Qt Scroll Area does not add in scroll bars - c++

Question

Hi guys I have to dynamically create push buttons depending on user inputs, therefore if user gives a large input number the widget containing the push buttons has to have the ability to scroll up and down. For this reason I am using QScrollArea. I generate the template in Qt designer and the UIC generates the code for me after which I add in my part which should handle dynamic creation of push buttons. However, I can not seem to get the vertical scroll bars to appear. Here is the relevant part of the code.
verticalWidget = new QWidget(FWHMWorkflowDialog);
verticalWidget->setObjectName(QString::fromUtf8("verticalWidget"));
verticalWidget->setMinimumSize(QSize(150, 0));
verticalWidget->setMaximumSize(QSize(150, 16777215));
verticalLayout_5 = new QVBoxLayout(verticalWidget);
verticalLayout_5->setObjectName(QString::fromUtf8("verticalLayout_5"));
scrollArea = new QScrollArea(verticalWidget);
scrollArea->setObjectName(QString::fromUtf8("scrollArea"));
scrollArea->setMaximumSize(QSize(150, 16777215));
scrollArea->setWidgetResizable(true);
scrollAreaWidgetContents = new QWidget();
scrollAreaWidgetContents->setObjectName(QString::fromUtf8("scrollAreaWidgetContents"));
scrollAreaWidgetContents->setGeometry(QRect(0, 0, 130, 432));
numberOfSlices = numberSlices;
for (int i = 0; i < numberOfSlices; i++)
{
QWidget *horizontalWidget = new QWidget(scrollAreaWidgetContents);
horizontalWidget->setMaximumSize(150,40);
horizontalWidget->setGeometry(QRect(0, i*40, 150, 40));
hWidgetList.push_back(horizontalWidget);
QHBoxLayout *hLayout = new QHBoxLayout(horizontalWidget);
hLayoutList.push_back(hLayout);
hLayout->setSizeConstraint(QLayout::SetMinimumSize);
hLayout->setContentsMargins(-1, 1, -1, 1);
QPushButton *pushButton = new QPushButton(horizontalWidget);
pushButtonList.push_back(pushButton);
QString temp = QString("m_sliceButton").arg(i);
pushButtonList[i]->setObjectName(temp);
pushButtonList[i]->setGeometry(QRect(10, 20+i*40, 98, 27));
hLayout->addWidget(pushButton);
QCheckBox *checkBox = new QCheckBox(horizontalWidget);
checkBoxList.push_back(checkBox);
temp = QString("m_checkBox").arg(i);
checkBoxList[i]->setObjectName(temp);
checkBoxList[i]->setEnabled(true);
checkBoxList[i]->setGeometry(QRect(110, 20+i*40, 21, 22));
hLayout->addWidget(checkBox);
}
scrollArea->setWidget(scrollAreaWidgetContents);
//scrollArea->setWidgetResizable(true);
verticalLayout_5->addWidget(scrollArea);
The output window always looks like the following.
In this example the input by the user is 25 however you can see that the 21st button is cut off and 4 other buttons are not visible.
The size window problem occurring after scroll functionality started working.

Answer 1

You need to add your horizontalWidget to a vertical widget like so:
QVBoxLayout* vLayout = new QVBoxLayout();
for (int i = 0; i < numberOfSlices; i++)
{
QWidget *horizontalWidget = new QWidget();
vLayout->addWidget(horizontalWidget);
....
}
scrollAreaWidgetContents->setLayout(vLayout);
You second problem looks like it comes from this line:
scrollArea = new QScrollArea(verticalWidget);
You're adding scrollArea directly to verticalWidget, but to get it to lay out the way you want you need to put it in a layout. Try the following instead:
QVBoxLayout* l = new QVBoxLayout();
l->addWidget(sliceLabel); // or whatever you call it
l->addWidget(scrollArea);
l->addWidget(clearButton); // again, your name here
verticalWidget->setLayout(l);

Answer 2

Try playing around with the QScrollBarPolicy.
http://doc.qt.digia.com/qt/qabstractscrollarea.html#horizontalScrollBarPolicy-prop
I'm guessing that the default behavior isn't working because there is something strange going on with layouts.