How to create QML object within a singleton? - qt

Question

I have defined a QML object under MyQMLObject.qml. This QML file looks like this:
import QtQuick 2.4
Item {
id: rootItem
implicitWidth: LayoutUtils.maxImplicitWidth(children)
implicitHeight: LayoutUtils.maxImplicitHeight(children)
Text {
id: text1
}
Text {
id: text2
}
// ...
Text {
id: textN
}
}
The text is added dynamically when the application starts. For each language different text is added, there for the width of the rootItem varies by the chosen language. I would like to somehow create MyQMLObject only once at application startup without even visualizing it and save its actual width in a singleton for example so I can reuse that value throughout my code without creating MyQMLObject more then once. How could I achieve this?
Right now I have a singleton QML file, which holds a QtObject which contains some constant values. Can I somehow create an instance of MyQMLObject within this singleton QtObject?
My singleton Style.qml looks like this:
pragma Singleton
import QtQuick 2.4
QtObject {
readonly property int maxWidth: 400
// ...
}

Answer 1

Firstly, if possible, you could use a Column instead of manually calculating the maximum width:
MyQMLObject.qml
import QtQuick 2.4
Column {
Text {
text: "blah"
}
Text {
text: "blahblah"
}
}
You can use dynamic object creation to create the temporary Column item:
Style.qml
pragma Singleton
import QtQuick 2.4
QtObject {
readonly property int maxWidth: {
var component = Qt.createComponent("qrc:/MyQMLObject.qml");
if (component.status === Component.Error) {
console.error(component.errorString());
return 0;
}
return component.createObject().width;
}
}
main.qml
import QtQuick 2.5
import QtQuick.Window 2.2
import App 1.0
Window {
visible: true
Component.onCompleted: print(Style.maxWidth)
}
Then, register the singleton:
main.cpp
#include <QtGui>
#include <QtQml>
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
QGuiApplication app(argc, argv);
qmlRegisterSingletonType(QUrl("qrc:///Style.qml"), "App", 1, 0, "Style");
QQmlApplicationEngine engine;
engine.load(QUrl(QStringLiteral("qrc:/main.qml")));
return app.exec();
}
However, note that this approach could be improved by calculating the maximum width from C++, eliminating the need to construct an item only to throw it away. Working off this example:
#include <QtGui>
#include <QtQml>
class Style : public QObject
{
Q_OBJECT
Q_PROPERTY(int maxWidth READ maxWidth CONSTANT)
public:
Style(QObject* parent = 0) :
QObject(parent),
mMaxWidth(0)
{
QFontMetrics fontMetrics(qApp->font());
// Here is where you'd fetch the text...
QStringList dummyText;
dummyText << "blah" << "blahblah";
foreach (const QString &string, dummyText) {
const int width = fontMetrics.boundingRect(string).width();
if (width > mMaxWidth)
mMaxWidth = width;
}
}
int maxWidth() const
{
return mMaxWidth;
}
private:
int mMaxWidth;
};
static QObject *singletonTypeProvider(QQmlEngine *, QJSEngine *)
{
Style *style = new Style();
return style;
}
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
QGuiApplication app(argc, argv);
qmlRegisterSingletonType<Style>("App", 1, 0, "Style", singletonTypeProvider);
QQmlApplicationEngine engine;
engine.load(QUrl(QStringLiteral("qrc:/main.qml")));
return app.exec();
}
#include "main.moc"
It uses QFontMetrics to calculate the width.
main.qml remains unchanged.