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QWindowKit

Cross-platform window customization framework for Qt Widgets and Qt Quick.

This project inherited most of wangwenx190 FramelessHelper implementation, with a complete refactoring and upgrading of the architecture.

Feature requests are welcome.

Stay In Touch :triangular_flag_on_post:

You can share your findings, thoughts and ideas on improving / implementing QWindowKit functionalities on more platforms and apps!

Supported Platforms

Features

Gallery

Windows 11 (With Snap Layout)

image

Windows 10 (And 7, Vista)

image

macOS & Linux

macOSLinux (Ubuntu 20.04)
imageimage

Products who use QWK

Jami

jami

Jami is a free/libre, end-to-end encrypted, and private communication software.

Tietie

tietie

Tietie is a simple and easy to use clipboard management software. Multi-format support, powerful search ability.

Requirements

ComponentRequirementDetails
Qt>=5.12Core, Gui, Widgets, Quick
Compiler>=C++17MSVC 2019, GCC, Clang
CMake>=3.19>=3.20 is recommended

Please read Vulnerabilities carefully to acquire detailed requirements.

Tested Compilers

Dependencies

Integrate

Build & Install

git clone --recursive https://github.com/stdware/qwindowkit
cd qwindowkit

cmake -B build -S . \
  -Dqmsetup_DIR=<dir> \             # Optional
  -DQWINDOWKIT_BUILD_QUICK=TRUE \   # Optional
  -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/path/install \
  -G "Ninja Multi-Config"

cmake --build build --target install --config Debug
cmake --build build --target install --config Release

Read the root CMakeLists.txt for more build options.

You can also include this directory as a subproject if you choose CMake as your build system.

For other build systems, you need to install with CMake first and include the corresponding configuration files in your project.

Import

CMake Project

cmake -B build -DQWindowKit_DIR=/path/install/lib/cmake/QWindowKit

find_package(QWindowKit COMPONENTS Core Widgets Quick REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(widgets_app PUBLIC QWindowKit::Widgets)
target_link_libraries(quick_app PUBLIC QWindowKit::Quick)

QMake Project

# WidgetsApp.pro
include("/path/install/share/QWindowKit/qmake/QWKWidgets.pri")

# QuickApp.pro
include("/path/install/share/QWindowKit/qmake/QWKQuick.pri")

Visual Studio Project

See Visual Studio Guide for detailed usages.

Quick Start

Qt Widgets Application

Initialization

The following initialization should be done before any widget constructs.

#include <QtWidgets/QApplication>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    QGuiApplication::setAttribute(Qt::AA_DontCreateNativeWidgetSiblings)
    
    // ...
}

Setup Window Agent

First, setup WidgetWindowAgent for your top QWidget instance. (Each window needs its own agent.)

#include <QWKWidgets/widgetwindowagent.h>

MyWidget::MyWidget(QWidget *parent) {
    // ...
    auto agent = new QWK::WidgetWindowAgent(this);
    agent->setup(this);
    // ...
}

If you don't want to derive a new widget class or change the constructor, you can initialize the agent after the window constructs.

auto w = new MyWidget();
auto agent = new QWK::WidgetWindowAgent(w);
agent->setup(w);

You should call QWK::WidgetWindowAgent::setup() as early as possible, especially when you need to set the size constrains. QWindowKit will change some Qt internal data which will affect how Qt calculates the window size, and thus you need to let QWindowKit initialize at the very beginning.

Construct Title bar

Then, construct your title bar widget, without which the window lacks the basic interaction feature, and it's better to put it into the window's layout.

You can use the WindowBar provided by WidgetFrame in the examples as the container of your title bar components.

Let WidgetWindowAgent know which widget the title bar is.

agent->setTitleBar(myTitleBar);

Next, set system button hints to let WidgetWindowAgent know the role of the child widgets, which is important for the Snap Layout to work.

agent->setSystemButton(QWK::WindowAgentBase::WindowIcon, myTitleBar->iconButton());
agent->setSystemButton(QWK::WindowAgentBase::Minimize, myTitleBar->minButton());
agent->setSystemButton(QWK::WindowAgentBase::Maximize, myTitleBar->maxButton());
agent->setSystemButton(QWK::WindowAgentBase::Close, myTitleBar->closeButton());

Doing this does not mean that these buttons' click events are automatically associated with window actions, you still need to manually connect the signals and slots to emulate the native window behaviors.

On macOS, this step can be skipped because it is better to use the buttons provided by the system.

Last but not least, set hit-test visible hint to let WidgetWindowAgent know which widgets are willing to receive mouse events.

agent->setHitTestVisible(myTitleBar->menuBar(), true);

The rest region within the title bar will be regarded as the draggable area for the user to move the window, and thus any QWidgets inside it will not receive any user interaction events such as mouse events/focus events/etc anymore, but you can still send/post such events to these widgets manually, either through Qt API or system API.

<!-- #### Window Attributes (Experimental) On Windows 11, you can use this API to enable system effects. ```c++ agent->setWindowAttribute("mica", true); ``` Available keys: `mica`, `mica-alt`, `acrylic`, `dark-mode`. -->

Qt Quick Application

Initialization

Make sure you have registered QWindowKit into QtQuick:

#include <QWKQuick/qwkquickglobal.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    // ...
    QQmlApplicationEngine engine;
    // ...
    QWK::registerTypes(&engine);
    // ...
}

Setup Window Components

Then you can use QWindowKit data types and classes by importing its URI:

import QtQuick 2.15
import QtQuick.Window 2.15
import QWindowKit 1.0

Window {
    id: window
    visible: false // We hide it first, so we can move the window to our desired position silently.
    Component.onCompleted: {
        windowAgent.setup(window)
        window.visible = true
    }
    WindowAgent {
        id: windowAgent
        // ...
    }
}

You can omit the version number or use "auto" instead of "1.0" for the module URI if you are using Qt6.

As we just mentioned above, if you are going to set the size constrains, please do it after windowAgent.setup() is called.

Learn More

See examples for more demo use cases. The examples have no High DPI support.

Vulnerabilities

Qt Version

Hot Switch

Native Child Widget

Size Constrains

Windows 10

TODO

Special Thanks

License

QWindowKit is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License.

<!-- **You MUST keep a copyright notice of QWindowKit in a prominent place on your project, such as the README document and the About Dialog.** **You MUST NOT remove the license text from the header files and source files of QWindowKit.** -->