StarMenu: custom QML component plugin
This article introduces StarMenu, a QML pop up menu.
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Introduction
The StarMenu is a pop up menu that can be raised by clicking or tapping on an area defined like using MouseArea component. The StarMenu's menu items are defined using StarItems. This plugin is been developed with Qt 4.7.4 and tested on linux, Nokia N900, Nokia C7-00, Nokia N950 and Android Galaxy tab GT-7310 (with Necesistas ).
Usage
Note for Harmattan:
.pro file must contains this:
contains(MEEGO_EDITION,harmattan) {
DEFINES += MEEGO_EDITION_HARMATTAN
QT += dbus
}
To compile and install the plugin, just do:
qmake
make
make install
then in your .qml you will need to
import com.starMenu 1.0
To compile within your project: copy staritem.* and starmenu.* in your project directory and add them to the .pro file. Then in the main.cpp include the headers:
#include "starmenu.h"
#include "staritem.h"
and before setSource() or setMainQmlFile() register the component with:
qmlRegisterType<StarMenu>("StarMenu", 1, 0, "StarMenu");
qmlRegisterType<StarItem>("StarMenu", 1, 0, "StarItem");
then, in your .qml file, you will be able to:
import StarMenu 1.0
The StarMenu component displays a contextual menu in a declarative user interface.
StarMenu is hidden by default and opens in response to a user action. The purpose of StarMenu is to manage all StarItem childs. By default they are arrange in a circle shape and, in the center of it, it is painted a star polygon shape with as many spikes as the number of StarItems. It can be visible or not by setting the boolean starCenterVisible property. The circle shape amplitude is given by {{Icode|radiusH} and {{Icode|radiusV} properties. Clicking on the center of the current menu, will close it and goes back to parent. It's possible to click on the center of the first menu to close all. visualParent property is used to bind the close menu action to a specified item, so, instead of clicking on center of {{Icode|StarMenu}, it's possible to set {{Icode|visualParent} to the main window and close menu everywhere on the screen. When using {{Icode|visualParent}, it come handy the {{Icode|color} property to set a transparent color to the clickable area to close the menu. Changing StarItem visible property, makes all {{Icode|StarItem}s position recalculated with only visible items.
It is possible to bind animations to StarItems. When a StarMenu is raised, the StarItems circle shape has the center located by the mouse click (or tap) position and their opacity, rotation, x, y property are set to 0. By doing this:
StarItem {
[...]
Behavior on x { NumberAnimation { duration: 1500; easing.type: Easing.OutBounce } }
Behavior on y { NumberAnimation { duration: 1500; easing.type: Easing.OutBounce } }
Behavior on opacity { NumberAnimation { duration: 2200; easing.type: Easing.OutBounce } }
StarItems are animated from center to their final position.
StarMenu has also a delayChangePos property. For example, when it is set to 100, the animation of the second StarItem is started after 100 ms, the third after 200 ms and so on. StarItem has also a delayChangePos property and if it is set, it take priority over the StarMenu delayChangePos property.
StarItems can also contain any other component instead Image component used in these examples:
StarItem {
width: 320; height: 240
scale: 0.3
zoomHoverValue: 1
Behavior on scale { NumberAnimation { duration: 500; easing.type: Easing.OutQuad } }
Column {
Button { text: "Hello Qt" }
Switch { }
RadioButton { }
}
}
StarItemss can be arranged in a spiral shape, in a grid shape or in a line shape. StarMenu shape property could have the following values:
- StarMenu.ShapeCircle (default value)
- StarMenu.ShapeGrid
- StarMenu.ShapeSpiral
- StarMenu.ShapeLine
Rows in grid shape are arranged centered by the mouse click and are spaced by spacingH and spacingV properties with columns count defined by {{Icode|columns} property. Spiral shape takes care of startingRadius value to start drawing StarItems and radiusIncrement property to shape the spiral. Line shape has a startingAngle, radiusIncrement and startingRadius properties.
StarMenu has the center where user clicks. This centerproperty can be defined everywhere in scene coordinates by setting center property.
Properties & signals
StarMenu
Properties
- center: point
Center coordinates relative to the root scene.
- color: color
Color of the sensible area to be clicked to close the menu. Useful if visualParent is defined.
- columns: int
Columns when ShapeGrid is used.
- delayChangePos: int
Delay between each StarItems positioning after the mouse click. If delayChangePos property of StarItem has priority over this.
- open: bool
Set or get open state of StarMenu. The value is true only when the StarMenu is the current. Every parents and childs StarMenu have this property set to false. Usually the StarMenu is opened by user action.
- radiusH: qreal
Horizontal radius of the circle shape.
- radiusV: qreal
Vertical radius of the circle shape.
- rotation: qreal
Rotation of StarItems. Only available with circle and spiral shapes.
- radiusIncrement: qreal
Used with spiral and line shape to define spacing betweeen StarItems.
- shape: enumeration
Shape to be used. The default is ShapeCircle.
* StarMenu.ShapeCircle * StarMenu.ShapeGrid * StarMenu.ShapeSpiral * StarMenu.ShapeLine
- spacingH: qreal
Used with ShapeGrid to space horizontally StarItems.
- spacingV: qreal
Used with ShapeGrid to space vertically StarItems.
- startingAngle: qreal
Used with {{Icode|ShapeLine} to define the direction of the StarItems.
- starCenterVisible: bool
Show the star at the center of StarMenu. The star shape has as many spikes as the number of StarItems.
- startingRadius: qreal
Used with ShapeSpiral and with ShapeLine to define the distance from center of the first StarItem.
- useParentMenuCenter: bool
When true, the center of the StarMenu will be the center of parent StarMenu if exists.
- visualParent: Item
The Item in which the user will click to close the StarMenu. The default sensible area is the parent of StarMenu, with {{Icode|visualParent}, developers are able to redefine this area for example to the main application window.
Signals
- StarMenu::starMenuOpening()
Signal for detecting StarMenu opening.
- StarMenu::starMenuClosing()
Signal for detecting StarMenu closing.
StarItem
Properties
- zoomHoverValue: qreal
Zoom value when mouse enters.
- delayChangePos: int
Delay between StarItem is positioned after the mouse click. If this property is set, it will take priority over the same StaMenu property.
Signals
- StarItem::hoverItem()
Signal for detecting when mouse is hover.
- StarItem::leaveItem()
Signal for detecting when mouse leaves.
- StarItem::clicked()
Signal for detecting a mouse click.
Downloads
Here the home project link. You will find starMenu-plugin.zip which is the installable plugin and starmenudemo.zip which is the demo without the need to install the plugin. The complete doxygen documentation is in the plugin zip.
