Using the autogenerated Ui for both sender and receiver with qt - c++

Question

I need to call a method after the ui has been shown,so i want to connect
the frame with itself,in particular using the show signal.
I've created a new form with auto generated code by qtcreator.This is the auto generated header.
#define STARTWINDOW_H
#include <QMainWindow>
namespace Ui {
class StartWindow;
}
class StartWindow : public QMainWindow
{
Q_OBJECT
public:
explicit StartWindow(QWidget *parent = 0);
~StartWindow();
private:
Ui::StartWindow *ui;
public slots:
void doSomething();
};
#endif // STARTWINDOW_H
in the cpp file no one of the following codes work
connect(ui,SIGNAL(QEvent::Show),this,SLOT(doSomething()));
connect(*ui,SIGNAL(QEvent::Show),this,SLOT(doSomething()));
connect(this->ui,SIGNAL(QEvent::Show),this,SLOT(doSomething()));
What's the right way to do it?

Answer 1

That signal does not exist by default, we must create it, we can override the showEvent() method:
.h
protected:
void showEvent(QShowEvent *event);
signals:
void showSignal();
.cpp
connect(this, &StartWindow::showSignal, this, &StartWindow::doSomething);
void StartWindow::showEvent(QShowEvent *event)
{
emit showSignal();
QMainWindow::showEvent(event);
}
void StartWindow::doSomething()
{
qDebug()<<"show";
}
Or you can override the eventFilter method.
.h
protected:
bool eventFilter(QObject *watched, QEvent *event);
signals:
void showSignal();
.cpp
installEventFilter(this);
connect(this, &StartWindow::showSignal, this, &StartWindow::doSomething);
bool StartWindow::eventFilter(QObject *watched, QEvent *event)
{
if(watched==this && event->type() == QEvent::Show)
emit showSignal();
return QMainWindow::eventFilter(watched, event);
}

Answer 2

There are a few things wrong here:
There is no show() signal and
Even if there were, you aren't using connect correctly.
First, if your class were defined like this:
namespace Ui { class MainWindow; }
class MainWindow : public QMainWindow
{
Q_OBJECT
public:
explicit MainWindow(QWidget *parent = 0);
~MainWindow();
signals:
void someSignal();
public slots:
void doSomething() {}
private:
Ui::MainWindow *ui;
};
The appropriate call to connect in the constructor would be:
QWidget::connect(this, SIGNAL(someSignal()), this, SLOT(doSomething()));
Even if there were a show signal, you wouldn't get it from ui, you would get it from this. The UI classes are just dumb containers for widgets that you add through the designer.
To perform some action when your class is shown, you can either override
virtual void showEvent(QShowEvent *); (more robust, but slightly more complex)
or simply define your own show() slot that does what you want and calls QWidget::show() at the end of it. I prefer the latter, so I will show you that.
Start by defining your show slot like this:
namespace Ui { class MainWindow; }
class MainWindow : public QMainWindow
{
Q_OBJECT
public:
explicit MainWindow(QWidget *parent = 0);
~MainWindow();
public slots:
void doSomething() {}
void show();
private:
Ui::MainWindow *ui;
};
Then, in your implementation file, do this:
void MainWindow::show()
{
doSomething();
QWidget::show();
}
I have worked with the Qt framework for quite some time now, and I have never needed to override the show event; it is simply not worth it for most use cases. If you really want a show signal that others can connect to, just add a custom signal for it and emit in in MainWindow::show(). Only resort to overriding event handlers if you can't make this work for what you are doing(very rarely necessary).