Develop Reference

QMovie does not start if started from a thread

fellow developers! I have a question regarding Qt and multithreading.
=== SHORT VERSION ===========================================
Is it possible to do what I want with Qt? That is (1) show a loader; (2) download a gif in the background; (3) show the downloaded gif in the main window after it has been downloaded?
=== LONG VERSION ============================================
I have this idea that when I push a button, it:
shows a loader;
activates a thread that downloads a gif from the web;
replaces the default gif hidden in the main window with the downloaded one and shows it
hides the loader;
The problem that I'm experiencing is that when the downloaded gif is show, it is "frozen" or just the first frame is shown. Other than that everything is fine. However, it need the gif to be animated after the loader is hidden.
It is mentioned here that
So the Qt event loop is responsible for executing your code in response to various things that happen in your program, but while it is executing your code, it can't do anything else.
I believe this is the heart of the problem. It is also suggested that
It is recommended to use a QThread with Qt rather than a Python thread, but a Python thread will work fine if you don't ever need to communicate back to the main thread from your function.
Since my thread replaced the contents of the default gif, I believe that it does communicates back :(
Please find my code below :)
import sys
from time import sleep
from PyQt5.QtCore import QThread
from PyQt5.QtGui import QMovie
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QApplication, QWidget, QPushButton, QLabel
class ChangeGif(QThread):
"""
A worker that:
1 - waits for 1 second;
2 - changes the content of the default gif;
3 - shows the default gif with new contents and hide the loader.
"""
def __init__(self, all_widgets):
QThread.__init__(self)
self.all = all_widgets
def run(self):
sleep(1)
self.new_gif_file = QMovie("files/new.gif") # This is the "right" gif that freezes :(
self.new_gif_file.start()
self.all.gif_label.setMovie(self.new_gif_file)
self.all.gif_label.show()
self.all.loader_label.hide()
class MainWindow(QWidget):
"""
Main window that shows a button. If you push the button, the following happens:
1 - a loader is shown;
2 - a thread in background is started;
3 - the thread changes the contents of the default gif;
4 - when the gif is replaced, the loader disappears and the default gif with the new content is shown
"""
def __init__(self):
super(MainWindow, self).__init__()
# BUTTON
self.button = QPushButton("Push me", self)
self.button.setFixedSize(100, 50)
self.button.clicked.connect(lambda: self.change_gif())
# DEFAULT GIF
self.gif_file = QMovie("files/default.gif") # This is the "wrong" gif
self.gif_file.start()
self.gif_label = QLabel(self)
self.gif_label.setMovie(self.gif_file)
self.gif_label.move(self.button.width(), 0)
self.gif_label.hide()
# LOADER
self.loader_file = QMovie("files/loader.gif")
self.loader_file.start()
self.loader_label = QLabel(self)
self.loader_label.setMovie(self.loader_file)
self.loader_label.move(self.button.width(), 0)
self.loader_label.hide()
# WINDOW SETTINGS
self.setFixedSize(500, 500)
self.show()
def change_gif(self):
self.loader_label.show()
self.worker = ChangeGif(self)
self.worker.start()
app = QApplication(sys.argv)
window = MainWindow()
app.exec_()

Other than the fact that no UI elements should be ever accessed or created outside the main Qt thread, this is valid also for UI elements that use objects created in other threads.
In your specific case, this not only means that you cannot set the movie in the separate thread, but you cannot create the QMovie there either.
In the following example, I'm opening a local file, and use a signal to send the data to the main thread. From there, I create a QBuffer to store the data in a IO device that can be used by QMovie. Note that both the buffer and the movie must have a persistent reference, otherwise they will be garbage collected as soon as the function returns.
from PyQt5.QtCore import QThread, QByteArray, QBuffer
class ChangeGif(QThread):
dataLoaded = pyqtSignal(QByteArray)
def __init__(self, all_widgets):
QThread.__init__(self)
self.all = all_widgets
def run(self):
sleep(1)
f = QFile('new.gif')
f.open(f.ReadOnly)
self.dataLoaded.emit(f.readAll())
f.close()
class MainWindow(QWidget):
# ...
def change_gif(self):
self.loader_label.show()
self.worker = ChangeGif(self)
self.worker.dataLoaded.connect(self.applyNewGif)
self.worker.start()
def applyNewGif(self, data):
# a persistent reference must be kept for both the buffer and the movie,
# otherwise they will be garbage collected, causing the program to
# freeze or crash
self.buffer = QBuffer()
self.buffer.setData(data)
self.newGif = QMovie()
self.newGif.setCacheMode(self.newGif.CacheAll)
self.newGif.setDevice(self.buffer)
self.gif_label.setMovie(self.newGif)
self.newGif.start()
self.gif_label.show()
self.loader_label.hide()
Note that the example above is just for explanation purposes, as the downloading process can be done using QtNetwork modules, which work asynchronously and provide simple signals and slots to download remote data:
from PyQt5.QtCore import QUrl
from PyQt5.QtNetwork import QNetworkAccessManager, QNetworkRequest
class MainWindow(QWidget):
def __init__(self):
# ...
self.downloader = QNetworkAccessManager()
def change_gif(self):
self.loader_label.show()
url = QUrl('https://path.to/animation.gif')
self.device = self.downloader.get(QNetworkRequest(url))
self.device.finished.connect(self.applyNewGif)
def applyNewGif(self):
self.loader_label.hide()
self.newGif = QMovie()
self.newGif.setDevice(self.device)
self.gif_label.setMovie(self.newGif)
self.newGif.start()
self.gif_label.show()

The main rule working with Qt is that only one main thread is responsible for manipulating UI widgets. It is often referred to as GUI thread. You should never try to access widgets from another threads. For example, Qt timers won't start activated from another thread and Qt would print warning in the runtime console. In your case - if you put all the manipulation with the QMovie in the GUI Thread, most probably everything will work as expected.
What to do? Use the signals and slots - they are also designed to work between threads.
What your code should do:
Show a loader form the main thread.
Activate a thread that downloads a gif from the web.
After the download is ready - emit a signal and capture it in main GUI thread'. Remember to use Qt::QueuedConnection` when connecting the signal and the slot, though it will be used automatically in some cases.
In the receiving slot replace the default gif in main window with the downloaded one and show it and hide the loader.
You'll have to use some synchronization mechanism to avoid data-racing. A mutex will be enough. Or you could pass the data as the signal-slot parameter, but in case of a gif it probably would be too big.

PySide2/QT for Python : Widget not updating / GUI Freezing

I'm using pyside2 with python. On a Qmainwindow, I've created a QpushButton and a Qlabel. The label is hidden at the init of the mainWindow, and the pushButton is connected to the following function, defined in mainWindow :
def buttonPushed(self):
self.label.show()
self.doStuff()
self.label.hide()
The "doStuff()" function takes 15sec of exec time and works as intended so the label should be visible for this time, but it isn't. If I delete the "self.label.hide()", the label does show (and never hide anymore, of course).
The "doStuff()" function calls pyside2's functions.
I also tried to add a self.label.update() just after the self.label.show(), but it makes no difference.
My guess is that is has something to do with how QT schedules tasks : when I call self.label.show(), QT only does it after buttonPushed() has ended.
What should I do ?

If a task is executed for a long time, it will block the Qt event loop causing certain ones to not work properly since the events cannot be transmitted causing the window to freeze, generating as an effect what you indicate.
So in those cases you must execute that task in another thread (assuming that task does not modify the GUI directly) and send the information to the GUI thread through signals. In your case, a signal must be emitted before executing the heavy task and another after they are connected to the show and hide method of the QLabel, respectively.
import threading
from PySide2.QtCore import Signal
class MainWindow(QMainWindow):
started = Signal()
finished = Signal()
def __init__(self, parent=None):
super().__init__(parent)
# ...
self.started.connect(self.label.show)
self.finished.connect(self.label.hide)
self.button.clicked.connect(self.buttonPushed)
def buttonPushed(self):
threading.Thread(target=self.doStuff, daemon=True).start()
def doStuff(self):
self.started.emit()
# heavy task
self.finished.emit()

#eyllanesc 's solution works when the task in the thread doesn't involve QT. One should use QThread and Qthreadpool otherwise. I used this tutorial to understand how to do it, but here's a small example :
from PySide2.QtCore import Signal, QRunnable, QThreadPool, QObject
class MainWindow(QMainWindow):
def __init__(self, parent=None):
super().__init__(parent)
# [...]
self.threadpool = QThreadPool()
self.button.clicked.connect(self.buttonPushed)
def buttonPushed(self):
builder = Builder()
builder.signals.started.connect(self.label.show)
builder.signals.finished.connect(self.label.hide)
builder.signals.result.connect(self.doStuff)
self.threadpool.start(builder)
# a function that use the heavy task's results
def doStuff(self, *args):
# [...]
#defining the signals that our thread will use
class BuilderSignals(QObject):
started = Signal()
finished = Signal()
result = Signal(*args)
#defining our thread
class Builder(QRunnable):
def __init__(self,parent=None):
super(Builder, self).__init__()
self.signals = BuilderSignals()
def run(self):
self.signals.started.emit()
#heavy task involving PySide2
self.signals.result.emit(*args)
self.signals.finished.emit()

How to create PyQt5 GUI that does not occupy the main thread

Is it possible to get Python to launch a PyQt5 GUI application using the main thread of execution, and then leave the thread open to do other things?
Here is the simplest example I can think of:
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import *
def infinite_useless_loop():
while True:
pass
app = QApplication([])
doodad = QMainWindow()
doodad.show()
infinite_useless_loop()
If you run this code, it freezes because the 'mainloop' is not activated as it normally would be if I didn't make a call to the useless infinite loop, and instead put a call to app.exec_(). The call to infinite_useless_loop is meant to substitute the main thread being used to do other useful work WHILE the GUI is running correctly.
To do this correctly, I'd have to imagine one would make a separate thread and use that to run the GUI, while launching that thread with the main thread, and just continuing on from there; able to communicate if necessary in the future.
EDIT
I wrote some code that gets the main event loop working in a seperate thread, but I am still not able to fully interact with the GUI object that is created in another thread. This code effectively solves half of my problem:
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import *
from threading import Thread
import sys
def makeGUI():
app = QApplication([])
doodad = QMainWindow()
doodad.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())
def infinite_useless_loop():
while True:
pass
if __name__ == '__main__':
thread = Thread(target=makeGUI)
thread.start()
infinite_useless_loop()
This code spawns the blank window, able to be clicked on and resized correctly (because the event loop is working), but is on its own. Do I have to revert to signals and slots to communicate with the object, or can I somehow get the GUI object back into the main thread and use it's methods from there?
EDIT 2
I do not wish to do any actual GUI manipulation outside of the GUI's thread, just call methods on the GUI object that I HAVE MADE. The entire GUI structure would be made by the GUI object.
EDIT 3
This new code now makes it able to be communicated with, but only with raw bits of information, and not by one thread accessing another thread's GUI object's methods. This is close, but its still not what I want. Calling the GUI object's methods would have to be done by passing the raw information through the queue, and then being processed at the other side. Then an exec() function would have to be called. That is not acceptable. Here is the code:
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import *
import multiprocessing
import threading
import sys
import time
import queue
class Application(QMainWindow):
def __init__(self, comms):
super(Application, self).__init__()
self.comms = comms
self.fetchingThread = threading.Thread(target=self.fetchingLoop)
self.labelOne = QLabel(self)
self.layout = QVBoxLayout()
self.layout.addWidget(self.labelOne)
self.setLayout(self.layout)
self.fetchingThread.start()
def fetchingLoop(self):
while True:
try:
obj = self.comms.get()
self.processItem(obj)
except queue.Empty:
pass
def processItem(self, item):
self.labelOne.setText(str(item))
print(self.labelOne.text())
class Launcher(multiprocessing.Process):
def __init__(self, Application):
super(Launcher, self).__init__()
self.comms = multiprocessing.Queue()
self.Application = Application
def get_comms(self):
return self.comms
def run(self):
app = QApplication([])
window = self.Application(self.comms)
window.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())
def no_thread():
app = QApplication([])
window = Application(False)
window.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())
if __name__ == '__main__':
thread = Launcher(Application)
comms = thread.get_comms()
thread.start()
c = 0
while True:
c += 1
time.sleep(1)
comms.put(c)

How to display progress without multi-threading

Let's say I have a PyQt program that goes through a given directory, looks for *JPEG images, and does some processing every time it finds one. Depending on the size of the selected directory, this may take from some seconds to minutes.
I would like to keep my user updated with the status - preferably with something like "x files processed out of y files" . If not, a simple running pulse progress bar by setting progressbar.setRange(0,0) works too.
From my understanding, in order to prevent my GUI from freezing, I will need a seperate thread that process the images, and the original thread that updates the GUI every interval.
But I am wondering if there is any possible way for me to do both in the same thread?

Yes, you can easily do this using processEvents, which is provided for this exact purpose.
I have used this technique for implementing a simple find-in-files dialog box. All you need to do is launch the function that processes the files with a single-shot timer, and then periodically call processEvents in the loop. This is should be good enough to update a counter with the number of files processed, and also allow the user to cancel the process, if necessary.
The only real issue is deciding on how frequently to call processEvents. The more often you call it, the more responsive the GUI will be - but this comes at the cost of considerably slowing the processing of the files. So you may have to experiment a little bit in order to find an acceptable compromise.
UPDATE:
Here's a simple demo that shows how the code could be structured:
import sys, time
from PyQt5 import QtWidgets, QtCore
class Window(QtWidgets.QWidget):
def __init__(self):
super().__init__()
self.button = QtWidgets.QPushButton('Start')
self.progress = QtWidgets.QLabel('0')
layout = QtWidgets.QVBoxLayout(self)
layout.addWidget(self.button)
layout.addWidget(self.progress)
self.button.clicked.connect(self.test)
self._stop = False
self._stopped = True
def test(self):
if self._stopped:
self._stop = False
self.progress.setText('0')
self.button.setText('Stop')
QtCore.QTimer.singleShot(1, self.process)
else:
self._stop = True
def process(self):
self._stopped = False
for index in range(1, 1000):
time.sleep(0.01)
self.progress.setText(str(index))
if not index % 20:
QtWidgets.qApp.processEvents(
QtCore.QEventLoop.AllEvents, 50)
if self._stop:
break
self._stopped = True
self.button.setText('Start')
if __name__ == "__main__":
app = QtWidgets.QApplication(sys.argv)
window = Window()
window.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())

I could not achieve the thing you need without multi threading and this is not possible because gui can be only updated in main thread. Below is an algorithm how I did this with multithreading.
Let's say you have your application processing images. Then there are the following threads:
Main thread (that blocks by GUI/QApplication-derived classes.exec())
Timer with, for example, 1 second interval which updates a variable and calls a slot in GUI thread which updates a variable in user interface.
A thread which is processing images on your pc.
def process(self):
self._status = "processing image 1"
....
def _update(self):
self.status_label.setText(self._status)
def start_processing(self, image_path):
# create thread for process and run it
# create thread for updating by using QtCore.QTimer()
# connect qtimer triggered signal to and `self._update()` slot
# connect image processing thread (use connect signal to any slot, in this example I'll stop timer after processing thread finishes)
#pyqtSlot()
def _stop_timer():
self._qtimer.stop()
self._qtimer = None
_update_thread.finished.connect(_stop_timer)
In pyqt5 it is possible to assign a pyqtvariable from a one nested thread(first level). So you can make your variable a pyqtvariable with setter and getter and update gui in a setter or think how you can do this by yourself.

You could just use the python threading module and emit a signal in your threaded routine.
Here's a working example
from PyQt4 import QtGui, QtCore
import threading
import time
class MyWidget(QtGui.QWidget):
valueChanged = QtCore.pyqtSignal(int)
def __init__(self, parent=None):
super(MyWidget, self).__init__(parent)
self.computeButton = QtGui.QPushButton("Compute", self)
self.progressBar = QtGui.QProgressBar()
layout = QtGui.QVBoxLayout(self)
layout.addWidget(self.computeButton)
layout.addWidget(self.progressBar)
self.computeButton.clicked.connect(self.compute)
self.valueChanged.connect(self.progressBar.setValue)
def compute(self):
nbFiles = 10
self.progressBar.setRange(0, nbFiles)
def inner():
for i in range(1, nbFiles+1):
time.sleep(0.5) # Process Image
self.valueChanged.emit(i) # Notify progress
self.thread = threading.Thread(target = inner)
self.thread.start()
if __name__ == "__main__":
import sys
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
widget = MyWidget()
widget.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())

QDialog.show() method has a delayed reaction

I have a problem i can't quite figure out for some time. I have a main window application and a QDialog that should pop out after clicking one of the buttons, but the show() method on QDialog seems to be waiting for the funcion connected to the "clicked()" signal to end!
I want the dialog to show right after calling the QDialog.show() method, not after all the other code instructions in that function...
Of course in my code I am going to replace the sleep(5) part with much more complicated code, but this pictures the problem and the code I put there is irrelevant to the issue, i think (database connections and updates)
being more specific:
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import sys
import PyQt4
from PyQt4 import QtCore, QtGui
from twython import Twython, TwythonError
from project import Ui_MainWindow
from time import sleep
import psycopg2, globalvals, updater
import updating, noconnection
class UpWindow(QtGui.QDialog):
def __init__(self, parent=None):
QtGui.QDialog.__init__(self, parent, QtCore.Qt.WindowStaysOnTopHint)
self.ui = updating.Ui_updating()
self.ui.setupUi(self)
class NoConnection(QtGui.QDialog):
def __init__(self, parent=None):
QtGui.QDialog.__init__(self, parent, QtCore.Qt.WindowStaysOnTopHint)
self.ui = noconnection.Ui_noConnection()
self.ui.setupUi(self)
QtCore.QObject.connect(self.ui.noConnectionClose, QtCore.SIGNAL("clicked()"), self.close)
class MyCounter(QtGui.QWidget):
def __init__(self, parent=None):
QtGui.QWidget.__init__(self, parent)
self.ui = Ui_MainWindow()
self.ui.setupUi(self)
self.noConn = NoConnection(self)
self.upWin = UpWindow(self)
QtCore.QObject.connect(self.ui.refreshButton,QtCore.SIGNAL("clicked()"), self.refresh)
QtCore.QObject.connect(self.ui.manageButton,QtCore.SIGNAL("clicked()"), self.manage)
def refresh(self):
self.upWin.show()
self.upWin.show
self.upWin.setVisible(True)
self.setEnabled(False)
self.upWin.setEnabled(True)
#Thats the issue - the sleep instruction is being held
#BEFORE the showing of upWin QDialog
sleep(5)
def manage(self):
print 'ok'
if __name__ == "__main__":
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
myapp = MyCounter()
myapp.upcontent()
myapp.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())

Think of the any Qt program as a cooperative-multitasking system. Graphics and events in general are handled by the main loop. You don't want to stay long in any slot, because the library won't process signals (say button clicks, repaints, but also other stuff) in the mean time.
If you want to do some heavy processing, or anything that needs to wait for resources while the rest of the program is chugging along, use a QThread.
Another option is to force the event processing with qApp.processEvents() (you can find qApp in QtGui), just before your sleep(5) (or whatever code you're going to put in place of it).
Edit: Now, keep in mind that forcing the event processing will just show the QDialog you're trying to popup. You can't do anything with it (remember, no event processing) without calling again qApp.processEvents() or returning from the slot.

If MyCounter represents a widget that does a long computation and updates a dialog during that time, then sleep(5) is not representative of it, because during those 5 seconds the GUI can't handle events. For a "long running" function you would move the blocking part to a QThread and either poll the thread or connect to a signal it emits as it progresses, either way you would not hold up the GUI event loop during that time (for example, the polling, which takes very little time, would occur in an idle callback). The simplest way to create your test would be to use a timed callback into your MyCounter:
def refresh(self):
... show stuff, then:
self.timer = QTimer()
self.timer.timeout.connect(self.updateDialog)
timer.start(100) # 10 times per sec
def updateDialog(self):
#get thread status
if self.thread.status != self.oldStatus:
self.upWin.updateStatus( self.thread.status )