Update MainWindow Qt from a non member function - c++

I am doing an Application on Qt for my Internship and I have a problem.
The purpose of my Application is that I have a card connected by USB to my computer that sends CAN message.
I made an application in C++ on visual studio that received those CAN messages and printed them on the console with the help of a callback.
What I want to do know is to do the same thing but with a GUI application on Qt using the functions that I previously made (I didn't used classes in my visual studio project).
Iadded all my .cpp and .h files from my visual studio project into my QT project
So here is mainwindow.h file where I didn't changed anything. I just added a textLabel on my form.
#ifndef MAINWINDOW_H
#define MAINWINDOW_H
#include <QMainWindow>
#include <QLabel>
namespace Ui {
class MainWindow;
}
class MainWindow : public QMainWindow
{
Q_OBJECT
public:
explicit MainWindow(QWidget *parent = 0);
~MainWindow();
public:
Ui::MainWindow *ui;
};
#endif // MAINWINDOW_H
The main.cpp is very basic.
MainWindow.cpp :
Here is the constructor when I open the communication
MainWindow::MainWindow(QWidget *parent) :
QMainWindow(parent),
ui(new Ui::MainWindow)
{
ui->setupUi(this);
//Function created in Library.
open_com(...)
}
open_com opens the communication and call the callback each time a message is received
Definition of the callback
void callback (message id )
{
Here I want to call my TextLabel from my application
}
And my problem in this application is I don't know how to access my application from a function that is not part of the MainWindow class.
If someone already had this kind of problem and has the solution I would be very gratefull !
Thank you.

Related

How to add a new .ui to project in Visual Studio?

I'm using Qt 6.4 on Visual Studio 2022, I'm trying to understand how to add a new .ui to an existing project.
For example, I have a project with a mainwindow.ui, when I open it on Qt Designer and create a new .ui window from:
[Qt Designer] File -> New -> Main Window -> Create
I added some widgets to this new window and saved it to disk with the name new_window.ui.
How do I include it in my current project? I tried #include "new_window.ui" but It throws a lot of compiler syntax errors.
What I'm trying to achieve is access the widgets from new_window.ui inside of my MainWindow class:
MainWindow::MainWindow(QWidget *parent) : QMainWindow(parent)
{
ui.setupUi(this);
// access the 'ui' from new_window.ui here
// new_window_ui.pushButton-> ...
}
I have seen that this ui generally is a private class member, there's no problem in having the new_window.ui ui public.
What is the correct way to achieve it?
I have been able to include the new ui file by creating it on a new project and copying the generated ui_new_window.h file plus her class header:
// new_window.h
#pragma once
#include "stdafx.h"
#include "ui_new_window.h"
QT_BEGIN_NAMESPACE
namespace Ui { class new_windowClass; };
QT_END_NAMESPACE
class new_window : public QWidget
{
Q_OBJECT
public:
new_window(QWidget *parent = nullptr) : QWidget(parent), ui(new Ui::new_windowClass())
{
ui->setupUi(this);
}
~new_window() { delete ui; };
Ui::new_windowClass *ui;
};

Qt connect signals and slots of different windows/ mirror a lineEdit text on two windows

I'm new to any form of programming but have to do a project with Qt for my "programming for engineers" course where we simultaneously learn the basics of c++.
I have to display a text from one lineEdit to a lineEdit in another window.
I have a userWindow that opens from the mainWindow and in this userWindow I have a lineEdit widget that displays the current selected user as a QString (from a QDir object with .dirName() ). But now I have to display the same String in a lineEdit in the mainWindow as well.
From what I've read I have to do this with "connect(...)" which I have done before with widgets inside a single .cpp file but now I need to connect a ui object and signal from one window to another and I'm struggling.
My idea /what I could find in the internet was this:
userWindow.cpp
#include "userwindow.h"
#include "ui_userwindow.h"
#include "mainwindow.h"
#include <QDir>
#include <QMessageBox>
#include <QFileDialog>
#include <QFileInfo>
QDir workingUser; //this is the current selected user. I tried defining it in userWindow.h but that wouldn't work how I needed it to but that's a different issue
userWindow::userWindow(QWidget *parent) : //konstruktor
QDialog(parent),
ui(new Ui::userWindow)
{
ui->setupUi(this);
QObject::connect(ui->outLineEdit, SIGNAL(textChanged()), mainWindow, SLOT(changeText(workingUser) //I get the error " 'mainWIndow' does not refer to a value "
}
[...]
mainWindow.h
#ifndef MAINWINDOW_H
#define MAINWINDOW_H
#include <QDir>
#include <QMainWindow>
QT_BEGIN_NAMESPACE
namespace Ui { class MainWindow; }
QT_END_NAMESPACE
class MainWindow : public QMainWindow
{
Q_OBJECT
public:
MainWindow(QWidget *parent = nullptr);
~MainWindow();
public slots:
void changeText(QDir user); //this is the declaration of my custom SLOT (so the relevant bit)
private slots:
void on_userButton_clicked();
void on_settingsButton_clicked();
private:
Ui::MainWindow *ui;
};
#endif // MAINWINDOW_H
mainwindow.cpp
#include "mainwindow.h"
#include "ui_mainwindow.h"
#include "userwindow.h"
#include "settingswindow.h"
#include "click_test_target.h"
#include "random_number_generator.h"
MainWindow::MainWindow(QWidget *parent)
: QMainWindow(parent)
, ui(new Ui::MainWindow)
{
ui->setupUi(this);
[...]
}
[...]
//here I define the slot
void MainWindow::changeText(QDir user)
{
QString current = user.dirName();
ui->userLine->insert("The current working directory is: "); //"userLine" is the lineEdit I want to write the text to
ui->userLine->insert(current);
}
I know I'm doing something wrong with the object for the SLOT but can't figure out how to do it correctly.
If anyone could help me I would be very grateful.
Alternatively: perhaps there is another way to mirror the text from one lineEdit to another over multiple windows. If anybody could share a way to do this I would be equally grateful. Is there maybe a way to somehow define the variable "QDir workingUser;" in such a way as to be able to access and overwrite it in all of my .cpp files?
Thank you in advance for any help. Regards,
Alexander M.
"I get the error 'mainWindow' does not refer to a value"
I don't see you having any "mainWindow" named variable anywhere,
but you also mentioned that the MainWindow is the parent, which means you could get reference anytime, like:
MainWindow *mainWindow = qobject_cast<MainWindow *>(this->parent());
Also, your signal-handler (changeText(...) slot) should take QString as parameter (instead of QDir), this way you handle how exactly the conversion is handled, in case users type some random text in input-field (text-edit).
void changeText(const QString &input);
Finally, you either need to specify type:
QObject::connect(ui->outLineEdit, SIGNAL(textChanged(QString)), mainWindow, SLOT(changeText(QString));
Or, use the new Qt-5 syntax:
connect(ui->outLineEdit, &QLineEdit::textChanged,
mainWindow, &MainWindow::changeText);
You can create new signal (same params as lineEdit's textChanged) to userWindow which is connected to the textChanged signal of the lineEdit. Then connect that signal userWindow to mainWindow's slot.
//In userWindow.h
signals:
void textChanged(const QString&);
//In userWindow.cpp
connect(ui.lineEdit, &QLineEdit::textChanged, this, &userWindow::textChanged);
//In mainWindow.cpp
connect(userWindow, &userWindow::textChanged, this, &mainWindow::onTextChanged
Then in onTextChanged write the same text to mainWindow's lineEdit

Qt custom SLOT of subclass not recognised by CONNECT

Background
I am writing a media player application in Qt. I have subclassed QMediaPlayer and created a new SLOT which is capable of interpreting an int and passing it as qint64 to QMediaPlayer::SetPosition(qint64).
QMediaPlayer::PositionChanged fires a signal to the cslider slider_playback (a horizontal slider subclass). This makes the slider move as a song is playedback. There are also some subclassed labels (clabel) which receive signals regarding the song duration and song playback position.
Problem
The problem i have occurs when I build & run, I receive the following error:
Starting /home/daniel/DeveloperProjects/build-Player-Desktop_Qt_5_9_1_GCC_64bit-Debug/Player...
QObject::connect: No such slot QMediaPlayer::set_playback_position(int) in ../Player/mainwindow.cpp:23
QObject::connect: (sender name: 'slider_playback')
The slider should be able to control the position of the playback. The offending line of code is preceeded by a '// Player seek' comment in the file.
I think the error indicates that the base class is being referred to for the SLOT, whereas the slots is actually part ofthe derived class.
Why is this error occuring and what action would resolve the issue? The slots in my clabel and cslider classes work without issue. The difference is that those classes have constructors and destructors. I have not implemented a constructor in the QMediaPlayer subclass as I do not want to override the base class constructor.
cmediaplayer.h (full file)
#ifndef CMEDIAPLAYER_H
#define CMEDIAPLAYER_H
#include <QMediaPlayer>
//#include <QObject>
class cmediaplayer : public QMediaPlayer
{
Q_OBJECT
public slots:
void set_playback_position(int);
};
#endif // CMEDIAPLAYER_H
cmediaplayer.cpp (full file)
#include "cmediaplayer.h"
void cmediaplayer::set_playback_position(int v) {
this->setPosition( (qint64)v );
}
mainwindow.h (full file)
#ifndef MAINWINDOW_H
#define MAINWINDOW_H
#include <QMainWindow>
#include <QMediaPlayer>
#include "cmediaplayer.h"
#include "clabel.h"
namespace Ui {
class MainWindow;
}
class MainWindow : public QMainWindow
{
Q_OBJECT
public:
explicit MainWindow(QWidget *parent = 0);
~MainWindow();
private:
Ui::MainWindow *ui;
QPalette m_pal;
QString media_file_str="/usr/share/example-content/Ubuntu_Free_Culture_Showcase/Jenyfa Duncan - Australia.ogg";
//QMediaPlayer * player ;
cmediaplayer * player; // My custom type
private slots:
void on_pushButton_pressed();
void on_pushButton_released();
void on_button_playback_clicked();
};
mainwindow.cpp (full file)
#include "mainwindow.h"
#include "ui_mainwindow.h"
MainWindow::MainWindow(QWidget *parent) :
QMainWindow(parent),
ui(new Ui::MainWindow) {
ui->setupUi(this);
//player = new QMediaPlayer;
player = new cmediaplayer; // My custom type
// set max time on playback slider
connect(player, SIGNAL(durationChanged(qint64)), ui->slider_playback, SLOT(set_qint64_max(qint64)));
// st max time on playback label
connect(player, SIGNAL(durationChanged(qint64)), ui->label_track_length, SLOT(setIntText(qint64)));
// set slider playback position
connect(player, SIGNAL(positionChanged(qint64)), ui->label_track_position, SLOT(setIntText(qint64)));
// Player seek
connect(ui->slider_playback,
SIGNAL(valueChanged(int)),
player,
SLOT(set_playback_position(int)));
// Player volume
connect(ui->slider_volume,SIGNAL(valueChanged(int)),player,SLOT(setVolume(int)));
ui->slider_volume->setValue(50); // set player initial value
}
MainWindow::~MainWindow() {
delete ui;
delete player;
//delete playlist;
}
void MainWindow::on_pushButton_pressed() {
m_pal=this->palette().color(QPalette::Background);
QPalette pal=palette();
pal.setColor(QPalette::Background,Qt::gray);
this->setAutoFillBackground(true);
this->setPalette(pal);
player->setMedia(QUrl::fromLocalFile(media_file_str));
player->setPlaybackRate(1);
player->play();
}
void MainWindow::on_pushButton_released() {
QPalette pal=m_pal;
this->setAutoFillBackground(true);
this->setPalette(pal);
//player->stop();
}
void MainWindow::on_button_playback_clicked()
{
//player->play();
}
Qt creates a new class that implements the actual connection between the slots and the signals but many times this one is not updated. The classes they refer to have a name similar to moc_xxx.cpp and these are created in the build folder.
To force them to update we must click on the make clean submenu that is located in the Menu Build of QtCreator, and then run qmake in the same menu.
Or you can manually remove the build folder and compile it back
Perhaps, it could help somebody. I had a similar issue when trying to use a SLOT function in the connect call. Even though the slot was declared and defined in the subclass, the connect function not recognize it, issuing a message which says that the slot function is not part of the base class.
In my case, the problem was that I didn't place the Q_OBJECT in the beginning of the class declaration. After that, I had to clean (otherwise, various errors occur in compilation step) and build the project again to had the slot function working properly.

Initializing a Ui pointer From a QMainWindow class to a QDialog Class

I'm really stuck on one problem that I want to solve. the problem is that I have a Class for QMainWindow which holds the Ui variable for that form. Now I want to be able to edit that Form using the Ui variable in that class on a QDialog cpp file. I probably sound really stupid and I really have no idea how I should explain this, but I have code which maybe can help.
MainWindow.h:
#include "ui_mainwindow.h"
namespace Ui {
class MainWindow;
}
class MainWindow : public QMainWindow
{
Q_OBJECT
public:
explicit MainWindow(QWidget *parent = 0);
~MainWindow();
protected:
Ui::MainWindow *ui;
}
MainWindow.cpp:
#include "mainwindow.h"
#include "ui_mainwindow.h"
#include "dialog.h"
Dialog *dialog;
MainWindow::MainWindow(QWidget *parent) :
QMainWindow(parent),
ui(new Ui::MainWindow)
{
ui->setupUi(this);
}
MainWindow::~MainWindow()
{
delete ui;
}
void MainWindow::on_pushButton_clicked()
{
dialog = new Dialog(this);
dialog->show();
}
QDialog.cpp:
#include "ui_mainwindow.h"
#include "mainwindow.h"
#include "dialog.h"
#include "ui_dialog.h"
Dialog::Dialog(QWidget *parent) :
QDialog(parent),
ui(new Ui::Dialog)
{
ui->setupUi(this);
}
Dialog::~Dialog()
{
delete ui;
}
Ui::MainWindow *mainui;
void Dialog::on_pushbutton_clicked(){
mainui->label->setText("test");
}
So as you can see from the above code, it shows that I have a pointer to the Ui variable however its uninitialised, therefore it would lead to a SIGSEGV error, so how to do Initialize this pointer? any help here is highly appreciated, and even though this is probably really simple I just don't know what to do. (I have looked at other questions but I couldn't quite grasp what to do, so please explain what I am to do before linking me to a similar question. Also, I have left out the Dialog.h file as I didn't think it was needed, please tell me if I need to show it, thanks!).
Generally in C++ you should practice what is called encapsulation - keep data inside a class hidden from others that don't need to know about it. It's not good to have multiple pointers to the UI object as now all those other objects have to know how the main window UI is implemented.
In this case, what I would recommend is to use Qt's signals and slots mechanism to allow the dialog to tell the main window what you need it to do. That has the advantage that if you add more dialogs, or change how things are implemented in the main window, you don't need to alter the signal slot mechanism, and the details are hidden cleanly.
So - for your dialog, add a signal like this in the header file
class Dialog : QDialog
{
Q_OBJECT
signals:
void setTextSignal(QString text);
}
and in your main window header, add a slot.
class MainWindow : public QMainWindow
{
Q_OBJECT
public slots:
void setTextSlot(const QString &text);
}
now in your method where the button is pressed,
void Dialog::on_pushbutton_clicked()
{
emit setTextSignal("test");
}
and in your main window
void MainWindow::setTextSlot(const QString &text)
{
mainUi->label->setText(text);
}
The final part is to connect the signal and slot together, which you would do in your main window function where you create the dialog:
void MainWindow::on_pushButton_clicked()
{
dialog = new Dialog(this);
connect(dialog, SIGNAL(setTextSignal(QString)), this, SLOT(setTextSlot(QString)));
dialog->show();
}
You can see there are many advantages to this; the Dialog no longer needs a pointer to the main window UI, and it makes your code much more flexible (you can have other objects connected to the signals and slots as well).
Short answere - your can't! If you want to create a new instance of the ui, you would have to do:
MainWindow::Ui *ui = new MainWindow::UI();
ui->setupUi(this);
However, the this-pointer for a UI created for a QMainWindow based class must inherit QMainWindow - thus, you can't.
In general, it is possible if you create your Ui based on a QWidget instead of a QMainWindow, since both inherit QWidget.
Alternativly, you could try the following:
QMainWindow *subWindow = new QMainWindow(this);
subWindow->setWindowFlags(Qt::Widget);
MainWindow::Ui *ui = new MainWindow::UI();
ui->setupUi(subWindow );
//... add the mainwindow as a widget to some layout
But I would guess the result will look weird and may not even work in the first place.

Building Qt project with CMake and inheriting from QMainWindow leads to unreferenced vtable error

This is about a Qt 5.3.2 project buildt using CMake.
I have designed a QMainWindow using the Qt Designer, leading
to main.ui.
CMakeLists.txt (the almost complete thing may be
found here where I already posted it for a different question:
Linking and UIC order in a CMake Qt project )
already takes care of calling UIC so I have my hands on ui_main.h.
ui_main.h offers the class Ui::MainWindow with the plain form information
where all the buttons and stuff should be and the method *void setupUi(QMainWindow MainWindow).
Now my workflow (is it even a feasible one?) goes like this:
I build a totally new header file Form_main.h:
// Form_main.h
[..]
class Form_main : public MainWindow, public QMainWindow
{
Q_OBJECT
privat slots:
void on_some_event();
[..]
};
The class uses said auto-generated MainWindow::setupUi(this) to 'get in shape' and QMainWindow to be, well, a QMainWindow with all that stands for.
But now I am in a dilemma: Either I remove the Q_OBJECT macro call leading to connect(..) no longer recognizing that Form_main has signal slots, or
I keep the Q_OBJECT leading to the infamous
undefined reference to `vtable for display::Form_main'
error while linking the project.
Now, there have been, in fact, people with similar issues.
Naming some links:
http://michael-stengel.com/blog/?p=103
Qt Linker Error: "undefined reference to vtable"
Undefined reference to vtable... Q_OBJECT macro
Qt vtable error
A hint I got from the last one: "MOC must generate code for ui_main.h and the generated code must be compiled and linked."
In any case, these answers all seem to boil down to 'running qmake again'. Well, I use CMake all the way wanting my project to configure and compile after exactly
cmake .
make
What I did try was deleting everything in and below the build directory
(including every auto-generated file) and then running cmake . && make;.
Sadly that did not help. I am afraid this is my second noob question today... would you bear with me once more?
=== AFTER TRYING GREENWAYS ANSWER I PROVIDE MORE DETAILS. ===
Here is the autogenerated ui_main.h
/********************************************************************************
** Form generated from reading UI file 'main.ui'
**
** Created by: Qt User Interface Compiler version 5.3.2
**
** WARNING! All changes made in this file will be lost when recompiling UI file!
********************************************************************************/
#ifndef UI_MAIN_H
#define UI_MAIN_H
#include <QtCore/QVariant>
#include <QtWidgets/QAction>
[.. more Widget Includes ..]
QT_BEGIN_NAMESPACE
class Ui_MainWindow
{
public:
QAction *action_exit;
[.. more sub widgets like that .. ]
void setupUi(QMainWindow *MainWindow)
{
[ .. Setting up the form. Harmless code. .. ]
} // setupUi
void retranslateUi(QMainWindow *MainWindow)
{
[ .. completely harmless .. ]
} // retranslateUi
};
namespace Ui {
class MainWindow: public Ui_MainWindow {};
} // namespace Ui
QT_END_NAMESPACE
#endif // UI_MAIN_H
Reading all this and incorporating your post right now I am at
// form_main.h
#ifndef MHK_FORM_MAIN_H
#define MHK_FORM_MAIN_H
#include <QMainWindow>
#include "ui_main.h"
[..]
namespace Ui { class MainWindow; }
namespace display
{
class Form_main : public QMainWindow
{
Q_OBJECT
private:
ostream* stdout;
ostream* stderr;
Ui::MainWindow* uiMainWindow;
/** Called by the constructor. Sets up event connections and other
* preliminary stuff the qt Designer is overtasked with. */
void setup_form();
[..]
public:
explicit Form_main(QWidget* parent = 0);
~Form_main();
private slots:
void exit_program();
};
}
#endif
And my cpp
// form_main.cpp
#include "ui_main.h"
#include "form_main.h"
[..]
using namespace Ui;
namespace display
{
void Form_main::setup_form()
{
QObject::connect(uiMainWindow->action_exit, SIGNAL(triggered()), this, SLOT(exit_program()));
[..]
}
Form_main::Form_main(QWidget* parent) : QMainWindow(parent)
{
uiMainWindow = new Ui::MainWindow();
uiMainWindow->setupUi(this);
[..]
#if defined(Q_OS_SYMBIAN)
this->showMaximized();
#else
this->show();
#endif
}
Form_main::~Form_main()
{
delete uiMainWindow;
}
[..]
Form_main::exit_program()
{
this->close();
(*stdout) << "Thanks for playing " << getProgramName() << endl;
}
}
Ok. I see (partly) the problem. Just create a widget class like this:
.h
#ifndef MAINWINDOW_H
#define MAINWINDOW_H
#include <QMainWindow>
namespace Ui {
class MainWindow;
}
class MainWindow : public QMainWindow
{
Q_OBJECT
public:
explicit MainWindow(QWidget *parent = 0);
~MainWindow();
private:
Ui::MainWindow *ui;
};
#endif // MAINWINDOW_H
.cpp
#include "MainWindow.h"
#include "ui_MainWindow.h"
MainWindow::MainWindow(QWidget *parent) :
QMainWindow(parent),
ui(new Ui::MainWindow)
{
ui->setupUi(this);
}
MainWindow::~MainWindow()
{
delete ui;
}
This is how the QtCreator creates ui-Widgets. "ui_MainWindow.h" is your generated .h file.
Thanks for all your help! However, the problem was in CMakeLists.txt after all. The comment of Chris Morlier on Undefined reference to vtable pointed me to the solution.
The pertinent passage goes:
For Qt users: you can get this same error if you forget to moc a header
I simply had to add the header form_main.h into this line:
QT5_WRAP_CPP(qt_H_MOC ${qt_H} "${DIR_SRC}/include/form_main.h")