QMainWindow¶

PyQt6.QtWidgets.QMainWindow: Inherits from QWidget.

Description¶

The QMainWindow class provides a main application window.

Qt Main Window Framework¶

A main window provides a framework for building an application’s user interface. Qt has QMainWindow and its related classes for main window management. QMainWindow has its own layout to which you can add QToolBars, QDockWidgets, a QMenuBar, and a QStatusBar. The layout has a center area that can be occupied by any kind of widget. You can see an image of the layout below.

Creating Main Window Components¶

A central widget will typically be a standard Qt widget such as a QTextEdit or a QGraphicsView. Custom widgets can also be used for advanced applications. You set the central widget with setCentralWidget().

Main windows have either a single (SDI) or multiple (MDI) document interface. You create MDI applications in Qt by using a QMdiArea as the central widget.

We will now examine each of the other widgets that can be added to a main window. We give examples on how to create and add them.

Creating Menus¶

Qt implements menus in QMenu and QMainWindow keeps them in a QMenuBar. QActions are added to the menus, which display them as menu items.

You can add new menus to the main window’s menu bar by calling menuBar(), which returns the QMenuBar for the window, and then add a menu with addMenu().

QMainWindow comes with a default menu bar, but you can also set one yourself with setMenuBar(). If you wish to implement a custom menu bar (i.e., not use the QMenuBar widget), you can set it with setMenuWidget().

An example of how to create menus follows:

#     void MainWindow::createMenus()
#     {
#         fileMenu = menuBar()->addMenu(tr("&File"));
#         fileMenu->addAction(newAct);
#         fileMenu->addAction(openAct);
#         fileMenu->addAction(saveAct);

The createPopupMenu() function creates popup menus when the main window receives context menu events. The default implementation generates a menu with the checkable actions from the dock widgets and toolbars. You can reimplement createPopupMenu() for a custom menu.

Creating Toolbars¶

Toolbars are implemented in the QToolBar class. You add a toolbar to a main window with addToolBar().

You control the initial position of toolbars by assigning them to a specific ToolBarArea. You can split an area by inserting a toolbar break - think of this as a line break in text editing - with addToolBarBreak() or insertToolBarBreak(). You can also restrict placement by the user with setAllowedAreas() and setMovable().

The size of toolbar icons can be retrieved with iconSize(). The sizes are platform dependent; you can set a fixed size with setIconSize(). You can alter the appearance of all tool buttons in the toolbars with setToolButtonStyle().

An example of toolbar creation follows:

#     void MainWindow::createToolBars()
#     {
#         fileToolBar = addToolBar(tr("File"));
#         fileToolBar->addAction(newAct);

Creating Dock Widgets¶

Dock widgets are implemented in the QDockWidget class. A dock widget is a window that can be docked into the main window. You add dock widgets to a main window with addDockWidget().

There are four dock widget areas as given by the DockWidgetArea enum: left, right, top, and bottom. You can specify which dock widget area that should occupy the corners where the areas overlap with setCorner(). By default each area can only contain one row (vertical or horizontal) of dock widgets, but if you enable nesting with setDockNestingEnabled(), dock widgets can be added in either direction.

Two dock widgets may also be stacked on top of each other. A QTabBar is then used to select which of the widgets should be displayed.

We give an example of how to create and add dock widgets to a main window:

#     QDockWidget *dockWidget = new QDockWidget(tr("Dock Widget"), this);
#     dockWidget->setAllowedAreas(Qt::LeftDockWidgetArea |
#                                 Qt::RightDockWidgetArea);
#     dockWidget->setWidget(dockWidgetContents);
#     addDockWidget(Qt::LeftDockWidgetArea, dockWidget);

The Status Bar¶

You can set a status bar with setStatusBar(), but one is created the first time statusBar() (which returns the main window’s status bar) is called. See QStatusBar for information on how to use it.

Storing State¶

QMainWindow can store the state of its layout with saveState(); it can later be retrieved with restoreState(). It is the position and size (relative to the size of the main window) of the toolbars and dock widgets that are stored.

Enums¶

DockOption

This enum contains flags that specify the docking behavior of QMainWindow.

These options only control how dock widgets may be dropped in a QMainWindow. They do not re-arrange the dock widgets to conform with the specified options. For this reason they should be set before any dock widgets are added to the main window. Exceptions to this are the AnimatedDocks and VerticalTabs options, which may be set at any time.

Member	Value	Description
AllowNestedDocks	0x02	Identical to the dockNestingEnabled property.
AllowTabbedDocks	0x04	The user can drop one dock widget “on top” of another. The two widgets are stacked and a tab bar appears for selecting which one is visible.
AnimatedDocks	0x01	Identical to the animated property.
ForceTabbedDocks	0x08	Each dock area contains a single stack of tabbed dock widgets. In other words, dock widgets cannot be placed next to each other in a dock area. If this option is set, AllowNestedDocks has no effect.
GroupedDragging	0x20	When dragging the titlebar of a dock, all the tabs that are tabbed with it are going to be dragged. Implies AllowTabbedDocks. Does not work well if some QDockWidgets have restrictions in which area they are allowed. (This enum value was added in Qt 5.6.)
VerticalTabs	0x10	The two vertical dock areas on the sides of the main window show their tabs vertically. If this option is not set, all dock areas show their tabs at the bottom. Implies AllowTabbedDocks. See also setTabPosition().

Methods¶

__init__(parent: QWidget = None, flags: WindowType = Qt.WindowFlags())

Constructs a QMainWindow with the given parent and the specified widget flags.

QMainWindow sets the Window flag itself, and will hence always be created as a top-level widget.

addDockWidget(DockWidgetArea, QDockWidget): Adds the given dockwidget to the specified area.

addDockWidget(DockWidgetArea, QDockWidget, Orientation): Adds dockwidget into the given area in the direction specified by the orientation.

addToolBar(QToolBar)

This is an overloaded function.

Equivalent of calling addToolBar()(TopToolBarArea, toolbar)

addToolBar(Optional[str]) → QToolBar

This is an overloaded function.

Creates a QToolBar object, setting its window title to title, and inserts it into the top toolbar area.

See also

setWindowTitle().

addToolBar(ToolBarArea, QToolBar): Adds the toolbar into the specified area in this main window. The toolbar is placed at the end of the current tool bar block (i.e. line). If the main window already manages toolbar then it will only move the toolbar to area.

See also

insertToolBar(), addToolBarBreak(), insertToolBarBreak().

addToolBarBreak(area: ToolBarArea = TopToolBarArea): Adds a toolbar break to the given area after all the other objects that are present.

centralWidget() → QWidget: Returns the central widget for the main window. This function returns nullptr if the central widget has not been set.

See also

setCentralWidget().

contextMenuEvent(QContextMenuEvent): TODO

corner(Corner) → DockWidgetArea: Returns the dock widget area that occupies the specified corner.

See also

setCorner().

createPopupMenu() → QMenu

Returns a popup menu containing checkable entries for the toolbars and dock widgets present in the main window. If there are no toolbars and dock widgets present, this function returns nullptr.

By default, this function is called by the main window when the user activates a context menu, typically by right-clicking on a toolbar or a dock widget.

If you want to create a custom popup menu, reimplement this function and return a newly-created popup menu. Ownership of the popup menu is transferred to the caller.

dockOptions() → DockOption: See also

setDockOptions().

dockWidgetArea(QDockWidget) → DockWidgetArea: Returns the DockWidgetArea for dockwidget. If dockwidget has not been added to the main window, this function returns Qt::NoDockWidgetArea.

See also

addDockWidget(), splitDockWidget(), DockWidgetArea.

documentMode() → bool: See also

setDocumentMode().

event(QEvent) → bool: TODO

iconSize() → QSize: See also

setIconSize().

insertToolBar(QToolBar, QToolBar): Inserts the toolbar into the area occupied by the before toolbar so that it appears before it. For example, in normal left-to-right layout operation, this means that toolbar will appear to the left of the toolbar specified by before in a horizontal toolbar area.

See also

insertToolBarBreak(), addToolBar(), addToolBarBreak().

insertToolBarBreak(QToolBar): Inserts a toolbar break before the toolbar specified by before.

isAnimated() → bool: TODO

isDockNestingEnabled() → bool: TODO

isSeparator(QPoint) → bool: TODO

menuBar() → QMenuBar

Returns the menu bar for the main window. This function creates and returns an empty menu bar if the menu bar does not exist.

If you want all windows in a Mac application to share one menu bar, don’t use this function to create it, because the menu bar created here will have this QMainWindow as its parent. Instead, you must create a menu bar that does not have a parent, which you can then share among all the Mac windows. Create a parent-less menu bar this way:

# QMenuBar *menuBar = new QMenuBar(nullptr);

See also

setMenuBar().

menuWidget() → QWidget: Returns the menu bar for the main window. This function returns null if a menu bar hasn’t been constructed yet.

See also

setMenuWidget().

removeDockWidget(QDockWidget): Removes the dockwidget from the main window layout and hides it. Note that the dockwidget is not deleted.

removeToolBar(QToolBar): Removes the toolbar from the main window layout and hides it. Note that the toolbar is not deleted.

removeToolBarBreak(QToolBar): Removes a toolbar break previously inserted before the toolbar specified by before.

resizeDocks(Iterable[QDockWidget], Iterable[int], Orientation)

Resizes the dock widgets in the list docks to the corresponding size in pixels from the list sizes. If orientation is Horizontal, adjusts the width, otherwise adjusts the height of the dock widgets. The sizes will be adjusted such that the maximum and the minimum sizes are respected and the QMainWindow itself will not be resized. Any additional/missing space is distributed amongst the widgets according to the relative weight of the sizes.

Example:

#     resizeDocks({blueWidget, yellowWidget}, {20 , 40}, Qt::Horizontal);

If the blue and the yellow widget are nested on the same level they will be resized such that the yellowWidget is twice as big as the blueWidget

If some widgets are grouped in tabs, only one widget per group should be specified. Widgets not in the list might be changed to respect the constraints.

restoreDockWidget(QDockWidget) → bool: Restores the state of dockwidget if it is created after the call to restoreState(). Returns true if the state was restored; otherwise returns false.

See also

restoreState(), saveState().

restoreState(Union[QByteArray, bytes, bytearray, memoryview], version: int = 0) → bool

Restores the state of this mainwindow’s toolbars and dockwidgets. Also restores the corner settings too. The version number is compared with that stored in state. If they do not match, the mainwindow’s state is left unchanged, and this function returns false; otherwise, the state is restored, and this function returns true.

To restore geometry saved using QSettings, you can use code like this:

# void MainWindow::readSettings()
# {
#     QSettings settings("MyCompany", "MyApp");
#     restoreGeometry(settings.value("myWidget/geometry").toByteArray());
#     restoreState(settings.value("myWidget/windowState").toByteArray());
# }

saveState(version: int = 0) → QByteArray

Saves the current state of this mainwindow’s toolbars and dockwidgets. This includes the corner settings which can be set with setCorner(). The version number is stored as part of the data.

The objectName() property is used to identify each QToolBar and QDockWidget. You should make sure that this property is unique for each QToolBar and QDockWidget you add to the QMainWindow

To restore the saved state, pass the return value and version number to restoreState().

To save the geometry when the window closes, you can implement a close event like this:

# void MyMainWindow::closeEvent(QCloseEvent *event)
# {
#     QSettings settings("MyCompany", "MyApp");
#     settings.setValue("geometry", saveGeometry());
#     settings.setValue("windowState", saveState());
#     QMainWindow::closeEvent(event);
# }

setAnimated(bool): See also

isAnimated().

setCentralWidget(QWidget)

Sets the given widget to be the main window’s central widget.

Note: QMainWindow takes ownership of the widget pointer and deletes it at the appropriate time.

See also

centralWidget().

setCorner(Corner, DockWidgetArea): Sets the given dock widget area to occupy the specified corner.

See also

corner().

setDockNestingEnabled(bool): See also

isDockNestingEnabled().

setDockOptions(DockOption): See also

dockOptions().

setDocumentMode(bool): See also

documentMode().

setIconSize(QSize): See also

iconSize().

setMenuBar(QMenuBar)

Sets the menu bar for the main window to menuBar.

Note: QMainWindow takes ownership of the menuBar pointer and deletes it at the appropriate time.

See also

menuBar().

setMenuWidget(QWidget)

Sets the menu bar for the main window to menuBar.

QMainWindow takes ownership of the menuBar pointer and deletes it at the appropriate time.

See also

menuWidget().

setStatusBar(QStatusBar)

Sets the status bar for the main window to statusbar.

Setting the status bar to nullptr will remove it from the main window. Note that QMainWindow takes ownership of the statusbar pointer and deletes it at the appropriate time.

See also

statusBar().

setTabPosition(DockWidgetArea, TabPosition)

Sets the tab position for the given dock widget areas to the specified tabPosition. By default, all dock areas show their tabs at the bottom.

Note: The VerticalTabs dock option overrides the tab positions set by this method.

See also

tabPosition(), setTabShape().

setTabShape(TabShape): See also

tabShape().

setToolButtonStyle(ToolButtonStyle): See also

toolButtonStyle().

setUnifiedTitleAndToolBarOnMac(bool): See also

unifiedTitleAndToolBarOnMac().

splitDockWidget(QDockWidget, QDockWidget, Orientation)

Splits the space covered by the first dock widget into two parts, moves the first dock widget into the first part, and moves the second dock widget into the second part.

The orientation specifies how the space is divided: A Horizontal split places the second dock widget to the right of the first; a Vertical split places the second dock widget below the first.

Note: if first is currently in a tabbed docked area, second will be added as a new tab, not as a neighbor of first. This is because a single tab can contain only one dock widget.

Note: The LayoutDirection influences the order of the dock widgets in the two parts of the divided area. When right-to-left layout direction is enabled, the placing of the dock widgets will be reversed.

statusBar() → QStatusBar: Returns the status bar for the main window. This function creates and returns an empty status bar if the status bar does not exist.

See also

setStatusBar().

tabifiedDockWidgets(QDockWidget) → list[QDockWidget]: Returns the dock widgets that are tabified together with dockwidget.

See also

tabifyDockWidget().

tabifyDockWidget(QDockWidget, QDockWidget): Moves second dock widget on top of first dock widget, creating a tabbed docked area in the main window.

See also

tabifiedDockWidgets().

tabPosition(DockWidgetArea) → TabPosition

Returns the tab position for area.

Note: The VerticalTabs dock option overrides the tab positions returned by this function.

See also

setTabPosition(), tabShape().

tabShape() → TabShape: See also

setTabShape().

takeCentralWidget() → QWidget

Removes the central widget from this main window.

The ownership of the removed widget is passed to the caller.

toolBarArea(QToolBar) → ToolBarArea: Returns the ToolBarArea for toolbar. If toolbar has not been added to the main window, this function returns Qt::NoToolBarArea.

See also

addToolBar(), addToolBarBreak(), ToolBarArea.

toolBarBreak(QToolBar) → bool: Returns whether there is a toolbar break before the toolbar.

See also

addToolBarBreak(), insertToolBarBreak().

toolButtonStyle() → ToolButtonStyle: See also

setToolButtonStyle().

unifiedTitleAndToolBarOnMac() → bool: See also

setUnifiedTitleAndToolBarOnMac().

Signals¶

iconSizeChanged(QSize)

This signal is emitted when the size of the icons used in the window is changed. The new icon size is passed in iconSize.

You can connect this signal to other components to help maintain a consistent appearance for your application.

See also

setIconSize().

tabifiedDockWidgetActivated(QDockWidget): This signal is emitted when the tabified dock widget is activated by selecting the tab. The activated dock widget is passed in dockWidget.

See also

tabifyDockWidget(), tabifiedDockWidgets().

toolButtonStyleChanged(ToolButtonStyle)

This signal is emitted when the style used for tool buttons in the window is changed. The new style is passed in toolButtonStyle.

You can connect this signal to other components to help maintain a consistent appearance for your application.

See also

setToolButtonStyle().