Synchronizing sleep and QTimer - qt

I have two classes: class A and class B.
In class A, I have a private slot Refresh which is called using QTimer every two seconds and helps in updating values in QTableView.
Class B is defined by QThread and in run function I am taking data from the client with the help of sockets and all.
Now the issue is that when run takes data from client then QTimer updates the table and thus updates in between without updating all the data. Sometimes it updates less and vice versa. This can be done if we sync in a way that as the data is taken the Refresh function does it work. But how can I do this? Because Refresh is of another class so I thought of a way to sync QTimer with sleep or a way by which I can call that function in class B only.

Using mutexes (QMutex) in Qt as #spyke suggested. Add a mutex in the class containing your data.
in header file of class:
class MyDataClass : public QObject
{
Q_OBJECT
...
signals:
void dataChanged();
private:
QMutex mutex;
....
and in the method accessing the data:
MyDataClass::accessFromAnyThread(QString newNode) {
mutex.lock();
...
//access critical data e.g.
this->data.append(newNode);
...
mutex.unlock();
emit dataChanged();
}
If you are doing both reading and writing you should look into QSermaphore if you have performance issues.
Hope this gets you somewhere...

I am not completely sure what you are trying to do but i think you could use an QAbstractTableModel.
Fill the data you receive in an implementation of this model and add it to the table view via
yourtableview->setmodel(yourtablemodel)
Then you do not need a Refresh() function or something like that. The tableview will always show the content of the model.

Related

Qt Signals and Slots with Boost::smart_ptr

So what I am trying to do is use Qt signals and slots to pass around an image through a smart_ptr so that it will delete itself when everything that needs to use the data is done accessing it.
Here is the code I have:
Class A, inherits QObject:
signals:
void newImageSent(boost::shared_ptr<namespace::ImageData> &image);
Class B, inherits QObject:
public slots:
void newImageRecieved(boost::shared_ptr<namespace::ImageData> &image)
{
// Manipulate Image
}
Connection Code:
QObject::connect(classAPtr.get(),
SIGNAL(newImageSent(boost::shared_ptr<namespace::ImageData>)),
classBPtr.get(),
SLOT(newImageRecieved(boost::shared_ptr<namespace::ImageData>)),
Qt::QueuedConnection);
When I try to do the connection is always returns false though, so is there something I am missing?
In a queued connection the signal is queued in the event loop and its parameters are copied.
Therefore the slot is not directly executed.
To make copying possible you have to register the type via qRegisterMetaType, see also here.
Since you are using shared pointers easiest solution would be to transmit them by value, then you would not have to bother with the references as Frank Osterfeld pointed out.
The way you create the connection is string based and as result is easy to get wrong, especially when namespaces are involved.
Using typedef would ease the pain a little and make it easier to spot errors.
For example you could do
typedef boost::shared_ptr<namespace::ImageData> ImageDataPtr;
and use ImageDataPtr from then on.
Especially on registering the type as meta type which you have to do since you are using a queued connection.
If you are using Qt5 then you can rely on the new connection syntax which ensures correctness during compilation as it does not rely on string comparisons:
QObject::connect(classAPtr.get(), &A::newImageSent,
classBPtr.get(), &B::newImageRecieved,
Qt::QueuedConnection);

How to disconnect a signal with a slot temporarily in Qt?

I connect a slot with a signal. But now I want to disconnect them temporarily.
Here is part of my class declaration:
class frmMain : public QWidget
{
...
private:
QTimer *myReadTimer;
...
private slots:
void on_btnDownload_clicked();
...
};
In the constructor of frmMain, I connect myReadTimer with a slot so that ReadMyCom will be called every 5 seconds:
myReadTimer=new QTimer(this);
myReadTimer->setInterval(5000);
connect(myReadTimer,SIGNAL(timeout()),this,SLOT(ReadMyCom()));
But, in slot on_btnDownload_clicked. I don't want myReadTimer to emit any signal in on_btnDownload_clicked's scope. So I want to disconnect them at the beginning of on_btnDownload_clicked and reconnect them in the end. Like this:
void frmMain::on_btnDownload_clicked()
{
//some method to disconnect the slot & singal
...//the code that I want myReadTimer to leave me alone
//some method to reconnect the slot & singal
}
I searched in Stackoverflow and got some answer like call the QObject destructor. But I don't know how to use it.
I also tried to use disconnect, like:
QMetaObject::Connection myConnect;
myConnect=connect(myReadTimer,SIGNAL(timeout()),this,SLOT(ReadMyCom()));
...
disconnect(& myConnect);
But it still not work. So could any one help me how to do this?
There is a very nice function in QObject that comes in handy every now and again: QObject::blockSignals()
Here's a very simple fire-and-forget class that will do what you want. I take no credit for it's design, I found it on the internet somewhere a long time ago. Be careful though, it will block all signals to all objects. If this is not what you want, you can modify the class to suit your needs.
class SignalBlocker{
public:
SignalBlocker(QObject *o): object(o), alreadyBlocked(object->signalsBlocked()){
if (!alreadyBlocked){
object->blockSignals(true);
}
}
~SignalBlocker() {
if (!alreadyBlocked){
object->blockSignals(false);
}
}
private:
QObject *object;
bool alreadyBlocked;
};
Usage, in your case, becomes trivial
void frmMain::on_btnDownload_clicked()
{
SignalBlocker timerSignalBlocker(myReadTimer);
...//the code that I want myReadTimer to leave me alone
// signals automatically unblocked when the function exits
}
UPDATE:
I see that from Qt 5.3, a very similar class has been offically added to the API. It does a similar job as the one above with a slightly bigger feature-set. I suggest you use the official QSignalBlocker class instead in order to keep your codebase up-to-date with any API changes.
Usage, however, remains exactly the same.
Disconnect/reconnect syntax
There are many ways to call disconnect, depending on exactly what you want disconnected. See the QObject documentation page for an explanation of how they work.
Here's an example using 0 to mean "disconnect all slots."
void frmMain::on_btnDownload_clicked()
{
// disconnect everything connected to myReadTimer's timeout
disconnect(myReadTimer, SIGNAL(timeout()), 0, 0);
...//the code that I want myReadTimer to leave me alone
// restore the connection
connect(myReadTimer,SIGNAL(timeout()),this,SLOT(ReadMyCom()));
}
Or you can specify the exact signal-slot pair to disconnect by copying your 'connect' syntax, like this:
disconnect(myReadTimer,SIGNAL(timeout()),this,SLOT(ReadMyCom()));
Stopping the timer
Since you're working with a timer, this may be simpler:
void frmMain::on_btnDownload_clicked()
{
// stop the timer (so you won't get any timeout signals)
myReadTimer->stop();
...//the code that I want myReadTimer to leave me alone
// restart the timer (using whatever interval was set previously)
myReadTimer->start();
}
Differences from your original approach:
Since you're stopping and restarting the timer, the next time it fires will be interval after your slot function finishes.
Do you need to do anything special at all?
In a single-threaded Qt application, if you're already handling a signal, another signal won't "jump in the middle" of that code. Instead it'll be queued up as an even to handle immediately after the current slot returns.
So perhaps you don't need to stop or disconnect your timer at all.
Differences from your original approach:
If on_btnDownload_clicked takes a while to execute, you might have multiple ReadMyCom events queued up after on_btnDownload_clicked completes. (Note that at this point you'd have an operation that basically "locks up" your GUI for a while anyway; it may make more sense to refactor the function or give it its own thread.)

How to store a type as member?

I am building a simple scheduler, which takes functions as parameter, puts them in a queue and executes them at a later time. The class is intended to be inherited, and later enqueue(function_ptr) to be called from the methods of the child class.
My problem is that the scheduling will be happening based on time, and that is measured with a 2ms interrupt. One can subscribe for callbacks from the interrupt handler, but those return only a void* to the object that got subscribed.
So how can I know what is the type of the object being passed back, so that I can cast it and call the appropriate method?
I was thinking about template parameter at class Scheduler creation, but then the callback function doesn't know what the template parameter was. So maybe some way of storing Scheduler's child class inside a member variable - cast object to Scheduler and looking at that field, cast it to the final type? I guess this can be solved by a global enum of schedulable classes, but that seems like a bad solution.
Or maybe my whole approach of this is wrong?
Here is some code for the Scheduler. I was refraining from posting, because possibly my whole approach is wrong.
class Scheduler {
private: std::vector<QueueItem> m_queue;
protected: void schedule(void *foo_ptr);
public: void callback_2ms_passed(); // Note that we are getting only 'this' as a parameter.
}
class Child1 : public Scheduler, public OtherClasses {
void slow_foo(bool execute_immediately = false) {
if(!execute_immediately)
schedule(slow_foo);
else
// Do slow stuff.
}
}
The idea is that the scheduler decides when at a later moment to call the slow function, and does it with parameter true so that the actual calculations are made.
What you are searching for are delegates. Since you don't want to use boost or the other mentioned implementations of delegates you could try this.
SomeObject obj;
delegate d = delegate::from_member<SomeObject,
&SomeObject::someMethod>(&obj);
Your Scheduler should use delegate objects in your vector.
Have a look here: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/11015/The-Impossibly-Fast-C-Delegates

How to call plain function from exec()?

I have 2 classes: one maintains some loop (at leas for 2-3 minutes; and is inherited from QObject) and another shows up a progress dialog (inherited from QDialog).
I want to start the loop as soon as the dialog is shown. My first solution was:
int DialogClass::exec()
{
QTimer::singleShot(0, LoopClassPointer, SLOT(start()));
return __super::exec();
}
There is a problem with throwing exceptions from slots. so I considered a possibility to make public slot start() just a public function. But now I don't know how to make it works well. Things like this:
int DialogClass::exec()
{
LoopClassPointer->start();
QApplication::processEvents();
return __super::exec();
}
don't help. The dialog doesn't appears.
Is there a common approach to this kind of situations?
some details, according to questions:
I have to work with system with its own styles, so we have a common approach in creating any dialogs: to inherit them from stytle class, which is inherited from QDialog.
my 'LoopClassPointer' is an exported class from separate dll (there is no UI support in it).
I have a 'start' button in main app, which connected with a slot, which creates progress dialog and 'LoopClassPointer'. at the moment I send 'LoopClassPointer' instance in the dialog and don't whant to make significant changes in the architecture.
Take a look at QtDemo->Concurrent Programming->Run function
e.g. in Qt 4.8: http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/qtconcurrent-runfunction.html
In this situation, I recommend you separate the logic of the loop from the dialog. Gui elements should always be kept separate.
It's great that your worker class is derived from QObject because that means you can start it running on a separate thread: -
QThread* m_pWorkerThread = new QThread;
Worker* m_pWorkerObject = new Worker; // assuming this object runs the loop mentioned
// Qt 5 connect syntax
connect(m_pWorkerThread, &QThread::started, m_pWorkerObject, &WorkerObject::start);
connect(m_pWorkerThread, &QThread::finished, m_pWorkerThread, &QThread::deleteThis);
m_pWorkerObject->moveToThread(m_pWorkerThread);
m_pWorkerThread->start();
If you're not familiar with using QThread, then start by reading this.
The only other thing you require is to periodically send signals from your worker object with progress of its work and connect that to a slot in the dialog, which updates its display of the progress.

qt inherited signal won't reach to slot

here's the code of my problem
class Base : QThread
{
Q_OBJECT
virtual void run() = 0;
signals:
void Ping(int);
};
class Derived : public Base
{
void run()
{
emit Ping(42);
}
}
the signal(42) won't reach/call to slots. what's wrong?
thanks in advance.
Did that 100 times, it does work. Are you sure your base class is properly MOC'ed ? (i.e. defined in a file contained in HEADERS section of .pro) Also when connecting your signal, check the return status of QObject::connect (it's a boolean). A good practice is something like that
bool r=false;
r=QObject::connect(pObj1,SIGNAL(signalStuff()),pObj2,SLOT(gotStuff()));
Q_ASSERT(r);
As Liz noticed, if something went wrong in your connect, you can check the traces to know what happened.
I can also note :
you don't have to redefine run in your base class, it's already defined by QThread
Common pitfall with QThread: Base class and Derived class belong to the thread which created them, not in the newly created thread
you don't connect your signal to any slot in your sample, so it won't trigger anything (I suppose it's done elsewhere)
your class Derived lacks the final ;
EDIT:
Edited to take into account liz' interesting comment.
I came upon the same problem but managed to find solution. The problem in my case wasnt the inheritance (even tho i did emit from derived class).
The problem was the code calling emit signal was execute BEFORE the code connecting signal with slot. Therefor both signal was emitted and signal-slot connection worked fine, but the code in the slot wasnt executed because emit happened before connecting the slot to signal.
Maybe that helps someone in the future.
I think you are trying to connect signal and slot from different threads.
Did you read this article?

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