[PyQt] layout management serious problem

[Andreas Pakulat]

On 12.10.07 23:31:28, think_resist at hushmail.com wrote:
> On Fri, 12 Oct 2007 16:05:51 +0300 Mark Summerfield <mark at qtrac.eu>
> wrote:
> >On 2007-10-12, think_resist at hushmail.com wrote:
> >> Hi all,
> >>
> >> I'm completely confused on a simple thing (from what I read):
> >> layout management
> >>
> >> I've written a pyqt hui app that has a Mainwindow, a
> >centralwidget
> >> and 15 widgets (textedit, linedit, pushbuttun) that belong to
> >the
> >> centralwidget. I've written their size, heigh , position and
> >> everythig worked so far. When I got the program to run on a
> >system
> >> with different resolution, it was...10 times bigger (and 1000
> >> uglier)! So I've realized i have to use a layout manager...I've
> >> read many texts in the web but i don't get the logic behind this
> >> thing. Can't i just create the mainwindow, the size i want, then
> >> create the central widget, create a layout manager, put the
> >central
> >> widget on it and then start adding widgets on the central
> >widget,
> >> or this is no tgoing to work? Do I have to write down how each
> >> widget will grow or shrink? Very confused, will appreciate any
> >help
> >> very much
> >
> In this case I guess it is not, since my widgets have to be a
> specific size, definitely not the default ones! Example,
> QPushbuttons will show some images, so they can't be the size of a
> button.

If you set the pixmap with setPixmap then the QPushButton will adjust
itself to the pixmap size. This is the reason for using layouts, you
don't have to care about setting the sizes of your widgets. If your
layout is properly done and your top-level-window is large enough all
will enlarge themselves so they show all their content. Some will even
grow automatically beyond their minimum-needed size (for example a
lineedit that has free space to its right).

> >It is almost always a mistake to specify sizes for Qt widgets
> >(except
> >for top-level windows).
> >
> >Try something like this in your QMainWindow subclass's __init__():
> >
> >    # create the 15 widgets (no sizes, no positions!)
> >    grid = QGridLayout() # Or any other layout
> >    grid.addWidget(myWidget01, row, col) # set row, col
> >appropriately
> >    # ...
> >    grid.addWidget(myWidget15, row, col)
> >
> >    centralWidget = QWidget()
> >    centralWidget.setLayout(grid)
> >    self.setCentralWidget(centralWidget)
> 
> in the case of a qpushbutton, this makes the button shrink or grow
> only horizontally ! I need to get this grow/shrink vertically as
> well, plus make it bigger from the initialization (that is specify
> it's size). Is this possible with grid layout?

Everything is possible :) If you want a QPushButton to expand beyond its
needed size then tell it by setting its vertical size policy to
expanding.

As far as "make it bigger from initialization", thats not needed as I
said above. If you put an image into the button and the button has
enough free space (or the layout can shrink another widget) it will
expand automatically.

I'd suggest to fire up Qt designer and do a couple of tests on a plain
QWidget to get a feel for how layouts work and maybe even design your
GUI in designer instead of coding it up. That saves a lot of time if you
ever need to re-arrange things or insert a new subwidget somewhere.

Andreas

-- 
Chicken Little was right.