Qt 5.11 | Qt Quick | QML Types | PointHandler QML Type

Qt 5.11.3 Reference Documentation

# PointHandler QML Type

Handler for reacting to a single touchpoint. More...

Import Statement: | import Qt.labs.handlers 1.0
Inherits: | SinglePointHandler

- List of all members, including inherited members

## Properties

- acceptedButtons : int
- acceptedDevices : int
- acceptedModifiers : int
- acceptedPointerTypes : int
- active : bool
- enabled : bool
- grabPermission : bool
- parent : Item
- point : HandlerPoint
- target : Item

## Signals

- canceled(EventPoint point)
- grabChanged(EventPoint point)

## Detailed Description

PointHandler can be used to show feedback about a touchpoint or the mouse position, or to otherwise react to pointer events.

When a press event occurs, each instance of PointHandler chooses a single point which is not yet "taken" at that moment: if the press occurs within the bounds of the PointerHandler::parent, and no sibling PointHandler within the same PointerHandler::parent has yet acquired a passive grab on that point, and if the other constraints such as SinglePointHandler::acceptedButtons, PointerDeviceHandler::acceptedDevices etc. are satisfied, it's eligible, and the PointHandler then acquires a passive grab. In this way, the PointerHandler::parent acts like an exclusive group: there can be multiple instances of PointHandler, and the set of pressed touchpoints will be distributed among them. Each PointHandler which has chosen a point to track has its active property `true`. It then continues to track its chosen point until release: the properties of the point will be kept up-to-date. Any Item can bind to these properties, and thereby follow the point's movements.

By being only a passive grabber, it has the ability to keep independent oversight of all movements. The passive grab cannot be stolen or overridden even when other gestures are detected and exclusive grabs occur.

If your goal is orthogonal surveillance of eventpoints, an older alternative was QObject::installEventFilter(), but that has never been a built-in QtQuick feature: it requires some C++ code, such as a QQuickItem subclass. PointHandler is more efficient than that, because only pointer events will be delivered to it, during the course of normal event delivery in QQuickWindow; whereas an event filter needs to filter all QEvents of all types, and thus sets itself up as a potential event delivery bottleneck.

One possible use case is to add this handler to a transparent Item which is on top of the rest of the scene (by having a high z value), so that when a point is freshly pressed, it will be delivered to that Item and its handlers first, providing the opportunity to take the passive grab as early as possible. Such an item (like a pane of glass over the whole UI) can be a convenient parent for other Items which visualize the kind of reactive feedback which must always be on top; and likewise it can be the parent for popups, popovers, dialogs and so on. If it will be used in that way, it can be helpful for your main.cpp to use QQmlContext::setContextProperty() to make the "glass pane" accessible by ID to the entire UI, so that other Items and PointHandlers can be reparented to it.

      import QtQuick 2.10
      import QtQuick.Window 2.2
      import Qt.labs.handlers 1.0

      Window {
          width: 480
          height: 320
          visible: true

          Item {
              id: glassPane
              z: 10000
              anchors.fill: parent

              PointHandler {
                  id: handler
                  acceptedDevices: PointerDevice.TouchScreen | PointerDevice.TouchPad
                  target: Rectangle {
                      parent: glassPane
                      color: "red"
                      visible: handler.active
                      x: handler.point.position.x - width / 2
                      y: handler.point.position.y - height / 2
                      width: 20; height: width; radius: width / 2
                  }
              }
          }
      }

Like all pointer handlers, a PointHandler has a target property, which may be used as a convenient place to put a point-tracking Item; but PointHandler will not automatically manipulate the `target` item in any way. You need to use bindings to make it react to the point.

Note: On macOS, PointHandler does not react to the trackpad by default. That is because macOS can provide either native gesture recognition, or raw touchpoints, but not both. We prefer to use the native gesture event in PinchHandler, so we do not want to disable it by enabling touch. However MultiPointTouchArea does enable touch, thus disabling native gesture recognition within the entire window; so it's an alternative if you only want to react to all the touchpoints but do not require the smooth native-gesture experience.

See also MultiPointTouchArea.

## Property Documentation

acceptedButtons : int

The mouse buttons which can activate this Pointer Handler.

By default, this property is set to Qt.LeftButton. It can be set to an OR combination of mouse buttons, and will ignore events from other buttons.

For example, a control could be made to respond to left and right clicks in different ways, with two handlers:

      Item {
          TapHandler {
              onTapped: console.log("left clicked")
          }
          TapHandler {
              acceptedButtons: Qt.RightButton
              onTapped: console.log("right clicked")
          }
      }

Note: Tapping on a touchscreen or tapping the stylus on a graphics tablet emulates clicking the left mouse button. This behavior can be altered via acceptedDevices or acceptedPointerTypes.

acceptedDevices : int

The types of pointing devices that can activate this Pointer Handler.

By default, this property is set to PointerDevice.AllDevices. If you set it to an OR combination of device types, it will ignore events from non-matching devices.

For example, a control could be made to respond to mouse and stylus clicks in one way, and touchscreen taps in another way, with two handlers:

      Item {
         TapHandler {
             acceptedDevices: PointerDevice.Mouse | PointerDevice.Stylus
             onTapped: console.log("clicked")
         }
         TapHandler {
             acceptedDevices: PointerDevice.TouchScreen
             onTapped: console.log("tapped")
         }
      }

acceptedModifiers : int

If this property is set, it will require the given keyboard modifiers to be pressed in order to react to pointer events, and otherwise ignore them.

If this property is set to `Qt.KeyboardModifierMask` (the default value), then the PointerHandler ignores the modifier keys.

For example, an Item could have two handlers of the same type, one of which is enabled only if the required keyboard modifiers are pressed:

      Item {
         TapHandler {
             acceptedModifiers: Qt.ControlModifier
             onTapped: console.log("control-tapped")
         }
         TapHandler {
             acceptedModifiers: Qt.NoModifier
             onTapped: console.log("tapped")
         }
      }

acceptedPointerTypes : int

The types of pointing instruments (finger, stylus, eraser, etc.) that can activate this Pointer Handler.

By default, this property is set to PointerDevice.AllPointerTypes. If you set it to an OR combination of device types, it will ignore events from non-matching events.

For example, a control could be made to respond to mouse, touch, and stylus clicks in some way, but delete itself if tapped with an eraser tool on a graphics tablet, with two handlers:

      Rectangle {
         id: rect
         TapHandler {
             acceptedPointerTypes: PointerDevice.GenericPointer | PointerDevice.Finger | PointerDevice.Pen
             onTapped: console.log("clicked")
         }
         TapHandler {
             acceptedPointerTypes: PointerDevice.Eraser
             onTapped: rect.destroy()
         }
      }

[read-only] active : bool

This holds true whenever this PointerHandler has taken sole responsibility for handing one or more EventPoints, by successfully taking an exclusive grab of those points. This means that it is keeping its properties up-to-date according to the movements of those Event Points and actively manipulating its target (if any).

enabled : bool

If a PointerHandler is disabled, it will reject all events and no signals will be emitted.

grabPermission : bool

This property specifies the permissions when this handler's logic decides to take over the exclusive grab, or when it is asked to approve grab takeover or cancellation by another handler.

The default is `CanTakeOverFromItems | CanTakeOverFromHandlersOfDifferentType | ApprovesTakeOverByAnything` which allows most takeover scenarios but avoids e.g. two PinchHandlers fighting over the same touchpoints.

[read-only] parent : Item

The Item which is the scope of the handler; the Item in which it was declared. The handler will handle events on behalf of this Item, which means a pointer event is relevant if at least one of its event points occurs within the Item's interior. Initially target() is the same, but it can be reassigned.

See also target and QObject::parent().

[read-only] point : HandlerPoint

The event point currently being handled. When no point is currently being handled, this object is reset to default values (all coordinates are 0).

target : Item

The Item which this handler will manipulate.

By default, it is the same as the parent, the Item within which the handler is declared. However, it can sometimes be useful to set the target to a different Item, in order to handle events within one item but manipulate another; or to `null`, to disable the default behavior and do something else instead.

## Signal Documentation

canceled(EventPoint point)

If this handler has already grabbed the given point, this signal is emitted when the grab is stolen by a different Pointer Handler or Item.

grabChanged(EventPoint point)

This signal is emitted when this handler has acquired or relinquished a passive or exclusive grab of the given point.