Accessing MainWindow Actions through shortcuts from a QDialog (modeless)

[sergex]

Hi,

I have an action with a keyboard shortcut in my main window that starts a processing operation. But now I made a QDialog that pops up when a button is pressed, and in that dialog I set the value that the processing operation in the main window needs. So for this I made the dialog modeless but while I'm on the dialog the keyboard shortcuts of the mainwindow don't work until I actually click on the mainwindow again. Since I vary the parameter in the QDialog I would like to not need to always click on the mainwindow after setting a value in the dialog to start a "process".

I tried doing:

@
...
processAction = new QAction(this)
processAction->setShortcut(QKeySequence(Qt::Key_3));
...

myDialog = new QDialog(this)
myDialog->addAction(processAction);
@

But this didn't work. Is there a way to do this with dialogs??
Thanks.

[Seba84]

Hello Sergex,
I tried to do something like this some time ago but in fact if the action is not used (for example in a toolBar or menu) is like it isn't activated, and does nothing. You can define a function inside the QDialog which manages QKeyEvents. You should re-implement the virtual function: @void keyPressEvent(QKeyEvent *);@ inside your QDialog. Then you can chose what to do when a certain key is pressed. For example:
@void YourDialog::keyPressEvent(QKeyEvent *event) {
if(event->key() == Qt::Key_3) { //your key
(...)
}
}@ Hope this helps.
Bye!
Sebastian

[Chris H]

Could you simply automatically reactivate the main window after showing the dialog, or is it important that the dialog be selected?

[goetz]

Did you try to create a [[Doc:QShortcut]] and set the shortcutContext to Qt::ApplicationShortcut?

[sergex]

Thanks for the suggestions!

Seba84
I tried this and I ran into a very strange behavior that I don't know how to resolve. I reimplemented the keyPressEvent of my dialog class precisely how you said and for some reason I noticed that the event never gets reached when I press any keys except the Shift, control or alt keys.
I simply put a debug line like this:

@
void myDialog::keyPressEvent(QKeyEvent *event) {
qDebug("Key Press Event Reached")
if(event->key() == Qt::Key_3) {
(...)
}
}
@

and I never get "Key Press Event Reached" by pressing keys unless I press any of the modifiers..

Volker
Yes, I tried your suggestion, I don't know if I'm doing something wrong but it didn't work for me.
I did in my dialog class:

@
myShortcut = new QShortcut(this);
myShortcut->setKey(Qt::Key_Space); //Or any other non modifier key
myShortcut->setContext(Qt::ApplicationShortcut);
connect(myShortCut, SIGNAL(activated()), this, SLOT(handleShortCutSlot()));
@
The handling slot is never entered in this case.

I would really appreciate any further tips!

Thanks.

[goetz]

The snippet works for me.

But watch out! If you're in a text or line edit or any other widget that takes the space key for any action, the shortcut will not trigger!