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# QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface Class Reference
[QtDesigner module]

The QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface class enables Qt Designer to access and construct custom widgets. More...

Inherited by QPyDesignerCustomWidgetPlugin.

### Methods

- __init__ (self)
- __init__ (self, QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface)
- QStringQString codeTemplate (self)
- QWidget createWidget (self, QWidget)
- QStringQString domXml (self)
- QStringQString group (self)
- QIcon icon (self)
- QStringQString includeFile (self)
- initialize (self, QDesignerFormEditorInterface)
- bool isContainer (self)
- bool isInitialized (self)
- QStringQString name (self)
- QStringQString toolTip (self)
- QStringQString whatsThis (self)

## Detailed Description

The QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface class enables Qt Designer to access and construct custom widgets.

QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface provides a custom widget with an interface. The class contains a set of functions that must be subclassed to return basic information about the widget, such as its class name and the name of its header file. Other functions must be implemented to initialize the plugin when it is loaded, and to construct instances of the custom widget for Qt Designer to use.

When implementing a custom widget you must subclass QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface to expose your widget to Qt Designer. For example, this is the declaration for the plugin used in the Custom Widget Plugin example that enables an analog clock custom widget to be used by Qt Designer:

     class AnalogClockPlugin : public QObject, public QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface
     {
         Q_OBJECT
         Q_INTERFACES(QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface)

     public:
         AnalogClockPlugin(QObject *parent = 0);

         bool isContainer() const;
         bool isInitialized() const;
         QIcon icon() const;
         QString domXml() const;
         QString group() const;
         QString includeFile() const;
         QString name() const;
         QString toolTip() const;
         QString whatsThis() const;
         QWidget *createWidget(QWidget *parent);
         void initialize(QDesignerFormEditorInterface *core);

     private:
         bool initialized;
     };

Note that the only part of the class definition that is specific to this particular custom widget is the class name. In addition, since we are implementing an interface, we must ensure that it's made known to the meta object system using the Q_INTERFACES() macro. This enables Qt Designer to use the qobject_cast() function to query for supported interfaces using nothing but a QObject pointer.

After Qt Designer loads a custom widget plugin, it calls the interface's initialize() function to enable it to set up any resources that it may need. This function is called with a QDesignerFormEditorInterface parameter that provides the plugin with a gateway to all of Qt Designer's API.

Qt Designer constructs instances of the custom widget by calling the plugin's createWidget() function with a suitable parent widget. Plugins must construct and return an instance of a custom widget with the specified parent widget.

In the implementation of the class you must remember to export your custom widget plugin to Qt Designer using the Q_EXPORT_PLUGIN2() macro. For example, if a library called `libcustomwidgetplugin.so` (on Unix) or `libcustomwidget.dll` (on Windows) contains a widget class called `MyCustomWidget`, we can export it by adding the following line to the file containing the plugin implementation:

     Q_EXPORT_PLUGIN2(customwidgetplugin, MyCustomWidget)

This macro ensures that Qt Designer can access and construct the custom widget. Without this macro, there is no way for Qt Designer to use it.

When implementing a custom widget plugin, you build it as a separate library. If you want to include several custom widget plugins in the same library, you must in addition subclass QDesignerCustomWidgetCollectionInterface.

Warning: If your custom widget plugin contains QVariant properties, be aware that only the following types are supported:

- QVariant.ByteArray
- QVariant.Bool
- QVariant.Color
- QVariant.Cursor
- QVariant.Date
- QVariant.DateTime
- QVariant.Double
- QVariant.Int
- QVariant.Point
- QVariant.Rect
- QVariant.Size
- QVariant.SizePolicy
- QVariant.String
- QVariant.Time
- QVariant.UInt

For a complete example using the QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface class, see the Custom Widget Example. The example shows how to create a custom widget plugin for Qt Designer.

See also QDesignerCustomWidgetCollectionInterface and Creating Custom Widgets for Qt Designer.

## Method Documentation

### QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface.__init__ (self)

### QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface.__init__ (self, QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface)

### QStringQString QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface.codeTemplate (self)

This function is reserved for future use by Qt Designer.

### QWidget QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface.createWidget (self, QWidget)

This method is abstract and should be reimplemented in any sub-class.

The QWidget argument, if not None, causes self to be owned by Qt instead of PyQt.

Returns a new instance of the custom widget, with the given parent.

### QStringQString QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface.domXml (self)

Returns the XML that is used to describe the custom widget's properties to Qt Designer.

### QStringQString QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface.group (self)

This method is abstract and should be reimplemented in any sub-class.

Returns the name of the group to which the custom widget belongs.

### QIcon QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface.icon (self)

This method is abstract and should be reimplemented in any sub-class.

Returns the icon used to represent the custom widget in Qt Designer's widget box.

### QStringQString QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface.includeFile (self)

This method is abstract and should be reimplemented in any sub-class.

Returns the path to the include file that uic uses when creating code for the custom widget.

### QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface.initialize (self, QDesignerFormEditorInterface)

Initializes the widget for use with the specified formEditor interface.

See also isInitialized().

### bool QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface.isContainer (self)

This method is abstract and should be reimplemented in any sub-class.

Returns true if the custom widget is intended to be used as a container; otherwise returns false.

Most custom widgets are not used to hold other widgets, so their implementations of this function will return false, but custom containers will return true to ensure that they behave correctly in Qt Designer.

### bool QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface.isInitialized (self)

Returns true if the widget has been initialized; otherwise returns false.

See also initialize().

### QStringQString QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface.name (self)

This method is abstract and should be reimplemented in any sub-class.

Returns the class name of the custom widget supplied by the interface.

The name returned must be identical to the class name used for the custom widget.

### QStringQString QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface.toolTip (self)

This method is abstract and should be reimplemented in any sub-class.

Returns a short description of the widget that can be used by Qt Designer in a tool tip.

### QStringQString QDesignerCustomWidgetInterface.whatsThis (self)

This method is abstract and should be reimplemented in any sub-class.

Returns a description of the widget that can be used by Qt Designer in "What's This?" help for the widget.