Custom Input Method

[deu439]

Hello,
I would like to create a custom input method for applications that use the Qt for gui.
What I have learned so far is that I have to subclass the QInputContext (in QT4) and I found this example http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/tools-inputpanel.html which kind of helps. But is it possible to make other applications use this custom input context without altering the source code?
Thanks for any replies.

[SGaist]

Hi and welcome to devnet,

AFAIK yes, this will require you to create a QInputContextPlugin and then store that plugin in the proper places so Qt can load it.

[deu439]

Thank you, but how do I make all the desktop applications build on Qt use this plugin and the input context it represents?

[SGaist]

Can you describe your use case with OS and Qt version ?

[deu439]

Well I would like to create input method that would automatically substitute abbreviated words with full lenght words. It should work as implementation of "zavpis" which is a system of abbreviations developed for quicker keyboard input in the czech language.
OS: Slackware 14.0
Qt 4.8.2

[SGaist]

Then you can install the plugin in your distribution Qt's and all application will use it

[deu439]

So I have built a simple input context plugin and put it into QT4DIR/plugins/inputmethods
How do I find out if qt has loaded the plugin? I cant get any application use this plugin. Cant find any qt setting which would make it use this plugin.

[SGaist]

start your application with the environment variable: QT_DEBUG_PLUGINS=1 to see what is happening with the plugins

[deu439]

Oh thank you for your patience, QT_DEBUG_PLUGINS=1 revealed that the applications look for implementation of reset() method in the QInputContext subclass which they didnt find. So I just put there simple void reset(){} and it works fine now.
Anyway I think there is a little gap in the documentation as I never read anywhere that the input method plugins would get loaded in any application that has an input widget. I was near thinking that only implementation of XIM protocol would meet my requirements.

[SGaist]

Something strange here, reset is a pure virtual function, so to build your QInputContext inherited class you should have implemented this method.

Did you read the "Plugin Classes" page in the documentation ? Might contain more information.