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I have a program which interfaces with a radio I am using via a gui I wrote in PyQt. Obviously one of the main functions of the radio is to transmit data, but to do this continuously, I have to loop the writes, which causes the gui to hang. Since I have never dealt with threading, I tried to get rid of these hangs using QCoreApplication.processEvents(). The radio needs to sleep between transmissions, though, so the gui still hangs based on how long these sleeps last.
Is there a simple way to fix this using QThread? I have looked for tutorials on how to implement multithreading with PyQt, but most of them deal with setting up servers and are much more advanced than I need them to be. I honestly don't even really need my thread to update anything while it is running, I just need to start it, have it transmit in the background, and stop it.
I created a little example that shows 3 different and simple ways of dealing with threads. I hope it will help you find the right approach to your problem.
import sys
import time
from PyQt5.QtCore import (QCoreApplication, QObject, QRunnable, QThread,
QThreadPool, pyqtSignal)
# Subclassing QThread
# http://qt-project.org/doc/latest/qthread.html
class AThread(QThread):
def run(self):
count = 0
while count < 5:
time.sleep(1)
print("A Increasing")
count += 1
# Subclassing QObject and using moveToThread
# http://blog.qt.digia.com/blog/2007/07/05/qthreads-no-longer-abstract
class SomeObject(QObject):
finished = pyqtSignal()
def long_running(self):
count = 0
while count < 5:
time.sleep(1)
print("B Increasing")
count += 1
self.finished.emit()
# Using a QRunnable
# http://qt-project.org/doc/latest/qthreadpool.html
# Note that a QRunnable isn't a subclass of QObject and therefore does
# not provide signals and slots.
class Runnable(QRunnable):
def run(self):
count = 0
app = QCoreApplication.instance()
while count < 5:
print("C Increasing")
time.sleep(1)
count += 1
app.quit()
def using_q_thread():
app = QCoreApplication([])
thread = AThread()
thread.finished.connect(app.exit)
thread.start()
sys.exit(app.exec_())
def using_move_to_thread():
app = QCoreApplication([])
objThread = QThread()
obj = SomeObject()
obj.moveToThread(objThread)
obj.finished.connect(objThread.quit)
objThread.started.connect(obj.long_running)
objThread.finished.connect(app.exit)
objThread.start()
sys.exit(app.exec_())
def using_q_runnable():
app = QCoreApplication([])
runnable = Runnable()
QThreadPool.globalInstance().start(runnable)
sys.exit(app.exec_())
if __name__ == "__main__":
#using_q_thread()
#using_move_to_thread()
using_q_runnable()
Take this answer updated for PyQt5, python 3.4
Use this as a pattern to start a worker that does not take data and return data as they are available to the form.
1 - Worker class is made smaller and put in its own file worker.py for easy memorization and independent software reuse.
2 - The main.py file is the file that defines the GUI Form class
3 - The thread object is not subclassed.
4 - Both thread object and the worker object belong to the Form object
5 - Steps of the procedure are within the comments.
# worker.py
from PyQt5.QtCore import QThread, QObject, pyqtSignal, pyqtSlot
import time
class Worker(QObject):
finished = pyqtSignal()
intReady = pyqtSignal(int)
#pyqtSlot()
def procCounter(self): # A slot takes no params
for i in range(1, 100):
time.sleep(1)
self.intReady.emit(i)
self.finished.emit()
And the main file is:
# main.py
from PyQt5.QtCore import QThread
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QApplication, QLabel, QWidget, QGridLayout
import sys
import worker
class Form(QWidget):
def __init__(self):
super().__init__()
self.label = QLabel("0")
# 1 - create Worker and Thread inside the Form
self.obj = worker.Worker() # no parent!
self.thread = QThread() # no parent!
# 2 - Connect Worker`s Signals to Form method slots to post data.
self.obj.intReady.connect(self.onIntReady)
# 3 - Move the Worker object to the Thread object
self.obj.moveToThread(self.thread)
# 4 - Connect Worker Signals to the Thread slots
self.obj.finished.connect(self.thread.quit)
# 5 - Connect Thread started signal to Worker operational slot method
self.thread.started.connect(self.obj.procCounter)
# * - Thread finished signal will close the app if you want!
#self.thread.finished.connect(app.exit)
# 6 - Start the thread
self.thread.start()
# 7 - Start the form
self.initUI()
def initUI(self):
grid = QGridLayout()
self.setLayout(grid)
grid.addWidget(self.label,0,0)
self.move(300, 150)
self.setWindowTitle('thread test')
self.show()
def onIntReady(self, i):
self.label.setText("{}".format(i))
#print(i)
app = QApplication(sys.argv)
form = Form()
sys.exit(app.exec_())
According to the Qt developers, subclassing QThread is incorrect (see http://blog.qt.io/blog/2010/06/17/youre-doing-it-wrong/). But that article is really hard to understand (plus the title is a bit condescending). I found a better blog post that gives a more detailed explanation about why you should use one style of threading over another: http://mayaposch.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/how-to-really-truly-use-qthreads-the-full-explanation/
Also, I would highly recommend this video from KDAB on signals and slots between threads.
In my opinion, you should probably never subclass thread with the intent to overload the run method. While that does work, you're basically circumventing how Qt wants you to work. Plus you'll miss out on things like events and proper thread safe signals and slots. Plus as you'll likely see in the above blog post, the "correct" way of threading forces you to write more testable code.
Here's a couple of examples of how to take advantage of QThreads in PyQt (I posted a separate answer below that properly uses QRunnable and incorporates signals/slots, that answer is better if you have a lot of async tasks that you need to load balance).
import sys
from PyQt4 import QtCore
from PyQt4 import QtGui
from PyQt4.QtCore import Qt
# very testable class (hint: you can use mock.Mock for the signals)
class Worker(QtCore.QObject):
finished = QtCore.pyqtSignal()
dataReady = QtCore.pyqtSignal(list, dict)
#QtCore.pyqtSlot()
def processA(self):
print "Worker.processA()"
self.finished.emit()
#QtCore.pyqtSlot(str, list, list)
def processB(self, foo, bar=None, baz=None):
print "Worker.processB()"
for thing in bar:
# lots of processing...
self.dataReady.emit(['dummy', 'data'], {'dummy': ['data']})
self.finished.emit()
class Thread(QtCore.QThread):
"""Need for PyQt4 <= 4.6 only"""
def __init__(self, parent=None):
QtCore.QThread.__init__(self, parent)
# this class is solely needed for these two methods, there
# appears to be a bug in PyQt 4.6 that requires you to
# explicitly call run and start from the subclass in order
# to get the thread to actually start an event loop
def start(self):
QtCore.QThread.start(self)
def run(self):
QtCore.QThread.run(self)
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
thread = Thread() # no parent!
obj = Worker() # no parent!
obj.moveToThread(thread)
# if you want the thread to stop after the worker is done
# you can always call thread.start() again later
obj.finished.connect(thread.quit)
# one way to do it is to start processing as soon as the thread starts
# this is okay in some cases... but makes it harder to send data to
# the worker object from the main gui thread. As you can see I'm calling
# processA() which takes no arguments
thread.started.connect(obj.processA)
thread.start()
# another way to do it, which is a bit fancier, allows you to talk back and
# forth with the object in a thread safe way by communicating through signals
# and slots (now that the thread is running I can start calling methods on
# the worker object)
QtCore.QMetaObject.invokeMethod(obj, 'processB', Qt.QueuedConnection,
QtCore.Q_ARG(str, "Hello World!"),
QtCore.Q_ARG(list, ["args", 0, 1]),
QtCore.Q_ARG(list, []))
# that looks a bit scary, but its a totally ok thing to do in Qt,
# we're simply using the system that Signals and Slots are built on top of,
# the QMetaObject, to make it act like we safely emitted a signal for
# the worker thread to pick up when its event loop resumes (so if its doing
# a bunch of work you can call this method 10 times and it will just queue
# up the calls. Note: PyQt > 4.6 will not allow you to pass in a None
# instead of an empty list, it has stricter type checking
app.exec_()
# Without this you may get weird QThread messages in the shell on exit
app.deleteLater()
Very nice example from Matt, I fixed the typo and also pyqt4.8 is common now so I removed the dummy class as well and added an example for the dataReady signal
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import sys
from PyQt4 import QtCore, QtGui
from PyQt4.QtCore import Qt
# very testable class (hint: you can use mock.Mock for the signals)
class Worker(QtCore.QObject):
finished = QtCore.pyqtSignal()
dataReady = QtCore.pyqtSignal(list, dict)
#QtCore.pyqtSlot()
def processA(self):
print "Worker.processA()"
self.finished.emit()
#QtCore.pyqtSlot(str, list, list)
def processB(self, foo, bar=None, baz=None):
print "Worker.processB()"
for thing in bar:
# lots of processing...
self.dataReady.emit(['dummy', 'data'], {'dummy': ['data']})
self.finished.emit()
def onDataReady(aList, aDict):
print 'onDataReady'
print repr(aList)
print repr(aDict)
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
thread = QtCore.QThread() # no parent!
obj = Worker() # no parent!
obj.dataReady.connect(onDataReady)
obj.moveToThread(thread)
# if you want the thread to stop after the worker is done
# you can always call thread.start() again later
obj.finished.connect(thread.quit)
# one way to do it is to start processing as soon as the thread starts
# this is okay in some cases... but makes it harder to send data to
# the worker object from the main gui thread. As you can see I'm calling
# processA() which takes no arguments
thread.started.connect(obj.processA)
thread.finished.connect(app.exit)
thread.start()
# another way to do it, which is a bit fancier, allows you to talk back and
# forth with the object in a thread safe way by communicating through signals
# and slots (now that the thread is running I can start calling methods on
# the worker object)
QtCore.QMetaObject.invokeMethod(obj, 'processB', Qt.QueuedConnection,
QtCore.Q_ARG(str, "Hello World!"),
QtCore.Q_ARG(list, ["args", 0, 1]),
QtCore.Q_ARG(list, []))
# that looks a bit scary, but its a totally ok thing to do in Qt,
# we're simply using the system that Signals and Slots are built on top of,
# the QMetaObject, to make it act like we safely emitted a signal for
# the worker thread to pick up when its event loop resumes (so if its doing
# a bunch of work you can call this method 10 times and it will just queue
# up the calls. Note: PyQt > 4.6 will not allow you to pass in a None
# instead of an empty list, it has stricter type checking
app.exec_()
In PyQt there are a lot of options for getting asynchronous behavior. For things that need event processing (ie. QtNetwork, etc) you should use the QThread example I provided in my other answer on this thread. But for the vast majority of your threading needs, I think this solution is far superior than the other methods.
The advantage of this is that the QThreadPool schedules your QRunnable instances as tasks. This is similar to the task pattern used in Intel's TBB. It's not quite as elegant as I like but it does pull off excellent asynchronous behavior.
This allows you to utilize most of the threading power of Qt in Python via QRunnable and still take advantage of signals and slots. I use this same code in several applications, some that make hundreds of asynchronous REST calls, some that open files or list directories, and the best part is using this method, Qt task balances the system resources for me.
import time
from PyQt4 import QtCore
from PyQt4 import QtGui
from PyQt4.QtCore import Qt
def async(method, args, uid, readycb, errorcb=None):
"""
Asynchronously runs a task
:param func method: the method to run in a thread
:param object uid: a unique identifier for this task (used for verification)
:param slot updatecb: the callback when data is receieved cb(uid, data)
:param slot errorcb: the callback when there is an error cb(uid, errmsg)
The uid option is useful when the calling code makes multiple async calls
and the callbacks need some context about what was sent to the async method.
For example, if you use this method to thread a long running database call
and the user decides they want to cancel it and start a different one, the
first one may complete before you have a chance to cancel the task. In that
case, the "readycb" will be called with the cancelled task's data. The uid
can be used to differentiate those two calls (ie. using the sql query).
:returns: Request instance
"""
request = Request(method, args, uid, readycb, errorcb)
QtCore.QThreadPool.globalInstance().start(request)
return request
class Request(QtCore.QRunnable):
"""
A Qt object that represents an asynchronous task
:param func method: the method to call
:param list args: list of arguments to pass to method
:param object uid: a unique identifier (used for verification)
:param slot readycb: the callback used when data is receieved
:param slot errorcb: the callback used when there is an error
The uid param is sent to your error and update callbacks as the
first argument. It's there to verify the data you're returning
After created it should be used by invoking:
.. code-block:: python
task = Request(...)
QtCore.QThreadPool.globalInstance().start(task)
"""
INSTANCES = []
FINISHED = []
def __init__(self, method, args, uid, readycb, errorcb=None):
super(Request, self).__init__()
self.setAutoDelete(True)
self.cancelled = False
self.method = method
self.args = args
self.uid = uid
self.dataReady = readycb
self.dataError = errorcb
Request.INSTANCES.append(self)
# release all of the finished tasks
Request.FINISHED = []
def run(self):
"""
Method automatically called by Qt when the runnable is ready to run.
This will run in a separate thread.
"""
# this allows us to "cancel" queued tasks if needed, should be done
# on shutdown to prevent the app from hanging
if self.cancelled:
self.cleanup()
return
# runs in a separate thread, for proper async signal/slot behavior
# the object that emits the signals must be created in this thread.
# Its not possible to run grabber.moveToThread(QThread.currentThread())
# so to get this QObject to properly exhibit asynchronous
# signal and slot behavior it needs to live in the thread that
# we're running in, creating the object from within this thread
# is an easy way to do that.
grabber = Requester()
grabber.Loaded.connect(self.dataReady, Qt.QueuedConnection)
if self.dataError is not None:
grabber.Error.connect(self.dataError, Qt.QueuedConnection)
try:
result = self.method(*self.args)
if self.cancelled:
# cleanup happens in 'finally' statement
return
grabber.Loaded.emit(self.uid, result)
except Exception as error:
if self.cancelled:
# cleanup happens in 'finally' statement
return
grabber.Error.emit(self.uid, unicode(error))
finally:
# this will run even if one of the above return statements
# is executed inside of the try/except statement see:
# https://docs.python.org/2.7/tutorial/errors.html#defining-clean-up-actions
self.cleanup(grabber)
def cleanup(self, grabber=None):
# remove references to any object or method for proper ref counting
self.method = None
self.args = None
self.uid = None
self.dataReady = None
self.dataError = None
if grabber is not None:
grabber.deleteLater()
# make sure this python obj gets cleaned up
self.remove()
def remove(self):
try:
Request.INSTANCES.remove(self)
# when the next request is created, it will clean this one up
# this will help us avoid this object being cleaned up
# when it's still being used
Request.FINISHED.append(self)
except ValueError:
# there might be a race condition on shutdown, when shutdown()
# is called while the thread is still running and the instance
# has already been removed from the list
return
#staticmethod
def shutdown():
for inst in Request.INSTANCES:
inst.cancelled = True
Request.INSTANCES = []
Request.FINISHED = []
class Requester(QtCore.QObject):
"""
A simple object designed to be used in a separate thread to allow
for asynchronous data fetching
"""
#
# Signals
#
Error = QtCore.pyqtSignal(object, unicode)
"""
Emitted if the fetch fails for any reason
:param unicode uid: an id to identify this request
:param unicode error: the error message
"""
Loaded = QtCore.pyqtSignal(object, object)
"""
Emitted whenever data comes back successfully
:param unicode uid: an id to identify this request
:param list data: the json list returned from the GET
"""
NetworkConnectionError = QtCore.pyqtSignal(unicode)
"""
Emitted when the task fails due to a network connection error
:param unicode message: network connection error message
"""
def __init__(self, parent=None):
super(Requester, self).__init__(parent)
class ExampleObject(QtCore.QObject):
def __init__(self, parent=None):
super(ExampleObject, self).__init__(parent)
self.uid = 0
self.request = None
def ready_callback(self, uid, result):
if uid != self.uid:
return
print "Data ready from %s: %s" % (uid, result)
def error_callback(self, uid, error):
if uid != self.uid:
return
print "Data error from %s: %s" % (uid, error)
def fetch(self):
if self.request is not None:
# cancel any pending requests
self.request.cancelled = True
self.request = None
self.uid += 1
self.request = async(slow_method, ["arg1", "arg2"], self.uid,
self.ready_callback,
self.error_callback)
def slow_method(arg1, arg2):
print "Starting slow method"
time.sleep(1)
return arg1 + arg2
if __name__ == "__main__":
import sys
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
obj = ExampleObject()
dialog = QtGui.QDialog()
layout = QtGui.QVBoxLayout(dialog)
button = QtGui.QPushButton("Generate", dialog)
progress = QtGui.QProgressBar(dialog)
progress.setRange(0, 0)
layout.addWidget(button)
layout.addWidget(progress)
button.clicked.connect(obj.fetch)
dialog.show()
app.exec_()
app.deleteLater() # avoids some QThread messages in the shell on exit
# cancel all running tasks avoid QThread/QTimer error messages
# on exit
Request.shutdown()
When exiting the application you'll want to make sure you cancel all of the tasks or the application will hang until every scheduled task has completed
Based on the Worker objects methods mentioned in other answers, I decided to see if I could expand on the solution to invoke more threads - in this case the optimal number the machine can run and spin up multiple workers with indeterminate completion times.
To do this I still need to subclass QThread - but only to assign a thread number and to 'reimplement' the signals 'finished' and 'started' to include their thread number.
I've focused quite a bit on the signals between the main gui, the threads, and the workers.
Similarly, others answers have been a pains to point out not parenting the QThread but I don't think this is a real concern. However, my code also is careful to destroy the QThread objects.
However, I wasn't able to parent the worker objects so it seems desirable to send them the deleteLater() signal, either when the thread function is finished or the GUI is destroyed. I've had my own code hang for not doing this.
Another enhancement I felt was necessary was was reimplement the closeEvent of the GUI (QWidget) such that the threads would be instructed to quit and then the GUI would wait until all the threads were finished. When I played with some of the other answers to this question, I got QThread destroyed errors.
Perhaps it will be useful to others. I certainly found it a useful exercise. Perhaps others will know a better way for a thread to announce it identity.
#!/usr/bin/env python3
#coding:utf-8
# Author: --<>
# Purpose: To demonstrate creation of multiple threads and identify the receipt of thread results
# Created: 19/12/15
import sys
from PyQt4.QtCore import QThread, pyqtSlot, pyqtSignal
from PyQt4.QtGui import QApplication, QLabel, QWidget, QGridLayout
import sys
import worker
class Thread(QThread):
#make new signals to be able to return an id for the thread
startedx = pyqtSignal(int)
finishedx = pyqtSignal(int)
def __init__(self,i,parent=None):
super().__init__(parent)
self.idd = i
self.started.connect(self.starttt)
self.finished.connect(self.finisheddd)
#pyqtSlot()
def starttt(self):
print('started signal from thread emitted')
self.startedx.emit(self.idd)
#pyqtSlot()
def finisheddd(self):
print('finished signal from thread emitted')
self.finishedx.emit(self.idd)
class Form(QWidget):
def __init__(self):
super().__init__()
self.initUI()
self.worker={}
self.threadx={}
self.i=0
i=0
#Establish the maximum number of threads the machine can optimally handle
#Generally relates to the number of processors
self.threadtest = QThread(self)
self.idealthreadcount = self.threadtest.idealThreadCount()
print("This machine can handle {} threads optimally".format(self.idealthreadcount))
while i <self.idealthreadcount:
self.setupThread(i)
i+=1
i=0
while i<self.idealthreadcount:
self.startThread(i)
i+=1
print("Main Gui running in thread {}.".format(self.thread()))
def setupThread(self,i):
self.worker[i]= worker.Worker(i) # no parent!
#print("Worker object runningt in thread {} prior to movetothread".format(self.worker[i].thread()) )
self.threadx[i] = Thread(i,parent=self) # if parent isn't specified then need to be careful to destroy thread
self.threadx[i].setObjectName("python thread{}"+str(i))
#print("Thread object runningt in thread {} prior to movetothread".format(self.threadx[i].thread()) )
self.threadx[i].startedx.connect(self.threadStarted)
self.threadx[i].finishedx.connect(self.threadFinished)
self.worker[i].finished.connect(self.workerFinished)
self.worker[i].intReady.connect(self.workerResultReady)
#The next line is optional, you may want to start the threads again without having to create all the code again.
self.worker[i].finished.connect(self.threadx[i].quit)
self.threadx[i].started.connect(self.worker[i].procCounter)
self.destroyed.connect(self.threadx[i].deleteLater)
self.destroyed.connect(self.worker[i].deleteLater)
#This is the key code that actually get the worker code onto another processor or thread.
self.worker[i].moveToThread(self.threadx[i])
def startThread(self,i):
self.threadx[i].start()
#pyqtSlot(int)
def threadStarted(self,i):
print('Thread {} started'.format(i))
print("Thread priority is {}".format(self.threadx[i].priority()))
#pyqtSlot(int)
def threadFinished(self,i):
print('Thread {} finished'.format(i))
#pyqtSlot(int)
def threadTerminated(self,i):
print("Thread {} terminated".format(i))
#pyqtSlot(int,int)
def workerResultReady(self,j,i):
print('Worker {} result returned'.format(i))
if i ==0:
self.label1.setText("{}".format(j))
if i ==1:
self.label2.setText("{}".format(j))
if i ==2:
self.label3.setText("{}".format(j))
if i ==3:
self.label4.setText("{}".format(j))
#print('Thread {} has started'.format(self.threadx[i].currentThreadId()))
#pyqtSlot(int)
def workerFinished(self,i):
print('Worker {} finished'.format(i))
def initUI(self):
self.label1 = QLabel("0")
self.label2= QLabel("0")
self.label3= QLabel("0")
self.label4 = QLabel("0")
grid = QGridLayout(self)
self.setLayout(grid)
grid.addWidget(self.label1,0,0)
grid.addWidget(self.label2,0,1)
grid.addWidget(self.label3,0,2)
grid.addWidget(self.label4,0,3) #Layout parents the self.labels
self.move(300, 150)
self.setGeometry(0,0,300,300)
#self.size(300,300)
self.setWindowTitle('thread test')
self.show()
def closeEvent(self, event):
print('Closing')
#this tells the threads to stop running
i=0
while i <self.idealthreadcount:
self.threadx[i].quit()
i+=1
#this ensures window cannot be closed until the threads have finished.
i=0
while i <self.idealthreadcount:
self.threadx[i].wait()
i+=1
event.accept()
if __name__=='__main__':
app = QApplication(sys.argv)
form = Form()
sys.exit(app.exec_())
And the worker code below
#!/usr/bin/env python3
#coding:utf-8
# Author: --<>
# Purpose: Stack Overflow
# Created: 19/12/15
import sys
import unittest
from PyQt4.QtCore import QThread, QObject, pyqtSignal, pyqtSlot
import time
import random
class Worker(QObject):
finished = pyqtSignal(int)
intReady = pyqtSignal(int,int)
def __init__(self, i=0):
'''__init__ is called while the worker is still in the Gui thread. Do not put slow or CPU intensive code in the __init__ method'''
super().__init__()
self.idd = i
#pyqtSlot()
def procCounter(self): # This slot takes no params
for j in range(1, 10):
random_time = random.weibullvariate(1,2)
time.sleep(random_time)
self.intReady.emit(j,self.idd)
print('Worker {0} in thread {1}'.format(self.idd, self.thread().idd))
self.finished.emit(self.idd)
if __name__=='__main__':
unittest.main()
PySide2 Solution:
Unlike in PyQt5, in PySide2 the QThread.started signal is received/handled on the original thread, not the worker thread! Luckily it still receives all other signals on the worker thread.
In order to match PyQt5's behavior, you have to create the started signal yourself.
Here is an easy solution:
# Use this class instead of QThread
class QThread2(QThread):
# Use this signal instead of "started"
started2 = Signal()
def __init__(self):
QThread.__init__(self)
self.started.connect(self.onStarted)
def onStarted(self):
self.started2.emit()
I manage to use PySide instead of PyQt because of licensing.
I need to pass custom objets between threads using the signal/slots mechanism. With PyQt, I can use the PyQt_PyObject type as signal argument but obviously, this type doesn't exists in PySide :
TypeError: Unknown type used to call meta function (that may be a signal): PyQt_PyObject
I tried to use object instead of PyQt_PyObject but things happen only with a DirectConnection type between signal and slot :
self.connect(dummyEmitter,
QtCore.SIGNAL("logMsgPlain(object)"),
self._logMsgPlain,
QtCore.Qt.DirectConnection)
With a QueuedConnection, I get an error :
QObject::connect: Cannot queue arguments of type 'object'
(Make sure 'object' is registered using qRegisterMetaType().)
I say "things happen" because it doesn't work so far. I now get errors due to the DirectConnection type :
QObject::startTimer: timers cannot be started from another thread
QPixmap: It is not safe to use pixmaps outside the GUI thread
etc ...
How should I do ?
Is there a PyQt_PyObject type-like in PySide ?
EDIT:
This small exemple will fail :
from PySide import QtCore, QtGui
import sys
class Object(QtCore.QObject):
''' A dummy emitter that send a list to the thread '''
def emitSignal(self):
someList = [0, 1, 2, 3]
self.emit(QtCore.SIGNAL("aSignal(object)"), someList)
class Worker(QtCore.QObject):
def aSlot(self, value):
print "List: {}".format(value)
if __name__ == "__main__":
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
worker = Worker()
obj = Object()
thread = QtCore.QThread()
worker.moveToThread(thread)
QtCore.QObject.connect(obj, QtCore.SIGNAL("aSignal(object)"), worker.aSlot)
# The exemple will pass with the line below uncommented
# But obviously, I can't use a DirectConnection with a worker thread and the GUI thread
# QtCore.QObject.connect(obj, QtCore.SIGNAL("aSignal(object)"), worker.aSlot, QtCore.Qt.DirectConnection)
thread.start()
obj.emitSignal()
app.exec_()
For now, the only solution I found is to switch to new style signal/slot syntax :
from PySide import QtCore, QtGui
import sys
class Object(QtCore.QObject):
aSignal = QtCore.Signal(object)
def emitSignal(self):
someList = [0, 1, 2, 3]
self.aSignal.emit(someList)
class Worker(QtCore.QObject):
def aSlot(self, value):
print "List: {}".format(value)
if __name__ == "__main__":
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
worker = Worker()
obj = Object()
thread = QtCore.QThread()
worker.moveToThread(thread)
obj.aSignal.connect(worker.aSlot)
thread.start()
obj.emitSignal()
app.exec_()
But I would be interested to know if there is a solution with the old-style syntax but for now, it seems that there is not.
Following is the sample code structure I am intending to implementing a larger time consuming operation. For doing larger operation, I have used QThread and updating progressbar (from main class) using the emited signal. All works fine un till large time consuming operation is completed. However, I run in to problem when I call a function from main GUI class. Here is the code structure I am trying (read the comments):-
import time
from scripts.gui import Ui_Dialog
from PyQt4 import QtGui
from PyQt4 import QtCore
class AppGui(QtGui.QDialog, Ui_Dialog):
def __init__(self):
QtGui.QDialog.__init__(self)
# Main code here.
# This GUI pops up for user input and opens a main GUI.
def main_function(self):
# Doing some main coding here.
self.work_thread = WorkThread()
self.work_thread.update.connect(self.ui.progressBar.setValue)
self.work_thread.start()
# I wanted to continue more coding here after the thread is finished. But self.work_thread.wait() is blocking main gui.
# Therefore, I moved the continuation code to different function --> sub_function()
def sub_function(self):
# Do the remaining code left over from the main_function()
class WorkThread(QtCore.QThread):
update = QtCore.pyqtSignal(int)
def __init__(self):
QtCore.QThread.__init__(self)
def __del__(self):
self.wait()
def run(self):
self.thread = GenericThread(scripts.function, arg1, arg2) # This "scripts.function()" function does long process.
self.thread.start()
while self.thread.isRunning():
# Do some long process.
time.sleep(1)
self.update.emit(signal)
print "Distro extraction completed..."
if self.thread.isFinished():
self.main_class = AppGui()
self.main_class.sub_function() # <-- Problematic call to main AppGui function.
if self.isFinished():
return
class GenericThread(QtCore.QThread):
def __init__(self, function, *args, **kwargs):
QtCore.QThread.__init__(self)
self.function = function
self.args = args
self.kwargs = kwargs
def __del__(self):
self.wait()
def run(self):
self.function(*self.args, **self.kwargs)
return
This is what I got after running.
What I believe is that I am wrongly calling function of main AppGui() from WorkThread() class.
QPixmap: It is not safe to use pixmaps outside the GUI thread
Larger operation is complete...
QObject::installEventFilter(): Cannot filter events for objects in a different thread.
[xcb] Unknown request in queue while dequeuing
[xcb] Most likely this is a multi-threaded client and XInitThreads has not been called
[xcb] Aborting, sorry about that.
python2.7: ../../src/xcb_io.c:179: dequeue_pending_request: Assertion `!xcb_xlib_unknown_req_in_deq' failed.
Any help to solve this issue is appreciated.
The reason is that worker thread emit a signal, this signal could not directly bind to an UI slot, but you need to bind it to a general slot, then you call the UI slot to upgrade. As I don't have all your code, so Ｉ write a similar file like this, it works fine
from PyQt4.QtCore import *
from PyQt4.QtGui import *
import time
class WorkerThread(QThread):
updateSignal = pyqtSignal(int)
def run(self):
count = 0
while True:
time.sleep(0.1)
self.updateSignal.emit(count)
count += 1
class ProgressBar(QProgressBar):
def __init__(self, parent=None):
super(ProgressBar, self).__init__(parent)
self.worker = WorkerThread()
self.worker.updateSignal.connect(self.updateProgress) # here should bind to a general slot
def startWorker(self):
self.worker.start()
def updateProgress(self, progress):
self.setValue(progress)
if __name__ == '__main__':
import sys
app = QApplication(sys.argv)
p = ProgressBar()
p.startWorker()
p.show()
app.exec_()
Quick question on the use of QThread in PyQt4 and Python 2.7. I am creating a process inherited from QObject, and assigning this to a Qthread I have created in a separate class (also inherited from QObject).
Is it safe to pass the QThread object to the process object, so that I can call thread.msleep(mseconds) from within the process itself?
I want to be able to make the thread wait or sleep, but I have read that time.sleep(seconds) is dodgy when used with PyQt multi-threading.
I did try to send a signal from the process object to a slot in the main thread (attached to thread.msleep(mseconds) for that process object), but I found that this failed to work; the process object continued executing until complete, with the slot only being executed after this time. Even after adjusting priorities, this continued to happen. This is unacceptable since I want the process loop to run continuously.
Any other recommendations?
I eventually managed to alter my code to achieve the functionality that I required in my question: namely the ability to make a thread wait or sleep for a specified amount of time.
Firstly, my research seems to show that one of the main reasons subclassing QThread became ill-advised in Qt was that a thread should not be able to manage itself. Though there is no official documentation on my question, I can only surmise that passing the thread object to the process object running on it would also be ill-advised, because the thread would again be able to control itself directly.
The solution I have found is to dispense with msleep() altogether. Qt documentation on QThread recommends that sleep() and wait() functions are avoided because they do not fit well with the event driven nature of Qt. They recommend that QTimer() is used to call a function via a signal after it times out, in place of msleep(). By default QTimer() is used to send a repeating signal every time interval, but can also send a signal once using QTimer.singleShot(). It is also stated in the documentation that it is safe to call QSleep() from within a thread.
I only use a repeating QTimer to call a single slot foo() multiple times, but to add a delay within foo(), QTimer.singleShot() could be used to call a second function moo() after a set number of milliseconds.
EDIT: I have decided to include my threading code, which subclasses QObject and QThread to perform a task on a thread in a continual loop every given time interval. It is, as far as I can tell, fully functional, though could do with a little work.
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import sys
from PyQt4 import QtCore, QtGui
# Class to be assigned to a thread.
# This should be subclassed to provide new functionality.
class GenericLoop(QtCore.QObject):
def __init__(self):
super(GenericLoop, self).__init__()
# We use this signal to tell the main thread
# when this thread is finished.
finished_Sig = QtCore.pyqtSignal()
# Default timeout is 0, i.e. do work on thread after
# other events have been dealt with
__timeout = 0
__processTimer = None
__args = None
__kwargs = None
# We use this function to set the arguments used by run(),
# if we want to change them mid-execution
#QtCore.pyqtSlot(tuple, dict)
def changeArgs(self, args, kwargs):
self.__args = args
self.__kwargs = kwargs
# We can change the timeout used to make the thread run
# at given intervals. Note that the timing is not exact,
# since this is impossible with a real time operating system
#QtCore.pyqtSlot(int)
def setTimeout(self, mseconds):
self.__timeout = int(mseconds)
# Call either a singleShot QTimer (one execution),
# or a normal QTimer (repeated), to start the loop
#QtCore.pyqtSlot(bool, tuple, dict)
def startTimer(self, singleShot, args, kwargs):
self.__processTimer = QtCore.QTimer()
# We can't pass args and kwargs directly because QTimer.timeout
# emits a signal with allowing no contained variables
# so we copy args and kwargs to local variables instead
self.changeArgs(args, kwargs)
if singleShot:
self.__processTimer.singleShot(self.__timeout, self.callRun)
else:
self.__processTimer.timeout.connect(self.callRun)
self.__processTimer.start(self.__timeout)
# Call finish from within subclass using self.finish(), or
# from another thread using signals. finish() will stop the
# QTimer causing execution of the loop. The loop can be started again
# by calling startTimer() or stopTimer() from another thread
#QtCore.pyqtSlot()
def stopTimer(self):
if self.__processTimer.isActive():
self.__processTimer.stop()
else:
print "ERROR: stopTimer() has been called but no timer is running!"
# We call this to delete the thread.
#QtCore.pyqtSlot()
def deleteThread(self):
self.finished_Sig.emit()
# This calls run(), in order to enable the passing of
# command line arguments to the loop
#QtCore.pyqtSlot()
def callRun(self):
self.run(self.__args, self.__kwargs)
# run() can be called directly from another thread if required
#QtCore.pyqtSlot(tuple, dict)
def run(self, args, kwargs):
print "ERROR: run() has not been defined! Stopping thread..."
self.stopTimer()
# Class for creating threads
class GenericThread(QtCore.QObject):
# Private variables include the thread.
__sendArguments_Sig = QtCore.pyqtSignal(tuple, dict)
__startTimer_Sig = QtCore.pyqtSignal(int, tuple, dict)
__setTimeout_Sig = QtCore.pyqtSignal(int)
__obj = None
__finished_Sig = None
__thread = QtCore.QThread()
# Object to be threaded must be specified when
# creating a GenericThread object
def __init__(self, obj):
super(GenericThread, self).__init__()
self.__obj = obj
self.moreInit()
# Set up object on thread
def moreInit(self):
self.__thread = QtCore.QThread()
self.__obj.moveToThread(self.__thread)
# Allows thread to delete itself when done
self.__obj.finished_Sig.connect(self.__thread.deleteLater)
self.__sendArguments_Sig.connect(self.__obj.changeArgs)
self.__startTimer_Sig.connect(self.__obj.startTimer)
self.__setTimeout_Sig.connect(self.__obj.setTimeout)
self.__thread.start()
# Sets the QTimer timeout and does some checking
# to make sure that types are as they should be
def setTimeout(self, mseconds):
if mseconds >= 0 and type(mseconds) is type(int()):
self.__setTimeout_Sig.emit(mseconds)
elif mseconds < 0 and type(mseconds) is type(int()):
print "Error: timeout of below 0 ms specified."
else:
print "Error: timeout period is specified with a type other than int."
# Starts a function in the thread via signals, and can pass
# it arguments if required. Function executes until QTimer is stopped
def startLoop(self, *args, **kwargs):
if (self.__thread == None):
print "ERROR: Thread has been deleted!"
else:
self.__startTimer_Sig.emit(False, args, kwargs)
# Starts a function in the thread via signals, once
def startOnce(self, *args, **kwargs):
if (self.__thread == None):
print "ERROR: Thread has been deleted!"
else:
self.__startTimer_Sig.emit(True, args, kwargs)
# Calls a very simple GUI just to show that the program is responsive
class GUIBox(QtGui.QWidget):
def __init__(self):
super(GUIBox, self).__init__()
self.initUI()
def initUI(self):
self.resize(250, 150)
self.setWindowTitle('Threading!')
self.show()
# Subclass GenericLoop to reimplement run and such.
class SubClassedLoop(GenericLoop):
def __init__(self):
super(SubClassedLoop, self).__init__()
__i = 0
#QtCore.pyqtSlot(tuple, dict)
def run(self, args, kwargs):
if self.__i>=50:
self.stopTimer()
return
print self.__i, args
self.__i += 1
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
ex = GUIBox()
# Create 3 worker objects to do the actual calculation
worker1 = SubClassedLoop()
worker2 = SubClassedLoop()
worker3 = SubClassedLoop()
# Create 3 thread managing objects to do the thread control
thread1 = GenericThread(worker1)
thread2 = GenericThread(worker2)
thread3 = GenericThread(worker3)
# Set the threads to execute as soon as there is no work to do
thread1.setTimeout(125)
thread2.setTimeout(125)
thread3.setTimeout(125)
# Start threads
thread1.startLoop(1)
thread2.startLoop(2)
thread3.startLoop(3)
# Quit the program when the GUI window is closed
sys.exit( app.exec_() )
I have a program which interfaces with a radio I am using via a gui I wrote in PyQt. Obviously one of the main functions of the radio is to transmit data, but to do this continuously, I have to loop the writes, which causes the gui to hang. Since I have never dealt with threading, I tried to get rid of these hangs using QCoreApplication.processEvents(). The radio needs to sleep between transmissions, though, so the gui still hangs based on how long these sleeps last.
Is there a simple way to fix this using QThread? I have looked for tutorials on how to implement multithreading with PyQt, but most of them deal with setting up servers and are much more advanced than I need them to be. I honestly don't even really need my thread to update anything while it is running, I just need to start it, have it transmit in the background, and stop it.
I created a little example that shows 3 different and simple ways of dealing with threads. I hope it will help you find the right approach to your problem.
import sys
import time
from PyQt5.QtCore import (QCoreApplication, QObject, QRunnable, QThread,
QThreadPool, pyqtSignal)
# Subclassing QThread
# http://qt-project.org/doc/latest/qthread.html
class AThread(QThread):
def run(self):
count = 0
while count < 5:
time.sleep(1)
print("A Increasing")
count += 1
# Subclassing QObject and using moveToThread
# http://blog.qt.digia.com/blog/2007/07/05/qthreads-no-longer-abstract
class SomeObject(QObject):
finished = pyqtSignal()
def long_running(self):
count = 0
while count < 5:
time.sleep(1)
print("B Increasing")
count += 1
self.finished.emit()
# Using a QRunnable
# http://qt-project.org/doc/latest/qthreadpool.html
# Note that a QRunnable isn't a subclass of QObject and therefore does
# not provide signals and slots.
class Runnable(QRunnable):
def run(self):
count = 0
app = QCoreApplication.instance()
while count < 5:
print("C Increasing")
time.sleep(1)
count += 1
app.quit()
def using_q_thread():
app = QCoreApplication([])
thread = AThread()
thread.finished.connect(app.exit)
thread.start()
sys.exit(app.exec_())
def using_move_to_thread():
app = QCoreApplication([])
objThread = QThread()
obj = SomeObject()
obj.moveToThread(objThread)
obj.finished.connect(objThread.quit)
objThread.started.connect(obj.long_running)
objThread.finished.connect(app.exit)
objThread.start()
sys.exit(app.exec_())
def using_q_runnable():
app = QCoreApplication([])
runnable = Runnable()
QThreadPool.globalInstance().start(runnable)
sys.exit(app.exec_())
if __name__ == "__main__":
#using_q_thread()
#using_move_to_thread()
using_q_runnable()
Take this answer updated for PyQt5, python 3.4
Use this as a pattern to start a worker that does not take data and return data as they are available to the form.
1 - Worker class is made smaller and put in its own file worker.py for easy memorization and independent software reuse.
2 - The main.py file is the file that defines the GUI Form class
3 - The thread object is not subclassed.
4 - Both thread object and the worker object belong to the Form object
5 - Steps of the procedure are within the comments.
# worker.py
from PyQt5.QtCore import QThread, QObject, pyqtSignal, pyqtSlot
import time
class Worker(QObject):
finished = pyqtSignal()
intReady = pyqtSignal(int)
#pyqtSlot()
def procCounter(self): # A slot takes no params
for i in range(1, 100):
time.sleep(1)
self.intReady.emit(i)
self.finished.emit()
And the main file is:
# main.py
from PyQt5.QtCore import QThread
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QApplication, QLabel, QWidget, QGridLayout
import sys
import worker
class Form(QWidget):
def __init__(self):
super().__init__()
self.label = QLabel("0")
# 1 - create Worker and Thread inside the Form
self.obj = worker.Worker() # no parent!
self.thread = QThread() # no parent!
# 2 - Connect Worker`s Signals to Form method slots to post data.
self.obj.intReady.connect(self.onIntReady)
# 3 - Move the Worker object to the Thread object
self.obj.moveToThread(self.thread)
# 4 - Connect Worker Signals to the Thread slots
self.obj.finished.connect(self.thread.quit)
# 5 - Connect Thread started signal to Worker operational slot method
self.thread.started.connect(self.obj.procCounter)
# * - Thread finished signal will close the app if you want!
#self.thread.finished.connect(app.exit)
# 6 - Start the thread
self.thread.start()
# 7 - Start the form
self.initUI()
def initUI(self):
grid = QGridLayout()
self.setLayout(grid)
grid.addWidget(self.label,0,0)
self.move(300, 150)
self.setWindowTitle('thread test')
self.show()
def onIntReady(self, i):
self.label.setText("{}".format(i))
#print(i)
app = QApplication(sys.argv)
form = Form()
sys.exit(app.exec_())
According to the Qt developers, subclassing QThread is incorrect (see http://blog.qt.io/blog/2010/06/17/youre-doing-it-wrong/). But that article is really hard to understand (plus the title is a bit condescending). I found a better blog post that gives a more detailed explanation about why you should use one style of threading over another: http://mayaposch.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/how-to-really-truly-use-qthreads-the-full-explanation/
Also, I would highly recommend this video from KDAB on signals and slots between threads.
In my opinion, you should probably never subclass thread with the intent to overload the run method. While that does work, you're basically circumventing how Qt wants you to work. Plus you'll miss out on things like events and proper thread safe signals and slots. Plus as you'll likely see in the above blog post, the "correct" way of threading forces you to write more testable code.
Here's a couple of examples of how to take advantage of QThreads in PyQt (I posted a separate answer below that properly uses QRunnable and incorporates signals/slots, that answer is better if you have a lot of async tasks that you need to load balance).
import sys
from PyQt4 import QtCore
from PyQt4 import QtGui
from PyQt4.QtCore import Qt
# very testable class (hint: you can use mock.Mock for the signals)
class Worker(QtCore.QObject):
finished = QtCore.pyqtSignal()
dataReady = QtCore.pyqtSignal(list, dict)
#QtCore.pyqtSlot()
def processA(self):
print "Worker.processA()"
self.finished.emit()
#QtCore.pyqtSlot(str, list, list)
def processB(self, foo, bar=None, baz=None):
print "Worker.processB()"
for thing in bar:
# lots of processing...
self.dataReady.emit(['dummy', 'data'], {'dummy': ['data']})
self.finished.emit()
class Thread(QtCore.QThread):
"""Need for PyQt4 <= 4.6 only"""
def __init__(self, parent=None):
QtCore.QThread.__init__(self, parent)
# this class is solely needed for these two methods, there
# appears to be a bug in PyQt 4.6 that requires you to
# explicitly call run and start from the subclass in order
# to get the thread to actually start an event loop
def start(self):
QtCore.QThread.start(self)
def run(self):
QtCore.QThread.run(self)
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
thread = Thread() # no parent!
obj = Worker() # no parent!
obj.moveToThread(thread)
# if you want the thread to stop after the worker is done
# you can always call thread.start() again later
obj.finished.connect(thread.quit)
# one way to do it is to start processing as soon as the thread starts
# this is okay in some cases... but makes it harder to send data to
# the worker object from the main gui thread. As you can see I'm calling
# processA() which takes no arguments
thread.started.connect(obj.processA)
thread.start()
# another way to do it, which is a bit fancier, allows you to talk back and
# forth with the object in a thread safe way by communicating through signals
# and slots (now that the thread is running I can start calling methods on
# the worker object)
QtCore.QMetaObject.invokeMethod(obj, 'processB', Qt.QueuedConnection,
QtCore.Q_ARG(str, "Hello World!"),
QtCore.Q_ARG(list, ["args", 0, 1]),
QtCore.Q_ARG(list, []))
# that looks a bit scary, but its a totally ok thing to do in Qt,
# we're simply using the system that Signals and Slots are built on top of,
# the QMetaObject, to make it act like we safely emitted a signal for
# the worker thread to pick up when its event loop resumes (so if its doing
# a bunch of work you can call this method 10 times and it will just queue
# up the calls. Note: PyQt > 4.6 will not allow you to pass in a None
# instead of an empty list, it has stricter type checking
app.exec_()
# Without this you may get weird QThread messages in the shell on exit
app.deleteLater()
Very nice example from Matt, I fixed the typo and also pyqt4.8 is common now so I removed the dummy class as well and added an example for the dataReady signal
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import sys
from PyQt4 import QtCore, QtGui
from PyQt4.QtCore import Qt
# very testable class (hint: you can use mock.Mock for the signals)
class Worker(QtCore.QObject):
finished = QtCore.pyqtSignal()
dataReady = QtCore.pyqtSignal(list, dict)
#QtCore.pyqtSlot()
def processA(self):
print "Worker.processA()"
self.finished.emit()
#QtCore.pyqtSlot(str, list, list)
def processB(self, foo, bar=None, baz=None):
print "Worker.processB()"
for thing in bar:
# lots of processing...
self.dataReady.emit(['dummy', 'data'], {'dummy': ['data']})
self.finished.emit()
def onDataReady(aList, aDict):
print 'onDataReady'
print repr(aList)
print repr(aDict)
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
thread = QtCore.QThread() # no parent!
obj = Worker() # no parent!
obj.dataReady.connect(onDataReady)
obj.moveToThread(thread)
# if you want the thread to stop after the worker is done
# you can always call thread.start() again later
obj.finished.connect(thread.quit)
# one way to do it is to start processing as soon as the thread starts
# this is okay in some cases... but makes it harder to send data to
# the worker object from the main gui thread. As you can see I'm calling
# processA() which takes no arguments
thread.started.connect(obj.processA)
thread.finished.connect(app.exit)
thread.start()
# another way to do it, which is a bit fancier, allows you to talk back and
# forth with the object in a thread safe way by communicating through signals
# and slots (now that the thread is running I can start calling methods on
# the worker object)
QtCore.QMetaObject.invokeMethod(obj, 'processB', Qt.QueuedConnection,
QtCore.Q_ARG(str, "Hello World!"),
QtCore.Q_ARG(list, ["args", 0, 1]),
QtCore.Q_ARG(list, []))
# that looks a bit scary, but its a totally ok thing to do in Qt,
# we're simply using the system that Signals and Slots are built on top of,
# the QMetaObject, to make it act like we safely emitted a signal for
# the worker thread to pick up when its event loop resumes (so if its doing
# a bunch of work you can call this method 10 times and it will just queue
# up the calls. Note: PyQt > 4.6 will not allow you to pass in a None
# instead of an empty list, it has stricter type checking
app.exec_()
In PyQt there are a lot of options for getting asynchronous behavior. For things that need event processing (ie. QtNetwork, etc) you should use the QThread example I provided in my other answer on this thread. But for the vast majority of your threading needs, I think this solution is far superior than the other methods.
The advantage of this is that the QThreadPool schedules your QRunnable instances as tasks. This is similar to the task pattern used in Intel's TBB. It's not quite as elegant as I like but it does pull off excellent asynchronous behavior.
This allows you to utilize most of the threading power of Qt in Python via QRunnable and still take advantage of signals and slots. I use this same code in several applications, some that make hundreds of asynchronous REST calls, some that open files or list directories, and the best part is using this method, Qt task balances the system resources for me.
import time
from PyQt4 import QtCore
from PyQt4 import QtGui
from PyQt4.QtCore import Qt
def async(method, args, uid, readycb, errorcb=None):
"""
Asynchronously runs a task
:param func method: the method to run in a thread
:param object uid: a unique identifier for this task (used for verification)
:param slot updatecb: the callback when data is receieved cb(uid, data)
:param slot errorcb: the callback when there is an error cb(uid, errmsg)
The uid option is useful when the calling code makes multiple async calls
and the callbacks need some context about what was sent to the async method.
For example, if you use this method to thread a long running database call
and the user decides they want to cancel it and start a different one, the
first one may complete before you have a chance to cancel the task. In that
case, the "readycb" will be called with the cancelled task's data. The uid
can be used to differentiate those two calls (ie. using the sql query).
:returns: Request instance
"""
request = Request(method, args, uid, readycb, errorcb)
QtCore.QThreadPool.globalInstance().start(request)
return request
class Request(QtCore.QRunnable):
"""
A Qt object that represents an asynchronous task
:param func method: the method to call
:param list args: list of arguments to pass to method
:param object uid: a unique identifier (used for verification)
:param slot readycb: the callback used when data is receieved
:param slot errorcb: the callback used when there is an error
The uid param is sent to your error and update callbacks as the
first argument. It's there to verify the data you're returning
After created it should be used by invoking:
.. code-block:: python
task = Request(...)
QtCore.QThreadPool.globalInstance().start(task)
"""
INSTANCES = []
FINISHED = []
def __init__(self, method, args, uid, readycb, errorcb=None):
super(Request, self).__init__()
self.setAutoDelete(True)
self.cancelled = False
self.method = method
self.args = args
self.uid = uid
self.dataReady = readycb
self.dataError = errorcb
Request.INSTANCES.append(self)
# release all of the finished tasks
Request.FINISHED = []
def run(self):
"""
Method automatically called by Qt when the runnable is ready to run.
This will run in a separate thread.
"""
# this allows us to "cancel" queued tasks if needed, should be done
# on shutdown to prevent the app from hanging
if self.cancelled:
self.cleanup()
return
# runs in a separate thread, for proper async signal/slot behavior
# the object that emits the signals must be created in this thread.
# Its not possible to run grabber.moveToThread(QThread.currentThread())
# so to get this QObject to properly exhibit asynchronous
# signal and slot behavior it needs to live in the thread that
# we're running in, creating the object from within this thread
# is an easy way to do that.
grabber = Requester()
grabber.Loaded.connect(self.dataReady, Qt.QueuedConnection)
if self.dataError is not None:
grabber.Error.connect(self.dataError, Qt.QueuedConnection)
try:
result = self.method(*self.args)
if self.cancelled:
# cleanup happens in 'finally' statement
return
grabber.Loaded.emit(self.uid, result)
except Exception as error:
if self.cancelled:
# cleanup happens in 'finally' statement
return
grabber.Error.emit(self.uid, unicode(error))
finally:
# this will run even if one of the above return statements
# is executed inside of the try/except statement see:
# https://docs.python.org/2.7/tutorial/errors.html#defining-clean-up-actions
self.cleanup(grabber)
def cleanup(self, grabber=None):
# remove references to any object or method for proper ref counting
self.method = None
self.args = None
self.uid = None
self.dataReady = None
self.dataError = None
if grabber is not None:
grabber.deleteLater()
# make sure this python obj gets cleaned up
self.remove()
def remove(self):
try:
Request.INSTANCES.remove(self)
# when the next request is created, it will clean this one up
# this will help us avoid this object being cleaned up
# when it's still being used
Request.FINISHED.append(self)
except ValueError:
# there might be a race condition on shutdown, when shutdown()
# is called while the thread is still running and the instance
# has already been removed from the list
return
#staticmethod
def shutdown():
for inst in Request.INSTANCES:
inst.cancelled = True
Request.INSTANCES = []
Request.FINISHED = []
class Requester(QtCore.QObject):
"""
A simple object designed to be used in a separate thread to allow
for asynchronous data fetching
"""
#
# Signals
#
Error = QtCore.pyqtSignal(object, unicode)
"""
Emitted if the fetch fails for any reason
:param unicode uid: an id to identify this request
:param unicode error: the error message
"""
Loaded = QtCore.pyqtSignal(object, object)
"""
Emitted whenever data comes back successfully
:param unicode uid: an id to identify this request
:param list data: the json list returned from the GET
"""
NetworkConnectionError = QtCore.pyqtSignal(unicode)
"""
Emitted when the task fails due to a network connection error
:param unicode message: network connection error message
"""
def __init__(self, parent=None):
super(Requester, self).__init__(parent)
class ExampleObject(QtCore.QObject):
def __init__(self, parent=None):
super(ExampleObject, self).__init__(parent)
self.uid = 0
self.request = None
def ready_callback(self, uid, result):
if uid != self.uid:
return
print "Data ready from %s: %s" % (uid, result)
def error_callback(self, uid, error):
if uid != self.uid:
return
print "Data error from %s: %s" % (uid, error)
def fetch(self):
if self.request is not None:
# cancel any pending requests
self.request.cancelled = True
self.request = None
self.uid += 1
self.request = async(slow_method, ["arg1", "arg2"], self.uid,
self.ready_callback,
self.error_callback)
def slow_method(arg1, arg2):
print "Starting slow method"
time.sleep(1)
return arg1 + arg2
if __name__ == "__main__":
import sys
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
obj = ExampleObject()
dialog = QtGui.QDialog()
layout = QtGui.QVBoxLayout(dialog)
button = QtGui.QPushButton("Generate", dialog)
progress = QtGui.QProgressBar(dialog)
progress.setRange(0, 0)
layout.addWidget(button)
layout.addWidget(progress)
button.clicked.connect(obj.fetch)
dialog.show()
app.exec_()
app.deleteLater() # avoids some QThread messages in the shell on exit
# cancel all running tasks avoid QThread/QTimer error messages
# on exit
Request.shutdown()
When exiting the application you'll want to make sure you cancel all of the tasks or the application will hang until every scheduled task has completed
Based on the Worker objects methods mentioned in other answers, I decided to see if I could expand on the solution to invoke more threads - in this case the optimal number the machine can run and spin up multiple workers with indeterminate completion times.
To do this I still need to subclass QThread - but only to assign a thread number and to 'reimplement' the signals 'finished' and 'started' to include their thread number.
I've focused quite a bit on the signals between the main gui, the threads, and the workers.
Similarly, others answers have been a pains to point out not parenting the QThread but I don't think this is a real concern. However, my code also is careful to destroy the QThread objects.
However, I wasn't able to parent the worker objects so it seems desirable to send them the deleteLater() signal, either when the thread function is finished or the GUI is destroyed. I've had my own code hang for not doing this.
Another enhancement I felt was necessary was was reimplement the closeEvent of the GUI (QWidget) such that the threads would be instructed to quit and then the GUI would wait until all the threads were finished. When I played with some of the other answers to this question, I got QThread destroyed errors.
Perhaps it will be useful to others. I certainly found it a useful exercise. Perhaps others will know a better way for a thread to announce it identity.
#!/usr/bin/env python3
#coding:utf-8
# Author: --<>
# Purpose: To demonstrate creation of multiple threads and identify the receipt of thread results
# Created: 19/12/15
import sys
from PyQt4.QtCore import QThread, pyqtSlot, pyqtSignal
from PyQt4.QtGui import QApplication, QLabel, QWidget, QGridLayout
import sys
import worker
class Thread(QThread):
#make new signals to be able to return an id for the thread
startedx = pyqtSignal(int)
finishedx = pyqtSignal(int)
def __init__(self,i,parent=None):
super().__init__(parent)
self.idd = i
self.started.connect(self.starttt)
self.finished.connect(self.finisheddd)
#pyqtSlot()
def starttt(self):
print('started signal from thread emitted')
self.startedx.emit(self.idd)
#pyqtSlot()
def finisheddd(self):
print('finished signal from thread emitted')
self.finishedx.emit(self.idd)
class Form(QWidget):
def __init__(self):
super().__init__()
self.initUI()
self.worker={}
self.threadx={}
self.i=0
i=0
#Establish the maximum number of threads the machine can optimally handle
#Generally relates to the number of processors
self.threadtest = QThread(self)
self.idealthreadcount = self.threadtest.idealThreadCount()
print("This machine can handle {} threads optimally".format(self.idealthreadcount))
while i <self.idealthreadcount:
self.setupThread(i)
i+=1
i=0
while i<self.idealthreadcount:
self.startThread(i)
i+=1
print("Main Gui running in thread {}.".format(self.thread()))
def setupThread(self,i):
self.worker[i]= worker.Worker(i) # no parent!
#print("Worker object runningt in thread {} prior to movetothread".format(self.worker[i].thread()) )
self.threadx[i] = Thread(i,parent=self) # if parent isn't specified then need to be careful to destroy thread
self.threadx[i].setObjectName("python thread{}"+str(i))
#print("Thread object runningt in thread {} prior to movetothread".format(self.threadx[i].thread()) )
self.threadx[i].startedx.connect(self.threadStarted)
self.threadx[i].finishedx.connect(self.threadFinished)
self.worker[i].finished.connect(self.workerFinished)
self.worker[i].intReady.connect(self.workerResultReady)
#The next line is optional, you may want to start the threads again without having to create all the code again.
self.worker[i].finished.connect(self.threadx[i].quit)
self.threadx[i].started.connect(self.worker[i].procCounter)
self.destroyed.connect(self.threadx[i].deleteLater)
self.destroyed.connect(self.worker[i].deleteLater)
#This is the key code that actually get the worker code onto another processor or thread.
self.worker[i].moveToThread(self.threadx[i])
def startThread(self,i):
self.threadx[i].start()
#pyqtSlot(int)
def threadStarted(self,i):
print('Thread {} started'.format(i))
print("Thread priority is {}".format(self.threadx[i].priority()))
#pyqtSlot(int)
def threadFinished(self,i):
print('Thread {} finished'.format(i))
#pyqtSlot(int)
def threadTerminated(self,i):
print("Thread {} terminated".format(i))
#pyqtSlot(int,int)
def workerResultReady(self,j,i):
print('Worker {} result returned'.format(i))
if i ==0:
self.label1.setText("{}".format(j))
if i ==1:
self.label2.setText("{}".format(j))
if i ==2:
self.label3.setText("{}".format(j))
if i ==3:
self.label4.setText("{}".format(j))
#print('Thread {} has started'.format(self.threadx[i].currentThreadId()))
#pyqtSlot(int)
def workerFinished(self,i):
print('Worker {} finished'.format(i))
def initUI(self):
self.label1 = QLabel("0")
self.label2= QLabel("0")
self.label3= QLabel("0")
self.label4 = QLabel("0")
grid = QGridLayout(self)
self.setLayout(grid)
grid.addWidget(self.label1,0,0)
grid.addWidget(self.label2,0,1)
grid.addWidget(self.label3,0,2)
grid.addWidget(self.label4,0,3) #Layout parents the self.labels
self.move(300, 150)
self.setGeometry(0,0,300,300)
#self.size(300,300)
self.setWindowTitle('thread test')
self.show()
def closeEvent(self, event):
print('Closing')
#this tells the threads to stop running
i=0
while i <self.idealthreadcount:
self.threadx[i].quit()
i+=1
#this ensures window cannot be closed until the threads have finished.
i=0
while i <self.idealthreadcount:
self.threadx[i].wait()
i+=1
event.accept()
if __name__=='__main__':
app = QApplication(sys.argv)
form = Form()
sys.exit(app.exec_())
And the worker code below
#!/usr/bin/env python3
#coding:utf-8
# Author: --<>
# Purpose: Stack Overflow
# Created: 19/12/15
import sys
import unittest
from PyQt4.QtCore import QThread, QObject, pyqtSignal, pyqtSlot
import time
import random
class Worker(QObject):
finished = pyqtSignal(int)
intReady = pyqtSignal(int,int)
def __init__(self, i=0):
'''__init__ is called while the worker is still in the Gui thread. Do not put slow or CPU intensive code in the __init__ method'''
super().__init__()
self.idd = i
#pyqtSlot()
def procCounter(self): # This slot takes no params
for j in range(1, 10):
random_time = random.weibullvariate(1,2)
time.sleep(random_time)
self.intReady.emit(j,self.idd)
print('Worker {0} in thread {1}'.format(self.idd, self.thread().idd))
self.finished.emit(self.idd)
if __name__=='__main__':
unittest.main()
PySide2 Solution:
Unlike in PyQt5, in PySide2 the QThread.started signal is received/handled on the original thread, not the worker thread! Luckily it still receives all other signals on the worker thread.
In order to match PyQt5's behavior, you have to create the started signal yourself.
Here is an easy solution:
# Use this class instead of QThread
class QThread2(QThread):
# Use this signal instead of "started"
started2 = Signal()
def __init__(self):
QThread.__init__(self)
self.started.connect(self.onStarted)
def onStarted(self):
self.started2.emit()