I'm trying to figure out how to create a graphical interface, in X11, which exists outside of a window manager's/desktop environment's standard window frame. For example, when Thunderbird finds new mail, it shows a special alert in the lower right hand corner of the screen which is shown without any frame (no close/minimize buttons, etc.).
I'm specifically interested in doing this in QT with C++, but if someone knows a solution with a different graphical library, that would be helpful too.
For QT pass Qt::FramelessWindowHint as a window flag when you construct your top level widget.
See here for more info:
http://doc.qt.nokia.com/main-snapshot/qt.html#WindowType-enum
You can do this with X as well although I haven't done so in a long time.
http://www.xfree86.org/current/XCreateWindow.3.html
With GTK you would use gtk_window_set_decorated(), which would probably be Gtk::Widget->set_decorated() (I think, I don't use gtkmm).
http://developer.gnome.org/gtkmm/unstable/classGtk_1_1Window.html#a67adb1d8051a38e0e5272f141bb8778c
Related
I think I understand the reasoning behind Wayland preventing windows from being manually positioned but there are a couple of instances in my Qt 5.15.2 application where I really need to have either some or absolute control over the position:
In the first instance the window is a pop-up. I'm using a QMainWindow so I can have it borderless with rounded corners, a coloured background and a transparency. I need it to pop-up when I hover over a certain element on my QGraphicsScene but want to ensure that when it appears it is close to the QGraphicsScene element in question but does not obscure it. Using a call to QMainWindow::move was perfect pre-Wayland and works fine on Windows too.
In the second instance my application has a number of windows which the user may open and close over time. The first time each one opens I don't care too much where it is positioned but if the user moves it before closing it then the next time the user opens it I want it to reappear where the user previously left it. Again, using the move() method of the various things that inherit from QWidget was perfect pre-Wayland.
Does anyone know of any work-arounds that would solve either of these problems under Qt on Wayland? It seems to me that neither is a particularly uncommon requirement and if Wayland won't let me set a specific position it might have a way of achieving something similar (e.g. a way of telling the compositor to position something near something else without obscuring it) and hopefully that maps onto something in the Qt API.
I have a Qt app that runs on macOS. I found a way to change the color of the titlebar here, however I want to take it a step further. I want to mimic the titlebar that the Slack and Discord apps use. For example:
As you can see, the color of the controls in the window extend to the very top of the app's window. I figure there are two ways to accomplish what I want:
I can build on the code pasted above. Looking through some of the Apple developer documentation, I think I can create a couple NsWindows on top of the titlebar with whatever width I want and attach the titlebar as a parent for those windows. Once I do that I should be able to make the same backgroundColor() color call for each one. Of course, this will require me to keep track of when the controls or window are resized and adjust the NsWindows of the titlebar, and I am not sure what (if any) issues that could cause.
Maybe there is a way to essentially set the height of the titlebar to 0? I wonder if that's what the Discord app is doing because:
if you look closely, the edit box that says "Find or start a conversation" is vertically lined with the close, minimize and maximize buttons, as is the "Activity" label. But if the controls do extend to the top of the app's window then how are the standard app buttons getting painted?
I'd be curious to know how Slack and Discord accomplish this even though I know they're not using Qt.
I realize there is not a Qt solution since Qt does not paint the titlebar. I know this will be OS-specific, but since I do not have any real experience with Objective-C++ or working with Cocoa (all of my programming experience on macOS has been standard C++ with non-UI or Qt-based code) I'd appreciate any suggestions or guidance!
Natively this is done with fullSizeContentView and titlebarAppearsTransparent properties of NSWindow. Once you set them to true, you can draw or place controls beneath the title bar.
Is it possible to create a window with only Minimize and Close button (and preferably not re-sizable) in C++ and XLib?
On my Ubuntu I can see some of these type of windows (like the System Configuration window).
I am very new in the Linux+X11 world and I want to create a small window like this. How would this be done (not asking for code but for some references to the API components that would be of use or techniques that you know)?
You need to set _NET_WM_ACTION_MINIMIZE and _NET_WM_ACTION_RESIZE as the list of allowed actions for your window
I have a general question on how to develop an image viewer plugin with Firebreath. For that, I would like to incorporate a GUI framework, like wxwidget or Qt. The GUI would be used to to fire up some dialogs, adding a toolbar on top, or to open context menus with right clicking an image.
As far as I understand I have a hwnd handle and so I can draw onto a window. I also understand that I have various events I can react on, like mouse button clicks or keyboard strokes. But it fails me how I would add graphical menus, buttons, etc. I know I could use html around the window but that's not the route I like to take.
For instance, does it makes sense to render an user interface offline (in memory) onto an image and then keep somehow track of the state internally?
Has anyone done such thing? Or can anyone give me some insight on how to accomplish adding a user interface.
Assuming you only care about windows and assuming that you don't mind using a windowed plugin, which is the easiest (but no HTML elements can float over the plugin), it should be no different than creating a GUI in any other windows application.
You are given a window that shows up with the AttachedEvent; when DetachedEvent is fired you need to stop using the window. Many people create a child window inside that parent window and use that for all their actual real code which makes it a little easier to use one of those other abstractions, but that's basically all there is to it. I don't know specifically how you'd do it with QT or wxwidget but you'd create a child window of that HWND that you are given and have the abstraction do your thing for you.
As to whether or not it would be rendering things offscreen, etc, I have no idea; that would totally depend on the window system. There is no reason that I know of that you would need to do that, and most things just draw directly to the HWND, but there are a zillion different ways you could do it. It looks to me like what you really need is to understand how drawing in Windows actually works.
I hope that helps
I guess this question has been ask before, but I have not found sufficient answer to even start poking around. Most answer refers to catching WM_PAINT method directly and do custom rendering, or use a onwer draw object. However, I did not see a centralized place that has the info. to start researching. Hence, the question.
My goal is to create a very simple GUI program with custom look into it. I prefer the way winamp does their custom look that is customizable through "skins". However, I am not interested in using some cross-platform library like GTK+, QT or wxWidget.
I have some experience in system programming, but not much for GUI. I spent most of my time developing console applications, and I just started doing some QT development. If you can point me in the right direction, I'd be very appreciated.
PS: I am interested in both windows and linux environment.
Everybody,
Sorry for the late reply. I had a chance to have a quick talk with the original developer for winamp, and this is the quick answers I have:
Using skins: Artists create skins, developer will render the skins
To the OS (Windows), winamp is just one pretty box, nothing else. There is a container windows, and that's about it
All controls (button, label, list, etc) are implemented by winamp team themselves. All messages and stuffs are passed as relative position to the container window. WinAmp and the GUI engine has to decide if a button is clicked or if the label next to it is the target, etc.
Rendering artists skins created in XML
I do not have the details on if they use any libraries to do all that, but I am suspecting they do hook a window call directly, and do custom rendering themselves.
GUI skin usually using plug-in mechanism
I guess this is exactly what you are looking for:
https://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/428800:weekend-project-creating-qt-interfaces-with-gimp?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed
I also interested in creating custom look of window and widgets.
Speaking about widgets it's not hard, just need to create subclass (if you are using C++) or some widget and implement some methods like draw, handle etc. But this solution is good only if you use some high-level library like GTK, QT, etc. If you want to implement all controls by your own, you may get any graphics library, which can create window and do any graphics inside. For example, SDL2 + Cairo. SDL2 for creating window, Cairo for vector rendering controls/widgets. Both of this libraries are for win and linux. Another option is take opengl/vulkan + some lib for rendering window. It could be SDL2, SFML, GLFW.
If you really interested how it works on low level, then search Windows API for Windows and XLib or XCB for Linux/X.Org.
Speaking about window, I still investigate it. However I have one thought: you may create an empty window and then draw whatever you want. Then you need to add handlers for resizing window on the borders. But I am not sure if it's good solution, and if it won't freezes.