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how to make an overriden QGraphicsTextItem editable & movable?

I am using PyQt and I'm trying to re-implement a QGraphicsTextItem, but it seems I'm missing something.
I would like to make the NodeTag item's text editable. I have tried setting flags such as Qt.TextEditorInteraction and QGraphicsItem.ItemIsMovable , but those seem to be ignored...
Here is a Minimal Reproducible Example :
import sys
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QGraphicsScene, QGraphicsView, QMainWindow, QApplication, QGraphicsItem, QGraphicsTextItem
from PyQt5.QtCore import *
from PyQt5.QtGui import QPen
class NodeTag(QGraphicsTextItem):
def __init__(self,text):
QGraphicsTextItem.__init__(self,text)
self.text = text
self.setPos(0,0)
self.setTextInteractionFlags(Qt.TextEditorInteraction)
# self.setFlag(QGraphicsItem.ItemIsFocusable, True) # All these flags are ignored...
# self.setFlag(QGraphicsItem.ItemIsSelectable, True)
self.setFlag(QGraphicsItem.ItemIsMovable, True)
def boundingRect(self):
return QRectF(0,0,80,25)
def paint(self,painter,option,widget):
painter.setPen(QPen(Qt.blue, 2, Qt.SolidLine))
painter.drawRect(self.boundingRect())
painter.drawText(self.boundingRect(),self.text)
def mousePressEvent(self, event):
print("CLICK!")
# self.setTextInteractionFlags(Qt.TextEditorInteraction) # make text editable on click
# self.setFocus()
class GView(QGraphicsView):
def __init__(self, parent, *args, **kwargs):
super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
self.parent = parent
self.setGeometry(100, 100, 700, 450)
self.show()
class Scene(QGraphicsScene):
def __init__(self, parent):
super().__init__(parent)
self.parent = parent
tagItem = NodeTag("myText") # create a NodeTag item
self.addItem(tagItem)
class MainWindow(QMainWindow):
def __init__(self):
super().__init__() # create default constructor for QWidget
self.setGeometry(900, 70, 1000, 800)
self.createGraphicView()
self.show()
def createGraphicView(self):
self.scene = Scene(self)
gView = GView(self)
scene = Scene(gView)
gView.setScene(scene)
# Set the main window's central widget
self.setCentralWidget(gView)
# Run program
if __name__ == '__main__':
app = QApplication(sys.argv)
window = MainWindow()
sys.exit(app.exec_())
As you can see I have tried overriding the mousePressEvent and setting flags there too, but no luck so far.
Any help appreciated!

All QGraphicsItem subclasses have a paint method, and all items that paint some contents have that method overridden so that they can actually paint themselves.
The mechanism is the same as standard QWidgets, for which there is a paintEvent (the difference is that paint of QGraphicsItem receives an already instanciated QPainter), so if you want to do further painting other than what the class already provides, the base implementation must be called.
Consider that painting always happen from bottom to top, so everything that needs to be drawn behind the base painting has to be done before calling super().paint(), and everything that is going to be drawn in front of the default painting has to be placed after.
Depending on the situation, overriding might require that the default base implementation is called anyway, and that's important in your case for boundingRect too. QGraphicsTextItem automatically resizes itself when its contents change, so you should not always return a fixed QRect. If you need to have a minimum size, the solution is to merge a minimum rectangle with those provided by the default boundingRect() function.
Then, editing on a QGraphicsTextItem happens when the item gets focused, but since you also want to be able to move the item, things get trickier as both actions are based on mouse clicks. If you want to be able to edit the text with a single click, the solution is to make the item editable only when the mouse button has been released and has not been moved by some amount of pixels (the startDragDistance() property), otherwise the item is moved with the mouse. This obviously makes the ItemIsMovable flag useless, as we're going to take care of the movement internally.
Finally, since a minimum size is provided, we also need to override the shape() method in order to ensure that collision and clicks are correctly mapped, and return a QPainterPath that includes the whole bounding rect (for normal QGraphicsItem that should be the default behavior, but that doesn't happen with QGraphicsRectItem).
Here's a full implementation of what described above:
class NodeTag(QGraphicsTextItem):
def __init__(self, text):
QGraphicsTextItem.__init__(self, text)
self.startPos = None
self.isMoving = False
# the following is useless, not only because we are leaving the text
# painting to the base implementation, but also because the text is
# already accessible using toPlainText() or toHtml()
#self.text = text
# this is unnecessary too as all new items always have a (0, 0) position
#self.setPos(0, 0)
def boundingRect(self):
return super().boundingRect() | QRectF(0, 0, 80, 25)
def paint(self, painter, option, widget):
# draw the border *before* (as in "behind") the text
painter.setPen(QPen(Qt.blue, 2, Qt.SolidLine))
painter.drawRect(self.boundingRect())
super().paint(painter, option, widget)
def shape(self):
shape = QPainterPath()
shape.addRect(self.boundingRect())
return shape
def focusOutEvent(self, event):
# this is required in order to allow movement using the mouse
self.setTextInteractionFlags(Qt.NoTextInteraction)
def mousePressEvent(self, event):
if (event.button() == Qt.LeftButton and
self.textInteractionFlags() != Qt.TextEditorInteraction):
self.startPos = event.pos()
else:
super().mousePressEvent(event)
def mouseMoveEvent(self, event):
if self.startPos:
delta = event.pos() - self.startPos
if (self.isMoving or
delta.manhattanLength() >= QApplication.startDragDistance()):
self.setPos(self.pos() + delta)
self.isMoving = True
return
super().mouseMoveEvent(event)
def mouseReleaseEvent(self, event):
if (not self.isMoving and
self.textInteractionFlags() != Qt.TextEditorInteraction):
self.setTextInteractionFlags(Qt.TextEditorInteraction)
self.setFocus()
# the following lines are used to correctly place the text
# cursor at the mouse cursor position
cursorPos = self.document().documentLayout().hitTest(
event.pos(), Qt.FuzzyHit)
textCursor = self.textCursor()
textCursor.setPosition(cursorPos)
self.setTextCursor(textCursor)
super().mouseReleaseEvent(event)
self.startPos = None
self.isMoving = False
As a side note, remember that QGraphicsTextItem supports rich text formatting, so even if you want more control on the text painting process you should not use QPainter.drawText(), because you'd only draw the plain text. In fact, QGraphicsTextItem draws its contents using the drawContents() function of the underlying text document.

Try it:
...
class NodeTag(QGraphicsTextItem):
def __init__(self, text, parent=None):
super(NodeTag, self).__init__(parent)
self.text = text
self.setPlainText(text)
self.setFlag(QGraphicsItem.ItemIsMovable)
self.setFlag(QGraphicsItem.ItemIsSelectable)
def focusOutEvent(self, event):
self.setTextInteractionFlags(QtCore.Qt.NoTextInteraction)
super(NodeTag, self).focusOutEvent(event)
def mouseDoubleClickEvent(self, event):
if self.textInteractionFlags() == QtCore.Qt.NoTextInteraction:
self.setTextInteractionFlags(QtCore.Qt.TextEditorInteraction)
super(NodeTag, self).mouseDoubleClickEvent(event)
def paint(self,painter,option,widget):
painter.setPen(QPen(Qt.blue, 2, Qt.SolidLine))
painter.drawRect(self.boundingRect())
# painter.drawText(self.boundingRect(),self.text)
super().paint(painter, option, widget)
...

Using QStyledItemDelegates as custom items in QListView

I want to design a custom ListView widget which has custom items similar to this:
https://i.stack.imgur.com/iTNbN.png
However, the qt documentation and some stackoverflow posts state that one should ideally use a QStyleItemDelegate. I never worked with 'delegates' before but as far as I understood from my research they are called by the ListView for drawing / rendering each item.
I found a delegate example in another project (https://github.com/pyblish/pyblish-lite/blob/master/pyblish_lite/delegate.py) and they draw everything by hand / are essentially rebuilding entire widgets by painting rectangles.
This seems a bit impractical for me as most of the time custom item widgets can be compounds of existing widgets. Take a look at the screenshot above. It essentially contains a Qlabel, QPixmap, and four DoubleSpinBoxes.
Question: How would you use the painting / rendering methods that already exist in them instead of manually painting everything on your own?
That way you can profit from existing member methods and can use layouts for structuring your widget.
For example the first ListViewItem should pass the model data to the delegate so that the text of the self.lightGroupName QLabel can be set to "Light1".
Any help is greatly appreciated, since I have no idea how to go on from here:
from PySide2 import QtCore, QtGui, QtWidgets
class LightDelagate(QtWidgets.QStyledItemDelegate): #custom item view
def __init__(self, parent=None):
super(LightDelagate, self).__init__(parent)
self.setupUI()
def setupUI(self):
self.masterWidget = QtWidgets.QWidget()
#Light Group Header
self.hlayLightHeader = QtWidgets.QHBoxLayout()
self.lightGroupName = QtWidgets.QLabel("Checker")
self.hlayLightHeader.addWidget(self.lightGroupName)
#Light AOV Preview
self.lightPreview = QtWidgets.QLabel()
#set size
self.aovThumbnail = QtGui.QPixmap(180, 101)
#self.lightPreview.setPixmap(self.aovThumbnail.scaled(self.lightPreview.width(), self.lightPreview.height(), QtCore.Qt.KeepAspectRatio))
# #Color Dials
# self.hlayColorDials = QtWidgets.QHBoxLayout()
# self.rgbDials = QtWidgets.QHBoxLayout()
# self.rDial = QtWidgets.QDoubleSpinBox()
# self.rDial.setButtonSymbols(QtWidgets.QAbstractSpinBox.NoButtons)
# self.gDial = QtWidgets.QDoubleSpinBox()
# self.gDial.setButtonSymbols(QtWidgets.QAbstractSpinBox.NoButtons)
# self.bDial = QtWidgets.QDoubleSpinBox()
# self.bDial.setButtonSymbols(QtWidgets.QAbstractSpinBox.NoButtons)
# self.rgbDials.addWidget(self.rDial)
# self.rgbDials.addWidget(self.gDial)
# self.rgbDials.addWidget(self.bDial)
# #Exposure
# self.hlayExposureDials = QtWidgets.QHBoxLayout()
# self.exposureDial = QtWidgets.QDoubleSpinBox()
# self.exposureDial.setButtonSymbols(QtWidgets.QAbstractSpinBox.NoButtons)
# self.hlayExposureDials.addWidget(self.exposureDial)
# self.hlayColorDials.addLayout(self.rgbDials)
# self.hlayColorDials.addLayout(self.hlayExposureDials)
#entire layout
self.vlayWidget = QtWidgets.QVBoxLayout()
self.vlayWidget.addLayout(self.hlayLightHeader)
self.vlayWidget.addWidget(self.lightPreview)
# self.vlayWidget.addLayout(self.hlayColorDials)
self.vlayWidget.setContentsMargins(2,2,2,2)
self.vlayWidget.setSpacing(2)
self.masterWidget.setLayout(self.vlayWidget)
def paint(self, painter, option, index):
rowData = index.model().data(index, QtCore.Qt.DisplayRole)
self.lightGroupName.setText(rowData[0])
print (option.rect)
painter.drawRect(option.rect)
painter.drawText()
def sizeHint(self, option, index):
return QtCore.QSize(200, 150)
class LightListModel(QtCore.QAbstractListModel): #data container for list view
def __init__(self, lightList= None):
super(LightListModel, self).__init__()
self.lightList = lightList or []
#reimplement
def rowCount(self, index):
return len(self.lightList)
def data(self, index, role):
if role == QtCore.Qt.DisplayRole:
lightGroupData = self.lightList[index.row()]
return lightGroupData
class LightListView(QtWidgets.QListView): #
def __init__(self):
super(LightListView, self).__init__()
self.setFlow(QtWidgets.QListView.LeftToRight)
self.setItemDelegate(LightDelagate(self))
self.setMinimumWidth(1880)
lightListTest = [
('Light1' , {'lightList' : [], 'lightColor': (0,0,0), 'mod_exposure': 1, 'mod_color' : (0,0,0)}),
('Light2' , {'lightList' : [], 'lightColor': (0,0,0), 'mod_exposure': 1, 'mod_color' : (0,0,0)}),
('Light3' , {'lightList' : [], 'lightColor': (0,0,0), 'mod_exposure': 1, 'mod_color' : (0,0,0)}),
('Light4' , {'lightList' : [], 'lightColor': (0,0,0), 'mod_exposure': 1, 'mod_color' : (0,0,0)})
]
app = QtWidgets.QApplication([])
LLV = LightListView()
model = LightListModel(lightList=lightListTest)
LLV.setModel(model)
LLV.show()
LLV.setSe
app.exec_()

Instead of QListView, could you use QListWidget and override itemWidget? The idea would be that this lets you return a QWidget (with children as per your screenshot) instead of having to implement a QStyledItemDelegate that calls each child widget's paint method.

Adding additional parameters to QWidget subclass using PySide

I'm adding a color parameter to the LineBand subclass of QWidget. I've found several examples of how to add additional parameters to a subclass in Python 3 and believe I've followed the advice. Yet, when I call the new version of the class using box = LineBand(self.widget2, color), I get the error File "C:/Users/...", line 63, in showBoxes ... box = LineBand(viewport, color) ... TypeError: __init__() takes 2 positional arguments but 3 were given. But, I'm only calling LineBand with 2 arguments, right? Below is the complete code. I've commented all the sections I've changed. I've also commented out the code that changes the background color of the text in order to see the colored lines more clearly (when they actually are drawn). The background color code works fine.
import sys
from PySide.QtCore import *
from PySide.QtGui import *
db = ((5,8,'A',Qt.darkMagenta),(20,35,'B',Qt.darkYellow),(45,60,'C',Qt.darkCyan)) # added color to db
class TextEditor(QTextEdit):
def __init__(self, parent=None):
super().__init__(parent)
text="This is example text that is several lines\nlong and also\nstrangely broken up and can be\nwrapped."
self.setText(text)
cursor = self.textCursor()
for n in range(0,len(db)):
row = db[n]
startChar = row[0]
endChar = row[1]
id = row[2]
color = row[3] # assign color from db to variable
cursor.setPosition(startChar)
cursor.movePosition(QTextCursor.NextCharacter, QTextCursor.KeepAnchor, endChar-startChar)
#charfmt = cursor.charFormat()
#charfmt.setBackground(QColor(color)) # assign color to highlight (background)
#cursor.setCharFormat(charfmt)
cursor.clearSelection()
self.setTextCursor(cursor)
def getBoundingRect(self, start, end):
cursor = self.textCursor()
cursor.setPosition(end)
last_rect = end_rect = self.cursorRect(cursor)
cursor.setPosition(start)
first_rect = start_rect = self.cursorRect(cursor)
if start_rect.y() != end_rect.y():
cursor.movePosition(QTextCursor.StartOfLine)
first_rect = last_rect = self.cursorRect(cursor)
while True:
cursor.movePosition(QTextCursor.EndOfLine)
rect = self.cursorRect(cursor)
if rect.y() < end_rect.y() and rect.x() > last_rect.x():
last_rect = rect
moved = cursor.movePosition(QTextCursor.NextCharacter)
if not moved or rect.y() > end_rect.y():
break
last_rect = last_rect.united(end_rect)
return first_rect.united(last_rect)
class Window(QWidget):
def __init__(self):
super(Window, self).__init__()
self.edit = TextEditor(self)
layout = QVBoxLayout(self)
layout.addWidget(self.edit)
self.boxes = []
def showBoxes(self):
while self.boxes:
self.boxes.pop().deleteLater()
viewport = self.edit.viewport()
for start, end, id, color in db: # get color too
rect = self.edit.getBoundingRect(start, end)
box = LineBand(viewport, color) # call LineBand with color as argument
box.setGeometry(rect)
box.show()
self.boxes.append(box)
def resizeEvent(self, event):
self.showBoxes()
super().resizeEvent(event)
class LineBand(QWidget):
def __init__(self, color): # define color within __init__
super().__init__(self)
self.color = color
def paintEvent(self, event):
painter = QPainter(self)
painter.setRenderHint(QPainter.Antialiasing)
painter.setPen(QPen(color, 1.8)) # call setPen with color
painter.drawLine(self.rect().topLeft(), self.rect().bottomRight())
if __name__ == '__main__':
app = QApplication(sys.argv)
window = Window()
window.show()
window.showBoxes()
app.exec_()
sys.exit(app.exec_())

When a method is not overwritten it will be the same as the implemented method of the parent so if you want it to work you must add those parameters, since these depend many times on the parent a simple way is to use *args and **kwargs and pass the new parameter as the first parameter. In addition you must use self.color instead of color since color only exists in the constructor.
class Window(QWidget):
[...]
def showBoxes(self):
while self.boxes:
self.boxes.pop().deleteLater()
viewport = self.edit.viewport()
for start, end, id, color in db: # get color too
rect = self.edit.getBoundingRect(start, end)
box = LineBand(color, viewport) # call LineBand with color as argument
box.setGeometry(rect)
box.show()
self.boxes.append(box)
[...]
class LineBand(QWidget):
def __init__(self, color, *args, **kwargs):
QWidget.__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)
self.color = color
def paintEvent(self, event):
painter = QPainter(self)
painter.setRenderHint(QPainter.Antialiasing)
painter.setPen(QPen(self.color, 1.8)) # call setPen with color
painter.drawLine(self.rect().topLeft(), self.rect().bottomRight())
Output:

Make QGraphicsItem only selectable in one graphicsview

I have a setup where two QGraphicViews display a single QGraphicsScene. One of these views is an overview the other the detail. Imagine something like:
The rectangle marking the current boundaries of the detailed view is part of the scene. It is the white rectangle in the upper view, which I will call in the text below as "bounding-box".
What I want is to be able to click in the overview- QGraphicsView and drag the bounding-box around to trigger a scrolling of the detail- QGraphicsView. Obviously, the bounding-box has to be only clickable in the overview- QGraphicsView, otherwise I would never be able to do manipulations in the detail- QGraphicsView, because the bounding-box covers the entire detail view.
So how can I make a QGraphicsItem be selectable only from a single QGraphicsView or, alternatively, how do I "insert" a QGraphicsItem only into a single QGraphicsView? Can I perhaps nest QGraphicsScenes so that one is the copy of another plus some extra items?

Extending my other answer which only concentrates on the movable QGraphicsItem I made an example specifically for your task.
from PySide import QtGui, QtCore
# special GraphicsRectItem that is aware of its position and does something if the position is changed
class MovableGraphicsRectItem(QtGui.QGraphicsRectItem):
def __init__(self, callback=None):
super().__init__()
self.setFlags(QtGui.QGraphicsItem.ItemIsMovable | QtGui.QGraphicsItem.ItemSendsScenePositionChanges)
self.setCursor(QtCore.Qt.PointingHandCursor)
self.callback = callback
def itemChange(self, change, value):
if change == QtGui.QGraphicsItem.ItemPositionChange and self.callback:
self.callback(value)
return super().itemChange(change, value)
app = QtGui.QApplication([])
# the scene with some rectangles
scene = QtGui.QGraphicsScene()
scene.addRect(30, 30, 100, 50, pen=QtGui.QPen(QtCore.Qt.darkGreen))
scene.addRect(150, 0, 30, 80, pen=QtGui.QPen(QtCore.Qt.darkYellow))
scene.addRect(80, 80, 100, 20, pen=QtGui.QPen(QtCore.Qt.darkMagenta))
scene.addRect(200, 10, 30, 80, pen=QtGui.QPen(QtCore.Qt.darkRed))
window = QtGui.QWidget()
# put two graphicsviews into the window with different scaling for each
layout = QtGui.QVBoxLayout(window)
v1 = QtGui.QGraphicsView(scene)
v1.setFixedSize(500, 100)
v1.scale(0.5, 0.5)
v1.setHorizontalScrollBarPolicy(QtCore.Qt.ScrollBarAlwaysOff)
v1.setVerticalScrollBarPolicy(QtCore.Qt.ScrollBarAlwaysOff)
layout.addWidget(v1)
v2 = QtGui.QGraphicsView(scene)
v2.setFixedSize(500, 500)
v2.scale(5, 5)
v2.setHorizontalScrollBarPolicy(QtCore.Qt.ScrollBarAlwaysOff)
v2.setVerticalScrollBarPolicy(QtCore.Qt.ScrollBarAlwaysOff)
layout.addWidget(v2)
# the tracker rectangle
tracker = MovableGraphicsRectItem(lambda pos: v2.setSceneRect(pos.x(), pos.y(), 100, 100))
tracker.setRect(0, 0, 100, 100)
v2.setSceneRect(0, 0, 100, 100)
tracker.setPen(QtGui.QPen(QtCore.Qt.darkCyan))
scene.addItem(tracker)
window.show()
app.exec_()
You don't need to have Items that are only visible in one view or the other, you simply restrict the scene rectangle of one view to inside the draggable rectangle in the scene that is visible and draggable in the other view. See the image.

I really like this idea and am trying to generalise it to create a widget which you pass the 'main view' to and it creates an overview which you can use to pan and zoom in. Unfortunately I haven't got it working yet and don't have time to work on it right now but thought I would share the progress so far.
Here is the widget code:
"""
Overview widget
"""
from PyQt4 import QtGui, QtCore
class MovableGraphicsRectItem(QtGui.QGraphicsRectItem):
'''special GraphicsRectItem that is aware of its position and does
something if the position is changed'''
def __init__(self, callback=None):
super(MovableGraphicsRectItem, self).__init__()
self.setFlags(QtGui.QGraphicsItem.ItemIsMovable |
QtGui.QGraphicsItem.ItemSendsScenePositionChanges)
self.setCursor(QtCore.Qt.PointingHandCursor)
self.callback = callback
def itemChange(self, change, value):
if change == QtGui.QGraphicsItem.ItemPositionChange and self.callback:
self.callback(value)
return super(MovableGraphicsRectItem, self).itemChange(change, value)
def activate(self):
self.setFlags(QtGui.QGraphicsItem.ItemIsMovable |
QtGui.QGraphicsItem.ItemSendsScenePositionChanges)
self.setCursor(QtCore.Qt.PointingHandCursor)
def deactivate(self):
self.setFlag(QtGui.QGraphicsItem.ItemIsMovable, False)
self.setFlag(QtGui.QGraphicsItem.ItemSendsScenePositionChanges, False)
self.setCursor(QtCore.Qt.ArrowCursor)
class MouseInsideFilterObj(QtCore.QObject):
def __init__(self, enterCallback, leaveCallback):
QtCore.QObject.__init__(self)
self.enterCallback = enterCallback
self.leaveCallback = leaveCallback
def eventFilter(self, obj, event):
if event.type() == 10: # QtCore.QEvent.Type.Enter:
self.enterCallback(obj)
print('Enter event')
if event.type() == 11: # QtCore.QEvent.Type.Leave:
self.leaveCallback(obj)
print('Leave event')
return False
class Overview(QtGui.QGraphicsView):
'''provides a view that shows the entire scene and shows the area that
the main view is zoomed to. Alows user to move the view area around and
change the zoom level'''
def __init__(self, mainView):
QtGui.QGraphicsView.__init__(self)
self.setWindowTitle('Overview')
self.resize(QtCore.QSize(400, 300))
self._mainView = mainView
self.setScene(mainView.scene())
mouseFilter = MouseInsideFilterObj(self.enterGV, self.leaveGV)
self.viewport().installEventFilter(mouseFilter)
self._tracker = MovableGraphicsRectItem(
lambda pos: self._mainView.setSceneRect(
QtCore.QRectF(self._mainView.viewport().geometry())))
self._tracker.setRect(self._getMainViewArea_())
self._tracker.setPen(QtGui.QPen(QtCore.Qt.darkCyan))
self.scene().addItem(self._tracker)
def _getMainViewArea_(self):
mainView = self._mainView
visibleSceneRect = mainView.mapToScene(
mainView.viewport().geometry()).boundingRect()
return visibleSceneRect
def resizeEvent(self, event):
self.fitInView(self.sceneRect(), QtCore.Qt.KeepAspectRatio)
def leaveGV(self, gv):
if gv is self.overview:
print('exited overview')
self.tracker.deactivate()
def enterGV(self, gv):
if gv is self.overview:
print('using overview')
self.tracker.activate()
and here is the test script code:
import sys
from PyQt4 import QtGui, QtCore
import overviewWidget as ov
if __name__ == '__main__':
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
# the scene with some rectangles
scene = QtGui.QGraphicsScene()
scene.addRect(30, 30, 100, 50, pen=QtGui.QPen(QtCore.Qt.darkGreen))
scene.addRect(150, 0, 30, 80, pen=QtGui.QPen(QtCore.Qt.darkYellow))
scene.addRect(80, 80, 100, 20, pen=QtGui.QPen(QtCore.Qt.darkMagenta))
scene.addRect(200, 10, 30, 80, pen=QtGui.QPen(QtCore.Qt.darkRed))
# the main view
mainView = QtGui.QGraphicsView(scene)
mainView.resize(600, 400)
mainView.update()
mainView.show()
# the overview
overview = ov.Overview(mainView)
overview.update()
overview.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())

QGraphicsItems have by default some of their abilities disabled to maximize performance. By enabling these abilities you can make them movable and you can make them aware of their position. Ideally one would then use the Signal/Slot mechanism to notify someone else of changes but again for performance reason QGraphicsItems are not inheriting from QObject. However sending events or manually calling callbacks are always possible.
You have to:
Enable flags QGraphicsItem.ItemIsMovable and QGraphicsItem.ItemSendsScenePositionChanges of your QGraphicsItem
Provide a custom implementation of method itemChange(change, value) and therein listen to QGraphicsItem.ItemPositionChange changes.
Act accordingly to these changes (in your case change the detailed view).
A small example:
from PySide import QtGui, QtCore
class MovableGraphicsRectItem(QtGui.QGraphicsRectItem):
"""
A QGraphicsRectItem that can be moved and is aware of its position.
"""
def __init__(self):
super().__init__()
# enable moving and position tracking
self.setFlags(QtGui.QGraphicsItem.ItemIsMovable | QtGui.QGraphicsItem.ItemSendsScenePositionChanges)
# sets a non-default cursor
self.setCursor(QtCore.Qt.PointingHandCursor)
def itemChange(self, change, value):
if change == QtGui.QGraphicsItem.ItemPositionChange:
print(value)
return super().itemChange(change, value)
app = QtGui.QApplication([])
# create our movable rectangle
rectangle = MovableGraphicsRectItem()
rectangle.setRect(0, 0, 100, 100)
# create a scene and add our rectangle
scene = QtGui.QGraphicsScene()
scene.addItem(rectangle)
# create view, set fixed scene rectangle and show
view = QtGui.QGraphicsView(scene)
view.setSceneRect(0, 0, 600, 400)
view.show()
app.exec_()
In this example (Python 3.X) you can drag the rectangle around and the changing positions are printed to the console.
Some more comments:
You have two views and two associated scenes.
Their display is partly overlapping but this is not a problem because the top view will always consume all mouse events.
In order to change something in the other view you just have to send an event from the overriden itemChange method or call a callback.
You could also add Signal/Slot ability by inheriting from both, QGraphicsRectItem and QObject and then define a signal and emit it.
If by chance you also wanted a movable and position aware ellipse or other item you need to create your custom classes for each xxxItem class. I stumbled upon this problem several times and think it might be a disadvantage of the design.

Extending the answer of Trilarion, I was able to solve the problem, by installing a Eventfilter on the overview QgraphcisView. On the Enter event, the dragging is enabled, on the Leave event the dragging is disabled.
from PySide import QtGui, QtCore
# special GraphicsRectItem that is aware of its position and does something if the position is changed
class MovableGraphicsRectItem(QtGui.QGraphicsRectItem):
def __init__(self, callback=None):
super(MovableGraphicsRectItem, self).__init__()
self.setFlags(QtGui.QGraphicsItem.ItemIsMovable | QtGui.QGraphicsItem.ItemSendsScenePositionChanges)
self.setCursor(QtCore.Qt.PointingHandCursor)
self.callback = callback
def itemChange(self, change, value):
if change == QtGui.QGraphicsItem.ItemPositionChange and self.callback:
self.callback(value)
return super(MovableGraphicsRectItem, self).itemChange(change, value)
def activate(self):
self.setFlags(QtGui.QGraphicsItem.ItemIsMovable | QtGui.QGraphicsItem.ItemSendsScenePositionChanges)
self.setCursor(QtCore.Qt.PointingHandCursor)
def deactivate(self):
self.setFlags(not QtGui.QGraphicsItem.ItemIsMovable | QtGui.QGraphicsItem.ItemSendsScenePositionChanges)
self.setCursor(QtCore.Qt.ArrowCursor)
class MouseInsideFilterObj(QtCore.QObject):#And this one
def __init__(self, enterCallback, leaveCallback):
QtCore.QObject.__init__(self)
self.enterCallback = enterCallback
self.leaveCallback = leaveCallback
def eventFilter(self, obj, event):
if event.type() == QtCore.QEvent.Type.Enter:
self.enterCallback(obj)
if event.type() == QtCore.QEvent.Type.Leave:
self.leaveCallback(obj)
return True
class TestClass:
def __init__(self):
self.app = QtGui.QApplication([])
# the scene with some rectangles
self.scene = QtGui.QGraphicsScene()
self.scene.addRect(30, 30, 100, 50, pen=QtGui.QPen(QtCore.Qt.darkGreen))
self.scene.addRect(150, 0, 30, 80, pen=QtGui.QPen(QtCore.Qt.darkYellow))
self.scene.addRect(80, 80, 100, 20, pen=QtGui.QPen(QtCore.Qt.darkMagenta))
self.scene.addRect(200, 10, 30, 80, pen=QtGui.QPen(QtCore.Qt.darkRed))
self.window = QtGui.QWidget()
# put two graphicsviews into the window with different scaling for each
self.layout = QtGui.QVBoxLayout(self.window)
self.v1 = QtGui.QGraphicsView(self.scene)
self.v1.setFixedSize(500, 100)
self.v1.scale(0.5, 0.5)
self.v1.setHorizontalScrollBarPolicy(QtCore.Qt.ScrollBarAlwaysOff)
self.v1.setVerticalScrollBarPolicy(QtCore.Qt.ScrollBarAlwaysOff)
self.layout.addWidget(self.v1)
self.v2 = QtGui.QGraphicsView(self.scene)
self.v2.setFixedSize(500, 500)
self.v2.scale(5, 5)
self.v2.setHorizontalScrollBarPolicy(QtCore.Qt.ScrollBarAlwaysOff)
self.v2.setVerticalScrollBarPolicy(QtCore.Qt.ScrollBarAlwaysOff)
self.layout.addWidget(self.v2)
mouseFilter = MouseInsideFilterObj(self.enterGV, self.leaveGV)
self.v1.installEventFilter(mouseFilter)
# the tracker rectangle
self.tracker = MovableGraphicsRectItem(lambda pos: self.v2.setSceneRect(pos.x(), pos.y(), 100, 100))
self.tracker.setRect(0, 0, 100, 100)
self.v2.setSceneRect(0, 0, 100, 100)
self.tracker.setPen(QtGui.QPen(QtCore.Qt.darkCyan))
self.scene.addItem(self.tracker)
self.window.show()
self.app.exec_()
def leaveGV(self, gv):
if gv is self.v1:
self.tracker.deactivate()
def enterGV(self, gv):
if gv is self.v1:
self.tracker.activate()
TestClass()

Custom widget in pyside (python/Qt) won't show up

I am just trying my first prototype in pyside (python/Qt). The application itself starts up fine, creates a window with widgets according to my layout. Threads are started and execute, all fine. Except...
I want to enhance the GUI by adding some custom widget indicating the execution state of the threads. So I thought flashing LEDs would be fine for that. For this I try to implement a custom LED widget.
Remember that I currently try to learn python, so there might be some strange approaches in this. Anyway, here is the LED widgets class in its current state:
from PySide import QtCore, QtGui
class LED(QtGui.QWidget):
class Mode:
STATIC_OFF = 0
STATIC_ON = 1
FLASH_SLOW = 2
FLASH_MEDIUM = 2
FLASH_FAST = 3
class Color:
BLACK = '#000000'
GREEN = '#00FF00'
RED = '#FF0000'
BLUE = '#0000FF'
YELLOW = '#FFFF00'
WHITE = '#FFFFFF'
mode = Mode.STATIC_ON
color = Color.BLACK
radius = 10
status = False
timer = None
outdated = QtCore.Signal()
def __init__(self, mode, color, radius, parent=None):
super(LED, self).__init__(parent)
self.outdated.connect(self.update)
self.setMode(mode,False)
self.setColor(color,False)
self.setRadius(radius,False)
self.timer = QtCore.QTimer(self)
self.timer.timeout.connect(self.adjustAppearance)
self.adjustAppearance()
def getCenter(self):
return QtCore.QPoint(self.radius, self.radius)
def getBox(self):
return QtCore.QRect(self.radius, self.radius)
def setColor(self, color, update=True):
assert color in (self.Color.GREEN,self.Color.RED,self.Color.BLUE,self.Color.YELLOW,self.Color.WHITE), "invalid color"
self.color = color
if update:
self.adjustAppearance()
def setMode(self, mode, update=True):
assert mode in (self.Mode.STATIC_OFF,self.Mode.STATIC_ON,self.Mode.FLASH_SLOW,self.Mode.FLASH_MEDIUM,self.Mode.FLASH_FAST),"invalid mode"
self.mode = mode
if update:
self.adjustAppearance()
def setRadius(self, radius, update=True):
assert isinstance(radius, int), "invalid radius type (integer)"
assert 10<=radius<=100, "invalid radius value (0-100)"
self.radius = radius
if update:
self.adjustAppearance()
def switchOn(self):
self.status = True
self.adjustAppearance()
def switchOff(self):
self.status = False
self.adjustAppearance()
def adjustAppearance(self):
if self.mode is self.Mode.STATIC_OFF:
self.status = False
self.timer.stop()
elif self.mode is self.Mode.STATIC_ON:
self.status = True
self.timer.stop()
elif self.mode is self.Mode.FLASH_SLOW:
self.status = not self.status
self.timer.start(200)
elif self.mode is self.Mode.FLASH_SLOW:
self.status = not self.status
self.timer.start(500)
elif self.mode is self.Mode.FLASH_SLOW:
self.status = not self.status
self.timer.start(1000)
self.outdated.emit()
def paintEvent(self, event):
painter = QtGui.QPainter()
painter.begin(self)
self.drawWidget(event, painter)
painter.end()
def drawWidget(self, event, painter):
if self.status:
shade = QtGui.QColor(self.color).darker
else:
shade = QtGui.QColor(self.color).lighter
#painter.setPen(QtGui.QColor('black'), 1, QtCore.Qt.SolidLine)
painter.setPen(QtGui.QColor('black'))
painter.setBrush(QtCore.Qt.RadialGradientPattern)
painter.drawEllipse(self.getCenter(), self.radius, self.radius)
My problem is that the widget simply does not show when I add it to the windows layout. Other widgets (non-custome, plain Qt widgets) do show, so I gues it is not a question of creating the widget, not a question of how I use the widget. Nevertheless here is the (shortened) instanciation if the widget:
class View(QtGui.QMainWindow):
ui = None
def __init__(self, config, parent=None):
log.debug("window setup")
self.config = config
super(View, self).__init__(parent)
try:
self.ui = self.Ui(self)
self.setObjectName("appView")
self.setWindowTitle("AvaTalk")
self.show()
except RuntimeError as e:
log.error(e.message)
class Ui(QtCore.QObject):
# [...]
iconDetector = None
buttonDetector = None
# [...]
def __init__(self, window, parent=None):
log.debug("ui setup")
super(View.Ui, self).__init__(parent)
self.window = window
# central widget
log.debug("widget setup")
self.centralWidget = QtGui.QWidget()
self.widgetLayout = QtGui.QVBoxLayout(self.centralWidget)
# create toolbars
#self.createMenubar()
#self.createCanvas()
self.createToolbar()
#self.createStatusbar()
# visualize widget
self.window.setCentralWidget(self.centralWidget)
# actions
log.debug("actions setup")
self.actionQuit = QtGui.QAction(self.window)
self.actionQuit.setObjectName("actionQuit")
self.menuFile.addAction(self.actionQuit)
self.menubar.addAction(self.menuFile.menuAction())
log.debug("connections setup")
QtCore.QObject.connect(self.actionQuit, QtCore.SIGNAL("activated()"), self.window.close)
QtCore.QMetaObject.connectSlotsByName(self.window)
def createToolbar(self):
log.debug("toolbar setup")
self.toolbar = QtGui.QHBoxLayout()
self.toolbar.setObjectName("toolbar")
self.toolbar.addStretch(1)
# camera
# detector
self.iconDetector = LED(LED.Mode.STATIC_OFF,LED.Color.GREEN,10,self.window)
self.buttonDetector = IconButton("Detector", "detector",self.window)
self.toolbar.addWidget(self.iconDetector)
self.toolbar.addWidget(self.buttonDetector)
self.toolbar.addStretch(1)
# analyzer
# extractor
# layout
self.widgetLayout.addLayout(self.toolbar)
It might well be that the actual painting using QPainter is still nonsense. I did not yet come to test that: actually when testing I find that isVisible() returns False on the widget after the setup has completed. So I assume I miss a central point. Unfortunately I am unable to find out what I miss...
Maybe someone can spot my issue? Thanks !

One thing to be careful when implementing custom widgets derived from QWidget is: sizeHint or minimumSizeHint for QWidget returns invalid QSize by default. This means, if it is added to a layout, depending on the other widgets, it will shrink to 0. This effectively makes it 'not-visible'. Although, isVisible would still return True. Widget is 'visible', but it just doesn't have anything to show (0 size). So, if you're getting False, there is definitely another issue at hand.
So it is necessary to define these two methods with sensible sizes:
class LED(QtGui.QWidget):
# ...
def sizeHint(self):
size = 2 * self.radius + 2
return QtCore.QSize(size, size)
def minimumSizeHint(self):
size = 2 * self.radius + 2
return QtCore.QSize(size, size)
Note: There are other issues:
Like defining mode, color, etc as class attributes and then overriding them with instance attributes. They won't break anything but they are pointless.
painter.setBrush(QtCore.Qt.RadialGradientPattern) is wrong. You can't create a brush with QtCore.Qt.RadialGradientPattern. It is there, so that brush.style() can return something. If you want a gradient pattern you should create a brush with QGradient constructor.
if self.mode is self.Mode.STATIC_OFF: comparing with is is wrong. is compares identity, you want == here. (also, FLASH_SLOW and FLASH_MEDIUM are both 2)
assert is for debugging and unit tests. You shouldn't use it in real code. Raise an exception if you want. Or have sensible defaults, where invalid values would be replaced with that.