how to create ms-access like continuous subforms (widgets) in Qt? - c++

I'm thinking of porting my access application to Qt. I am interested to learn how to do continouos subforms, sub custom widgets for presenting/editing/inserting data from recordset in a verically scrollable non datagrid fashion. Meaning I could put button, label, combo, lineEdit... whatever, for every record.
I like QTableView and delegates. I just don't know if it could be modified to fully emulate access subform.
Sidequestion(maybe the same answer)... how do they DO those continuous forms in access under the hood.
thanks
... not real application data in that example recordset

Qt MVC is probably the best/easiest answer for your question ( http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/model-view-programming.html ), and with QTableView you should be able to achieve what you want.
Another solution could be: if you have a fix set of column items in every row you could simply design a QWidget with the contents of the row and paste your items (rows) into a QVerticalLayout.
Although I would sugget to try with MVC because that's the preferred way and in this case you could even port it to use QML UI if you want (while you can use the same data classes for the 'backend'). QML is definitely the best approach for (even slightly) animated UIs, and it's mature enough to use it already (it's part of Qt 4.8 and will be the 'star' of Qt 5).

Related

Menu designed for use without mouse. What is the best way to implement?

I'm writing a GUI using QT for embedded system with linux. This device has no mouse. Only display and specific keyboard with keys: up, down, return and 7 number keys.
The software will be used to set some parameters of device and read them (some charts also).
Example of how menu could look:
after OPTION 1 selected
After SUBOPTION 1 selected some table with data is loaded.
Sometimes after selecting option i need to load specific widget and sometimes just another set of options.
I think it is possible to implement custom labels and kind of list widget that aligns them.
I guess it is also possible to use Qt's MVC classes for it. They are highly customizable, but i never made custom views and delegates.
Maybe i just need to create QtListView with stringlist model and apply stylesheet to it so it gets look more like buttons. And based on selection in list load next widget.
Which way is better and why?
Is there any easier ways to accomplish this?
Any ideas would be appreciated.

Is it possible to create multi column combobox by subclassing only its listbox?

In MFC, is it possible to create multi column combobox by subclassing only its listbox.
In Codeproject and Codeguru websites I got samples only with derived CComboBox with ownerdraw style.
The "list" part of a combo-box control is NOT a list-box control. Apart from this, combo-box controls do not really have "columns", and this means that you cannot store column-level data (there is just one string or "item" per row), and subsequently any solution visually imitating "columns" can only be owner-drawn-based. So, if your app's specs have changed (now requiring column formatting) you should rather consider using another control type. Still, an owner-draw implementation isn't really that hard, esp if you have fixed height items; it shouldn't really require extensive changes to your app, as it concerns this specific control only.

Is there a nice way to map a QStandardItemModel to many QLineEdits

I have a single value that needs to appear on several parts of my UI.
Where I have a list of values that is duplicated - for instance QComboboxes, I create a single QStandardItemModel and set that model on the combos.
I'd like to do something similar for this single value. Great, I thought, I'll use QDataWidgetMapper, but it turns out that QDataWidgetMapper doesn't allow one to many mappings, i.e. I can only map one widget to each column in my table. I'd like to map many.
I can think of a few roll-my-own ways around this but if there's an easy way to do it that is built in, I'd appreciate hearing it. I'm on Qt 4.7 fwiw.
You could create a QDataWidgetMapper for each widget.
Alternatively, make one widget be the 'master value' and connect its valueChanged() signal (or whatever you want to call it) to the corresponding setValue() slot of all the 'slave' widgets.

How can I visually design a component in C++ Builder?

I have been away from C++ for a couple of years now doing AS3/Flex work. I have gotten used to being able to create a component and place it in design mode with very little fuss and I am struggling to get my head around the C++ Builder way of doing the same thing.
I have written many components for C++ Builder in the past, but none of them have been visual. What I would like to do now is create a component for customer search and another for order processing because I want to be able to create a new instance of these on the fly. What I don't want to do is have to place each of the components like the dbgrid and search fields manually in code. I would like to do this (as well as set their properties) in design mode.
How do I go about this? I have browsed the source for other Delphi components and I notice they have dfm files which seems to be what I need. How do I do this in C++ Builder? The only option I see is to add a new form if I want a dfm, but this isn't what I want as my components will be based on TPanel.
Is there a way to do this or do I have to resort to doing it all in code with no visual reference?
Pursuing the DFM idea I did a test this morning where I created a component based on TPanel and added a new form to it which I create and parent in the constructor of the component. In design mode I set the form border to none and placed a grid on it. This all looks OK until I place the component in my application, at that point it looks like a panel with a standard looking form in it and the grid is missing. If I run the app the panel shows as expected, borderless and with a grid. The DFM appears to be ignored in design mode for some reason.
If you know a better way to do this than using components then please give me some pointers.
Any help and advice will be appreciated beyond words
You might want to have a look at frames (look for "Frame objects"). They are "subforms" you can design visually and then place on forms.
Just as an FYI item, you can also drop the panel on a form, put any other controls on it, position them, set captions, etc..
Now, click the panel to select it, and use Component->Create Component Template from the IDE's main menu. This creates a unit you can install as a component which will add the panel and it's sub-controls (as a single component) to the IDE's component palette.
Of course, you can then modify the source for that new component like any other component source.

Does MFC have a built in grid control?

First what I want: The ability to display a grid with multiple columns, each cell having a custom render callback. So you might use such a control to display your inventory in a game, or something like the behaviour in Google Chrome where it shows a grid of popular pages you visit.
I've been playing with CListCtrl and while I can get custom rendering ability on each item, I can't get it work with columns - having say 3 items per row. The control has column-related methods but I think these are specifically for the built-in functionality where different attributes of an item are shown automatically in each column... not for providing a generic grid control.
So, does such functionality exist in MFC? If not then I wonder if the easiest approach is for me to actually insert each of the rows as an Item... and then the custom rendering draws the multiple cells in the row, I could also do custom UI to support clicking on the cells.
But what I really want is to be able to create a custom control, and add this as an item to a list - like in Flex for instance - so I/O etc is automatically handled.
Any advice/information welcome...
Dundas has thrown some of its (excellent) components in the public domain. Their Ultimate Grid is available on CodeProject.
I'm not aware of a built-in control, but I think you should take a look at this.
The article is describing in detail the functionality of a fully featured MFC grid control, derived from CWnd, for displaying tabular data.
YOUR_LIST_CONTROL.SetExtendedStyle(LVS_EX_FULLROWSELECT|LVS_EX_INFOTIP|LVS_EX_GRIDLINES);
I think it will help you (SetExtendedStyle).
I suggest this one:
https://code.google.com/p/cgridlistctrlex/
very complete