1.1   License

PyQt is licensed on all platforms under a commercial license, the GPL v2 and the GPL v3. Your PyQt license must be compatible with your Qt license. If you use the GPL versions then your own code must also use a compatible license.

PyQt, unlike Qt, is not available under the LGPL.

You can purchase a commercial PyQt license here.

1.2   PyQt Components

PyQt comprises a number of different components. First of all there are a number of Python extension modules. These are all installed in the PyQt4 Python package.

• The QtCore module. This contains the core non-GUI classes, including the event loop and Qt's signal and slot mechanism. It also includes platform independent abstractions for Unicode, threads, mapped files, shared memory, regular expressions, and user and application settings.
• The QtGui module. This contains the majority of the GUI classes.
• The QtHelp module. This contains classes for creating and viewing searchable documentation.
• The QtNetwork module. This module contains classes for writing UDP and TCP clients and servers. It includes classes that implement FTP and HTTP clients and support DNS lookups.
• The QtOpenGL module. This module contains classes that enable the use of OpenGL in rendering 3D graphics in PyQt applications.
• The QtScript module. This module contains classes that enable PyQt applications to be scripted using Qt's JavaScript interpreter.
• The QtScriptTools module. This module contains classes that contain additional components (e.g. a debugger) that are used with Qt's JavaScript interpreter.
• The QtSql module. This module contains classes that integrate with SQL databases. It includes editable data models for database tables that can be used with GUI classes. It also includes an implementation of SQLite.
• The QtSvg module. This module contains classes for displaying the contents of SVG files.
• The QtTest module. This module contains functions that enable unit testing of PyQt applications. (PyQt does not implement the complete Qt unit test framework. Instead it assumes that the standard Python unit test framework will be used and implements those functions that simulate a user interacting with a GUI.)
• The QtWebKit module. This module implements a web browser engine based on the WebKit open source browser engine.
• The QtXml module. This module contains classes that implement SAX and DOM interfaces to Qt's XML parser.
• The QtXmlPatterns module. This module contains classes that implement XQuery and XPath support for XML and custom data models.
• The phonon module. This module contains classes that implement a cross-platform multimedia framework that enables the use of audio and video content in PyQt applications.
• The QtMultimedia module. This module provides low-level multimedia functionality. Application developers would normally use the phonon module.
• The QtAssistant module. This module contains classes that allow Qt Assistant to be integrated with a PyQt application to provide online help.
• The QtDesigner module. This module contains classes that allow Qt Designer to be extended using PyQt. See Writing Qt Designer Plugins for a full description of how to do this.
• The QAxContainer module. This module contains classes that allow access to ActiveX controls and COM objects.
• The Qt module. This module consolidates the classes contained in all of the modules described above into a single module. This has the advantage that you don't have to worry about which underlying module contains a particular class. It has the disadvantage that it loads the whole of the Qt framework, thereby increasing the memory footprint of an application. Whether you use this consolidated module, or the individual component modules is down to personal taste.
• The DBus support module is installed as dbus.mainloop.qt. PyQt does not support Qt's native DBus classes (which are very C++ orientated). Instead the dbus.mainloop.qt module provides support for the Qt event loop in the same way that the dbus.mainloop.glib included with the standard dbus-python bindings package provides support for the GLib event loop. The API is described in The DBus Support Module. It is only available for PyQt for X11 and only if the dbus-python v0.80 (or later) bindings package is installed.
• The uic module. This module contains classes for handling the .ui files created by Qt Designer that describe the whole or part of a graphical user interface. It includes classes that load a .ui file and render it directly, and classes that generate Python code from a .ui file for later execution. It is covered in detail in The uic Module.
• The pyqtconfig module is an extention of the SIP build system and is created when PyQt is configured. It encapsulates all the necessary information about your Qt installation and makes it easier to write installation scripts for bindings built on top of PyQt. It is covered in detail in The PyQt Build System.

PyQt also contains a number of utility programs.

• pyuic4 corresponds to the Qt uic utility. It converts GUIs created using Qt Designer to Python code. It is covered in detail in pyuic4.
• pyrcc4 corresponds to the Qt rcc utility. It embeds arbitrary resources (eg. icons, images, translation files) described by a resource collection file in a Python module. It is covered in detail in pyrcc4. (Note It will only be included if your copy of Qt includes the XML module.)
• pylupdate4 corresponds to the Qt lupdate utility. It extracts all of the translatable strings from Python code and creates or updates .ts translation files. These are then used by Qt Linguist to manage the translation of those strings. It is covered in detail in pylupdate4. (Note It will only be included if your copy of Qt includes the XML module.)

When PyQt is configured a file called PyQt4.api is generated. This can be used by the QScintilla editor component (at http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/qscintilla/) to enable the use of auto-completion and call tips when editing PyQt code. The API file is installed automatically if QScintilla is already installed.

PyQt includes a large number of examples. These are ports to Python of many of the C++ examples provided with Qt. They can be found in the examples directory.

Finally, PyQt contains the .sip files used by SIP to generate PyQt itself. These can be used by developers of bindings of other Qt based class libraries - for example PyQwt and PyQwt3D.

2.1   PyQt v4.5

from PyQt4.QtCore import QSize, QVariant

class MySize(QSize):

    pass

mysize = MySize(5, 5)
variant = QVariant(mysize)

assert(variant.type() != QVariant.Size)
assert(variant.toPyObject() is mysize)

assert(variant.type() == QVariant.Size)
assert(variant.toPyObject() == mysize)
assert(type(variant.toPyObject()) is QSize)

variant = QVariant(QSize(mysize))

3.1   Downloading SIP

SIP must be installed before building and using PyQt. You can get the latest release of the SIP source code from http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/sip/download.

The SIP documentation can be found at http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/static/Docs/sip4/sipref.html.

3.2   Downloading PyQt

You can get the latest release of the GPL version of the PyQt source code from http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/pyqt/download.

If you are using the commercial version of PyQt then you should use the download instructions which were sent to you when you made your purchase. You must also download your license file.

3.3   Configuring PyQt

After unpacking the source package (either a .tar.gz or a .zip file depending on your platform) you should then check for any README files that relate to your platform.

If you are using the commercial version of PyQt then you must copy your license file to the sip directory.

You need to make sure your environment variables are set properly for your development environment. For example, if you are using a binary distribution of Qt on Windows then make sure you have run the qtvars.bat file. For other platforms it is normally enough to ensure that Qt's bin directory is on your PATH.

Next you need to configure SIP by executing the configure.py script. For example:

python configure.py

This assumes that the Python interpreter is on your path. Something like the following may be appropriate on Windows:

c:\python26\python configure.py

If you have multiple versions of Python installed then make sure you use the interpreter for which you wish to build PyQt for.

The full set of command line options is:

3.4   Configuring SIP and PyQt for MacOS 10.6 (Snow Leopard)

With MacOS 10.6 the Python interpreter is built as a universal binary that supports the i386 and x86_64 architectures. (It also supports the ppc architecture but that isn't relevant.)

When building SIP and PyQt on a 64 bit system they will be built, by default, as x86_64 binaries. However, again by default, Qt builds as i386 binaries. (Note that the default is expected to change in Qt v4.7.) This means that, using the default configuration, PyQt will not build on a 64 bit system running MacOS 10.6 with a 32 bit build of Qt. Instead you have to make sure that SIP and PyQt are built as i386 binaries.

To configure SIP for i386 use the following command line options:

python configure.py --arch i386

When PyQt is configured it will automatically pick up the correct architecture from SIP's configuration. However it is necessary to use the following command line option when configuring PyQt:

python configure.py --use-arch i386

This tells the different PyQt tools that execute the Python interpreter (actually only pyuic4 at present) to use the i386 architecture rather than the default x86_64. This ensures that the interpreter will be able to import the i386 PyQt modules.

3.5   Building PyQt

The next step is to build PyQt by running your platform's make command. For example:

make

The final step is to install PyQt by running the following command:

make install

(Depending on your system you may require root or administrator privileges.)

This will install the various PyQt components.

4.1   QDate

4.2   QDateTime

4.3   QString

void QTextDecoder::toUnicode(QString *target, const char *chars, int len)

QTextStream::QTextStream(QString *string, QIODevice::OpenMode openMode = QIODevice::ReadWrite)
void QTextStream::setString(QString *string, QIODevice::OpenMode openMode = QIODevice::ReadWrite)
QString *QTextStream::string()
QTextStream &operator>>(QChar &c)
QTextStream &operator>>(QString &s)

QXmlStreamWriter::QXmlStreamWriter(QString *string)

QAbstractSpinBox.fixup(str input) -> str
QAbstractSpinBox.validate(str input, int pos) -> QValidator.State, str, int

QDateTimeEdit.fixup(str input) -> str
QDateTimeEdit.validate(str input, int pos) -> QValidator.State, str, int

QDoubleSpinBox.fixup(str input) -> str
QDoubleSpinBox.validate(str input, int pos) -> QValidator.State, str, int

QDoubleValidator.validate(str input, int pos) -> QValidator.State, str, int

QClipboard.text(str subtype, QClipboard.Mode mode=QClipboard.Clipboard) -> str, str

QFileDialog.getOpenFileName(QWidget parent=None, str caption=None, str dir=None, str filter=None, QFileDialog.Options options=0) -> str
QFileDialog.getOpenFileNames(QWidget parent=None, str caption=None, str dir=None, str filter=None, QFileDialog.Options options=0) -> list(str)
QFileDialog.getSaveFileName(QWidget parent=None, str caption=None, str dir=None, str filter=None, QFileDialog.Options options=0) -> str

QIntValidator.validate(str input, int pos) -> QValidator.State, str, int

QRegExpValidator.validate(str input, int pos) -> QValidator.State, str, int

QSpinBox.fixup(str input) -> str
QSpinBox.validate(str input, int pos) -> QValidator.State, str, int

QValidator.fixup(str input) -> str
QValidator.validate(str input, int pos) -> QValidator.State, str, int

QWebPage.javaScriptPrompt(QWebFrame originatingFrame, str msg, str defaultValue) -> bool, str

4.4   QTextStream

4.5   QTime

4.6   QUrl

4.7   QVariant

7.1   Unbound and Bound Signals

A signal (specifically an unbound signal) is an attribute of a class that is a sub-class of QObject. When a signal is referenced as an attribute of an instance of the class then PyQt automatically binds the instance to the signal in order to create a bound signal. This is the same mechanism that Python itself uses to create bound methods from class functions.

A bound signal has connect(), disconnect() and emit() methods that implement the associated functionality.

A signal may be overloaded, ie. a signal with a particular name may support more than one signature. A bound signal may be indexed with a signature in order to select the one required. A signature is a sequence of types. A type is either a Python type object or a string that is the name of a C++ type.

If a signal is overloaded then it will have a default that will be used if no index is given.

When a signal is emitted then any arguments are converted to C++ types if possible. If an argument doesn't have a corresponding C++ type then it is wrapped in a special C++ type that allows it to be passed around Qt's meta-type system while ensuring that its reference count is properly maintained.

7.2   Defining New Signals with QtCore.pyqtSignal()

PyQt automatically defines signals for all Qt's built-in signals. New signals can be defined as class attributes using the QtCore.pyqtSignal() factory.

QtCore.pyqtSignal() takes a number of type arguments that corresponds to the signature of the signal. Each type may be a Python type object or a string that is the name of a C++ type. Alternatively each argument could be a sequence of type arguments. In this case each sequence defines the signature of a different signal overload. The first overload will be the default.

QtCore.pyqtSignal() takes an optional name keyword argument that is the name of the signal. If it is omitted then the name of the class attribute is used.

The following example shows the definition of a number of new signals:

from PyQt4 import QtCore

class Foo(QtCore.QObject):

    # This defines a signal called 'closed' that takes no arguments.
    closed = QtCore.pyqtSignal()

    # This defines a signal called 'rangeChanged' that takes two
    # integer arguments.
    range_changed = QtCore.pyqtSignal(int, int, name='rangeChanged')

    # This defines a signal called 'valueChanged' that has two overloads,
    # one that takes an integer argument and one that takes a QString
    # argument.
    valueChanged = QtCore.pyqtSignal((int, ), (QtCore.QString, ))

    # The following will create exactly the same overloaded signal as
    # above and demonstrates the use of C++ type names instead of Python
    # type objects, and lists instead of tuples.
    valueChanged = QtCore.pyqtSignal(['int'], ['QString'])

New signals should only be defined in sub-classes of QObject.

New signals defined in this way will be automatically added to the class's QMetaObject. This means that they will appear in Qt Designer and can be introspected using the QMetaObject API.

7.3   Connecting, Disconnecting and Emitting Signals

Signals are connected to slots using the connect() method of a bound signal:

connect(slot[, type=PyQt4.QtCore.Qt.AutoConnection)

    *slot* may be either a Python callable or another bound signal.

    *type* is a QtCore.Qt.ConnectionType value.

Signals are disconnected from slots using the disconnect() method of a bound signal:

disconnect([slot])

    *slot* may be either a Python callable or a another bound signal.  If
    slot is omitted then all slots connected to the signal are
    disconnected.

Signals are emitted from using the emit() method of a bound signal:

emit(*args)

    *args* is the optional sequence of arguments to pass to any connected
    slots.

The following code demonstrates the definition, connection and emit of a signal without arguments:

from PyQt4 import QtCore

class Foo(QtCore.QObject):

    # Define a new signal called 'trigger' that has no arguments.
    trigger = QtCore.pyqtSignal()

    def connect_and_emit_trigger(self):
        # Connect the trigger signal to a slot.
        self.trigger.connect(self.handle_trigger)

        # Emit the signal.
        self.trigger.emit()

    def handle_trigger(self):
        # Show that the slot has been called.

        print "trigger signal received"

The following code demonstrates the connection of overloaded signals:

from PyQt4 import QtGui

class Bar(QtGui.QComboBox):

    def connect_activated(self):
        # The PyQt documentation will define what the default overload is.
        # In this case it is the overload with the single integer argument.
        self.activated.connect(self.handle_int)

        # For non-default overloads we have to specify which we want to
        # connect.  In this case the one with the single string argument.
        # (Note that we could also explicitly specify the default if we
        # wanted to.)
        self.activated[str].connect(self.handle_string)

    def handle_int(self, index):
        print "activated signal passed integer", index

    def handle_string(self, text):
        print "activated signal passed QString", text

7.4   Connecting Signals Using Keyword Arguments

It is also possible to connect signals by passing a slot as a keyword argument corresponding to the name of the signal when creating an object, or using the pyqtConfigure() method of QObject. For example the following three fragments are equivalent:

act = QtGui.QAction("Action", self)
act.triggered.connect(self.on_triggered)

act = QtGui.QAction("Action", self, triggered=self.on_triggered)

act = QtGui.QAction("Action", self)
act.pyqtConfigure(triggered=self.on_triggered)

7.5   The QtCore.pyqtSlot() Decorator

Although PyQt allows any Python callable to be used as a slot when connecting signals, it is sometimes necessary to explicitly mark a Python method as being a Qt slot and to provide a C++ signature for it. PyQt provides the QtCore.pyqtSlot() function decorator to do this.

Using the decorator also has the advantage of reducing the amount of memory used and is slightly faster.

All of the non-keyword arguments to the decorator are interpreted as the types of the corresponding C++ arguments. A type is either a Python type object or a string that specifies a C++ type. The decorator also takes two optional keywords arguments: name and result. name is the name of the slot that will be seen by C++. If ommitted the name of the Python method being decorated will be used. result is the type of the result and may also be a Python type object or a string that specifies a C++ type.

For example:

@QtCore.pyqtSlot()
def foo(self):
    """ C++: void foo() """

@QtCore.pyqtSlot(int, str)
def foo(self, arg1, arg2):
    """ C++: void foo(int, QString) """

@QtCore.pyqtSlot(int, name='bar')
def foo(self, arg1):
    """ C++: void bar(int) """

@QtCore.pyqtSlot(int, result=int)
def foo(self, arg1):
    """ C++: int foo(int) """

@QtCore.pyqtSlot(int, QtGui.QWidget)
def foo(self, arg1):
    """ C++: int foo(int, QWidget *) """

It is also possible to chain the decorators in order to define a Python method several times with different signatures.

For example:

@QtCore.pyqtSlot(int)
@QtCore.pyqtSlot('QString')
def valueChanged(self, value):
    """ Two slots will be defined in the QMetaObject. """

The following sections describe the situations that the QtCore.pyqtSlot() decorator might be used.

void valueChanged(int i);
void valueChanged(const QString &text);

void clicked(bool checked = false);

void clicked();
void clicked(bool checked);

@QtCore.pyqtSlot(int)
def on_spinbox_valueChanged(self, i):
    # i will be an integer.
    pass

@QtCore.pyqtSlot(int, name='on_spinbox_valueChanged')
def spinbox_int_value(self, i):
    # i will be an integer.
    pass

@QtCore.pyqtSlot(str, name='on_spinbox_valueChanged')
def spinbox_qstring_value(self, s):
    # s will be a Python string object (or a QString if they are enabled).
    pass

@QtCore.pyqtSlot()
def on_button_clicked(self):
    pass

8.1   PyQt Signals and Qt Signals

Qt signals are statically defined as part of a C++ class. They are referenced using the QtCore.SIGNAL() function. This method takes a single string argument that is the name of the signal and its C++ signature. For example:

QtCore.SIGNAL("finished(int)")

The returned value is normally passed to the QtCore.QObject.connect() method.

PyQt allows new signals to be defined dynamically. The act of emitting a PyQt signal implicitly defines it. PyQt v4 signals are also referenced using the QtCore.SIGNAL() function.

8.2   The PyQt_PyObject Signal Argument Type

It is possible to pass any Python object as a signal argument by specifying PyQt_PyObject as the type of the argument in the signature. For example:

QtCore.SIGNAL("finished(PyQt_PyObject)")

While this would normally be used for passing objects like lists and dictionaries as signal arguments, it can be used for any Python type. Its advantage when passing, for example, an integer is that the normal conversions from a Python object to a C++ integer and back again are not required.

The reference count of the object being passed is maintained automatically. There is no need for the emitter of a signal to keep a reference to the object after the call to QtCore.QObject.emit(), even if a connection is queued.

8.3   Short-circuit Signals

There is also a special form of a PyQt v4 signal known as a short-circuit signal. Short-circut signals implicitly declare each argument as being of type PyQt_PyObject.

Short-circuit signals do not have a list of arguments or the surrounding parentheses.

Short-circuit signals may only be connected to slots that have been implemented in Python. They cannot be connected to Qt slots or the Python callables that wrap Qt slots.

8.4   PyQt Slots and Qt Slots

Qt slots are statically defined as part of a C++ class. They are referenced using the QtCore.SLOT() function. This method takes a single string argument that is the name of the slot and its C++ signature. For example:

QtCore.SLOT("done(int)")

The returned value is normally passed to the QtCore.QObject.connect() method.

PyQt allows any Python callable to be used as a slot, not just Qt slots. This is done by simply referencing the callable. Because Qt slots are implemented as class methods they are also available as Python callables. Therefore it is not usually necessary to use QtCore.SLOT() for Qt slots. However, doing so is more efficient as it avoids a conversion to Python and back to C++.

Qt allows a signal to be connected to a slot that requires fewer arguments than the signal passes. The extra arguments are quietly discarded. PyQt slots can be used in the same way.

Note that when a slot is a Python callable its reference count is not increased. This means that a class instance can be deleted without having to explicitly disconnect any signals connected to its methods. However, if a slot is a lambda function or a partial function then its reference count is automatically incremented to prevent it from being immediately garbage collected.

8.5   Connecting Signals and Slots

Connections between signals and slots (and other signals) are made using the QtCore.QObject.connect() method. For example:

QtCore.QObject.connect(a, QtCore.SIGNAL("QtSig()"), pyFunction)
QtCore.QObject.connect(a, QtCore.SIGNAL("QtSig()"), pyClass.pyMethod)
QtCore.QObject.connect(a, QtCore.SIGNAL("QtSig()"), b, QtCore.SLOT("QtSlot()"))
QtCore.QObject.connect(a, QtCore.SIGNAL("PySig()"), b, QtCore.SLOT("QtSlot()"))
QtCore.QObject.connect(a, QtCore.SIGNAL("PySig"), pyFunction)

Disconnecting signals works in exactly the same way using the QtCore.QObject.disconnect() method. However, not all the variations of that method are supported by PyQt. Signals must be disconnected one at a time.

8.6   Emitting Signals

Any instance of a class that is derived from the QtCore.QObject class can emit a signal using its emit() method. This takes a minimum of one argument which is the signal. Any other arguments are passed to the connected slots as the signal arguments. For example:

a.emit(QtCore.SIGNAL("clicked()"))
a.emit(QtCore.SIGNAL("pySig"), "Hello", "World")

8.7   The QtCore.pyqtSignature() Decorator

The QtCore.pyqtSignature() serves the same purpose as the QtCore.pyqtSlot() decorator but has a less Pythonic API.

13.1   Using the Generated Code

The code that is generated has an identical structure to that generated by Qt's uic and can be used in the same way.

The code is structured as a single class that is derived from the Python object type. The name of the class is the name of the toplevel object set in Designer with Ui_ prepended. (In the C++ version the class is defined in the Ui namespace.) We refer to this class as the form class.

The class contains a method called setupUi(). This takes a single argument which is the widget in which the user interface is created. The type of this argument (typically QDialog, QWidget or QMainWindow) is set in Designer. We refer to this type as the Qt base class.

In the following examples we assume that a .ui file has been created containing a dialog and the name of the QDialog object is ImageDialog. We also assume that the name of the file containing the generated Python code is ui_imagedialog.py. The generated code can then be used in a number of ways.

The first example shows the direct approach where we simply create a simple application to create the dialog:

import sys
from PyQt4 import QtGui
from ui_imagedialog import Ui_ImageDialog

app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
window = QtGui.QDialog()
ui = Ui_ImageDialog()
ui.setupUi(window)

window.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())

The second example shows the single inheritance approach where we sub-class QDialog and set up the user interface in the __init__() method:

from PyQt4 import QtCore, QtGui
from ui_imagedialog import Ui_ImageDialog

class ImageDialog(QtGui.QDialog):
    def __init__(self):
        QtGui.QDialog.__init__(self)

        # Set up the user interface from Designer.
        self.ui = Ui_ImageDialog()
        self.ui.setupUi(self)

        # Make some local modifications.
        self.ui.colorDepthCombo.addItem("2 colors (1 bit per pixel)")

        # Connect up the buttons.
        self.connect(self.ui.okButton, QtCore.SIGNAL("clicked()"),
                     self, QtCore.SLOT("accept()"))
        self.connect(self.ui.cancelButton, QtCore.SIGNAL("clicked()"),
                     self, QtCore.SLOT("reject()"))

The third example shows the multiple inheritance approach:

from PyQt4 import QtCore, QtGui
from ui_imagedialog import Ui_ImageDialog

class ImageDialog(QtGui.QDialog, Ui_ImageDialog):
    def __init__(self):
        QtGui.QDialog.__init__(self)

        # Set up the user interface from Designer.
        self.setupUi(self)

        # Make some local modifications.
        self.colorDepthCombo.addItem("2 colors (1 bit per pixel)")

        # Connect up the buttons.
        self.connect(self.okButton, QtCore.SIGNAL("clicked()"),
                     self, QtCore.SLOT("accept()"))
        self.connect(self.cancelButton, QtCore.SIGNAL("clicked()"),
                     self, QtCore.SLOT("reject()"))

It is also possible to use the same approach used in PyQt v3. This is shown in the final example:

from PyQt4 import QtCore, QtGui
from ui_imagedialog import ImageDialog

class MyImageDialog(ImageDialog):
    def __init__(self):
        ImageDialog.__init__(self)

        # Make some local modifications.
        self.colorDepthCombo.addItem("2 colors (1 bit per pixel)")

        # Connect up the buttons.
        self.connect(self.okButton, QtCore.SIGNAL("clicked()"),
                     self, QtCore.SLOT("accept()"))
        self.connect(self.cancelButton, QtCore.SIGNAL("clicked()"),
                     self, QtCore.SLOT("reject()"))

For a full description see the Qt Designer Manual in the Qt Documentation.

13.2   The uic Module

The uic module contains the following functions and objects.

widgetPluginPath

This is a list of the directories that are searched for widget plugins. Initially it contains the name of the directory that contains the widget plugins included with PyQt.

compileUi(uifile, pyfile, execute=False, indent=4, pyqt3_wrapper=False)

This function generates a Python module that will create a user interface from a Qt Designer .ui file.

uifile is a file name or file-like object containing the .ui file.

pyfile is the file-like object to which the generated Python code will be written to.

execute is optionally set if a small amount of additional code is to be generated that will display the user interface if the code is run as a standalone application.

indent is the optional number of spaces used for indentation in the generated code. If it is zero then a tab character is used instead.

pyqt3_wrapper is optionally set if a small wrapper is to be generated that allows the generated code to be used as it is by PyQt v3 applications.

compileUiDir(dir, recurse=False, map=None, **compileUi_args)

This function creates Python modules from Qt Designer .ui files in a directory or directory tree.

dir is the name of the directory to scan for files whose name ends with .ui. By default the generated Python module is created in the same directory ending with .py.

recurse is set if any sub-directories should be scanned.

map is an optional callable that is passed the name of the directory containing the .ui file and the name of the Python module that will be created. The callable should return a tuple of the name of the directory in which the Python module will be created and the (possibly modified) name of the module.

compileUi_args are any additional keyword arguments that are passed to the compileUi() function that is called to create each Python module.

loadUiType(uifile)

This function loads a Qt Designer .ui file and returns a tuple of the generated form class and the Qt base class. These can then be used to create any number of instances of the user interface without having to parse the .ui file more than once.

uifile is a file name or file-like object containing the .ui file.

loadUi(uifile, baseinstance=None)

This function loads a Qt Designer .ui file and returns an instance of the user interface.

uifile is a file name or file-like object containing the .ui file.

baseinstance is an optional instance of the Qt base class. If specified then the user interface is created in it. Otherwise a new instance of the base class is automatically created.

13.3   pyuic4

The pyuic4 utility is a command line interface to the uic module. The command has the following syntax:

pyuic4 [options] .ui-file

The full set of command line options is:

Note that code generated by pyuic4 is not guaranteed to be compatible with earlier versions of PyQt. However, it is guaranteed to be compatible with later versions. If you have no control over the version of PyQt the users of your application are using then you should run pyuic4, or call PyQt4.uic.compileUi(), as part of your installation process. Another alternative would be to distribute the .ui files (perhaps as part of a resource file) and have your application load them dynamically.

13.4   Writing Qt Designer Plugins

Qt Designer can be extended by writing plugins. Normally this is done using C++ but PyQt also allows you to write plugins in Python. Most of the time a plugin is used to expose a custom widget to Designer so that it appears in Designer's widget box just like any other widget. It is possibe to change the widget's properties and to connect its signals and slots.

It is also possible to add new functionality to Designer. See the Qt documentation for the full details. Here we will concentrate on describing how to write custom widgets in Python.

The process of integrating Python custom widgets with Designer is very similar to that used with widget written using C++. However, there are particular issues that have to be addressed.

• Designer needs to have a C++ plugin that conforms to the interface defined by the QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface class. (If the plugin exposes more than one custom widget then it must conform to the interface defined by the QDesignerCustomWidgetCollectionInterface class.) In addition the plugin class must sub-class QObject as well as the interface class. PyQt does not allow Python classes to be sub-classed from more than one Qt class.
• Designer can only connect Qt signals and slots. It has no understanding of Python signals or callables.
• Designer can only edit Qt properties that represent C++ types. It has no understanding of Python attributes or Python types.

PyQt provides the following components and features to resolve these issues as simply as possible.

• PyQt's QtDesigner module includes additional classes (all of which have a QPy prefix) that are already sub-classed from the necessary Qt classes. This avoids the need to sub-class from more than one Qt class in Python. For example, where a C++ custom widget plugin would sub-class from QObject and QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface, a Python custom widget plugin would instead sub-class from QPyDesignerCustomWidgetPlugin.

• PyQt installs a C++ plugin in Designer's plugin directory. It conforms to the interface defined by the QDesignerCustomWidgetCollectionInterface class. It searches a configurable set of directories looking for Python plugins that implement a class sub-classed from QPyDesignerCustomWidgetPlugin. Each class that is found is instantiated and the instance created is added to the custom widget collection.

  The PYQTDESIGNERPATH environment variable specifies the set of directories to search for plugins. Directory names are separated by a path separator (a semi-colon on Windows and a colon on other platforms). If a directory name is empty (ie. there are consecutive path separators or a leading or trailing path separator) then a set of default directories is automatically inserted at that point. The default directories are the python subdirectory of each directory that Designer searches for its own plugins. If the environment variable is not set then only the default directories are searched. If a file's basename does not end with plugin then it is ignored.

• A Python custom widget may define new Qt signals using QtCore.pyqtSignal().

• A Python class method may be defined as a new Qt slot by using the QtCore.pyqtSlot decorator. For example:

  # Define a Qt slot that takes a C++ integer argument.
  @QtCore.pyqtSlot(int, name='addToTotal')
  def add_int_to_total(self, value):
      pass
  
  # Define a similar slot that takes its name from the method.
  @QtCore.pyqtSlot(int)
  def addToTotal(self, value):
      pass
  

• A new Qt property may be defined using the QtCore.pyqtProperty() function. It is used in the same way as the standard Python property() function. In fact, Qt properties defined in this way also behave as Python properties. The full signature of the function is as follows:

  pyqtProperty(type, fget=None, fset=None, freset=None, fdel=None, doc=None, designable=True, scriptable=True, stored=True, user=False, constant=False, final=False)
  

  type is the type of the property. It is either a Python type object or a string that is the name of a C++ type. freset is a function used to reset the value of the property to its default value. designable sets the Qt DESIGNABLE flag. scriptable sets the Qt SCRIPTABLE flag. stored sets the Qt STORED flag. user sets the Qt USER flag. constant sets the Qt CONSTANT flag. final sets the Qt FINAL flag.

  The remaining arguments are the same as those used by the standard property() function.

  Qt makes no use of the fdel function and Python makes no use of the freset function, or the designable, scriptable, stored, user, constant and final flags.

Note that the ability to define new Qt signals, slots and properties from Python is potentially useful to plugins conforming to any plugin interface and not just that used by Designer.

For a simple but complete and fully documented example of a custom widget that defines new Qt signals, slots and properties, and its plugin, look in the examples/designer/plugins directory of the PyQt source package. The widgets subdirectory contains the pydemo.py custom widget and the python subdirectory contains its pydemoplugin.py plugin.

14.1   pyrcc4

pyrcc4 is PyQt's equivalent to Qt's rcc utility and is used in exactly the same way. pyrcc4 reads the .qrc file, and the resource files, and generates a Python module that only needs to be import ed by the application in order for those resources to be made available just as if they were the original files.

Starting with PyQt v4.5, pyrcc generates code for Python v2.6 and later by default. If you use the -py2 command line option then pyrcc will generate code for all Python v2.x versions.

pyrcc4 will only be included if your copy of Qt includes the XML module.

15.1   pylupdate4

pylupdate4 is PyQt's equivalent to Qt's lupdate utility and is used in exactly the same way. A Qt .pro project file is read that specifies the Python source files and Qt Designer interface files from which the text that needs to be translated is extracted. The .pro file also specifies the .ts translation files that pylupdate4 updates (or creates if necessary) and are subsequently used by Qt Linguist.

pylupdate4 will only be included if your copy of Qt includes the XML module.

15.2   Differences Between PyQt and Qt

Qt implements internationalisation support through the QTranslator class, and the QCoreApplication::translate(), QObject::tr() and QObject::trUtf8() methods. Usually the tr() method is used to obtain the correct translation of a message. The translation process uses a message context to allow the same message to be translated differently. tr() is actually generated by moc and uses the hardcoded class name as the context. On the other hand, QApplication::translate() allows the context to be explicitly stated.

Unfortunately, because of the way Qt implements tr() (and trUtf8()) it is not possible for PyQt to exactly reproduce its behaviour. The PyQt implementation of tr() (and trUtf8()) uses the class name of the instance as the context. The key difference, and the source of potential problems, is that the context is determined dynamically in PyQt, but is hardcoded in Qt. In other words, the context of a translation may change depending on an instance's class hierarchy. For example:

class A(QtCore.QObject):
    def hello(self):
        return self.tr("Hello")

class B(A):
    pass

a = A()
a.hello()

b = B()
b.hello()

In the above the message is translated by a.hello() using a context of A, and by b.hello() using a context of B. In the equivalent C++ version the context would be A in both cases.

The PyQt behaviour is unsatisfactory and may be changed in the future. It is recommended that QCoreApplication.translate() be used in preference to tr() (and trUtf8()). This is guaranteed to work with current and future versions of PyQt and makes it much easier to share message files between Python and C++ code. Below is the alternative implementation of A that uses QCoreApplication.translate():

class A(QtCore.QObject):
    def hello(self):
        return QtCore.QCoreApplication.translate("A", "Hello")

17.1   Python Strings, Qt Strings and Unicode

PyQt uses the QString class to represent Unicode strings, and the QByteArray to represent byte arrays or strings. In Python v3 the corresponding native object types are str and bytes. In Python v2 the corresponding native object types are unicode and str.

PyQt does its best to automatically convert between objects of the various types. Explicit conversions can be easily made where necessary.

In some cases PyQt will not perform automatic conversions where it is necessary to distinguish between different overloaded methods.

For Python v3 the following conversions are done by default.

• If Qt expects a char * (or a const version) then PyQt will accept a str or QString that contains only ASCII characters, a bytes, a QByteArray, or a Python object that implements the buffer protocol.
• If Qt expects a char (or a const version) then PyQt will accept the same types as for char * and also require that a single character is provided.
• If Qt expects a signed char * or an unsigned char * (or a const version) then PyQt will accept a bytes.
• If Qt expects a signed char or an unsigned char (or a const version) then PyQt will accept a bytes of length 1.
• If Qt expects a QString then PyQt will accept a str, a bytes that contains only ASCII characters, a QChar or a QByteArray.
• If Qt expects a QByteArray then PyQt will also accept a str that contains only Latin-1 characters, or a bytes.

For Python v2 the following conversions are done by default.

• If Qt expects a char *, signed char * or an unsigned char * (or a const version) then PyQt will accept a unicode or QString that contains only ASCII characters, a str, a QByteArray, or a Python object that implements the buffer protocol.
• If Qt expects a char, signed char or an unsigned char (or a const version) then PyQt will accept the same types as for char *, signed char * and unsigned char * and also require that a single character is provided.
• If Qt expects a QString then PyQt will accept a unicode, a str that contains only ASCII characters, a QChar or a QByteArray.
• If Qt expects a QByteArray then PyQt will accept a unicode that contains only Latin-1 characters, or a str.

Note that the different behaviour between Python v2 and v3 is due to v3's reduced support for the buffer protocol.

17.2   Garbage Collection

C++ does not garbage collect unreferenced class instances, whereas Python does. In the following C++ fragment both colours exist even though the first can no longer be referenced from within the program:

col = new QColor();
col = new QColor();

In the corresponding Python fragment, the first colour is destroyed when the second is assigned to col:

col = QtGui.QColor()
col = QtGui.QColor()

In Python, each colour must be assigned to different names. Typically this is done within class definitions, so the code fragment would be something like:

self.col1 = QtGui.QColor()
self.col2 = QtGui.QColor()

Sometimes a Qt class instance will maintain a pointer to another instance and will eventually call the destructor of that second instance. The most common example is that a QObject (and any of its sub-classes) keeps pointers to its children and will automatically call their destructors. In these cases, the corresponding Python object will also keep a reference to the corresponding child objects.

So, in the following Python fragment, the first QLabel is not destroyed when the second is assigned to lab because the parent QWidget still has a reference to it:

parent = QtGui.QWidget()
lab = QtGui.QLabel("First label", parent)
lab = QtGui.QLabel("Second label", parent)

17.3   Multiple Inheritance

It is not possible to define a new Python class that sub-classes from more than one Qt class.

17.4   Access to Protected Member Functions

When an instance of a C++ class is not created from Python it is not possible to access the protected member functions, or emit any signals, of that instance. Attempts to do so will raise a Python exception. Also, any Python methods corresponding to the instance's virtual member functions will never be called.

17.5   None and NULL

Throughout PyQt, the None value can be specified wherever NULL is acceptable to the underlying C++ code.

Equally, NULL is converted to None whenever it is returned by the underlying C++ code.

17.6   Support for void *

PyQt (actually SIP) represents void * values as objects of type sip.voidptr. Such values are often used to pass the addresses of external objects between different Python modules. To make this easier, a Python integer (or anything that Python can convert to an integer) can be used whenever a sip.voidptr is expected.

A sip.voidptr may be converted to a Python integer by using the int() builtin function.

A sip.voidptr may be converted to a Python string by using its asstring() method. The asstring() method takes an optional integer argument which is the length of the data in bytes.

A sip.voidptr may also be given a size (ie. the size of the block of memory that is pointed to) by calling its setsize() method. If it has a size then it is also able to support Python's buffer protocol. This means that it can be wrapped using Python's buffer() builtin to create an object that treats the block of memory as a mutable list of bytes. It also means that the Python struct module can be used to unpack and pack binary data structures in memory, memory mapped files or shared memory.

17.7   super and PyQt Classes

In versions of PyQt earlier than v4.5 there were restrictions on the use of super with PyQt classes. These restrictions no longer apply with v4.5 and later.

19.1   pyqtconfig Classes

Configuration(sipconfig.Configuration)

This class encapsulates configuration values that can be accessed as instance objects.

The following configuration values are provided in addition to those provided by the super-class:

pyqt_bin_dir

The name of the directory where the PyQt utilities are installed.

pyqt_config_args

The command line passed to configure.py when PyQt was configured.

pyqt_mod_dir

The name of the directory where the PyQt4 Python package is installed.

pyqt_modules

A space separated string of installed PyQt modules. The Qt module is not included.

pyqt_sip_dir

The name of the base directory where PyQt's .sip files are installed. Each module's .sip files are installed in a sub-directory with the same name as the module.

pyqt_sip_flags

A space separated string of the sip command line arguments used to build the PyQt modules. These should also be used when building bindings that %Import any PyQt modules.

pyqt_version

The PyQt version as a 3 part hexadecimal number (e.g. v4.0.1 is represented as 0x040001).

pyqt_version_str

The PyQt version as a string. For development snapshots it will start with snapshot-.

qt_data_dir

The value of QLibraryInfo::location(DataPath) for the Qt installation.

qt_dir

The root directory of the Qt installation (normally the directory that contains the bin directory).

qt_edition

The Qt edition.

qt_framework

Set if Qt is built as a MacOS/X framework.

qt_inc_dir

The value of QLibraryInfo::location(HeadersPath) for the Qt installation.

qt_lib_dir

The value of QLibraryInfo::location(LibrariesPath) for the Qt installation.

qt_threaded

Set if Qt is built with thread support (always set for PyQt).

qt_version

The Qt version as a 3 part hexadecimal number (e.g. v4.1.2 is represented as 0x040102).

qt_winconfig

Additional Windows specific configuration.

__init__(self, sub_cfg=None)

Initialise the instance.

sub_cfg is an optional list of sub-class configurations. It should only be used by the __init__() method of a sub-class to append its own dictionary of configuration values before passing the list to its super-class.

QtAssistantModuleMakefile(QtNetworkModuleMakefile)

This class encapsulates a Makefile to build a SIP generated Python extension module that is built on the PyQt QtAssistant module.

QAxContainerModuleMakefile(QtGuiModuleMakefile)

This class encapsulates a Makefile to build a SIP generated Python extension module that is built on the PyQt QAxContainer module.

QtCoreModuleMakefile(sipconfig.SIPModuleMakefile)

This class encapsulates a Makefile to build a SIP generated Python extension module that is built on the PyQt QtCore module.

QtHelpModuleMakefile(QtGuiModuleMakefile)

This class encapsulates a Makefile to build a SIP generated Python extension module that is built on the PyQt QtHelp module.

QtGuiModuleMakefile(QtCoreModuleMakefile)

This class encapsulates a Makefile to build a SIP generated Python extension module that is built on the PyQt QtGui module.

QtMultimediaModuleMakefile(QtGuiModuleMakefile)

This class encapsulates a Makefile to build a SIP generated Python extension module that is built on the PyQt QtMultimedia module.

QtNetworkModuleMakefile(QtCoreModuleMakefile)

This class encapsulates a Makefile to build a SIP generated Python extension module that is built on the PyQt QtNetwork module.

QtOpenGLModuleMakefile(QtGuiModuleMakefile)

This class encapsulates a Makefile to build a SIP generated Python extension module that is built on the PyQt QtOpenGL module.

QtScriptModuleMakefile(QtCoreModuleMakefile)

This class encapsulates a Makefile to build a SIP generated Python extension module that is built on the PyQt QtScript module.

QtSqlModuleMakefile(QtGuiModuleMakefile)

This class encapsulates a Makefile to build a SIP generated Python extension module that is built on the PyQt QtSql module.

QtSvgModuleMakefile(QtGuiModuleMakefile)

This class encapsulates a Makefile to build a SIP generated Python extension module that is built on the PyQt QtSvg module.

QtTestModuleMakefile(QtGuiModuleMakefile)

This class encapsulates a Makefile to build a SIP generated Python extension module that is built on the PyQt QtTest module.

QtWebKitModuleMakefile(QtNetworkModuleMakefile)

This class encapsulates a Makefile to build a SIP generated Python extension module that is built on the PyQt QtWebKit module.

QtXmlModuleMakefile(QtCoreModuleMakefile)

This class encapsulates a Makefile to build a SIP generated Python extension module that is built on the PyQt QtXml module.

QtXmlPatternsModuleMakefile(QtCoreModuleMakefile)

This class encapsulates a Makefile to build a SIP generated Python extension module that is built on the PyQt QtXmlPatterns module.

phononModuleMakefile(QtGuiModuleMakefile)

This class encapsulates a Makefile to build a SIP generated Python extension module that is built on the PyQt phonon module.