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

[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);
    ...
}

To copy to clipboard, switch view to plain text mode 

[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!

[jpn]

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!

That's a good point I didn't think of. Unfortunately those two ui members have nothing in common... How about introducing additional pointers to required objects (hopefully you don't have tons of them) so that you don't have to continuously check the mode and clutter your code with conditional blocks?

class MyFancyWidget
{
    ...
private:
    Ui::FancyWidget fancyUi;
    Ui::PlainWidget plainUi;
 
    QTextEdit* myTextObject;
    ...
};
 
void MyFancyWidget::setFancyMode()
{
    ...
    myTextObject = fancyUi.myTextObject;
}
 
void MyFancyWidget::setPlainMode()
{
    ...
    myTextObject = plainUi.myTextObject;
}

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

    QTextEdit* myTextObject;
    ...
};

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

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

To copy to clipboard, switch view to plain text mode 

[codeslicer]

Great!! Thanks! It would take me several years to think of that one!

Any chance I could create some for(int i=0; i<childWidgets().length(); i++) loop? Note that childWidgets() may not be an actual property, but for the sake of this question...

So could I somehow apend that name? If it's not possible, it's ok.

I don't need to do much, just a couple of buttons and a text box.

Also, where would I put the connect()'s? In each of the plainUi and fancyUi functions, or in the constructor?

Thanks a lot!

[jpn]

Any chance I could create some for(int i=0; i<childWidgets().length(); i++) loop? Note that childWidgets() may not be an actual property, but for the sake of this question...

Do you mean something like:

QPushButton* button = findChild<QPushButton*>("myButtonWithCertainObjectName");
if (button) // just to assure it was found
   button->doSomething();
 
// or
 
QList<QPushButton*> allButtons = findChildren<QPushButton*>();
foreach (QPushButton* button, allButtons)
   button->doSomething();

QPushButton* button = findChild<QPushButton*>("myButtonWithCertainObjectName");
if (button) // just to assure it was found
   button->doSomething();

// or

QList<QPushButton*> allButtons = findChildren<QPushButton*>();
foreach (QPushButton* button, allButtons)
   button->doSomething();

To copy to clipboard, switch view to plain text mode 

Also, where would I put the connect()'s? In each of the plainUi and fancyUi functions, or in the constructor?

The whole GUI, including all widgets, gets re-created when you call respective setupUi(). So you must re-establish all signal-slot connections every time the "mode" is changed.

[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.