Development/Tutorials/Using KActions

Abstract

We're going to introduce the concept of actions. Actions are a unified way of supplying the user with ways to interact with your program. Say, for example, we want to let the user clear the text box by clicking a button in the toolbar, from an option in the File menu or through a keyboard shortcut; we can provide all of those through one KAction.

Prerequisites

• Tutorial 2 - KMainWindow

The Code

mainwindow.h

1. ifndef MAINWINDOW_H
2. define MAINWINDOW_H

1. include <KMainWindow>
2. include <KTextEdit>

class MainWindow : public KMainWindow {

 public:
   MainWindow(QWidget *parent=0);

 private:
   KTextEdit* textArea;
   void setupActions();

};

1. endif

mainwindow.cpp

1. include "mainwindow.h"

1. include <KApplication>
2. include <KAction>
3. include <KStandardAction>

MainWindow::MainWindow(QWidget *parent) : KMainWindow(parent) {

 textArea = new KTextEdit;
 setCentralWidget(textArea);

 setupActions();

}

void MainWindow::setupActions() {

 KStandardAction::quit(kapp, SLOT(quit()), actionCollection());

 KAction* clearAction = new KAction(actionCollection(), "clear");
 clearAction->setText("Clear");
 clearAction->setIcon(KIcon("filenew"));
 clearAction->setShortcut(Qt::CTRL+Qt::Key_W);
 connect(clearAction, SIGNAL(triggered(bool)), 
         textArea, SLOT(clear()));

 setupGUI();

}

main.cpp

1. include <KApplication>
2. include <KAboutData>
3. include <KCmdLineArgs>

1. include "mainwindow.h"

int main (int argc, char *argv[]) {

 KAboutData aboutData( "tutorial3", "Tutorial 3",

"1.0", "A simple text area using KAction etc.", KAboutData::License_GPL, "(c) 2006" );

 KCmdLineArgs::init( argc, argv, &aboutData );
 KApplication app;

 MainWindow* window = new MainWindow();
 window->show();
 return app.exec();

}

Putting the actions in the menus and toolbars

tutorial3ui.rc

<!DOCTYPE kpartgui SYSTEM "kpartgui.dtd"> <kpartgui name="tutorial3" version="1">

 <ToolBar name="mainToolBar" >
   <text>Main Toolbar</text>
   <Action name="clear" />
 </ToolBar>
 <MenuBar>
   <Menu name="file" >
     <text>&File</text>
     <Action name="clear" />
   </Menu>
 </MenuBar>

</kpartgui>

CMake

PROJECT(tutorial3)

FIND_PACKAGE(KDE4 REQUIRED) INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES( ${KDE4_INCLUDES} )

SET(tutorial3_SRCS main.cpp mainwindow.cpp )

KDE4_ADD_EXECUTABLE(tutorial3 ${tutorial3_SRCS})

TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES( tutorial3 ${KDE4_KDEUI_LIBS})

install(TARGETS tutorial3 DESTINATION ${BIN_INSTALL_DIR}) install( FILES tutorial3ui.rc DESTINATION ${DATA_INSTALL_DIR}/tutorial3 )