then register it with:
qmlRegisterType<AutoCompleteListener>(
"foo.AutoCompleteListener",0,1,"AutoCompleteListener");
Then, I instantiate the listener and the AutoCompleteForm like:
import QtQuick 2.5
import com.foo.AutoCompleteListener 0.1
Item {
AutoCompleteForm { id: autocomplete_form }
AutoCompleteListener { id: listener }
}
How can I pass a reference to the QML object AutoCompleteForm into AutoCompleteListener?
I tried passing the autocomplete_form field into:
Q_INVOKABLE void set_autocomplete_form(QQmlComponent *autocomplete_form);
on the onCompleted signal:
Item {
AutoCompleteForm {
id: autocomplete_form
Component.onCompleted: {
console.log("AutoCompleteForm completed");
listener.set_autocomplete_form(autocomplete_form);
}
}
AutoCompleteListener {
id: listener
Component.onCompleted: {
console.log("AutoCompleteListener completed");
}
}
}
However, the reference is a nullptr even though both AutoCompleteListener and AutoCompleteForm have been instantiated:
Instantiating AutoCompleteListener and parent is QObject(0x0)
qml: AutoCompleteListener completed
qml: AutoCompleteForm completed
Setting autocomplete_form = QObject(0x0)
How can I get a reference to the AutoCompleteForm or AutoCompleteListener's QML parent? I want to avoid crawling down the entire QML hierarchy with something like:
QObject* f = mView.rootObject();->findChild<QObject *>("AutoCompleteForm");
I plan to support having multiple AutoComplete widgets instantiated in parallel so a relative path (../AutoCompleteForm) to manipulate the QML objects seems better than having to crawl through the tree.
How can I pass a QML object reference into Qt C++?
You can't, the language was not designed for that. But you can get references from within C++ using findChild and findChildren. But read below for your real solution.
Also, I think your question is about an XY Problem. You have a problem X and you think Y solves it, so you ask for Y.
Correct solution for your original problem:
I am attempting to create something like jQuery's autocomplete as a
widget in QML and Qt C++.
In order to solve your real problem you need to use property bindings correctly. QML is a declarative language and self obsession with imperative programming makes it difficult to be straightforward.
Use this pattern for QML:
AutocompleteForm{
id: form
text: "Search here..."
suggestedTerms: helper.results
}
AutoCompleteHelper{
id: helper
searchFor: form.text
}
And for C++ implement
class AutoCompleteHelper : public QObject
{
Q_OBJECT
Q_PROPERTY(QString searchFor READ searchFor WRITE setSearchFor NOTIFY searchForChanged)
Q_PROPERTY(QStringList results READ results NOTIFY resultsChanged)
public:
AutoCompleteHelper() {}
virtual ~AutoCompleteHelper() {}
QString searchFor() const { return m_searchFor; }
QStringList results() const { return m_results; }
public slots:
void setSearchFor(QString searchFor)
{
if (m_searchFor == searchFor)
return;
m_searchFor = searchFor;
emit searchForChanged();
// 1. Search for it...
// 2. Some time later fill m_results
// 3. Then: emit resultsChanged()
}
signals:
void searchForChanged();
void resultsChanged();
private:
QString m_searchFor;
QStringList m_results;
};
Then you will see it magically works, because as soon as you change the form.text the binding sets the value in helper.searchFor, which then immediately fires the C++ slot where you can react even instantaneously, and in C++ the emission of resultsChanged() magically fills form.suggestedTerms.
You will find this pattern is extremely efficient so you'll even want to delay it by restarting a timer in C++. Furthermore, it is also beautifully declarative and clean.
How can I get a reference to the AutoCompleteForm or
AutoCompleteListener's QML parent?
The only alternative to rootObject()->findChild() appears to be QQmlProperty::read. There is several of read() function overloads so you can specify the context more precise. You have to provide the name for the object you would like to fetch and make it a property of some root object to start with. I like the general article on this subject of interfacing between QML and C++.
To accomplish precisely what you want or access the parent of certain known property you can try QQmlContext::parentContext together with QQmlProperty::read that accepts the context and see if the empty object name allows to resolve the object then.
You can pass it as a QVariant:
Q_INVOKABLE void QmlLink::pass_object(QVariant v)
{
YourObject* tempObject = (YourObject*) v.value<void *>();
...
}
qml:
my_bound_property.pass_object(the_object);

Handling errors in QWebView / QWebPage

I wish to get more information than just success = false in loadFinished (this is most often just a canceled load). From the documentation and other posts on this site, I gathered I should subclass QWebPage and override the extension() method to handle the ErrorPageExtension.
However, I'm not getting it to work, i.e., no matter what I try my extension method does not get called. I'm probably doing something really stupid but not seeing it. Basically my class looks like this:
class MyWebPage : public QWebPage
{
Q_OBJECT
public:
MyWebPage(QObject* parent = 0) : QWebPage(parent) {}
virtual bool extension(Extension extension,
const ExtensionOption* option = 0,
ExtensionReturn* output = 0)
{
// blah
}
virtual bool supportsExtension(Extension extension)
{
// blah
}
};
The implementation of the methods is not the problem, I have a breakpoint there and it never gets called. I create an instance like
MyWebPage* page = new MyWebPage(this);
mUi.WebView->setPage(page);
I'm a bit uncertain about the life time of a QWebPage object in QWebView, but from my tests it seems the QWebPage always remains the same instance and simply loads new content. So I assumed I should simply give my page to the QWebView, I didn't see another way to make it use my derived class. But when loading bogus URLs, non-existing local files, or unsupported content, either via the WebView or directly via the mainframe of the page, I never get the call with ErrorPageExtension information.
Any help is appreciated. This is using Qt 4.8.2.
There is a bit mistake:
...
virtual bool supportsExtension(Extension extension) const // const!!!
{
return QWebPage::ErrorPageExtension === extension;
}
...
You forgot to copy the const modifier.

Convert a QStandardItemModel to a QVariant

I'm trying to send a QStandardItemModel-derived object to PythonQt, but I'm a little confused on how it needs to be sent. When I was using boost::python I had several controls like boost::noncopyable to ensure I wasn't recreating this object, but sharing it with python. I also had constructs to provide a boost shared pointer to python from inside python.
class Scene : public boost::enable_shared_from_this<Scene>, public QStandardItemModel
In PythonQt, however, I'm not sure what's available. The function call takes a QVariantList for all the function parameters.
QVariant PythonQt::call(PyObject* object, const QString &callable, const QVariantList &args = QVariantList))
What I'm confused about now is how to get my object to python via a QVariant. Since its derived from QStandardItemModel, I figured it would already be register
void MyObject::someFunction(QString fileName)
{
QVariant myObjectV = qVariantFromValue(this);
// send to python
...
}
But this gives me the following error:
'qt_metatype_id' : is not a member of 'QMetaTypeId<MyObject>'
I've tried registering it after I declare my class, but this throws a different error.
class MyObject : public QStandardItemModel
{
Q_OBJECT
...
};
Q_DECLARE_METATYPE(MyObject)
QStandardItemModel::QStandardItemModel(const QStandardItemModel&) is private within this context.
I actually get the error twice--once in header where I add the Q_DECLARE_METATYPE and in another header, which has a class which always derives from QStandardItemModel but is otherwise unrelated.
Is Q_DECLARE_METATYPE even the correct way to go about converting this object to a QVariant?
BOOST_PYTHON_MODULE(scene)
{
class_("Scene");
}
Yes, by default, QVariant can take one of te following types - http://doc.qt.io/qt-4.8/qvariant.html#Type-enum - and they are not enough for your task. You should declare additional types by yourself via qmetatype system. Thus you shoud call qRegisterMetaType() function.

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