Development/Tutorials/Using KXmlGuiWindow: Difference between revisions

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    {{TutorialBrowser|
    {{TutorialBrowser|


    series=Beginner Tutorial|
    series=Beginner Tutorial|


    name=How To Use KMainWindow|
    name=How To Use KXmlGuiWindow|


    pre=[[Development/Tutorials/Programming_Tutorial_KDE_4/First_program|Tutorial 1 - Hello World]]|
    pre=[[Development/Tutorials/First_program|Tutorial 1 - Hello World]]|


    next=[[Development/Tutorials/Programming_Tutorial_KDE_4/Using_KActions|Tutorial 3 - KActions and XmlGui]]|  
    next=[[Development/Tutorials/Using_Actions|Tutorial 3 - QActions and XMLGUI]]|  


    reading={{class|KMainWindow}}
    reading={{class|KXmlGuiWindow}}
    }}
    }}


    ==Abstract==
    ==Abstract==
    This tutorial carries on from [[Development/Tutorials/Programming_Tutorial_KDE_4/First_program|First Program Tutorial]] and will introduce the {{class|KXmlGuiWindow}} class.
     
    This tutorial carries on from [[Development/Tutorials/First_program/KF5|First Program Tutorial]] and will introduce the {{class|KXmlGuiWindow}} class.


    In the previous tutorial, the program caused a dialog box to pop up but we're going to take steps towards a functioning application.
    In the previous tutorial, the program caused a dialog box to pop up but we're going to take steps towards a functioning application.


    [[image:introtokdetutorial2.png|frame|center]]


    ==Using KXmlGuiWindow==
    [[image:tutorial2-kf5.png|frame|center]]


    In order to have a useful KXmlGuiWindow, we must subclass it. So we create two files, a <tt>mainwindow.cpp</tt> and a <tt>mainwindow.h</tt> which will contain our code. Our class inherits from KXmlGuiWindow because it uses XML e.g. to define the application's menu structure.
    ==KXmlGuiWindow==
     
    {{class|KXmlGuiWindow}} provides a full main window view with menubars, toolbars, a statusbar and a main area in the centre for a large widget. For example the help-menu is predefined. Most KDE applications will derive from this class as it provides an easy way to define menu and toolbar layouts through XML files (this technology is called XMLGUI and is part of the KF5::XmlGui framework). While we will not be using XMLGUI in ''this'' tutorial, we will use it in the next.
     
    In order to have a useful KXmlGuiWindow, we must subclass it. So we create two files, a <tt>mainwindow.cpp</tt> and a <tt>mainwindow.h</tt> which will contain our code.


    ===mainwindow.h===
    ===mainwindow.h===
    <code cppqt>
     
    <syntaxhighlight lang="cpp-qt">
    #ifndef MAINWINDOW_H
    #ifndef MAINWINDOW_H
    #define MAINWINDOW_H
    #define MAINWINDOW_H
     
    #include <KXmlGuiWindow>
    #include <KXmlGuiWindow>
    #include <KTextEdit>


    class KTextEdit;
    class MainWindow : public KXmlGuiWindow
    class MainWindow : public KXmlGuiWindow
    {
    {
       public:
       public:
         MainWindow(QWidget *parent=0);
         explicit MainWindow(QWidget *parent = nullptr);
       private:
       private:
         KTextEdit* textArea;
         KTextEdit* textArea;
    };
    };
     
    #endif
    #endif
    </code>
    </syntaxhighlight>
    First we Subclass KXmlGuiWindow on line 7 with with <tt>class MainWindow : public KXmlGuiWindow</tt>.
    First we Subclass KXmlGuiWindow on line 8 with <tt>class MainWindow : public KXmlGuiWindow</tt>.


    Then we declare the constructor with <tt>MainWindow(QWidget *parent=0);</tt>.
    Then we declare the constructor with <tt>MainWindow(QWidget *parent = nullptr);</tt>.


    And finally we declare a pointer to the object that will make up the bulk of our program. {{class|KTextEdit}} is a generic richtext editor with some KDE niceties like cursor auto-hiding.
    And finally we declare a pointer to the object that will make up the bulk of our program. {{class|KTextEdit}} is a generic richtext editor with some niceties like cursor auto-hiding.


    ===mainwindow.cpp===
    ===mainwindow.cpp===
    <code cppqt>
     
    <syntaxhighlight lang="cpp-qt">
    #include "mainwindow.h"
    #include "mainwindow.h"
    // KF5
    #include <KTextEdit>


    MainWindow::MainWindow(QWidget *parent) : KXmlGuiWindow(parent)
    MainWindow::MainWindow(QWidget *parent) : KXmlGuiWindow(parent)
    {
    {
       textArea = new KTextEdit;
       textArea = new KTextEdit();
       setCentralWidget(textArea);
       setCentralWidget(textArea);
       setupGUI();
       setupGUI();
    }
    }
    </code>
    </syntaxhighlight>
    First, of course, on line 1 we have to include the header file containing the class declaration.
    First, of course, on line 1 we have to include the header file containing the class declaration.


    On line 5, we initialise our text editor with an object. Then on line 6 we use the built-in setCentralWidget() function which tells the KXmlGuiWindow what should appear in the central section of the window.
    On line 7 we initialise our text editor with an object. Then on line 8 we use KXmlGuiWindow's built-in setCentralWidget() function which tells the KXmlGuiWindow what should appear in the central section of the window.


    Finally, KXmlGuiWindow::setupGUI() is called which does a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff and creates the default menu bars (Settings, Help).
    Finally, KXmlGuiWindow::setupGUI() is called which does a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff and creates the default menu bars (Settings, Help).
    Line 67: Line 77:
    ==Back to main.cpp==
    ==Back to main.cpp==
    In order to actually run this window, we need to add a few lines in main.cpp:
    In order to actually run this window, we need to add a few lines in main.cpp:
    ===main.cpp===
    ===main.cpp===
    <code cppqt>
     
    #include <KApplication>
    <syntaxhighlight lang="cpp-qt">
    #include <cstdlib>
    #include <QApplication>
    #include <QCommandLineParser>
     
    #include <KAboutData>
    #include <KAboutData>
    #include <KCmdLineArgs>
    #include <KLocalizedString>


    #include "mainwindow.h"
    #include "mainwindow.h"
     
    int main (int argc, char *argv[])
    int main (int argc, char *argv[])
    {
    {
      KAboutData aboutData( "tutorial2",  
        QApplication app(argc, argv);
          "Tutorial2", "1.0", "A simple text area",
        KLocalizedString::setApplicationDomain("tutorial2");
          KAboutData::License_GPL, "(c) 2006" );
       
      KCmdLineArgs::init( argc, argv, &aboutData );
        KAboutData aboutData(
     
                            // The program name used internally. (componentName)
      KApplication app;
                            QStringLiteral("tutorial2"),
                            // A displayable program name string. (displayName)
                            i18n("Tutorial 2"),
                            // The program version string. (version)
                            QStringLiteral("1.0"),
                            // Short description of what the app does. (shortDescription)
                            i18n("A simple text area"),
                            // The license this code is released under
                            KAboutLicense::GPL,
                            // Copyright Statement (copyrightStatement = QString())
                            i18n("(c) 2015"),
                            // Optional text shown in the About box.
                            // Can contain any information desired. (otherText)
                            i18n("Some text..."),
                            // The program homepage string. (homePageAddress = QString())
                            QStringLiteral("http://example.com/"),
                            // The bug report email address
                            // (bugsEmailAddress = QLatin1String("[email protected]")
                            QStringLiteral("[email protected]"));
        aboutData.addAuthor(i18n("Name"), i18n("Task"), QStringLiteral("[email protected]"),
                            QStringLiteral("http://your.website.com"), QStringLiteral("OSC Username"));
        KAboutData::setApplicationData(aboutData);
       
       
      MainWindow* window = new MainWindow();
        QCommandLineParser parser;
      window->show();
        aboutData.setupCommandLine(&parser);
     
        parser.process(app);
      return app.exec();
        aboutData.processCommandLine(&parser);
       
        MainWindow* window = new MainWindow();
        window->show();
       
        return app.exec();
    }
    }
    </code>
    </syntaxhighlight>
    The only new lines here (compared to Tutorial 1) are 16 and 17. On line 16, we create our MainWindow object and then on line 17, we display it.
    The only new lines here (compared to Tutorial 1) are 9, 49 and 50. On line 49, we create our MainWindow object and then on line 50, we display it.


    ==CMake==
    ==CMake==
    The best way to build the program is to use CMake. All that's changed since tutorial 1 is that <tt>mainwindow.cpp</tt> has been added to the sources list and any <tt>tutorial1</tt> has become <tt>tutorial2</tt>.
    The best way to build the program is to use CMake. We add <tt>mainwindow.cpp</tt> to the sources list, include the XmlGui and TextEdit frameworks, and replace all <tt>tutorial1</tt> text to <tt>tutorial2</tt>.
     
     
    Add KXmlGui and KTextWidgets frameworks.
     
    ===CMakeLists.txt===
    ===CMakeLists.txt===
    <code ini>
     
    <syntaxhighlight lang="cmake">
    cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.0)
     
    project (tutorial2)
    project (tutorial2)
    find_package(KDE4 REQUIRED)
     
    include_directories( ${KDE4_INCLUDES} )
    set(QT_MIN_VERSION "5.3.0")
    set(tutorial2_SRCS
    set(KF5_MIN_VERSION "5.2.0")
    main.cpp
     
    mainwindow.cpp
    find_package(ECM 1.0.0 REQUIRED NO_MODULE)
    set(CMAKE_MODULE_PATH ${ECM_MODULE_PATH} ${ECM_KDE_MODULE_DIR} ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake)
     
    include(KDEInstallDirs)
    include(KDECMakeSettings)
    include(KDECompilerSettings NO_POLICY_SCOPE)
    include(FeatureSummary)
     
    find_package(Qt5 ${QT_MIN_VERSION} CONFIG REQUIRED COMPONENTS
        Core    # QCommandLineParser, QStringLiteral
        Widgets # QApplication
    )
    )
    kde4_add_executable(tutorial2 ${tutorial2_SRCS})
    target_link_libraries( tutorial2 ${KDE4_KDEUI_LIBS})
    </code>


    ===Kompile it===
    find_package(KF5 ${KF5_MIN_VERSION} REQUIRED COMPONENTS
    To compile, link and run it, use:
        CoreAddons      # KAboutData
    cmake . && make && ./tutorial2
        I18n            # KLocalizedString
        XmlGui          # KXmlGuiWindow
        TextWidgets    # KTextEdit
    )
     
    feature_summary(WHAT ALL INCLUDE_QUIET_PACKAGES FATAL_ON_MISSING_REQUIRED_PACKAGES)
       
    set(tutorial2_SRCS main.cpp mainwindow.cpp)
     
    add_executable(tutorial2 ${tutorial2_SRCS})
     
    target_link_libraries(tutorial2
        Qt5::Widgets
        KF5::CoreAddons
        KF5::I18n
        KF5::XmlGui
        KF5::TextWidgets
    )
     
    install(TARGETS tutorial2  ${KDE_INSTALL_TARGETS_DEFAULT_ARGS})
    </syntaxhighlight>
     
    === Compile and run ===
    The best way to compile, link and run it is to [[Getting_Started/Build|set up a correct build environment]]. But for a simple tutorial like this, it's enough to just create a build directory and build from there. This command takes cafe of all of that in one line:
    <syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
    mkdir build && cd build && cmake .. && make && ./tutorial2
    </syntaxhighlight>


    ==Moving On==
    ==Moving On==
    Now you can move on to [[Development/Tutorials/Programming_Tutorial_KDE_4/Using_KActions|using KActions]].
    Now you can move on to [[Development/Tutorials/Using_Actions|Using Actions]].
     
    {{Tip||The source code on this page applies only the current KDE Frameworks 5 ("KF5") version. For the older KDE Development Platform ("KDE4"), See [[Development/Tutorials/Using_KXmlGuiWindow/KDE4]]}}


    [[Category:C++]]
    [[Category:C++]]

    Revision as of 01:04, 6 March 2018

    How To Use KXmlGuiWindow
    Tutorial Series   Beginner Tutorial
    Previous   Tutorial 1 - Hello World
    What's Next   Tutorial 3 - QActions and XMLGUI
    Further Reading   KXmlGuiWindow

    Abstract

    This tutorial carries on from First Program Tutorial and will introduce the KXmlGuiWindow class.

    In the previous tutorial, the program caused a dialog box to pop up but we're going to take steps towards a functioning application.


    KXmlGuiWindow

    KXmlGuiWindow provides a full main window view with menubars, toolbars, a statusbar and a main area in the centre for a large widget. For example the help-menu is predefined. Most KDE applications will derive from this class as it provides an easy way to define menu and toolbar layouts through XML files (this technology is called XMLGUI and is part of the KF5::XmlGui framework). While we will not be using XMLGUI in this tutorial, we will use it in the next.

    In order to have a useful KXmlGuiWindow, we must subclass it. So we create two files, a mainwindow.cpp and a mainwindow.h which will contain our code.

    mainwindow.h

    #ifndef MAINWINDOW_H
    #define MAINWINDOW_H
     
    #include <KXmlGuiWindow>
    
    class KTextEdit;
     
    class MainWindow : public KXmlGuiWindow
    {
      public:
        explicit MainWindow(QWidget *parent = nullptr);
     
      private:
        KTextEdit* textArea;
    };
     
    #endif
    

    First we Subclass KXmlGuiWindow on line 8 with class MainWindow : public KXmlGuiWindow.

    Then we declare the constructor with MainWindow(QWidget *parent = nullptr);.

    And finally we declare a pointer to the object that will make up the bulk of our program. KTextEdit is a generic richtext editor with some niceties like cursor auto-hiding.

    mainwindow.cpp

    #include "mainwindow.h"
    // KF5
    #include <KTextEdit>
    
    MainWindow::MainWindow(QWidget *parent) : KXmlGuiWindow(parent)
    {
      textArea = new KTextEdit();
      setCentralWidget(textArea);
      setupGUI();
    }
    

    First, of course, on line 1 we have to include the header file containing the class declaration.

    On line 7 we initialise our text editor with an object. Then on line 8 we use KXmlGuiWindow's built-in setCentralWidget() function which tells the KXmlGuiWindow what should appear in the central section of the window.

    Finally, KXmlGuiWindow::setupGUI() is called which does a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff and creates the default menu bars (Settings, Help).

    Back to main.cpp

    In order to actually run this window, we need to add a few lines in main.cpp:

    main.cpp

    #include <cstdlib>
     
    #include <QApplication>
    #include <QCommandLineParser>
    
    #include <KAboutData>
    #include <KLocalizedString>
    
    #include "mainwindow.h"
     
    int main (int argc, char *argv[])
    {
        QApplication app(argc, argv);
        KLocalizedString::setApplicationDomain("tutorial2");
        
        KAboutData aboutData(
                             // The program name used internally. (componentName)
                             QStringLiteral("tutorial2"),
                             // A displayable program name string. (displayName)
                             i18n("Tutorial 2"),
                             // The program version string. (version)
                             QStringLiteral("1.0"),
                             // Short description of what the app does. (shortDescription)
                             i18n("A simple text area"),
                             // The license this code is released under
                             KAboutLicense::GPL,
                             // Copyright Statement (copyrightStatement = QString())
                             i18n("(c) 2015"),
                             // Optional text shown in the About box.
                             // Can contain any information desired. (otherText)
                             i18n("Some text..."),
                             // The program homepage string. (homePageAddress = QString())
                             QStringLiteral("http://example.com/"),
                             // The bug report email address
                             // (bugsEmailAddress = QLatin1String("[email protected]")
                             QStringLiteral("[email protected]"));
        aboutData.addAuthor(i18n("Name"), i18n("Task"), QStringLiteral("[email protected]"),
                             QStringLiteral("http://your.website.com"), QStringLiteral("OSC Username"));
        KAboutData::setApplicationData(aboutData);
     
        QCommandLineParser parser;
        aboutData.setupCommandLine(&parser);
        parser.process(app);
        aboutData.processCommandLine(&parser);
        
        MainWindow* window = new MainWindow();
        window->show();
        
        return app.exec();
    }
    

    The only new lines here (compared to Tutorial 1) are 9, 49 and 50. On line 49, we create our MainWindow object and then on line 50, we display it.

    CMake

    The best way to build the program is to use CMake. We add mainwindow.cpp to the sources list, include the XmlGui and TextEdit frameworks, and replace all tutorial1 text to tutorial2.


    Add KXmlGui and KTextWidgets frameworks.

    CMakeLists.txt

    cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.0)
    
    project (tutorial2)
    
    set(QT_MIN_VERSION "5.3.0")
    set(KF5_MIN_VERSION "5.2.0")
    
    find_package(ECM 1.0.0 REQUIRED NO_MODULE)
    set(CMAKE_MODULE_PATH ${ECM_MODULE_PATH} ${ECM_KDE_MODULE_DIR} ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake)
    
    include(KDEInstallDirs)
    include(KDECMakeSettings)
    include(KDECompilerSettings NO_POLICY_SCOPE)
    include(FeatureSummary)
    
    find_package(Qt5 ${QT_MIN_VERSION} CONFIG REQUIRED COMPONENTS 
        Core    # QCommandLineParser, QStringLiteral
        Widgets # QApplication 
    )
    
    find_package(KF5 ${KF5_MIN_VERSION} REQUIRED COMPONENTS
        CoreAddons      # KAboutData
        I18n            # KLocalizedString
        XmlGui          # KXmlGuiWindow
        TextWidgets     # KTextEdit
    )
    
    feature_summary(WHAT ALL INCLUDE_QUIET_PACKAGES FATAL_ON_MISSING_REQUIRED_PACKAGES)
        
    set(tutorial2_SRCS main.cpp mainwindow.cpp)
    
    add_executable(tutorial2 ${tutorial2_SRCS})
    
    target_link_libraries(tutorial2
        Qt5::Widgets
        KF5::CoreAddons
        KF5::I18n
        KF5::XmlGui
        KF5::TextWidgets
    )
    
    install(TARGETS tutorial2  ${KDE_INSTALL_TARGETS_DEFAULT_ARGS})
    

    Compile and run

    The best way to compile, link and run it is to set up a correct build environment. But for a simple tutorial like this, it's enough to just create a build directory and build from there. This command takes cafe of all of that in one line:

    mkdir build && cd build && cmake .. && make && ./tutorial2
    

    Moving On

    Now you can move on to Using Actions.

    The source code on this page applies only the current KDE Frameworks 5 ("KF5") version. For the older KDE Development Platform ("KDE4"), See Development/Tutorials/Using_KXmlGuiWindow/KDE4