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QmlEase

QmlEase is a flexible toolkit for Python programmer to efficiently develop QML graphical user interface, it is available for PySide6/PyQt6/PySide2/PyQt5.

Note

This project is formerly known as lk-qtquick-scaffold, we rename it to be "qmlease" and bring up the version from 2.0 to 3.0. It means the the first release of this project would be 3.0.0.

lk-qtquick-scaffold is going to be archived and no longer maintained, once after qmlease enters stable phase.

Highlights

• Support PySide6/PyQt6/PySide2/PyQt5.
• Simple to launch a QML application.
• Hot reload QML files in debug mode.
• Pythonic signal slot style.
• Powerful integrating Python with QML by register system.
• Show QML print messages in Python console.
• Built-in widgets library.
• Improved layout engine.
• Auto complete stylesheet.

Installation

Install QmlEase

Warning: qmlease is not officially released yet. Below is a pre-documented guide for the near future. (i.e. Below command is not available for now.)

Use pip to install qmlease:

pip install qmlease

The latest version is 3.0+.

Install Qt backend

Installing qmlease doesn't include any of Python for Qt's libraries. You need to manually install one of the follows:

# choose one to install
pip install pyside6
pip install pyqt6
pip install pyside2
pip install pyqt5

QmlEase auto detects the Qt backend you've installed (you can also explicitly set specific one), it uses qtpy to
provide an uniform layer overrides PySide6/PyQt6/PySide2/PyQt5.

Examples quick through

Hello world

view.qml

import QtQuick
import QtQuick.Window

Window {
    visible: true
    width: 400
    height: 300
    
    Text {
        anchors.centerIn: parent
        text: 'Hello world!'
    }
}

main.py

from qmlease import app
app.run('view.qml')

Hot loader

The app.run method accepts debug (bool type) parameter, to enable hot loader mode:

from qmlease import app
app.run('view.qml', debug=True)

It starts a floating window that includes a button "RELOAD", each time when you modify "view.qml", click "RELOAD" to refresh your GUI:

BTW you can run "view.qml" in command line:

# see help
py -m qmlease -h

# run
py -m qmlease run view.qml

# run in debug mode
py -m qmlease run view.qml --debug

It has the same result like above "main.py" does.

Register Python funtions to QML

from qmlease import QObject, app, pyside, slot

class AAA(QObject):
    @slot(result=str)
    def hello(self):
        return 'hello world (aaa)'

class BBB(QOjbect):
    @slot(result=str)
    def hello(self):
        return 'hello world (bbb)'

# 1. register instance
aaa = AAA()
app.register(aaa, 'aaa')

# 2. register class
app.register(BBB, 'MyBbbType', namespace='dev.likianta.qmlease')

# 3. register regular function.
def foo(a: int, b: int, c: int):
    return a + b + c
pyside.register(foo)
pyside.register(foo, name='foo_alias')

view.qml

import QtQuick 2.15
import dev.likianta.qmlease 1.0

Item {
    MyBbbType {  // from `dev.likianta.qmlease`
        id: bbb
    }

    Component.onCompleted: {
        console.log(py.aaa.hello())  // -> 'hello world'
        console.log(bbb.hello())  // -> 'hello world'

        console.log(py.call('foo', [1, 2, 3]))  // -> 6
        console.log(py.call('foo_alias', [1, 2, 3])  // -> 6
    }
}

Access QML object properties

from qmlease import QObject, slot

class MyObject(QObject):
    @slot(object)
    def init_view(self, button: QObject) -> None:
        print(button['text'])  # -> 'AAA'
        button['text'] = 'BBB'  # this will emit a textChanged signal.
        print(button['text'])  # -> 'BBB'

Connect QML signal to Python functions

from lambda_ex import grafting
from qmlease import QObject, slot

class MyObject(QObject):
    @slot(object)
    def init_view(self, button: QObject) -> None:
        @grafting(button.clicked.connect)
        def _():
            print('clicked', button['text'])

Integrate qt logging in python console

When you use console.log in QML side, it will be printed in Python console:

Signal and Slot

The signal and slot wrap on Qt's Signal and Slot decorators, but extended their functionalities:

1. You can get the correct type hint in IDE:

   

2. The slot accepts more types as alias to "QObject" and "QVariant" -- it is more convenient and more readable:

   from qmlease import QObject, slot
   
   class MyObject(QObject):
   
       @slot(int, dict, result=list)  # <- here
       def foo(self, index, data):
           return [index, len(data)]
   
   '''
   it is more readable than:
       @Slot(int, QJSValue, result='QVariant')
       def foo(self, index, data):
           return [index, len(data)]
   '''

   Here is a full alias list (which is documented in qmlease/qt_core/signal_slot.py):

   slot(*args)

   Alias	Real value	Note
   bool	bool	basic type
   float	float	basic type
   int	int	basic type
   str	str	basic type
   QObject	QObject	object
   object	QObject	object
   'item'	QObject	object (string)
   'object'	QObject	object (string)
   'qobject'	QObject	object (string)
   dict	QJSValue	qjsvalue
   list	QJSValue	qjsvalue
   set	QJSValue	qjsvalue
   tuple	QJSValue	qjsvalue
   ...	QJSValue	qjsvalue
   'any'	QJSValue	qjsvalue (string)

   slot(result=...)

   Alias	Real value	Note
   None	None	basic type
   bool	bool	basic type
   float	float	basic type
   int	int	basic type
   str	str	basic type
   dict	'QVariant'	qvariant
   list	'QVariant'	qvariant
   set	'QVariant'	qvariant
   tuple	'QVariant'	qvariant
   ...	'QVariant'	qvariant

3. slot decorator is non-intrusive -- it means the method been decorated can be called in Python side as usual.

   from qmlease import QObject, slot
   
   class MyObject(QObject):
       @slot(int, str, result=list)
       def foo(self, index, name):
           return [index, name]
   
   my_obj = MyObject()
   # you can call it like a regular method! (just 'ignore' its docorator.)
   my_obj.foo(1, 'hello')  # -> [1, 'hello']

Built-in widgets library

qmlease provides a set of built-in widgets under its ~/widgets directory.

Basically, you can use it in QML by importing "LKWidgets" (or "LKWidgets 1.0" for Qt 5.x):

import LKWidgets

LKWindow {
    color: '#DBDBF7'  // moon white

    LKRectangle {
        anchors.fill: parent
        anchors.margins: 32
        color: '#ECDEC8'  // parchment yellow

        LKColumn {
            anchors.centerIn: parent
            alignment: 'hcenter'  // horizontally center children

            LKGhostButton {
                text: 'SUNDAY'
            }

            LKButton {
                text: 'MONDAY'
            }

            LKGhostButton {
                text: 'TUESDAY'
            }

            LKButton {
                text: 'WEDNESDAY'
            }

            LKGhostButton {
                text: 'THURSDAY'
            }

            LKButton {
                text: 'FRIDAY'
            }

            LKGhostButton {
                text: 'SATURDAY'
            }
        }
    }
}

The dark theme:

More screenshots: see examples/lk_widgets/screenshot_*.

All widget names are started with 'LK', the full list is in qmlease/widgets/LKWidgets/qmldir file.

Note: the widgets documentation is not ready. Currently you may have a look at the examples/lk_widgets screenshots, or view its source code for more details.

High-level model, human-readable API

TODO

Layout engine

Layout engine is powered by qmlease.qmlside.layout_helper, which is registered as pylayout in QML side.

// some_view.qml
import QtQuick

Column {
    height: 100
    
    Item { id: item1; height: 20  }
    Item { id: item2; height: 0.4 }
    Item { id: item3; height: 0   }
    Item { id: item4; height: 0   }

    Component.onCompleted: {
        // horizontally center children
        pylayout.auto_align(this, 'hcenter')

        // auto size children:
        //  width > 1: as pixels
        //  width > 0 and < 1: as percent of left spared space
        //  width = 0: as stretch to fill the left spared space
        pylayout.auto_size_children(this, 'vertical')
        //  the result is:
        //      item1: 20px
        //      item2: (100 - 20) * 0.4 = 32px
        //      item3: (100 - 20 - 32) * 0.5 = 24px
        //      item4: (100 - 20 - 32) * 0.5 = 24px
        //          (item 3 and 4 share the left space equally.)
    }
}

Executing Python snippet in QML, and vice versa

test.py

from qmlease import eval_js

def foo(item1: QObject, item2: QObject):
    eval_js('''
        $a.widthChanged.connect(() => {
            $b.width = $a.width * 2
        })
    ''', {'a': item1, 'b': item2})

view.qml

import QtQuick

ListView {
    model: pyside.eval(`
        import os
        files = os.listdir(input('target folder: '))
        return files
    `)
}

Style manager

qmlease exposes a list of built-in style controlers to QML side as follows:

Style	Description
pycolor	All color specifications defined in a canonical name form
pyfont	Font related specifications
pysize	Width, height, radius, padding, margin, spacing, etc.
pymotion	Animation related specifications (duration, easing type, etc.)

Usage examples (seen in all LKWidgets):

You can overwrite the style by giving a YAML file to load, for example a "dark-theme.yaml":

# this is dark theme color scheme

# == general ==

blue_1: '#e4e5f8'
blue_3: '#5294eb'
blue_5: '#3844e6'
blue_7: '#0f143b'
dark_1: '#424141'
dark_2: '#242529'
dark_3: '#15141a'
dark_5: '#050408'
grey_3: '#e8eaed'
grey_5: '#a9acb0'

# == widgets spec ==

border_active: '#797171'
border_default: '#575757'
border_glow: '$border_active'
button_bg_active: '$blue_5'
button_bg_default: '$panel_bg'
button_bg_hovered: '$dark_1'
button_bg_pressed: '$dark_3'
button_bg_selected: '$button_bg_pressed'
input_bg_active: '$dark_2'
input_bg_default: '$panel_bg'
input_border_active: '$border_active'
input_border_default: '$border_default'
input_indicator_active: '$blue_5'
panel_bg: '$dark_3'
prog_bg: '$blue_1'
prog_fg: '$blue_5'
sidebar_bg: '$panel_bg'
text_default: '$grey_3'
text_disabled: '$grey_5'
text_hint: '$grey_5'
win_bg_default: '$dark_5'

The dollar symbol ($) is a simple pointer to the other key.

You don't need to write all colors in the file, qmlease has a great deduction algorithm to automatically call back "defaults" when required colors are missing from your sheet.

Finally load it by calling pycolor.update_from_file():

from qmlease import pycolor
pycolor.update_from_file('dark-theme.yaml')

Warning: currently color name style is under refactoring, it is very unstable to learn from its style.

Gallery

3d-like-rect-tilt-with-parallax-scrolling-image.mp4

fast-blur-anim.mp4

TODO:AddMoreWidgetsDemo