KGENDESIGNERPLUGI(1)

NAME
kgendesignerplugin - Generates widget plugins for Qt(TM) Designer.

SYNOPSIS

kgendesignerplugin [OPTIONS...] file

DESCRIPTION

The custom widget plugins for Qt(TM) Designer usually follow a standard pattern, and the classes provided by the plugin mostly provide static information, along with function to create an instance that is normally just a simple constructor call. kgendesignerplugin allows developers of libraries that provide new widgets to create such a plugin without creating all the associated boilerplate code, by providing a simple ini-style description file.

kgendesignerplugin chooses sensible defaults for most settings, so minimal configuration is usually necessary.

OPTIONS

-o file
    The name for the generated C++ file. If not given, stdout will be used.

-n plugin-name
    Provided for compatibility. The default value for the PluginName option in the input file.

-g group
    Provided for compatibility. The default value for the DefaultGroup option in the input file.

--author
    Show author information.

--license
    Show license information.

-h, --help
    Show a brief help text.

-v , --version
    Show version information.

FILE FORMAT

The input file is an ini-style configuration file (specifically, it is in the format supported by the KConfig framework) that describes a set of widgets. It contains a [Global] section, providing general information about the plugin, and a section for each widget that should be included in the plugin.

The [Global] section can have the following entries:

DefaultGroup
    The default value for the Group entry in the class sections (default: "Custom", unless the -g option is given).

Includes
    A (comma-separated) list of required includes (default: empty). Note that the header files for the widgets specified later in file should not be listed here; instead, this is for special headers for the plugin's own use, like those for classes providing previews.

PluginName
    The name of the main C++ class in the plugin (default: "WidgetsPlugin", unless the -n option is given).

Each class should have its own [ClassName] section, which can include the following entries:

CodeTemplate
    The value returned by the codeTemplate() function of the plugin, which is marked for "future use" by Qt(TM) Designer (default: empty).

ConstructorArgs
    The arguments to pass to the constructor of the class given by ImplClass; these must be surrounded by parentheses (default: "(parent)"). The only variable guaranteed to be available is parent, which is the parent QWidget passed by Qt(TM) Designer.

    This entry is ignored if CreateWidget is set.

CreateWidget
    The code necessary to create an instance of the widget (default: uses new to create an instance of the class given by the ImplClass entry, passing the arguments specified by ConstructorArgs). See the notes for ImplClass and ConstructorArgs.

DomXML
    An XML UI description of the widget (default: the default provided by the Qt(TM) Designer plugin headers).

Group
    The group to display the widget under in Qt(TM) Designer (default: the value of the DefaultGroup entry in the [Global] section).

IconName
    The image file or standard icon name to use as the icon for this widget in the Qt(TM) Designer widget list (default: a PNG file named with the section name, with any double colons removed, in the "pics" directory of a compiled-in resource file; for example, :/pics/Foo.png in the section [Foo], or :/pics/FooBar.png in the section [Foo::Bar]).

ImplClass
    The class that should be used to create an instance of the widget for the use of Qt(TM) Designer (default: the section name). Note that this does not actually have to be the class that would be created for an end application: that is determined by the DomXML.

    This entry is ignored if CreateWidget is set.

IncludeFile
    The header that needs to be included to use this widget (default: the lowercase version of the section name, with any colons removed and ".h" appended; for example, foo.h in the section [Foo], or foobar.h in the section [Foo::Bar]).

IsContainer
    Whether this widget can contain other widgets (default: false).

ToolTip
    The tooltip to display when hovering over the widget in the widget list of Qt(TM) Designer (default: the section name, with " Widget" appended; for example, Foo Widget in the section [Foo]).

WhatsThis
    The What's This text associated with the widget in Qt(TM) Designer (default: the section name, with " Widget" appended; for example, Foo Widget in the section [Foo]).

EXAMPLES

The simplest description file might look like:

    [Foo]
    ToolTip=Displays foos
    [Bar]
    ToolTip=Bar editor

Note that each class must have at least one key set (ToolTip was used in this example), otherwise it will be ignored.

Usually, you want to change at least the user-visible text, which means the ToolTip, WhatsThis and Group entries. Additionally, setting the plugin name can be a good idea to prevent possible symbol clashes and not confuse debuggers (both the debugger application and the person doing the debugging):

    [Global]
    PluginName=FooWidgets
    DefaultGroup=Display
    [Foo]
    ToolTip=Displays bears
    WhatsThis=An image widget that displays dancing bears
    [Bar]
    ToolTip=Bar editor
    WhatsThis=An editor interface for bars for bears
    Group=Editing

More complex files may be necessary if you have namespaced classes or extra options that need supplying to constructors, for example:

    [Global]
    PluginName=FooWidgets
    DefaultGroup=Foo
    [Foo::Bar]
    ToolTip=Displays bars
    WhatsThis=A widget that displays bars in a particular way
    IncludeFile=foo/bar.h
    IconName=:/previews/bar.png
    [Foo::Baz]
    IncludeFile=foo/baz.h
    ConstructorArgs=(Foo::Baz::SomeOption, parent)
    Group=Foo (Special)
    IsContainer=true
    IconName=:/previews/baz.png

Sometimes especially complex widgets might need a special "preview class" implementation for use in Qt(TM) Designer; this might be a subclass of the real widget that just does some extra setup, or it might be a completely different implementation.

    [Global]
    Includes=foopreviews.h
    [FancyWidget]
    ImplClass=FancyWidgetPreview

SEE ALSO

https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/designer-creating-custom-widgets.html
    The Qt(TM) Designer documentation on creating plugins for custom widgets.

BUGS

Please use KDE's bugtracker[1] to report bugs, do not mail the authors directly.

AUTHORS

Richard Johnson <rjohnson@kde.org>
    Wrote the original documentation.

Alex Merry <alexmerry@kde.org>
    Updated the documentation for KDE Frameworks 5.

NOTES

1.  KDE's bugtracker
    https://bugs.kde.org