plugins with separate windows

[lanz]

a. when having selected a certain decoder, I want to be able to interact with a set of buttons and sliders on a screen, however, without
the main program having any knowledge of it (plugins, i.e. it should be possible to add decoders, without the main program having to
know on beforehand that such a decoder even exists)

See the second part of my previous post. Here I elaborate a little.

class MainWindow {
 
	public:
 
		void loadPlugin () {
			// here you load plugin
			PluginInterface *loadedPlugin = doLoad ();
			// Now call defined in the interface method to create widget that contains 
			// buttons and sliders specific for that plugin
			QWidget pluginWindow = loadedPlugin->createPluginWindow ();
			// And add this widget to our mainwindow
			// Of course you can add specific widget(say QFrame) to be the exact container for child
			// widget (with plugin controls)
			pluginWindow->setParent(this);
			this->ui->centralLayout->addWidget (pluginWindow);
			// After that you'll have plugin-specific set of controls ins widget of choice
			// Let's just save pointer for subsequent deletion
			this->plugWindow= pluginWindow;
		};
 
};
 
 
class PluginInterface {
 
	public:
		QWidget * createPluginWindow () {
			// here you can return QWidget window created in designer beforehand
			// It's irrelevant if you want stand-alone window or a widget being a part of the ui
			// the return type is the same
			// This widget will encapsulate all controls specific for the concrete plugin
			return new MyPluginWindow;
		};
};

class MainWindow {

	public:

		void loadPlugin () {
			// here you load plugin
			PluginInterface *loadedPlugin = doLoad ();
			// Now call defined in the interface method to create widget that contains 
			// buttons and sliders specific for that plugin
			QWidget pluginWindow = loadedPlugin->createPluginWindow ();
			// And add this widget to our mainwindow
			// Of course you can add specific widget(say QFrame) to be the exact container for child
			// widget (with plugin controls)
			pluginWindow->setParent(this);
			this->ui->centralLayout->addWidget (pluginWindow);
			// After that you'll have plugin-specific set of controls ins widget of choice
			// Let's just save pointer for subsequent deletion
			this->plugWindow= pluginWindow;
		};

};


class PluginInterface {

	public:
		QWidget * createPluginWindow () {
			// here you can return QWidget window created in designer beforehand
			// It's irrelevant if you want stand-alone window or a widget being a part of the ui
			// the return type is the same
			// This widget will encapsulate all controls specific for the concrete plugin
			return new MyPluginWindow;
		};
};

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b. When deallocating a decoder and creating a new decoder I want to have a fresh screen with the visuals of the new decoder. Is it possible to design
a screen for such a plugin (to be embedded on a fixed location in the main screen) using the designer

As I already said, you can place QFrame or QWidget in place where you want your plugin and the add plugin widget as a child widget to it.
Deletion is quite straightforward:

class MainWindow {
	public:
		void cleanUp (){
			// here we clean up
			this->plugWindow->deleteLater ();
			// and can load another plugin
			this->loadPlugin ();
			// After that the widget gets deleted and a new one will be added			
		};
};

class MainWindow {
	public:
		void cleanUp (){
			// here we clean up
			this->plugWindow->deleteLater ();
			// and can load another plugin
			this->loadPlugin ();
			// After that the widget gets deleted and a new one will be added			
		};
};

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