QTextEdit can be appended text to simply using append(). However, if the document is rich text, every time you append to the document, it is apparently reparsed. This seems like a bit of a trap in Qt.
If you're using the edit box as a log window and appending text in fast successions as a result of external signals, the appending can easily hang your app with no intermediate appends shown until each of the appends have completed.
How do I append rich text to a QTextEdit without it slowing down the entire UI?
If you want each append to actually show quickly & separately (instead of waiting until they've all been appended before they are shown), you need to access the internal QTextDocument:
void fastAppend(QString message,QTextEdit *editWidget)
{
const bool atBottom = editWidget->verticalScrollBar()->value() == editWidget->verticalScrollBar()->maximum();
QTextDocument* doc = editWidget->document();
QTextCursor cursor(doc);
cursor.movePosition(QTextCursor::End);
cursor.beginEditBlock();
cursor.insertBlock();
cursor.insertHtml(message);
cursor.endEditBlock();
//scroll scrollarea to bottom if it was at bottom when we started
//(we don't want to force scrolling to bottom if user is looking at a
//higher position)
if (atBottom) {
scrollLogToBottom(editWidget);
}
}
void scrollLogToBottom(QTextEdit *editWidget)
{
QScrollBar* bar = editWidget->verticalScrollBar();
bar->setValue(bar->maximum());
}
The scrolling to bottom is optional, but in logging use it's a reasonable default for UI behaviour.
Also, if your app is doing lots of other processing at the same time, appending this at the end of fastAppend, will prioritize actually getting the message displayed asap:
//show the message in output right away by triggering event loop
QCoreApplication::processEvents();
This actually seems a kind of trap in Qt. I would know why there isn't a fastAppend method directly in QTextEdit? Or are there caveats to this solution?
(My company actually paid KDAB for this advice, but this seems so silly that I thought this should be more common knowledge.)
Related
Background: I'm developing application using Qt 5.5.1, compiling with msvc2013. In this app I use my own implementation of QTableView, along with custom QStyledItemDelegate (needed custom cell editing) and QAbstractTableModel. I intend this view to work with massive amount of data that I wrap inside mentioned model. I allow the user few data editing options, custom sorting, 'invalid' rows windup etc.
The problem: scrolling speed of my QTableView subclass is slow - it gets slower the more table is shown (by resizing window), e.g. ~250 cells shown (in fullscreen) = slow, ~70 cells shown (small window) = fast.
Whad did I try so far:
First was to check if my model is slowing things down - I have measured times (using QTime::elapsed()) reading 10k samples and it shown 0 or 1ms. Then I have simply altered QTableView::data method to always return predefined string and not acquire any real data.
QVariant DataSet_TableModel::data(const QModelIndex &index, int role) const
{
if (role == Qt::ItemDataRole::DisplayRole) {
return QVariant("aRatherLongString"); //results in slow scrolling
//return QVariant("a"); // this instead results in fast scrolling
}
else return QVariant();
}
As you can see, the speed seems to be affected by number of characters vieved per cell, and not by underlying connections to data source.
In my custom implementation of QStyledItemDelegate I have tried same 'trick' as above - this time overriging displayText method:
QString DataSet_TableModel_StyledItemDelegate::displayText(const QVariant &value, const QLocale &locale) const
{
return "a" //fast
// return "aRatherLongString"; //slow
// return QStyledItemDelegate::displayText(value, locale); //default
}
After some thought with a friend we concluded that maybe we could disable drawing/painting/updating of cells until whole scroll action is done. It might cause some flickering, but it's worth a try. Unfortunately we dont really know how to aproach this. We have everriden QTableView methods: scrollContentsBy(int dx, int dy) and verticalScrollbarAction(int action) - we have captured scroll action properly (either method intercepts it) and tried to somehow disable repainting like this:
void DataSet_TableView::verticalScrollbarAction(int action) {
this->setUpdatesEnabled(false);
QTableView::verticalScrollbarAction(action);
this->setUpdatesEnabled(true);
}
...but it did not have any visible effect.
How should we approach it? Do we need to use setUpdatesEnabled() on items that are put inside cells directly? (not sure what those are - widgets?)
Here are screenshots taken as part of testing this problem:
Predefined text, no calls to underlying data structure - slow scrolling, 'full screen'
Predefined text, no calls to underlying data structure - fast scrolling, windowed
Request: Could you kindly help me pinpoint the cause of this and suggest solution if possible? Is it limitation of the classes that I use?
First of all, you should also run your application in release mode to check your perfomance, in my experience, the performance decreases greatly when using debug mode.
Secondly, you need to be aware that the model data method and delegates methods are called every time you resize, scroll, focus out, right click etc. These actions trigger those methods to be called for each displayed cell, therefore you would need to make sure that you don't do any unnecessary processing.
The items inside cells are delegates that call their own methods (eg: paint).
Some C++ specific optimisations would be helpful in the implementation of these methods, like using a switch instead of an if statement, see explanation here and here. The usage of Conditional (Ternary) Operators might also speed up the things, more information here, here and some information about expensive checkings here.
Also, QVariant handles text in different ways, as exemplified below, you should try both ways and check if there is any difference in speed. Some conversions are more expensive than others.
v = QVariant("hello"); // The variant now contains a QByteArray
v = QVariant(tr("hello")); // The variant now contains a QString
I've run into a bit of an issue related to a whitelist Web Browser my company has been developing / maintaining for one of our product lines. The browser runs on top of Qt 4.8.6, using qtwebkit (Migration to 5.X would be ideal, but the embedded Linux OS we're using is too old to support the newer versions based on our testing, and upgrading to a newer OS is too costly to us / our customers). The primary interface to the browser is a 6x8 touchscreen, mounted inside an aircraft cockpit.
For sites that have things like scrollable/embedded maps (ex. Google Maps), the users of the browser want the ability to drag the entire page when they are selecting something outside of the map, and drag just the map (without the entire page scrolling) when the map is selected (Ala most of the popular mobile browsers).
Thus far, I am able to do one or the other, but not both:
When I hook mouse handlers into a QWebView or QGraphicsWebView, I can turn the cursor into a hand and very easily support dragging of the entire web page. However, that inhibits the page's ability to handle the mouse events for when a user is pulling over a map (i.e. When a user drags over a map, it drags the entire page without moving the map).
When I don't add in the hooks to handle mouse events, things like maps are scrollable by grapping/dragging them, but of course the user loses the ability to drag the entire page.
Right now, the browser uses the later, with scroll bars disabled and a directional-arrow overlay to allow the user to scroll the entire page (as the display size is limited, and scrollbars take up too much space when they are sized large enough for the user to interact with them)...but this is not ideal.
My Question: Is there any easy way to make it so that the page, and elements in a page, can be scrolled seamlessly?
Thanks!
Rob
Seems to me like you need to check if you are over such a map and ignore(pass along) the event in that case. I think you should be able to do something like this:
bool GraphicsWebView::isOverMap(QPoint pos) {
QWebPage* webPage = this->page();
if (webPage) {
QWebFrame* webFrame = webPage->frameAt(pos);
if (webFrame) {
QString selectorQuery = "#map-canvas"; // Based on https://developers.google.com/maps/tutorials/fundamentals/adding-a-google-map
QList<QWebElement> list = webFrame->findAllElements(selectorQuery).toList(); // Find all the maps!
foreach(QWebElement element, list) {
if (element.geometry().contains(pos)) {
return true; // Cursor is over a map
}
}
}
}
return false; // No match
}
Obviously this is a pretty specific function but there is probably a way to come up with a better selector query that will apply to all those kinds of QWebElement.
Assuming you hook mouse events by subclassing QGraphicsWebView and reimplementing void mouseMoveEvent(QGraphicsSceneMouseEvent * event), I suggest you do something like:
void GraphicsWebView::mouseMoveEvent(QGraphicsSceneMouseEvent* event) {
if (isOverMap(mapFromScene(event->scenePos()).toPoint())) { // We got a map!
event.ignore(); // Clear the accept flag
return; // Return, we're done here
}
handleMoveView(); // Not over any maps, let's scroll the page
}
This part of the doc explains how events are handled with regard to the topmost item. I especially recommend you read the third paragraph.
Hope that helps!
EDIT: Did a bit more research and it looks like something like that could be more generic:
graphicsView.focusItem()->flags().testFlag(QGraphicsItem::ItemIsMovable);
It's at the very least worth investigating as a replacement to isOverMap()
EDIT: Gotcha, here is something you can try then.
Start by subclassing QGraphicsSceneMouseEvent and add a signal called void destroyedWithoutAccept() that's emitted in the destructor if the event has not been accepted.
Then modify mouseMoveEvent to look like this:
void GraphicsWebView::mouseMoveEvent(QGraphicsSceneMouseEvent* event) {
MyEvent myEvent = new MyEvent(event); // Copy event
event.accept(); // accept original event
connect(myEvent, SIGNAL(destroyedWithoutAccept),
this, SLOT(handleMoveView)); // Callback if unused
QGraphicsWebView::mouseMoveEvent(myEvent); // Pass it to Base class
}
If that works, it might introduce a bit of delay if deleteLater is used to destroy it. But in that case reimplement it as well.
Using a QTextEdit, I need to change the font attributes of each paragraph individually. This is similar to how many word processors change the font of a paragraph when the user select a style from a menu (not a specific formatting).
Ideally, I would like to apply a QTextCharFormat (or equivalent) to a block (paragraph) just before it is laid out and rendered, but I would prefer that no font attribute be actually inserted in the text, as I don't want this information in the file but I need to preserve any bold/italic/underline attributes that the user might have set to words within paragraphs (I intend to save the needed information in a QTextBlock::userData). However, I can't figure where I would need to insert a function to perform this task.
I figured I could not change the QTextCharFormat of a paragraph from either QTextBlock nor QTextCursor as this only applies to new blocks, it doesn't affect blocks with existing text.
I checked out QTextLayout but I don't think my answer is there.
I have been looking for a solution to this problem for a few days now. I would be really gracious for any pointer in the right direction.
I have years of experience with C++, but I'm somewhat new to Qt. Using Qt 4.8.
Edit:
I added emphasize (bold) above to an important part of what I'm trying to do. In other word, what I'd really like to do is be able to apply the font attributes to the block of text (perhaps a temporary copy) just before it is displayed. I'm totally comfortable with deriving and modifying (even reimplement) any class that I need to in order to achieve that goal, but I need to be pointed to the right direction as to what I actually need to change. As a last resort, I could also modify some Qt class directly if that is necessary for the task, but again would need to know what class I need to touch. I hope this is clearer. I find it difficult to explain this without being allowed to tell you what the application will do exactly.
[Required Libraries]
#include <QTextEdit> // not needed if using the designer
#include <QTextDocument>
#include <QTextBlock>
#include <QTextCursor>
[Strategy]
QTextDocument
I need it to manage the blocks. The function QTextDocument::findBlockByNumber is quite handy to locate the previous blocks, and I think it is what you are after.
QTextBlock
Container for block texts. A nice and handy class.
QTextCursor
Surprisingly, there is no format-setter in QTextBlock class. Therefore I use QTextCursor as a workaround since there are four format-setters in this class.
[Code for formatting]
// For block management
QTextDocument *doc = new QTextDocument(this);
ui->textEdit->setDocument(doc); // from QTextEdit created by the Designer
//-------------------------------------------------
// Locate the 1st block
QTextBlock block = doc->findBlockByNumber(0);
// Initiate a copy of cursor on the block
// Notice: it won't change any cursor behavior of the text editor, since it
// just another copy of cursor, and it's "invisible" from the editor.
QTextCursor cursor(block);
// Set background color
QTextBlockFormat blockFormat = cursor.blockFormat();
blockFormat.setBackground(QColor(Qt::yellow));
cursor.setBlockFormat(blockFormat);
// Set font
for (QTextBlock::iterator it = cursor.block().begin(); !(it.atEnd()); ++it)
{
QTextCharFormat charFormat = it.fragment().charFormat();
charFormat.setFont(QFont("Times", 15, QFont::Bold));
QTextCursor tempCursor = cursor;
tempCursor.setPosition(it.fragment().position());
tempCursor.setPosition(it.fragment().position() + it.fragment().length(), QTextCursor::KeepAnchor);
tempCursor.setCharFormat(charFormat);
}
Reference:
How to change current line format in QTextEdit without selection?
[DEMO]
Building Environment: Qt 4.8 + MSVC2010 compiler + Windows 7 32 bit
The demo is just for showing the concept of setting the format on a specific block.
Plain text input
Format 1 (notice that it won't bother the current cursor in view)
Format 2
You can use QTextCursor to modify existing blocks.
Just get a cursor and move it to the beginning of the block. Then move it with anchor to create a selection.
Set this cursor to be the current cursor for the text edit and apply your changes.
QTextEdit accepts HTML so all you have to do is to format your paragraphs as HTML. See example below:
QString text = "<p><b>Paragraph 1</b></p><p><i>Paragraph 2</i></p>";
QTextCursor cursor = ui->textEdit->textCursor();
cursor.insertHtml(text);
That will create something like this:
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 2
Having said that, there is only a subset of HTML that is supported in Qt. See Supported HTML Subset
So I'm making a text editor using Qt and right now I have a button that opens a dialog called "Format text". I want it to work kind of like the dialog in notepad called "font" where you select a few text attributes from some drop down lists and it shows you what your text will look like. Right now I have it working where you can select the font style, font color, and font size and hit preview and it shows you in a box in the dialog what your text will look like. However, I have a button called "okay" which is supposed to change the highlighted text or the text you are about to type, but I can't figure out how to display those changes on the main window. The .ui files are private and a lot of the already made functions and pointers are the same in every ui file so if I change the ui file to pubic I have to change a whole bunch of things. Can anyway give me a simple answer? I'm trying to do this with as little confusion as possible. More coding and less confusion is better than less coding and more confusion for someone of my skill level. Sorry that this is all one giant paragraph and that I didn't provide any code, but I didn't think the code was necessary, however if you do need some of the code i'd be happy to share it.
Thank you for your help and your time. I hope you all have a nice evening.
QDialog have a signal called finished(), you can connect this signal with your slot. To accomplish your work, pass a QSettings or for simplicity QStringList to dialog settings (responsible for changing font, color ...), the QStringList will save user defined settings, after closing the dialog, iterate through QStringList member to alert Main window.
A pseudo code will look like this
Class Editor:
Editor::Editor()
{
TextSettings textSettings;
textSettings.setSettings(settings); // settings is a member
connect(textSettings, &finished(int)), this, SLOT(alertEditor(int)))
}
Editor::alertEditor(int s)
{
if(s == 0)
{
for (int i = 0; i < settings.size(); ++i)
settings.at(i).toLocal8Bit().constData(); // extract various user settings
}
}
Class TextSettings:
TextSettings::TextSettings(QStringList settings)
{
settings << ui->combobox->currentItem(); // font name as example
}
I am using QT to create a chat messenger client. To display the list of online users, I'm using a QListWidget, as created like this:
listWidget = new QListWidget(horizontalLayoutWidget);
listWidget->setObjectName("userList");
QSizePolicy sizePolicy1(QSizePolicy::Preferred, QSizePolicy::Expanding);
sizePolicy1.setHorizontalStretch(0);
sizePolicy1.setVerticalStretch(0);
sizePolicy1.setHeightForWidth(listWidget->sizePolicy().hasHeightForWidth());
listWidget->setSizePolicy(sizePolicy1);
listWidget->setMinimumSize(QSize(30, 0));
listWidget->setMaximumSize(QSize(150, 16777215));
listWidget->setBaseSize(QSize(100, 0));
listWidget->setContextMenuPolicy(Qt::CustomContextMenu);
Users are shown by constantly refreshing the list, like this: (Note: There are different channels, with different userlists, so refreshing it is the most efficient thing to do, as far as I know.)
void FMessenger::refreshUserlist()
{
if (currentPanel == 0)
return;
listWidget = this->findChild<QListWidget *>(QString("userList"));
listWidget->clear();
QList<FCharacter*> charList = currentPanel->charList();
QListWidgetItem* charitem = 0;
FCharacter* character;
foreach(character, charList)
{
charitem = new QListWidgetItem(character->name());
// charitem->setIcon(QIcon(":/Images/status.png"));
listWidget->addItem(charitem);
}
}
This has always worked perfectly. The line that I commented out is the one I have problems with: my current goal is to be able to display a user's online status with an image, which represents whether they are busy, away, available, etc. Using setIcon() does absolutely nothing though, apparently; the items still show up as they used to, without icons.
I'm aware that this is probably not the way this function needs to be used, but I have found little documentation about it online, and absolutely no useful examples of implementations. My question is, can anybody help me with fixing this problem?
This is how you may conduct your debugging:
Try the constructor that has both icon and text as arguments.
Try to use that icon in another context to ensure it is displayable (construct a QIcon with same argument and use it elsewhere, e.g. QLabel!).
Use icon() from the QListWidgetItem to receive back the icon and then look at that QIcon.
Create a new QListWidget, change nothing, and ordinarily add some stock items in your MainWidget's constructor. See if the icons show up there.