Development/Tutorials/Kross/Connecting Signals and slots in Kross

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    Hello world in kross
    Tutorial Series   Kross tutorials
    Previous   Kross Hello World
    What's Next   Scripts as plugins
    Further Reading   n/a


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    This tutorial shows how to use a system of signals and slots to provide a scripting interface for a KDE application. It builds upon the Kross Hello World tutorial and again follows a 'Hello World' type format.

    Update source files

    mainwindow.h

    Edit mainwindow.h to handle the changes to mainwindow.cpp. Note that the change is the addition of a private Kross::Action .

    1. ifndef MAINWINDOW_H
    2. define MAINWINDOW_H
    1. include <QComboBox>
    2. include <QLabel>
    3. include <QLineEdit>
    1. include <kross/core/action.h>

    class MainWindow : public QWidget {

       Q_OBJECT
     public:
       MainWindow(QWidget *parent=0);
     private Q_SLOTS:
       void interpreterActivated(const QString &);
     private:
       QLineEdit* txtInputString;
       QLabel* lblMessage;
       QComboBox* cmbInterpreters;
       Kross::Action* action;
    

    };

    1. endif

    mainwindow.cpp

    Using the same CmakeLists.txt and main.cpp from the previous tutorial, edit the mainwindow.cpp as follows:

    1. include "mainwindow.h"
    1. include <QVBoxLayout>
    2. include <QDebug>
    1. include <kross/core/manager.h>
    2. include <kross/core/action.h>

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

     txtInputString = new QLineEdit();
     lblMessage = new QLabel("Hello");
     cmbInterpreters = new QComboBox ();
     cmbInterpreters->addItem("Choose Interpreter", "");
    
     foreach(QString s, Kross::Manager::self().interpreters())
       cmbInterpreters->addItem(s);
    
     connect(cmbInterpreters, SIGNAL(activated(const QString &)),
         SLOT(interpreterActivated(const QString &)));
    
     QVBoxLayout *vLayout = new QVBoxLayout;
     vLayout->addWidget(cmbInterpreters);
     vLayout->addWidget(txtInputString);
     vLayout->addWidget(lblMessage);
     setLayout(vLayout);
    
     action = new Kross::Action(this, "MyScript");
    
     action->addObject(txtInputString, "MyInputString");
     action->addObject(cmbInterpreters, "MyInterpreter");
     action->addObject(lblMessage, "MyLabel");
    
     action->trigger();
    

    }

    void MainWindow::interpreterActivated(const QString &strSelectedInterpreter) {

     if(strSelectedInterpreter.isEmpty()) {
       lblMessage->setText("-");
       return;
     }
    
     QString filename;
    
     if(strSelectedInterpreter == "python")
       filename = "krossSigsSlots.py";
     else if(strSelectedInterpreter == "javascript")
       filename = "krossSigsSlots.js";
     else
       return;
    
     action->setFile(filename);
     action->trigger();
    

    }

    The changes are addition of a text entry field and the reorganisation of logic handling the Kross::Action. Note also that there is no code in mainwindow.cpp to set the label, as there was in the previous tutorial. Instead, Objects are simply made available to the scripting interface through the action->addObject calls, without any knowledge of what the script will use them for. This removes the need to know at the time of writing the application what function the scripts will perform, and is therefore suited to a plugin interface.

    krossSigsSlots.py

    This script catches the textChanged SIGNAL of the QLineEdit, and connects it to a simple python function to reverse the string in the QLineEdit and display it in the QLabel.

    1. !/usr/bin/env kross

    import MyLabel import MyInterpreter import MyInputString

    def reverseString(s):

     s = s[::-1]
     MyLabel.text = s
    

    MyInputString.connect("textChanged(const QString &)", reverseString)

    krossSigsSlots.js

    This script does the same like the script above but using the JavaScript scripting language.

    function reverseString(s){

       MyLabel.text = s.split("").reverse().join("");
    

    }

    connect(MyInputString, "textChanged(const QString &)", this, "reverseString(const QString &)");

    Autoconnecting Signals and Slots

    It is possible to connect signals from your Object to slots in your script file automatically. Edit the mainwindow.cpp file to add another argument to the addObject function:

    action->addObject(txtInputString, "MyInputString",

                     Kross::ChildrenInterface::AutoConnectSignals);
    

    action->addObject(cmbInterpreters, "MyInterpreter"); action->addObject(lblMessage, "MyLabel"); The Kross::ChildrenInterface::AutoConnectSignals argument causes signals of the object to be automatically connected with scripting functions of the same name. Therefore, the scripts can again be simplified:

    Simplified scripts

    The python function reverses the string:

    1. !/usr/bin/env kross

    import MyLabel

    def textChanged(s):

     s = s[::-1]
     MyLabel.text = s
    

    The javascript function converts the string to pig latin:

    function textChanged(text) {

     text = text.replace(/\b([aeiou][a-z]*)\b/gi, "$1way"); // Rule 2
     pigLatin = text.replace(/\b([bcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxy]+)([a-z]*)\b/gi, "$2$1ay"); // Rule 1
    
     MyLabel.text = pigLatin;
    

    }