Qt: change QGraphicsItem receiver during mouse move - qt

I am currently trying to implement a Bezier pen tool. The course of events looks like this:
click on point (QGraphicsItem), start moving while clicked
in QGraphicsScene mouseMoveEvent, prevent moves of point (with a boolean flag) until when distance from point.pos() to event.scenePos() reaches a threshold. When this happens unselect and mouseRelease point, add a node (QGraphicsItem) – select it and give it mousePress state (plus unset the boolean flag)
the user can move node after that, then release mouse.
(The node is a child item of the point.)
I tried to do this inside the scene’s mouseMoveEvent (I have a conditional branch to know when to do this):
point.setSelected(False)
point.ungrabMouse()
node.setPos(event.scenePos()-point.pos()) # positioning relative to point since it’s a childItem()
node.grabMouse()
event.accept()
But after doing this it occured that the node was only getting mouseMoveEvent’s after I release the mouse… (I print them in the console, the node itself did not move.)
So I figured, maybe the scene needs to eat a mouseReleaseEvent before sort of "releasing focus". I found an article that is tangent to the subject here.
So then instead of using ungrabMouse()/grabMouse(), I tried this:
mouseRelease = QEvent(QEvent.MouseButtonRelease)
self.sendEvent(point, mouseRelease)
node.setPos(event.scenePos()-point.pos()) # positioning relative to point since it’s a childItem()
mousePress = QEvent(QEvent.MouseButtonPress)
self.sendEvent(node, mousePress)
Now when I reach the distance threshold, I can see that only point gets selected (good) however as I move further both point and node are selected and moving… I would expect that since I have unselected and released (parent) point, it would not keep moving.
The article I linked to does do something different but it says "It turns out, we have to simulate a mouse release event to clear Qt’s internal state." which might be relevant to the current situation however I do not know what extra steps might need to be taken in order to “clear Qt’s internal state”… so I’m hoping a QGraphics aficionado can weigh in and help me out figuring this.
Thanks for having a look here.

A combination of sending mouse events and grabbing mouse manually works… has to be ungrabbed manually on mouseRelease though.

Related

How to listen to visible changes to the JavaFX SceneGraph for specific node

We created a small painting application in JavaFX. A new requirement arose, where we have to warn the user, that he made changes, which are not yet persisted and asking him, if the user might like to save first before closing.
Sample Snapshot:
Unfortunately there are a lot of different Nodes, and Nodes can be changed in many ways, like for example a Polygon point can move. The Node itself can be dragged. They can be rotated and many more. So before firing a zillion events for every possible change of a Node object to the canvas I`d like to ask, if anyone might have an idea on how to simplify this approach. I am curious, if there are any listeners, that I can listen to any changes of the canvas object within the scene graph of JavaFX.
Especially since I just want to know if anything has changed and not really need to know the specific change.
Moreover, I also do not want to get every single event, like a simple select, which causes a border to be shown around the selected node (like shown on the image), which does not necessary mean, that the user has to save his application before leaving.
Anyone have an idea? Or do I really need to fire Events for every single change within a Node?
I think you are approaching this problem in the wrong way. The nodes displayed on screen should just be a visual representation of an underlying model. All you really need to know is that the underlying model has changed.
If, for example, you were writing a text editor, the text displayed on the screen would be backed by some sort of model. Let's assume the model is a String. You wouldn't need to check if any of the text nodes displayed on screen had changed you would just need to compare the original string data with the current string data to determine if you need to prompt the user to save.
Benjamin's answer is probably the best one here: you should use an underlying model, and that model can easily check if relevant state has changed. At some point in the development of your application, you will come to the point where you realize this is the correct way to do things. It seems like you have reached that point.
However, if you want to delay the inevitable redesign of your application a little further (and make it a bit more painful when you do get to that point ;) ), here's another approach you might consider.
Obviously, you have some kind of Pane that is holding the objects that are being painted. The user must be creating those objects and you're adding them to the pane at some point. Just create a method that handles that addition, and registers an invalidation listener with the properties of interest when you do. The structure will look something like this:
private final ReadOnlyBooleanWrapper unsavedChanges =
new ReadOnlyBooleanWrapper(this, "unsavedChanged", false);
private final ChangeListener<Object> unsavedChangeListener =
(obs, oldValue, newValue) -> unsavedChanges.set(true);
private Pane drawingPane ;
// ...
Button saveButton = new Button("Save");
saveButton.disableProperty().bind(unsavedChanges.not());
// ...
#SafeVarArgs
private final <T extends Node> void addNodeToDrawingPane(
T node, Function<T, ObservableValue<?>>... properties) {
Stream.of(properties).forEach(
property -> property.apply(node).addListener(unsavedChangeListener));
drawingPane.getChildren().add(node);
}
Now you can do things like
Rectangle rect = new Rectangle();
addNodeToDrawingPane(rect,
Rectangle::xProperty, Rectangle::yProperty,
Rectangle::widthProperty, Rectangle::heightProperty);
and
Text text = new Text();
addNodeToDrawingPane(text,
Text::xProperty, Text::yProperty, Text::textProperty);
I.e. you just specify the properties to observe when you add the new node. You can create a remove method which removes the listener too. The amount of extra code on top of what you already have is pretty minimal, as (probably, I haven't seen your code) is the refactoring.
Again, you should really have a separate view model, etc. I wanted to post this to show that #kleopatra's first comment on the question ("Listen for invalidation of relevant state") doesn't necessarily involve a lot of work if you approach it in the right way. At first, I thought this approach was incompatible with #Tomas Mikula's mention of undo/redo functionality, but you may even be able to use this approach as a basis for that too.

Artifacts showing when modifying a custom QGraphicsItem

I'm currently developping a small vector drawing program in wich you can create lines and modify them after creation (those lines are based on a custom QGraphicsItem). For instance, the picture below shows what happens when the leftmost (marked yellow) point of the line is dragged to the right of the screen, effectively lengthening the line :
Everything works fine when the point is moved slowly, however, when moved rapidly, some visual artifacts appear :
The piece of code I'm using to call for a repaint is located in the mouseMoveEvent redefined method, which holds the following lines of code :
QRectF br = boundingRect();
x2 = static_cast<int>(event->scenePos().x()-x());
y2 = static_cast<int>(event->scenePos().y()-y());
update(br);
There's apparently no problem with my boundingRect definition, since adding painter->drawRect(boundingRect()) in the paint method shows this :
And there are also no problem when the line is simply moved (flag QGraphicsItem::ItemIsMovable is set), even rapidly.
Does anyone know what is happening here ? My guess is that update is not being called immediately hence mouseMoveEvent can be called multiple times before a repaint occurs, maybe canceling previous calls ? I'm not sure.
Of course the easy fix is to set the viewport mode of the QGraphicsView object holding the line to QGraphicsView::FullViewportUpdate), but that is ugly (and slow).
Without seeing the full function for how you're updating the line, I would guess that you've omitted to call prepareGeometryChange() before updating the bounding rect of the items.
As the docs state: -
Prepares the item for a geometry change. Call this function before changing the bounding rect of an item to keep QGraphicsScene's index up to date.

QGraphicsScene::clear() clearing scene but not the view

I use a custom class (Configuration) derived from QGraphicsItem and I add its objects to a QGraphicsScene, which is then displayed in a QGraphicsView. Usual stuff. What Im doing exactly is drawing a tree, in multiple steps, one level a step, each node beeing my custom QGraphicsItem.
Here a screenshot. The tree happens to be sequential in the simple case.
I first draw the root node. The signal that triggers that is fired after the user entered a string.
void MainWindow::drawRootSlot(ConfigTreeBuilder & builder)//this is a slot
{
c_scene->clear(); //the clear cause headache. i'll expain
Configuration* conf = new Configuration(builder.getNodesX(), builder.getNodesY(),builder.getNodesConfig());
//code
c_scene->addItem(conf);
//code
}
Each subsequent Configuration is draw inside another slot.
void MainWindow::configTreeSlot(ConfigTreeBuilder & builder) //SLOT!!!
{
while(builder.chooseNextNode()) {
Configuration* conf = new Configuration(builder.getNodesX(), builder.getNodesY(), builder.getNodesConfig());
//code, while loop
QGraphicsLineItem *edge = c_scene->addLine(QLineF(*(parentsPoint), conf->getLeftOrigin()));
edge->setZValue(-1); //below the Configuration item
c_scene->addItem(conf);
}
}
All works fine when done for the first time. When I enter a new string, resetting the tree, dark magic happens. What I expected to it do is: call drawRootSlot(), deleting the whole tree (c_scene->clear()), draw a new root node. And, if I put a debugger breakpoint inside drawRootSlot() this is exactly what happens! But when I run it (without breakpoints), what I get is this:
The previous tree got mangled, but not deleted. The scene gets indeed cleared of its items (printed that) but the view does not reflect that. But again, when I put a breakpoint inside drawRootSlot() thhe view and the scene are in sync.
I tried to delete the scene object, and instaciate a new one instead of calling c_scene->clear(), to guarantee it empty. Then the changes are reflected on the view (the first time drawing always works).
So, I have no idea what to deduce from these symptoms. It works as expected with a breakpoint or with a freshh QGraphicsScene object. It does not when just using c_scene->clear(). One couldsay I just messed up the parent-object/child-object relation, but clear() does remove items from the view... I tried calling it right after c_scene->addItem().
What is this sorrcery? One that makes me believe I'm not actually stupid?
EDIT: Whats interesting and may be a hint to the real problem, is that when c_scene->clear() is called, the edges of the tree, which are normal QGraphicsLineItems, are indeed deleted in all cases (breakpoint or not). Something to do with them not beeing custom?
Ok, calling QGraphicsView::viewport().update() after QGraphicsScene::clear() solved my problems.
But does anyone have an explanaition to the behavior described above?
EDIT: Upon doing doing something else I stumbled upon the actual core of the problem: I messed up the boundingRect() of my GraphicItems, so it was below the visble item, touching only its lower edge (which got deleted, as seen on the screenshot). So now no calls to any update() methods are neccesary.
I think when you call this fitInView() for the graphicsview it cleans up the view from any artifacts that remain from a previous scene.
You can clear both scene and Graphics View
scene->clear();
ui->graphicsView->items().clear();
graphicsView = name of your graphics view
This code will delete both scene and graphics view

mouseMoved to ignore QCursor.setPos()?

I'm calling QCursor.setPos() while the cursor is inside my widget. When I do, mouseMoveEvent is called, when I don't want it to be. In Java/Swing I can move the cursor without sending events. Can I do something similar so calls to QCursor.setPos() so don't send a mouseMoveEvent?
This seems to work for me:
myWidget->clearFocus();
QCursor::setPos(pos);
myWidget->setFocus();
Looks like there is no way to setPos without trigger mouseMoveEvent,
maybe you consider create a :
bool disableMoveProcess;
and make it as a flag for provent your logic running?
I use this method for calling QListWidgetItem::setSelected
without make QListWidget::itemSelectionChanged trigger my code.
I ended up just keeping track of the difference in between mouse movements, so if I get a mouse movement of 5 to the right, for example, I store the five and ignore the next event if it moves me 5 to the left (which means it's probably called by setPos). Not really elegant, but it appears to work reliably.

QGraphicsItem unselect redraw problem

Very simple Qt GUI application:
On the scene I have multiple circles implemented as QGraphicsItem
boundingRect returns square around
this circle.
Method 'shape' is not overridden.
The problem appears when in paint() method I've added:
if (isSelected()) {
painter->drawRect(re);
}
Selection is drawn well, but unselection doesn't cause redrawing. At log level I can see that item really lost selection flag.
Calling update() from itemChange is useless also.
Thank you in advance for any suggestion.
After 10 days I returned back to this problem and discovered that my QGraphicsItem constructed with
setCacheMode(DeviceCoordinateCache);
OMG! Stupid mistake, when this line was removed (by default QGraphicsItem::NoCache used) selection is redrawn well.
You can also try to change the default QGraphicsView::MinimalViewportUpdate to FullViewportUpdate with setViewportUpdateMode(QGraphicsView::FullViewportUpdate);
Or you can call scene()->update(); from the item to schedule a repaint.
One of them was required at least when I kept changing the QGraphicsItem::ItemHasNoContents flag on an item.

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