Qt 5 signals and slots mechanism. How signals and slots in Qt differ from the callback architecture in other widget toolkits. A Qt basics tutorial. How to add signals and slots in Qt Creator.
Part 9 of the Qt Creator C++ Tutorial
What are Qt 5 Signals and Slots?
Very basically, signals and slots in Qt allow communication between objects.
Qt Using Qt:DirectConnection when receiver object doesn't receive signal Example Some times you see a signal is emitted in sender thread but connected slot doesn't called (in other words it doesn't receive signal), you have asked about it and finaly got that the connection type Qt::DirectConnection would fix it, so the problem found. Own signals can be defined in subclasses of Qt widgets. Only the class that defines a signal and its subclasses can emit the signal. If several slots are connected to one signal, the slots will be executed one after the other in the order they have been connected. Signals can never have return types signals.
In Qt, a signal is emitted when an event occurs. A slot is a function that is called when a signal is emitted. For example, a push button emits a clicked signal when clicked by a user. A slot that is attached to that signal is called when the clicked signal is emitted.
Multiple signals can be connected to any slot. Signals can be connected to any number of slots.
Most of the details of signals and slots are hidden in their implementation in Qt. At this stage of the tutorial series we do not look in depth at signals and slots.
Using Signals and Slots in Qt Creator
There are several ways to use signals and slots in Qt Creator projects. This includes manually adding them in code. Here we briefly look at the easier ways to use signals and slots to respond to events. Events are generated by users interacting with widgets in an application. These events cause signals to be emitted. Corresponding slots, or functions then run.
Qt 5 Signals and Slots Demonstration
The following image shows the application built in this section using Qt Creator. It demonstrates some methods of using signals and slots.
Each section below shows a method of adding signals and slots to a Qt Creator program. Watch the video embedded near the top of this page for details.
Add a Slot to a Button for the Clicked Signal
Place a push button on the main window. Right click the push button and select Go to slot… to add code for the clicked signal.
Connect a Slider to a Progress Bar Visually
Place a Horizontal Slider and a Progress Bar on the main window.
Press F4 on the keyboard. This toggles to Edit Signals/Slots mode.
Drag to connect the slider to the progress bar.
Press F3 to change back to Edit Widgets mode.
Connect a Slider to a Progress Bar with Code
Place a second Horizontal Slider and a Progress Bar on the main window.
Right-click the Horizontal Slider. In the menu that pops up, click Go to slot…
In the dialog box that pops up, select sliderMoved(int). Click the OK button.
Add code for the sliderMoved signal.
Menu Bar Item with Action Editor
Add a File menu with Open, Close and Quit menu items.
Qt Creator must be in Design mode. Make sure that the Action Editor and Signal and Slots Editor are visible. Do this from the top menu as follows. Select Window → Views and then click the check box next to each of the desired editors.
Add slots for the triggered() signal for the Open and Close menu items. Do this in the Action Editor as follows. Right click a menu item. Click Go to slot… on the menu that pops up. Click triggered() in the dialog box that pops up and then click the OK button.
Add code in the slot function.
Menu Bar Item with Signals and Slots Editor
In Design mode, select the Signals and Slots tab. Click the big green + sign to add an item. Change the following for the new item.
- Sender : actionQuit
- Signal : triggered()
- Receiver : MainWindow
- Slot : close()
Code Listing
Below is the code listing for mainwindow.cpp for the example project. Follow the video embedded near the top of this page to add the code.
mainwindow.cpp
Example
Some times you see a signal is emitted in sender thread but connected slot doesn't called (in other words it doesn't receive signal), you have asked about it and finaly got that the connection type Qt::DirectConnection would fix it, so the problem found and everything is ok.
Qt Signal Slot Ordered
But generaly this is bad idea to use Qt:DirectConnection until you really know what is this and there is no other way. Lets explain it more, Each thread created by Qt (including main thread and new threads created by QThread) have Event loop, the event loop is responsible for receiving signals and call aproporiate slots in its thread. Generaly executing a blocking operation inside an slot is bad practice, because it blocks the event loop of that threads so no other slots would be called.
If you block an event loop (by making very time consuming or blocking operation) you will not receive events on that thread until the event loop will be unblocked. If the blocking operation, blocks the event loop forever (such as busy while), the slots could never be called.
In this situation you may set the connection type in connect to Qt::DirectConnection, now the slots will be called even the event loop is blocked. so how this could make broke everything? In Qt::DirectConnection Slots will be called in emiter threads, and not receiver threads and it can broke data synchronizations and ran into other problems. So never use Qt::DirectConnection unless you know what are you doing. If your problem will be solved by using Qt::DirectConnection, you have to carefull and look at your code and finding out why your event loop is blocked. Its not a good idea to block the event loop and its not recomended in Qt.
Here is small example which shows the problem, as you can see the nonBlockingSlot would be called even the blockingSlot blocked event loop with while(1) which indicates bad coding