CopperSpice API: Application Main Window

List of widgets used to create the main window. More...

Classes
class	QAction
	Stores information about a process or command which can be added to a menu or a toolbar More...

class	QActionGroup
	Groups actions together More...

class	QDockWidget
	Widget that can be docked inside a QMainWindow or floated as a top-level window More...

class	QMainWindow
	QMainWindow class provides the main GUI application window More...

class	QMdiArea
	Area in which MDI windows are displayed More...

class	QMdiSubWindow
	Subwindow class for QMdiArea More...

class	QMenu
	Provides a menu widget for use in menu bars, context menus, and other popup menus More...

class	QMenuBar
	Horizontal menu bar More...

class	QSizeGrip
	Resize top level windows More...

class	QStatusBar
	Horizontal area for presenting status information More...

class	QToolBar
	Provides a movable panel that contains a set of controls More...

class	QWidgetAction
	Extends QAction by an interface for inserting custom widgets into action based containers, such as toolbars More...

Detailed Description

These classes provide the components which can be used on the top level application window like menus, toolbars, and a status bar.

Main Window Classes

CopperSpice provides the following classes for managing main windows and user interface components.

QMainWindow: Central class used to create GUI applications
QDockWidget: Used to create detachable tool palettes or other windows
QToolBar: Provides a generic toolbar widget which holds different action related widgets, such as buttons, drop-down menus, combo boxes, and spin boxes

Example

In this example we will declare a new class called MyMainWIndow which inherits from QMainWindow. A menu, toolbar, and a dock widget will be added.

To add a menu to the main window first create the menu actions and then add them to the menu. The QMainWindow::menuBar() method automatically creates the menu bar the first time it is called. You can also call QMainWindow::setMenuBar() to use a custom menu bar.

MyMainWindow::MyMainWindow(QWidget *parent)
  : public QMainWindow(parent)
{
 
   // create actions
   newAct = new QAction(tr("&New"), this);
   newAct->setShortcuts(QKeySequence::New);
   newAct->setStatusTip(tr("Create a new file"));
   connect(newAct, &QAction::triggered, this, &MyMainWindow::newFile);
 
   openAct = new QAction(tr("&Open..."), this);
   openAct->setShortcuts(QKeySequence::Open);
   openAct->setStatusTip(tr("Open an existing file"));
   connect(openAct, &QAction::triggered, this, &MyMainWindow::open);
 
   // add the actions to the menu bar
   fileMenu = menuBar()->addMenu(tr("&File"));
   fileMenu->addAction(newAct);
   fileMenu->addAction(openAct);
   fileMenu->addSeparator();

Next a toolbar is created as a child of the main window.

// create tool bar
fileToolBar = addToolBar(tr("File"));
fileToolBar->addAction(newAct);
fileToolBar->addAction(openAct);
 
// add toolbar to main window
fileToolbar->setAllowedAreas(Qt::TopToolBarArea | Qt::BottomToolBarArea);
addToolBar(Qt::TopToolBarArea, fileToolbar);

In this example the toolbar is restricted to the top and bottom toolbar areas of the main window. It is initially placed in the top toolbar area. The actions specified by newAct and openAct will be displayed both on the toolbar and in the file menu.

The last step is to create a dock widget as a child of the main window and then add widgets as children of the dock widget.

contentsWindow = new QDockWidget(tr("Table of Contents"), this);
contentsWindow->setAllowedAreas(Qt::LeftDockWidgetArea | Qt::RightDockWidgetArea);
addDockWidget(Qt::LeftDockWidgetArea, contentsWindow);
 
headingList = new QListWidget(contentsWindow);
contentsWindow->setWidget(headingList);

In this example the dock widget can only be placed in the left and right dock areas. It is initially placed in the left dock area. The QMainWindow API allows the programmer to customize which dock widget areas occupy the four corners of the main window. The default can be changed by calling QMainWindow::setCorner().

setCorner(Qt::TopLeftCorner,     Qt::LeftDockWidgetArea);
setCorner(Qt::BottomLeftCorner,  Qt::LeftDockWidgetArea);
setCorner(Qt::TopRightCorner,    Qt::RightDockWidgetArea);
setCorner(Qt::BottomRightCorner, Qt::RightDockWidgetArea);

Main Window Layout

The following diagram shows the configuration produced by the above example. The left and right dock widgets will occupy the top and bottom corners of the main window in this layout.

Once all of the main window components have been set up, the central widget is created and set by using code similar to the following code. The central widget can be any subclass of QWidget.

QWidget *centralWidget = new QWidget(this);

setCentralWidget(centralWidget);