Develop Reference

Bad width calculation in Qcombobox

I want a combobox with width adjusted to its (longest) content, so I use AdjustToContents. However, at least with my settings and the Oxygen style, I sometimes get a too short box and the contents are clipped. This seems to happen especially with digits:
Note that the 8 at the end is clipped. If I comment out that item, the length looks ok.
Is it a bug? Is there an easy way to fix it maybe with stylesheets or subclassing?
import sys
from PyQt5 import QtCore, QtWidgets
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import *
class HelloWindow(QMainWindow):
def __init__(self):
QMainWindow.__init__(self)
self.setWindowTitle("Test")
centralWidget = QWidget(self)
self.setCentralWidget(centralWidget)
gridLayout = QHBoxLayout()
centralWidget.setLayout(gridLayout)
label = QLabel("Name")
combobox = QComboBox()
combobox.setSizeAdjustPolicy(QComboBox.AdjustToContents)
combobox.addItem("Short")
combobox.addItem("Longer text")
combobox.addItem("abcdefghijklmnopqr")
combobox.addItem("123456789012345678")
gridLayout.addWidget(label)
gridLayout.addWidget(combobox)
gridLayout.addStretch(1)
if __name__ == "__main__":
app = QtWidgets.QApplication(sys.argv)
mainWin = HelloWindow()
mainWin.show()
sys.exit( app.exec_() )

try:
combobox = QComboBox(self)

It seems I found the culprit. I had the "Force fonts DPI" option in KDE fonts settings enabled and set to 96 (while xdpyinfo | grep resolution says 101 dpi). Disabling the option makes it work fine with all styles I have available (Breeze, Oxygen, Windows, Fusion).
Now, is this a KDE bug, a Qt bug or just a limitation?

PyQt5: "No Fill" in Color Dialog?

I am coding a GUI in PyQt5, where I need a color picker.
So far, I use the QColorDialog Class, which works fine for selecting a color - but my problem is that there seems to be no way to select "no color" (or "no fill", like its known from PowerPoint or Adobe Illustrator).
How to achieve to select "no color"? (The documentation only mentions a flag for transparency, but this is not helpful for me...)

If you don't mind using a non-native dialog, it is quite easy to customize it.
Below is a very basic implementation that shows how to embed the existing dialog, and add an extra "No Color" button at the bottom. The rest of the implementation is left as an exercise for the reader...
from PyQt5 import QtCore, QtWidgets
class ColorDialog(QtWidgets.QDialog):
def __init__(self, parent=None):
super().__init__(parent)
widget = QtWidgets.QColorDialog()
widget.setWindowFlags(QtCore.Qt.Widget)
widget.setOptions(
QtWidgets.QColorDialog.DontUseNativeDialog |
QtWidgets.QColorDialog.NoButtons)
layout = QtWidgets.QVBoxLayout(self)
layout.addWidget(widget)
hbox = QtWidgets.QHBoxLayout()
hbox.addWidget(QtWidgets.QPushButton('No Color'))
hbox.addWidget(QtWidgets.QPushButton('Cancel'))
hbox.addWidget(QtWidgets.QPushButton('Ok'))
layout.addLayout(hbox)
if __name__ == '__main__':
import sys
app = QtWidgets.QApplication(sys.argv)
dialog = ColorDialog()
dialog.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())

Access QT Designer Objects Programmatically

Disclaimer: New to both python and qt designer
QT Designer 4.8.7
Python 3.4
PyCharm 5.0.3
Question - How do I add controls to the main form or a scroll area widget on the main form (created in QT Designer) programmatically?
I have created a MainWindow in qt designer and added my widgets. The following is the entire test program in PyCharm:
import sys
from PyQt4 import QtGui, QtCore, uic
from PyQt4.QtGui import *
from PyQt4.QtCore import *
qtCreatorFile = "programLauncher.ui"
Ui_MainWindow, QtBaseClass = uic.loadUiType(qtCreatorFile)
class MyApp(QtGui.QMainWindow, Ui_MainWindow):
def __init__(self):
QtGui.QMainWindow.__init__(self)
Ui_MainWindow.__init__(self)
self.setupUi(self)
# Cannot resize or maximize
self.setFixedSize(1045, 770)
# Add button test
self.dateLabel = QtGui.QLabel("Test")
self.pushButton = QtGui.QPushButton('Test button')
# self.scrollArea_programs.addWidget()
grid = QtGui.QGridLayout()
# self.scrollArea_programs.addWidget(self.pushButton)
grid.addWidget(self.dateLabel,0,0)
grid.addWidget(self.pushButton,0,1)
self.setLayout(grid)
self.pushButton_exit.clicked.connect(self.closeEvent)
def closeEvent(self):
QtGui.QApplication.quit()
if __name__ == "__main__":
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
window = MyApp()
window.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())
As you can see I tried to add controls to a grid but nothing shows up when the program runs - I have also tried to add a control to the scroll area. Can someone help me to just add 1 control to the scroll area at run time - so then I can know the proper way to do it or "a" proper way to do this.
Thanks in advance

Without having access to your programLauncher.ui and making minimal changes to your posted code, you can add your UI elements to the window like so:
from PyQt4 import QtGui
import sys
class MyApp(QtGui.QMainWindow):
def __init__(self):
QtGui.QMainWindow.__init__(self)
# Cannot resize or maximize
self.setFixedSize(1045, 770)
widget = QtGui.QWidget(self)
self.setCentralWidget(widget)
# Add button test
self.dateLabel = QtGui.QLabel("Test")
self.pushButton = QtGui.QPushButton('Test button')
grid = QtGui.QGridLayout()
grid.addWidget(self.dateLabel, 0, 0)
grid.addWidget(self.pushButton, 0, 1)
widget.setLayout(grid)
self.pushButton.clicked.connect(self.closeEvent)
def closeEvent(self, event):
QtGui.QApplication.quit()
if __name__ == "__main__":
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
window = MyApp()
window.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())
This will get the controls on the screen, although the layout leaves a lot to be desired. You may have to make modifications to this based on what's in your .ui file. One thing that you'll want to note in this example is that the QMainWindow needs a central widget (widget in the example above). You then set the layout on that widget.

You can use the designer to create your .ui file
The you can load it in your .py using something like:
from PyQt4 import QtCore, QtGui, uic
class my_win(QtGui.QMainWindow):
def __init__(self):
self.ui = uic.loadUi('my_ui.ui',self)
then you can access all your widgets with something like
self.ui.actionQuit.triggered.connect(QtGui.qApp.quit)
or
self.ui.my_button.triggered.connect(self.do_someting)

Thanks to JCVanHamme (the programLauncher.ui hint) and also outside help I now learned most of what I need to know to access MainWindow at run time. So for anyone interested in this beginner tip:
Take a blank form in QT Designer
Add a control
Run pyuic4 batch file
Take a look at the generated .py file to learn EVERYTHING about how to add controls.
Don't let the power go to your head - cheers

Query regarding Pyside

In the below mentioned example when I click on 'Help' submenu under 'View' menu multiple times its creating multiple windows. Can anyone tell me how to resolve this issue?
import sys
from PySide import Qt Gui
from PySide.QtCore import Qt
class Window(QtGui.QMainWindow):
def __init__(self):
QtGui.QMainWindow.__init__(self)
self.menu_bar()
def menu_bar(self):
helpAction = QtGui.QAction('&Help', self)
helpAction.setShortcut('Ctrl+H')
helpAction.triggered.connect(self.add_helpWindow)
menu = self.menuBar().addMenu('View')
menu.addAction(helpAction)
def add_helpWindow(self):
window = QtGui.QMainWindow(self)
window.setWindowTitle('New Window')
window.show()
if __name__ == '__main__':
import sys
app=QtGui.QApplication.instance()
if not app:
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
window = Window()
window.resize(300, 300)
window.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())

You help window is just a QMainWindow, which is not modal and there are no restrictions on the number that can exist. Hence why if you select the help option multiple times, you get multiple windows.
You likely want to use a QMessageBox which has its modal property set. While there is nothing forcing only one dialog to exist at a time, being modal means that the use can only interact with that window so long as it is open. Example:
from Pyside.QtGui import QMessageBox
def add_helpWindow(self):
help_dialog = QMessageBox.information(self, 'Help', 'Some Help Text Here')
help_dialog.setModal(True)
return help_dialog.exec_()
You can also get a more generic dialog box using QDialog, which is the parent class of QMessageBox.
If that's not the behavior you want, you'll need to manually track whether the user has opened that window before, and then connect a signal that is emitted when the user closes the help window to a slot that reset the existence tracker. Here is an example using a non-modal QDialog:
from Pyside.QtGui import QDialog
class Window(QtGui.QMainWindow):
def __init__(self):
QtGui.QMainWindow.__init__(self)
self.menu_bar()
self.help_open = False # Tracks if the help dialog is already open
def help_closed(self):
self.help_open = False
...
def add_helpWindow(self):
if not self.help_open:
self.help_open = True
help_dialog = QDialog(self)
# Any other setup code here
help_dialog.setModal(False)
help_dialog.accepted.connect(self.help_closed)
help_dialog.rejected.connect(self.help_closed)
help_dialog.show()

Hide PyQt app from taskbar

I'm a beginner in PyQt. I was trying to create a simple app to try some of the toolkit's many features. My question is, how can I hide the app icon from the taskbar?
I don't want the user to be able to see the icon in taskbar and to minimize it using this icon. Is there any window flags that I can use to achieve this?

This should do the trick:
myApp.setWindowFlags(QtCore.Qt.Tool)

This drove me nuts for days. Complete app code to implement below.
Key bits:
override closeEvent(), enabling it to do either of just hiding window
or true exit
create some facility for user to choose either hide or
exit behavior
don't show() main window on instantiation, just exec_() the App
import sys
from PyQt4.QtGui import QAction, QApplication, QFrame, QIcon, \
QMainWindow, QMenu, QSystemTrayIcon
from PyQt4.QtCore import SIGNAL
class MyApp(QMainWindow):
def __init__(self, parent, title):
super(QMainWindow, self).__init__(parent)
self.exitOnClose = False
exit = QAction(QIcon(), "Exit", self)
self.connect(exit, SIGNAL("triggered()"), self.exitEvent)
self.trayIcon = QSystemTrayIcon(QIcon(), self)
menu = QMenu(self)
menu.addAction(exit)
self.trayIcon.setContextMenu(menu)
self.connect(self.trayIcon, \
SIGNAL("activated(QSystemTrayIcon::ActivationReason)"), \
self.trayIconActivated)
self.trayIcon.show()
self.trayIcon.showMessage("MyApp is running!", "Click to open window\nRight click for menu" )
def trayIconActivated(self, reason):
if reason == QSystemTrayIcon.Context:
self.trayIcon.contextMenu().show()
elif reason == QSystemTrayIcon.Trigger:
self.show()
self.raise_()
def closeEvent(self, event):
if self.exitOnClose:
self.trayIcon.hide()
del self.trayIcon
event.accept()
else:
self.hide()
event.setAccepted(True)
event.ignore()
def exitEvent(self):
self.exitOnClose = True
self.close()
if __name__ == "__main__":
app = QApplication(sys.argv)
myapp = MyApp(None, "My System Tray App")
app.exec_()

Adapted from this thread:
import sys
from PyQt4.QtGui import *
if __name__ == '__main__':
app = QApplication(sys.argv)
widget = QWidget()
mainWindow = QMainWindow(widget)
mainWindow.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())

I wouldn't recommend trying to hide an application's taskbar presence, especially if the application is visible. If you are only trying to prevent minimizing from the taskbar then you can achieve this by creating your top level widget with the following window flags like this:
QWidget *mainWindow = new QWidget(0, Qt::CustomizeWindowHint
| Qt::WindowTitleHint | Qt::WindowSystemMenuHint
| Qt::WindowCloseButtonHint | Qt::WindowMaximizeButtonHint);
If you don't want a maximize flag, you can leave that one out of the list too.
The various window flags that Qt can use are documented here (Qt::WindowFlags).

If you are on Ubuntu with Unity and want to hide an application's icon from the launcher on the left-hand-side, you will probably need Qt.SplashScreen. This worked for me but I don't remember if I also needed Qt.Tool, which is enough on Windows. For the SplashScreen attempt you may have to reimplement the resize functionality as it disables this feature of a QStatusBar (that has a SizeGrip) for example.
Here is a little example to try out window flags.

Just initialise your main window like this self.setWindowFlags(Qt.ToolTip)