Still need help: Best way to have application "skins"?

[wysota]

As for everything but custom window shapes you can use a custom QStyle subclass and simply replace one style with another upon demand. As for custom shapes that you want to obtain through setMask() unfortunately you need to do the masking manually, thus you need to come up with a system of reading shapes from some configuration files and applying them to your widgets.

[codeslicer]

Well, I don't really want a whole skin manager, just let the user pick between the stylish one and the plain one. I don't need to have different skin files and such, just let the user chose between the one with setMask() and buttons with effects, etc, and one which will try to fit as best as possible with the native platform.

Can I use different classes then? With the same code?

[wysota]

You can use the same classes. Just have a component which will be able to style other components.

[codeslicer]

Ok, but if I have 2 seperate .ui files, how would I declare them in the same class? All of my buttons, boxes, etc will still have the same object names, so I guess I don't really need to change the "core" of my program. Maybe, in the constructor, I should have an if() tag which should check QSettings if the app should load the new/old skin, and somehow load a different ui file based on that?

But I have a question. If I use the QUILoader class, is it slow? And does it support multiple inheritance? Thanks

Oh, and when are style sheets going to be supported on Qt/Mac?

[THRESHE]

Oh, and when are style sheets going to be supported on Qt/Mac?

They are already supported

[codeslicer]

Ok, that's good!

But how do I use 2 seperate ui files in the same class? QUILoader? Sounds slow and looks like it doesn't support multiple inheritance...

[THRESHE]

Ok, that's good!

But how do I use 2 seperate ui files in the same class? QUILoader? Sounds slow and looks like it doesn't support multiple inheritance...

I don't really understand what do you want to do. If you want to set style sheet to a widget in ui form just press right mouse button on it and select change style sheet and change it like on the screenshot

[jpn]

But how do I use 2 seperate ui files in the same class?

What do you intend to do? It makes no sense to load two different .ui's on a single widget, does it? You can use direct approach if you have two different widgets for which you want to load different forms. But by using direct approach you also lose a lot of flexibility. Then why not just wrap those two widgets as separate classes which both use single or multiple inheritance approach...

[codeslicer]

Thanks for trying to help me. A lot. Maybe I explained myself wrong.

I have this form with style sheets and custom buttons, setMask() enabled on some parts, etc. Then, I have a second form which doesn't use any of that, and uses the Operating System's Style. Now, at first, the "fancy" form is used for the program, but what if the user doesn't like it? Or what if somehow it doesn't work on his/her system? I want the user to be able to chose between using the "fancy" form and the "plain" one.

If I want to have two different forms, with the "fancy" one containing different functions which would be used for setting effects, and the core functions, while the "plain" one will just have the core functions(functions which perform what the program is going to do, ie download and read a file), how would I approach that. Can I have two seperate classes, one which would use the form with the effects, then a seperate one which wouldn't use any effects at all?

Is this possible?

[jpn]

Wouldn't it be only a matter of removing style sheets, custom styles and/or masks (which ever you end up using)?

[codeslicer]

Well, it's not as simple as myApp->removeStyle() or something like that.

The "fancy" design is completely different, the only things that are the same are the object names...

[jpn]

The "fancy" design is completely different, the only things that are the same are the object names...

You mean like the form layout is completely different? I suppose you could use single inheritance approach and have two different ui members:

#include "ui_plainwidget.h"
#include "ui_fancywidget.h"
 
class MyFancyWidget : public QWidget
{
    ...
private:
    Ui::FancyWidget fancyUi;
    Ui::PlainWidget plainUi;
};
 
void MyFancyWidget::setFancyMode()
{
    saveFormState(); // you might want to store contents if you let user to change mode on the fly
    qDeleteAll(children()); // or something like this to clear everything, it is important to delete layout()
    fancyUi.setupUi(this);
    restoreFormState(); // restore contents
}
 
void MyFancyWidget::setPlainMode()
{
    ...
    plainUi.setupUi(this);
    ...
}

#include "ui_plainwidget.h"
#include "ui_fancywidget.h"

class MyFancyWidget : public QWidget
{
    ...
private:
    Ui::FancyWidget fancyUi;
    Ui::PlainWidget plainUi;
};

void MyFancyWidget::setFancyMode()
{
    saveFormState(); // you might want to store contents if you let user to change mode on the fly
    qDeleteAll(children()); // or something like this to clear everything, it is important to delete layout()
    fancyUi.setupUi(this);
    restoreFormState(); // restore contents
}

void MyFancyWidget::setPlainMode()
{
    ...
    plainUi.setupUi(this);
    ...
}

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[codeslicer]

Thanks! Only one question. Later in my code, the "core" of it, how would I refer to the objects on my forms, if they have the same names? Do I have to use plainUi.myTextBoxObject, or can I just ise myTextObject like in multi-inheritance? Thanks again!

[mchara]

You may use QStyle and make usage of polish() / unpolish() methods to set/unset masks etc.
It would be more flexible when you'll be adding more styles in future (u have all style stuff in single class & you don't have to remember about changes in lots of places in entire application code).

I'm using single style for skins effect that gets images path in constructor and styleplugin searches skins directory and creates an instance of the same style for different images set.
It causes that adding new skins doesn't require coding, just some painting job.

[wysota]

If I want to have two different forms, with the "fancy" one containing different functions which would be used for setting effects, and the core functions, while the "plain" one will just have the core functions(functions which perform what the program is going to do, ie download and read a file), how would I approach that. Can I have two seperate classes, one which would use the form with the effects, then a seperate one which wouldn't use any effects at all?

You can also have a common base class with objects common to the two "modes" and two subclasses - one "plain" and one "fancy".

[codeslicer]

@wysota - maybe I don't get it, but the buttons, textboxes, labels, etc are children of each of the respective forms.

@jpn - by loop I meant instead of having to use:

void MyFancyWidget::setFancyMode()
{
    myTextObject = fancyUi.myTextObject;
    myButtonObjectt = fancyUi.myButtonObject;
}
 
void MyFancyWidget::setPlainMode()
{
    ...
    myTextObject = plainUi.myTextObject;
    myButtonObject = plainUi.myButtonObject;
}

void MyFancyWidget::setFancyMode()
{
    myTextObject = fancyUi.myTextObject;
    myButtonObjectt = fancyUi.myButtonObject;
}

void MyFancyWidget::setPlainMode()
{
    ...
    myTextObject = plainUi.myTextObject;
    myButtonObject = plainUi.myButtonObject;
}

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I could use:

for(int i=0; i<fancyUi.children().size(); i++) {
        childrenList[i]
    }

for(int i=0; i<fancyUi.children().size(); i++) {
        childrenList[i]
    }

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I don't really know how to make this, but what I'm trying to do is to dynamically convert all of fancyUi's children into names which wouldn't require prefixing fancyUi.

Or, could I use this?

using namespace fancyUi

using namespace fancyUi

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But this has to be globally declared right? I can't put it in each of the mode-changing functions can I? What I'm trying to do is somehow "fake" the multi-inheritance approach from single inheritance to make life easier. I can make pointers to each single object, but as my program grows this looks like it would involve lots of unneeded code.

Thanks!

[wysota]

@wysota - maybe I don't get it, but the buttons, textboxes, labels, etc are children of each of the respective forms.

So where is a problem with that?

[codeslicer]

Those widgets(buttons, text boxes) are contained in different layouts which have skins, therefore I can't remove those layouts without disrupting the children.

Please read my post above. ^