I want to monitor an Emergency Stop button in custom equipment attached to a Beaglebone, my code is developed with Qt 4.6.
At the moment, I successfully 'show' a message box (without any buttons) when the Emergency Stop button is pressed. What I want to do is to proceed with the program ONLY when the Emergency Stop button is released. The Button press/release emit separate signals on each event. However, using this code the EmergencyStopIsInactive signal is never detected.
QEventLoop loop;
connect(this, SIGNAL(EmergencyStopIsInactive()), &loop, SLOT(quit()));
loop.exec(QEventLoop::AllEvents);
qDebug() << "Emergency Stop Deactivated";
In fact, using breakpoints I can see that it is never generated. The Eventloop seems to not receive the signal.
If I comment out the loop.exec line, using breakpoints I can see that the code emits the signal. With the exec command back in, we never reach the breakpoints.
The exec() does not seem to be allowing the application to process events.
Can I get this to work the way I want? How?
Regards,
James
=======================================
Edit:
This is the code that generates the initial signal:
// Set up Emergency Stop Input
EmStop = new mita_gpio;
EmStop->initgpio_read(49);
connect(EmStop,SIGNAL(StateOutput(unsigned int)), this, SLOT(update_EmStop(unsigned int) ) );
connect(EmStop,SIGNAL(StateOutput(unsigned int)), Test_Screen, SLOT(update_EmStop(unsigned int) ) );
connect(this,SIGNAL(EmergencyStopIsInactive()), Probe_Screen, SLOT(quit() ) );
connect(Probe_Screen,SIGNAL(ShowEmergencyStopScreen()),this,SLOT(EmergencyStopScreenShow()) );
This signal is then chained to the following:
void Manager::update_EmStop(unsigned int state_value)
{
if (state_value == 1)
{
MitaData.EmergencyStop = 1;
emit EmergencyStopIsActive();
qDebug() << "Emergency Stop = 1";
}
else
{
MitaData.EmergencyStop = 0;
emit EmergencyStopIsInactive();
qDebug() << "Emergency Stop = 0";
}
}
SIGNAL(EmergencyStopIsInactive()) is executing in the main event loop of your program (I logically assume).
When you start a new event loop, you run it with the blocking function exec and thus despite your new loop is running, you are blocking the main event loop.
loop.exec(QEventLoop::AllEvents);
Since your signal is supposed to be sent from the main loop, that is blocked by your blocking function loop.exec, it will never be sent until the loop.exec is returning.
To solve that issue, whether generate the EmergencyStopIsInactive() signal from within the "loop" event loop, or put this second loop inside a separate thread.
Related
I have the exact same problem as described QThread won't stop / does not process a signal but with a twist. I cannot get it to work even with QCoreApplication::processEvents() to my while loop. I followed this blog post and ended up like as follows:
MediaController.cpp
void MediaController::buttonPlayClicked(bool checked)
{
if (checked)
{
m_loopThread = new QThread;
m_playPauseworker = new PlayPauseWorker;
m_playPauseworker->moveToThread(m_loopThread);
connect(m_playPauseworker, &PlayPauseWorker::dataReady, this, &MediaController::onDataReady);
connect(m_loopThread, &QThread::started, m_playPauseworker, &PlayPauseWorker::process);
connect(m_playPauseworker, &PlayPauseWorker::finished, m_loopThread, &QThread::quit); // <-- never works
connect(m_playPauseworker, &PlayPauseWorker::finished, m_playPauseworker, &PlayPauseWorker::deleteLater);
connect(m_loopThread, &QThread::finished, m_loopThread, &QThread::deleteLater);
m_loopThread->start();
}
else
{
m_loopThread->requestInterruption();
}
}
The above slot is called every time play/pause checkable button is clicked. Thread and worker are created on the main thread.
PlayPauseWorker.cpp
void PlayPauseWorker::process()
{
while (!QThread::currentThread()->isInterruptionRequested())
{
// heavy computations
emit dataReady(std::tuple<QImage, QImage, QImage>>); // <-- works!
QCoreApplication::processEvents(); // <-- doesn't help with quit()
}
emit finished(); // <-- emits the signal but quit() not called
}
On further processing, when i access wait() to see if my thread has exited, it never returns.
In addition to quit() slot never called, i noticed my GUI becomes very choppy when the thread is running. I sometimes can/cannot click on other buttons or play with UI. I went through a lot of SO posts but couldn't figure out a way to cleanly exit the thread whenever i need to. Not sure where am i going wrong.
After trying out a lot of suggestions i still couldn't figure out why emit finished() doesn't quit the thread. So, as a last resort, i used this->thread->quit() to achieve the same.
But thanks to all the commenters here, i narrowed down on laggy/choppy gui issue.
My emit data(std::tuple<QImage, QImage, QImage>>) was setting pixmap on QGraphicsScene on a loop without removing the already set pixmap on the scene leading to huge memory leak and ultimately crash.
I have a Qt GUI class preferencesWindow that, obviously, is responsible for handling the user preferences. I have some fields that manage the connection to a database server. When a field is left, dbsChanged() method is called. Below is some code I managed to write:
void preferencesWindow::dbsChanged() {
QFuture<QStringList> loader = run(this, &preferencesWindow::get_databases);
QStringList databases = loader.result();
if (databases.length()) {
this->ui.database->show();
this->ui.nodb_label->hide();
this->ui.database->clear();
this->ui.database->addItems(databases);
this->ui.okButton->setDisabled(false);
this->ui.validationStatus->setPixmap(QPixmap(":/icon/tick.png"));
} else {
this->ui.database->hide();
this->ui.nodb_label->show();
this->ui.okButton->setDisabled(true);
this->ui.validationStatus->setPixmap(QPixmap(":/icon/error.png"));
}
}
QStringList preferencesWindow::get_databases() {
QSqlDatabase test_connection;
if (QSqlDatabase::contains("PREFEREMCES_LIVE_TEST_CONNECTION"))
test_connection = QSqlDatabase::database("PREFEREMCES_LIVE_TEST_CONNECTION");
else test_connection = QSqlDatabase::addDatabase("QMYSQL", "PREFEREMCES_LIVE_TEST_CONNECTION");
test_connection.setHostName(this->ui.serverAddress->text());
test_connection.setUserName(this->ui.username->text());
test_connection.setPassword(this->ui.password->text());
test_connection.setDatabaseName(this->ui.database->currentText());
test_connection.setPort(this->ui.serverPort->value());
test_connection.open();
qDebug() << "Error: " << test_connection.lastError();
QSqlQuery show_databases = test_connection.exec("show databases");
QStringList databases;
while (show_databases.next()) {
databases.append(show_databases.value(0).toString());
}
QSqlDatabase::removeDatabase("PREFERENCES_LIVE_TEST_CONNECTION");
return databases;
}
Since get_databases can take a long time, I thought that putting in on a separate thread as you can see in these two lines:
QFuture<QStringList> loader = run(this, &preferencesWindow::get_databases);
QStringList databases = loader.result();
could solve the problem. It runs on a separate thread, but it still freezes the GUI (while working).
How should I rewrite this entire process? I though of some solutions, but I am not really sure about their performance, and I don't want to work uselessly...
It freezes the GUI because even though the get_databases call is in a separate thread, you still wait for the results which causes the freeze.
I don't know how to do it in Qt, but the normal thing would be to open a dialog saying "please wait" or something with a cancel button, and have the worker thread send a signal to the parent (GUI) thread when done.
The QFuture will wait until the thread sets the result when your call loader.result(). You have to wait for that value later.
I guess you could store the future object as member of preferencesWindow and send yourself a signal, when finishing get_databases. So you give your application time to process other events during this wait time.
You can use QFutureWatcher to monitor that status of the QFuture object, like written in the documentation:
// Instantiate the objects and connect to the finished signal.
MyClass myObject;
QFutureWatcher<int> watcher;
connect(&watcher, SIGNAL(finished()), &myObject, SLOT(handleFinished()));
// Start the computation.
QFuture<int> future = QtConcurrent::run(...);
watcher.setFuture(future);
When using QTcpSocket to receive data, the signal to use is readyRead(), which signals that new data is available.
However, when you are in the corresponding slot implementation to read the data, no additional readyRead() will be emitted.
This may make sense, as you are already in the function, where you are reading all the data that is available.
Problem description
However assume the following implementation of this slot:
void readSocketData()
{
datacounter += socket->readAll().length();
qDebug() << datacounter;
}
What if some data arrives after calling readAll() but before leaving the slot?
What if this was the last data packet sent by the other application (or at least the last one for some time)?
No additional signal will be emitted, so you have to make sure to read all the data yourself.
One way to minimize the problem (but not avoid it totally)
Of course we can modify the slot like this:
void readSocketData()
{
while(socket->bytesAvailable())
datacounter += socket->readAll().length();
qDebug() << datacounter;
}
However, we haven't solved the problem. It is still possible that data arrives just after the socket->bytesAvailable()-check (and even placing the/another check at the absolute end of the function doesn't solve this).
Making sure to be able to reproduce the problem
As this problem of course happens very rarely, I stick to the first implementation of the slot, and I'll even add a an artificial timeout, to be sure that the problem occurs:
void readSocketData()
{
datacounter += socket->readAll().length();
qDebug() << datacounter;
// wait, to make sure that some data arrived
QEventLoop loop;
QTimer::singleShot(1000, &loop, SLOT(quit()));
loop.exec();
}
I then let another application send 100,000 bytes of data.
This is what happens:
new connection!
32768 (or 16K or 48K)
The first part of the message is read, but the end isn't read anymore, as readyRead() won't be called again.
My question is: what is the best way to be sure, this problem never occurs?
Possible solution
One solution I came up with is calling the same slot again at the end again, and to check at the beginning of the slot, if there is any more data to read:
void readSocketData(bool selfCall) // default parameter selfCall=false in .h
{
if (selfCall && !socket->bytesAvailable())
return;
datacounter += socket->readAll().length();
qDebug() << datacounter;
QEventLoop loop;
QTimer::singleShot(1000, &loop, SLOT(quit()));
loop.exec();
QTimer::singleShot(0, this, SLOT(readSocketDataSelfCall()));
}
void readSocketDataSelfCall()
{
readSocketData(true);
}
As I don't call the slot directly, but use QTimer::singleShot(), I assume that the QTcpSocket can't know that I'm calling the slot again, so the problem that readyRead() isn't emitted can't happen anymore.
The reason why I have included the parameter bool selfCall is that the slot which is called by the QTcpSocket isn't allowed to exit sooner, else the same problem can occur again, that data arrives exactly at the wrong moment and readyRead() isn't emitted.
Is this really the best solution to solve my problem?
Is the existence of this problem a design error in Qt or am I missing something?
Short answer
The documentation of QIODevice::readyRead() states:
readyRead() is not emitted recursively; if you reenter the event loop or call waitForReadyRead() inside a slot connected to the readyRead() signal, the signal will not be reemitted.
Thus, make sure that you
don't instantiate a QEventLoop inside your slot,
don't call QApplication::processEvents() inside your slot,
don't call QIODevice::waitForReadyRead() inside your slot,
don't use the same QTcpSocket instance within different threads.
Now you should always receive all data sent by the other side.
Background
The readyRead() signal is emitted by QAbstractSocketPrivate::emitReadyRead() as follows:
// Only emit readyRead() when not recursing.
if (!emittedReadyRead && channel == currentReadChannel) {
QScopedValueRollback<bool> r(emittedReadyRead);
emittedReadyRead = true;
emit q->readyRead();
}
The emittedReadyRead variable is rolled back to false as soon as the if block goes out of scope (done by the QScopedValueRollback). So the only chance to miss a readyRead() signal is when the control flow reaches the if condition again before the processing of the last readyRead() signal has finished (in other words, when there would be a recursion).
And a recursion should only be possible in the situations listed above.
I think scenario mentioned in this topic has two major cases which works differently, but in general QT doesn't have this problem at all and I will try to explain below why.
First case: Single threaded application.
Qt uses select() system call to poll open file descriptor for any change happened or operations available. Simple saying on every loop Qt checks if any of opened file descriptors have data available to read/closed etc. So on single threaded application flow looks like that (code part simplified)
int mainLoop(...) {
select(...);
foreach( descriptor which has new data available ) {
find appropriate handler
emit readyRead;
}
}
void slotReadyRead() {
some code;
}
So what will happend if new data arrived while program still inside slotReadyRead.. honestly nothing special. OS will buffer data, and as soon as control will return to next execute of select() OS will notify software that there are data available for particular file handle. It works in absolutely the same way for TCP sockets/files etc.
I can imaging situations where (in case of really long delays in slotReadyRead and a lot of data coming) you can experience an overrun within OS FIFO buffers (for example for serial ports) but that has more to do with a bad software design rather then QT or OS problems.
You should look on slots like readyRead like on a interrupt handlers and keep their logic only within fetch functionality which fills your internals buffers while processing should be done in separate threads or while application on idle etc.. Reason is that any such application in general is a mass service system and if it spends more time on serving one request then a time interval between two requests it's queue will overrun anyway.
Second scenario: multithreaded application
Actually this scenario is not that much differ from 1) expect that you should design right what happens in each of your threads. If you keep main loop with light wighted 'pseudo interrupt handlers' you will be absolutely fine and keep processing logic in other threads, but this logic should work with your own prefetch buffers rather then with QIODevice.
The problem is quite interesting.
In my program the usage of QTcpSocket is very intensive. So I've written the whole library, that breaks outgoing data into packages with a header, data identifier, package index number and maximum size, and when the next piece of data comes, I know exactly where it belongs to. Even if I miss something, when the next readyRead comes, the receiver reads all and compose received data correctly. If the communication between your programs is not so intense, you could do the same, but with timer (which is not very fast, but solves the problem.)
About your solution. I don't think it's better then this:
void readSocketData()
{
while(socket->bytesAvailable())
{
datacounter += socket->readAll().length();
qDebug() << datacounter;
QEventLoop loop;
QTimer::singleShot(1000, &loop, SLOT(quit()));
loop.exec();
}
}
The problem of both methods is the code right after leaving the slot, but before returning from emitting the signal.
Also you could connect with Qt::QueuedConnection.
Here are some examples of ways to get the whole file, but using some other parts of the QNetwork API:
http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/network-downloadmanager.html
http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/network-download.html
These examples show a stronger way to handle the TCP data, and when buffers are full, and better error handling with a higher level api.
If you still want to use the lower level api, here is a post with a great way to handle the buffers:
Inside your readSocketData() do something like this:
if (bytesAvailable() < 256)
return;
QByteArray data = read(256);
http://www.qtcentre.org/threads/11494-QTcpSocket-readyRead-and-buffer-size
EDIT: Additional examples of how to interact with QTCPSockets:
http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/network-fortuneserver.html
http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/network-fortuneclient.html
http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/network-blockingfortuneclient.html
Hope that helps.
If a QProgressDialog shall be shown while receiving data from a socket it only works if any QApplication::processEvents() are sent (e.g. by the QProgessDialog::setValue(int) methode). This of course leads to the loss of readyRead signals as mentioned above.
So my workaround was a while loop including the processEvents command such as:
void slot_readSocketData() {
while (m_pSocket->bytesAvailable()) {
m_sReceived.append(m_pSocket->readAll());
m_pProgessDialog->setValue(++m_iCnt);
}//while
}//slot_readSocketData
If the slot is called once any additional readyRead signals can be ignored because the bytesAvailable() always returns the actual number after the processEvents call. Only on pausing of the stream the while loop ends. But then the next readReady is not missed and starts it again.
I had the same problem right away with the readyRead slot. I disagree with the accepted answer; it doesn't solve the problem. Using bytesAvailable as Amartel described was the only reliable solution I found. Qt::QueuedConnection had no effect. In the following example, I'm deserializing a custom type, so it's easy to predict a minimum byte size. It never misses data.
void MyFunExample::readyRead()
{
bool done = false;
while (!done)
{
in_.startTransaction();
DataLinkListStruct st;
in_ >> st;
if (!in_.commitTransaction())
qDebug() << "Failed to commit transaction.";
switch (st.type)
{
case DataLinkXmitType::Matrix:
for ( int i=0;i<st.numLists;++i)
{
for ( auto it=st.data[i].begin();it!=st.data[i].end();++it )
{
qDebug() << (*it).toString();
}
}
break;
case DataLinkXmitType::SingleValue:
qDebug() << st.value.toString();
break;
case DataLinkXmitType::Map:
for (auto it=st.mapData.begin();it!=st.mapData.end();++it)
{
qDebug() << it.key() << " == " << it.value().toString();
}
break;
}
if ( client_->QIODevice::bytesAvailable() < sizeof(DataLinkListStruct) )
done = true;
}
}
i got the same problem, rather use signal readyRead() and socket.readall, i' m trying the following, just after connect without be sure :
QByteArray RBuff;
if(m_socket->waitForConnected(3000))
{
while (m_socket->ConnectedState == QAbstractSocket::ConnectedState) {
RBuff = m_socket->read(2048);
SocketRead.append(RBuff);
if (!SocketRead.isEmpty() && SocketRead.length() == 2048)
{
readData(SocketRead);
SocketRead.remove(0,2048);
}
QCoreApplication::processEvents(QEventLoop::AllEvents, 100);
}
//m_socket->close();*/
}
else
{
I've a dialog displaying progress bar + some other data, and I also have a cancel button on this dialog. While this dialog is displayed there is potentially heavy computation going on, which is show on progress bar. This computation is started from withing this dialog code so I have:
Counting_Progress_Dialog::Counting_Progress_Dialog(QWidget *parent) :
QDialog(parent)
{
setupUi(this);
thread_ = new Threaded;//THIS IS THE THREAD IN WHICH COMPUTATION IS BEING PERFORMED
connect(thread_,SIGNAL(counter_value(int)),this,SLOT(update_progress_bar(int)));
connect(this,SIGNAL(rejected()),thread_,SLOT(terminate()),Qt::QueuedConnection);//
HERE I'M CONNECTING REJECTED ON DIALOG TO TERMINATE ON THREAD
}
void Counting_Progress_Dialog::start()
{
thread_->start(QThread::LowestPriority);
}
and I do invoke this in part of the program:
void My_Class::dummy_()
{
auto old_priority = this->thread()->priority();
this->thread()->setPriority(QThread::HighestPriority);
Counting_Progress_Dialog progress;
progress.start();//this will start thread
progress.exec();//this will enter it's event loop
progress.wait();//this will wait until thread is finished
this->thread()->setPriority(QThread::NormalPriority);
}
But despite all this, when I press cancel on my dialog, the whole application freezes. What am I doing wrong? How to make it behave correctly?
UPDATED:
void Counting_Progress_Dialog::wait()
{
thread_->wait();
}
I see that you are connecting using 2 different strategies. But if thread_ and this(counting dialog) are really within two separated threads then the connection will always be Qt::QueuedConnection. Well that's not the issue.
progress.exec();//this will enter it's event loop
Calling exec() suspend the execution of dummy_() until the dialog have to return. And when the dialog return your thread is terminated. So I don't see the purpose of
progress.wait();//this will wait until thread is finished
By the way which function is that? the only one I know is Qthread::wait(). I am pretty confident the issue is here...
edit:
progress.wait() is not the issue... But it is possible that the events sent by the thread are causing trouble in some way. Use the debugger or some qDebug() to see if update_progress_bar is called after you push cancel.
I have a case where a signal is being lost and I don't understand why -- normally signals sent prior to the event loop starting just get queued up and sent then.
This is what the code looks like (for a QThread object):
void OffloadHandler::run()
{
cout << "Start" << endl;
connect( this, SIGNAL(loopStarted()), SLOT(onLoopStarted()), Qt::QueuedConnection );
emit loopStarted();
exec();
}
void OffloadHandler::onLoopStarted()
{
cout << "Here!" << endl;
}
The thread is started elsewhere and Start is written to the console but Here1 never is -- the signal is not received. I use the same pattern in my main message loop and it works, but in this threaded message loop it appears not to work.
Is there anything clearly wrong in my code here?
Your code is valid and it should run. Are you sure you have an event loop running in the thread that oh is created in?
Cause the emit loopStarted() should send an event to oh's event loop, which will be processed and will call onLoopStarted(). I've tested your code out, and it works for me.
Btw, It's generally recommended that you do not add slots to your QThread, and avoid using moveToThread( this );
Unfortunately, I don't really understand your use case, so I can't give a better solution. But here is some amazing documentation which has nice DOs and DONTs regarding QThreads.
Okay, I've figured it out, I've been bitten by the QThread ownership oddity. One has to be really careful when connecting to the QThread object itself since that Object is not owned by the thread by default.
So at the point where the thread is created I must move the thread to the thread:
OffloadHandler * oh = new OffloadHandler();
oh->moveToThread( oh ); //MOVE TO SELF!
oh->start();
Once I do this the signals work as expected.