Introduction
In Qt Designer's signals and slots editing mode, you can connect objects in a form together using Qt's signals and slots mechanism.Both widgets and layouts can be connected via an intuitive connection interface, using the menu of compatible signals and slots provided by Qt Designer. Qt was created with the idea of removing this boilerplate code and providing a nice and clean syntax, and the signal and slots mechanism is the answer. Signals and slots Instead of having observable objects and observers, and registering them, Qt provides two high level concepts: signals and slots.
Remember old X-Windows call-back system? Generally it isn't type safe and flexible. There are many problems with them. Qt offers a new event handling system: signal-slot connections. Imagine an alarm clock. When alarm is ringing, a signal is being sent (emit). And you're handling it in a slot.
- Every QObject class may have as many signals and slots as you want
- You can emit signals only from within that class, where the signal is located
- You can connect signal with another signal (make chains of signals);
- Every signal and slot can have unlimited count of connections with other.
- ATTENTION! You can't set default value in slot attributes e.g. void mySlot(int i = 0);
Connection
You can connect signal with this template:
QObject::connect (
);
You have to wrap const char * signal and const char * method into SIGNAL() and SLOT() macros.
And you also can disconnect signal-slot:
QObject::disconnect (
);
Deeper
Widgets emit signals when events occur. For example, a button will emit a clicked signal when it is clicked. A developer can choose to connect to a signal by creating a function (a slot) and calling the connect() function to relate the signal to the slot. Qt's signals and slots mechanism does not require classes to have knowledge of each other, which makes it much easier to develop highly reusable classes. Since signals and slots are type-safe, type errors are reported as warnings and do not cause crashes to occur.
For example, if a Quit button's clicked() signal is connected to the application's quit() slot, a user's click on Quit makes the application terminate. In code, this is written as
connect(button, SIGNAL (clicked()), qApp, SLOT (quit()));
Connections can be added or removed at any time during the execution of a Qt application, they can be set up so that they are executed when a signal is emitted or queued for later execution, and they can be made between objects in different threads.
The signals and slots mechanism is implemented in standard C++. The implementation uses the C++ preprocessor and moc, the Meta Object Compiler, included with Qt. Code generation is performed automatically by Qt's build system. Developers never have to edit or even look at the generated code.
In addition to handling signals and slots, the Meta Object Compiler supports Qt's translation mechanism, its property system, and its extended runtime type information. It also makes runtime introspection of C++ programs possible in a way that works on all supported platforms.
To make moc compile the meta object classes don't forget to add the Q_OBJECT macro to your class.
In Qt Designer's signals and slots editing mode, you can connect objects in a form together using Qt's signals and slots mechanism. Both widgets and layouts can be connected via an intuitive connection interface, using the menu of compatible signals and slots provided by Qt Designer. When a form is saved, all connections are preserved so that they will be ready for use when your project is built.
For more information on Qt's signals and sltos mechanism, refer to the Signals and Slots document.
Connecting Objects
To begin connecting objects, enter the signals and slots editing mode by opening the Edit menu and selecting Edit Signals/Slots, or by pressing the F4 key.
All widgets and layouts on the form can be connected together. However, spacers just provide spacing hints to layouts, so they cannot be connected to other objects.
| Highlighted Objects When the cursor is over an object that can be used in a connection, the object will be highlighted. |
To make a connectionn, press the left mouse button and drag the cursor towards the object you want to connect it to. As you do this, a line will extend from the source object to the cursor. If the cursor is over another object on the form, the line will end with an arrow head that points to the destination object. This indicates that a connection will be made between the two objects when you release the mouse button.
Remove Slot In Qtc
You can abandon the connection at any point while you are dragging the connection path by pressing Esc.
| Making a Connection The connection path will change its shape as the cursor moves around the form. As it passes over objects, they are highlighted, indicating that they can be used in a signal and slot connection. Release the mouse button to make the connection. |
The Configure Connection dialog (below) is displayed, showing signals from the source object and slots from the destination object that you can use.
To complete the connection, select a signal from the source object and a slot from the destination object, then click OK. Click Cancel if you wish to abandon the connection.
Note: If the Show all signals and slots checkbox is selected, all available signals from the source object will be shown. Otherwise, the signals and slots inherited from QWidget will be hidden.
You can make as many connections as you like between objects on the form; it is possible to connect signals from objects to slots in the form itself. As a result, the signal and slot connections in many dialogs can be completely configured from within Qt Designer.
| Connecting to a Form To connect an object to the form itself, simply position the cursor over the form and release the mouse button. The end point of the connection changes to the electrical 'ground' symbol. |
Editing and Deleting Connections
By default, connection paths are created with two labels that show the signal and slot involved in the connection. These labels are usually oriented along the line of the connection. You can move them around inside their host widgets by dragging the red square at each end of the connection path.
| The Signal/Slot Editor The signal and slot used in a connection can be changed after it has been set up. When a connection is configured, it becomes visible in Qt Designer's signal and slot editor where it can be further edited. You can also edit signal/slot connections by double-clicking on the connection path or one of its labels to display the Connection Dialog. |
Remove Slot In Qt Box
| Deleting Connections The whole connection can be selected by clicking on any of its path segments. Once selected, a connection can be deleted with the Delete key, ensuring that it will not be set up in the UI file. |
Remove Slot In Qt File
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