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KAction Class Reference

Class to encapsulate user-driven action or event. More...

#include <kaction.h>

Inheritance diagram for KAction:

KActionMenu KDataToolAction KSelectAction KToggleAction KToolBarPopupAction KWidgetAction KListAction KRadioAction KToggleToolBarAction KRecentFilesAction List of all members.

Public Slots

virtual void setText (const QString &text)
virtual bool setShortcut (const KShortcut &)
virtual void setWhatsThis (const QString &text)
virtual void setToolTip (const QString &)
virtual void setIconSet (const QIconSet &iconSet)
virtual void setEnabled (bool enable)
virtual void setShortcutConfigurable (bool)
virtual void activate ()

Public Methods

 KAction (const QString &text, const KShortcut &cut, const QObject *receiver, const char *slot, KActionCollection *parent, const char *name)
 KAction (const QString &text, const QIconSet &pix, const KShortcut &cut, const QObject *receiver, const char *slot, KActionCollection *parent, const char *name)
 KAction (const QString &text, const QString &pix, const KShortcut &cut, const QObject *receiver, const char *slot, KActionCollection *parent, const char *name)
 KAction (const KGuiItem &item, const KShortcut &cut, const QObject *receiver, const char *slot, KActionCollection *parent, const char *name)
 KAction (const QString &text, const KShortcut &cut=KShortcut(), QObject *parent=0, const char *name=0)
 KAction (const QString &text, const KShortcut &cut, const QObject *receiver, const char *slot, QObject *parent, const char *name=0)
 KAction (const QString &text, const QIconSet &pix, const KShortcut &cut=KShortcut(), QObject *parent=0, const char *name=0)
 KAction (const QString &text, const QString &pix, const KShortcut &cut=KShortcut(), QObject *parent=0, const char *name=0)
 KAction (const QString &text, const QIconSet &pix, const KShortcut &cut, const QObject *receiver, const char *slot, QObject *parent, const char *name=0)
 KAction (const QString &text, const QString &pix, const KShortcut &cut, const QObject *receiver, const char *slot, QObject *parent, const char *name=0)
 KAction (QObject *parent=0, const char *name=0)
virtual ~KAction ()
virtual int plug (QWidget *w, int index=-1)
virtual void plugAccel (KAccel *accel, bool configurable=true)
virtual void unplug (QWidget *w)
virtual void unplugAccel ()
virtual bool isPlugged () const
bool isPlugged (const QWidget *container) const
virtual bool isPlugged (const QWidget *container, int id) const
virtual bool isPlugged (const QWidget *container, const QWidget *_representative) const
uint kaccelCount () const
 
Since:
3.1


virtual QString text () const
virtual const KShortcut & shortcut () const
virtual const KShortcut & shortcutDefault () const
virtual bool isEnabled () const
virtual bool isShortcutConfigurable () const
virtual QString whatsThis () const
virtual QString toolTip () const
virtual QIconSet iconSet (KIcon::Group group, int size=0) const
int accel () const
void setAccel (int key)
void setStatusText (const QString &text)
int menuId (int i)

Detailed Description

Class to encapsulate user-driven action or event.

The KAction class (and derived and super classes) provides a way to easily encapsulate a "real" user-selected action or event in your program.

For instance, a user may want to paste the contents of the clipboard or scroll down a document or quit the application. These are all actions -- events that the user causes to happen. The KAction class allows the developer to deal with these actions in an easy and intuitive manner.

Specifically, the KAction class encapsulated the various attributes to an event/action. For instance, an action might have an icon that goes along with it (a clipboard for a "paste" action or scissors for a "cut" action). The action might have some text to describe the action. It will certainly have a method or function that actually executes the action! All these attributes are contained within the KAction object.

The advantage of dealing with Actions is that you can manipulate the Action without regard to the GUI representation of it. For instance, in the "normal" way of dealing with actions like "cut", you would manually insert a item for Cut into a menu and a button into a toolbar. If you want to disable the cut action for a moment (maybe nothing is selected), you woud have to hunt down the pointer to the menu item and the toolbar button and disable both individually. Setting the menu item and toolbar item up uses very similar code - but has to be done twice!

With the Action concept, you simply "plug" the Action into whatever GUI element you want. The KAction class will then take care of correctly defining the menu item (with icons, accelerators, text, etc) or toolbar button.. or whatever. From then on, if you manipulate the Action at all, the effect will propogate through all GUI representations of it. Back to the "cut" example: if you want to disable the Cut Action, you would simply do 'cutAction->setEnabled(false)' and the menuitem and button would instantly be disabled!

This is the biggest advantage to the Action concept -- there is a one-to-one relationship between the "real" action and all GUI representations of it.

KAction emits the activated() signal if the user activated the corresponding GUI element ( menu item, toolbar button, etc. )

If you are in the situation of wanting to map the activated() signal of multiple action objects to one slot, with a special argument bound to each action, then you might consider using QSignalMapper . A tiny example: 

 QSignalMapper *desktopNumberMapper = new QSignalMapper( this );
 connect( desktopNumberMapper, SIGNAL( mapped( int ) ),
          this, SLOT( moveWindowToDesktop( int ) ) );

 for ( uint i = 0; i < numberOfDesktops; ++i ) {
     KAction *desktopAction = new KAction( i18n( "Move Window To Desktop i" ).arg( i ), ... );
     connect( desktopAction, SIGNAL( activated() ), desktopNumberMapper, SLOT( map() ) );
     desktopNumberMapper->setMapping( desktopAction, i );
 }

@sect General Usage:

The steps to using actions are roughly as follows

@sect Detailed Example:

Here is an example of enabling a "New [document]" action 

 KAction *newAct = new KAction(i18n("&New"), "filenew",
                               KStdAccel::shortcut(KStdAccel::New),
                               this, SLOT(fileNew()),
                               actionCollection(), "new");
This line creates our action. It says that wherever this action is displayed, it will use "&New" as the text, the standard icon, and the standard shortcut. It further says that whenever this action is invoked, it will use the fileNew() slot to execute it. 

 QPopupMenu *file = new QPopupMenu;
 newAct->plug(file);
That just inserted the action into the File menu. The point is, it's not important in which menu it is: all manipulation of the item is done through the newAct object. 

 newAct->plug(toolBar());
And this inserted the Action into the main toolbar as a button.

That's it!

If you want to disable that action sometime later, you can do so with 

 newAct->setEnabled(false)
and both the menuitem in File and the toolbar button will instantly be disabled.

Note: if you are using a "standard" action like "new", "paste", "quit", or any other action described in the KDE UI Standards, please use the methods in the KStdAction class rather than defining your own.

@sect Usage Within the XML Framework:

If you are using KAction within the context of the XML menu and toolbar building framework, then there are a few tiny changes. The first is that you must insert your new action into an action collection. The action collection (a KActionCollection) is, logically enough, a central collection of all of the actions defined in your application. The XML UI framework code in KXMLGUI classes needs access to this collection in order to build up the GUI (it's how the builder code knows which actions are valid and which aren't).

Also, if you use the XML builder framework, then you do not ever have to plug your actions into containers manually. The framework does that for you.

See also:
KStdAction

Definition at line 191 of file kaction.h.

Constructor & Destructor Documentation

KAction::KAction (  const QString &    text,
const KShortcut &    cut,
const QObject *    receiver,
const char *    slot,
KActionCollection *    parent,
const char *    name
) 
 

Constructs an action with text, potential keyboard shortcut, and a SLOT to call when this action is invoked by the user.

If you do not want or have a keyboard shortcut, set the cut param to 0.

This is the most common KAction used when you do not have a corresponding icon (note that it won't appear in the current version of the "Edit ToolBar" dialog, because an action needs an icon to be plugged in a toolbar...).

Parameters:
text  The text that will be displayed.
cut  The corresponding keyboard shortcut.
receiver  The SLOT's parent.
slot  The SLOT to invoke to execute this action.
parent  This action's parent.
name  An internal name for this action.

KAction::KAction (  const QString &    text,
const QIconSet &    pix,
const KShortcut &    cut,
const QObject *    receiver,
const char *    slot,
KActionCollection *    parent,
const char *    name
) 
 

Constructs an action with text, icon, potential keyboard shortcut, and a SLOT to call when this action is invoked by the user.

If you do not want or have a keyboard shortcut, set the cut param to 0.

This is the other common KAction used. Use it when you do have a corresponding icon.

Parameters:
text  The text that will be displayed.
pix  The icon to display.
cut  The corresponding keyboard shortcut.
receiver  The SLOT's parent.
slot  The SLOT to invoke to execute this action.
parent  This action's parent.
name  An internal name for this action.

KAction::KAction (  const QString &    text,
const QString &    pix,
const KShortcut &    cut,
const QObject *    receiver,
const char *    slot,
KActionCollection *    parent,
const char *    name
) 
 

Constructs an action with text, icon, potential keyboard shortcut, and a SLOT to call when this action is invoked by the user. The icon is loaded on demand later based on where it is plugged in.

If you do not want or have a keyboard shortcut, set the cut param to 0.

This is the other common KAction used. Use it when you do have a corresponding icon.

Parameters:
text  The text that will be displayed.
pix  The icon to display.
cut  The corresponding keyboard shortcut (shortcut).
receiver  The SLOT's parent.
slot  The SLOT to invoke to execute this action.
parent  This action's parent.
name  An internal name for this action.

KAction::KAction (  const KGuiItem &    item,
const KShortcut &    cut,
const QObject *    receiver,
const char *    slot,
KActionCollection *    parent,
const char *    name
) 
 

The same as the above constructor, but with a KGuiItem providing the text and icon.

Parameters:
item  The KGuiItem with the label and (optional) icon.

KAction::KAction (  const QString &    text,
const KShortcut &    cut = KShortcut(),
QObject *    parent = 0,
const char *    name = 0
) 
 

@obsolete

KAction::KAction (  const QString &    text,
const KShortcut &    cut,
const QObject *    receiver,
const char *    slot,
QObject *    parent,
const char *    name = 0
) 
 

@obsolete

KAction::KAction (  const QString &    text,
const QIconSet &    pix,
const KShortcut &    cut = KShortcut(),
QObject *    parent = 0,
const char *    name = 0
) 
 

@obsolete

KAction::KAction (  const QString &    text,
const QString &    pix,
const KShortcut &    cut = KShortcut(),
QObject *    parent = 0,
const char *    name = 0
) 
 

@obsolete

KAction::KAction (  const QString &    text,
const QIconSet &    pix,
const KShortcut &    cut,
const QObject *    receiver,
const char *    slot,
QObject *    parent,
const char *    name = 0
) 
 

@obsolete

KAction::KAction (  const QString &    text,
const QString &    pix,
const KShortcut &    cut,
const QObject *    receiver,
const char *    slot,
QObject *    parent,
const char *    name = 0
) 
 

@obsolete

KAction::KAction (  QObject *    parent = 0,
const char *    name = 0
) 
 

@obsolete

virtual KAction::~KAction (    )  [virtual]
 

Standard destructor

Member Function Documentation

int KAction::accel (    ) 
 

Deprecated:
. Use shortcut(). Get the keyboard accelerator associated with this action.

virtual void KAction::activate (    )  [virtual, slot]
 

Emulate user's interaction programmatically, by activating the action. The implementation simply emits activated().

virtual QIconSet KAction::iconSet (  KIcon::Group    group,
int    size = 0
)  const [virtual]
 

Get the QIconSet from which the icons used to display this action will be chosen.

virtual bool KAction::isEnabled (    )  [virtual]
 

Returns true if this action is enabled.

virtual bool KAction::isPlugged (  const QWidget *    container,
const QWidget *    _representative
)  const [virtual]
 

returns whether the action is plugged into the given container with the given, container specific, representative container widget item.

virtual bool KAction::isPlugged (  const QWidget *    container,
int    id
)  const [virtual]
 

returns whether the action is plugged into the given container with the given, container specific, id (often menu or toolbar id ) .

bool KAction::isPlugged (  const QWidget *    container )  const
 

returns whether the action is plugged into the given container

virtual bool KAction::isPlugged (    )  [virtual]
 

returns whether the action is plugged into any container widget or not.

Since:
3.1

virtual bool KAction::isShortcutConfigurable (    )  [virtual]
 

Returns true if this action's shortcut is configurable.

int KAction::menuId (  int    i )  [inline]
 

Deprecated:
. for backwards compatibility.

Definition at line 594 of file kaction.h.

virtual int KAction::plug (  QWidget *    w,
int    index = -1
)  [virtual]
 

"Plug" or insert this action into a given widget.

This will typically be a menu or a toolbar. From this point on, you will never need to directly manipulate the item in the menu or toolbar. You do all enabling/disabling/manipulation directly with your KAction object.

Parameters:
w  The GUI element to display this action

Reimplemented in KToggleAction, KSelectAction, KActionMenu, KToolBarPopupAction, KToggleToolBarAction, and KWidgetAction.

virtual void KAction::plugAccel (  KAccel *    accel,
bool    configurable = true
)  [virtual]
 

Deprecated:
. Shouldn't be used. No substitute available.

"Plug" or insert this action into a given KAccel.

Parameters:
accel  The KAccel collection which holds this accel
configurable  If the shortcut is configurable via the KAccel configuration dialog (this is somehow deprecated since there is now a KAction key configuration dialog).

void KAction::setAccel (  int    key ) 
 

Deprecated:
. Use setShortcut(). Sets the keyboard accelerator associated with this action.

virtual void KAction::setEnabled (  bool    enable )  [virtual, slot]
 

Enables or disables this action. All uses of this action (eg. in menus or toolbars) will be updated to reflect the state of the action.

virtual void KAction::setIconSet (  const QIconSet &    iconSet )  [virtual, slot]
 

Sets the QIconSet from which the icons used to display this action will be chosen.

virtual bool KAction::setShortcut (  const KShortcut &    )  [virtual, slot]
 

Sets the keyboard shortcut associated with this action.

virtual void KAction::setShortcutConfigurable (  bool    )  [virtual, slot]
 

Indicate whether the user may configure the action's shortcut.

void KAction::setStatusText (  const QString &    text )  [inline]
 

Deprecated:
. Use setToolTip instead (they do the same thing now).

Definition at line 588 of file kaction.h.

References setToolTip(), and text().

virtual void KAction::setText (  const QString &    text )  [virtual, slot]
 

Sets the text associated with this action. The text is used for menu and toolbar labels etc.

virtual void KAction::setToolTip (  const QString &    )  [virtual, slot]
 

Sets the tooltip text for the action. This will be used as a tooltip for a toolbar button, as a statusbar help-text for a menu item, and it also appears in the toolbar editor, to describe the action.

Referenced by setStatusText().

virtual void KAction::setWhatsThis (  const QString &    text )  [virtual, slot]
 

Sets the What's this text for the action. This text will be displayed when a widget that has been created by plugging this action into a container is clicked on in What's this mode.

The What's this text can include QML markup as well as raw text.

virtual const KShortcut& KAction::shortcut (    )  [virtual]
 

Get the keyboard shortcut associated with this action.

virtual const KShortcut& KAction::shortcutDefault (    )  [virtual]
 

Get the default shortcut for this action.

virtual QString KAction::text (    )  [virtual]
 

Get the text associated with this action.

Referenced by setStatusText().

virtual QString KAction::toolTip (    )  [virtual]
 

Get the tooltip text for the action.

virtual void KAction::unplug (  QWidget *    w )  [virtual]
 

"Unplug" or remove this action from a given widget.

This will typically be a menu or a toolbar. This is rarely used in "normal" application. Typically, it would be used if your application has several views or modes, each with a completely different menu structure. If you simply want to disable an action for a given period, use setEnabled() instead.

Parameters:
w  Remove the action from this GUI element.

Reimplemented in KWidgetAction.

virtual void KAction::unplugAccel (    )  [virtual]
 

Deprecated:
. Complement method to plugAccel(). Disconnect this action from the KAccel.

virtual QString KAction::whatsThis (    )  [virtual]
 

Get the What's this text for the action.

The documentation for this class was generated from the following file:
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