[PySide] wait for QFileDialog to close

Sean Fisk sean at seanfisk.com
Wed Dec 11 05:45:55 CET 2013


Frank,

Your example is a good demonstration of QFileDialog‘s signals. However,
since the processing runs in the GUI thread, the progress bar is virtually
useless as the GUI has no time to update it. It starts empty, the
application hangs, and then it is filled when the processing is done.

Janwillem,

As I see it, if you would like a progress bar, you have three options:

   1. Call QCoreApplication.processEvents()<http://seanfisk.github.io/pyside-docs/pyside/PySide/QtCore/QCoreApplication.html#PySide.QtCore.PySide.QtCore.QCoreApplication.processEvents>during
your processing code. This is not always a great idea, and more of a
   hack than a solution. But it usually works.
   2. Split your processing into chunks as in this
example<http://qt-project.org/wiki/Threads_Events_QObjects#72c9aabadf52900fbf3d4c1ff2b6008c>.
   However, the code is a bit convoluted and it still runs in the GUI thread.
   The whole page that contains that example is a great read for asynchronous
   programming.
   3. Send your processing to a thread, and dispatch events from the thread
   indicating the progress.

The first two solutions involve running processing code within the GUI
thread. If any step of the processing takes longer than a second, then it’s
probably not a good idea as the user will see the application hang. Here is
an example implementation of the third solution:

#!/usr/bin/env python
# Example: Asynchronously process a directory of files with a progress bar.
import sysimport osimport time
from PySide import QtCore, QtGui
class ProcessingThread(QtCore.QThread):
    # Fired when each file is processed.
    file_processed = QtCore.Signal(int, str)

    def __init__(self, parent=None):
        super(ProcessingThread, self).__init__(parent)
        self.files = []

    def run(self):
        # Code that's run in the thread.
        for i, filename in enumerate(self.files):
            # The actual code for one file goes here. Stubbed out with
            # time.sleep() for now.
            time.sleep(0.5)
            print 'Processed:', filename
            # Send update to the GUI thread.
            self.file_processed.emit(i + 1, filename)
class MyWidget(QtGui.QWidget):
    def __init__(self, parent=None):
        super(MyWidget, self).__init__(parent)

        # Setup UI.
        self._layout = QtGui.QVBoxLayout(self)
        self._button = QtGui.QPushButton('Open files...')
        self._progress = QtGui.QProgressBar()
        self._filelist = QtGui.QPlainTextEdit()
        self._layout.addWidget(self._button)
        self._layout.addWidget(self._filelist)
        self._layout.addWidget(self._progress)

        # Setup events.
        self._button.clicked.connect(self._button_clicked)

        # Create the thread. Note that this doesn't actually _start_ it.
        self._thread = ProcessingThread()
        self._thread.file_processed.connect(self._file_processed)

        # We need to wait for the thread before exiting. Either use this or
        # don't let the user close the window if processing is happening. See
        # the next method in this class.
        QtCore.QCoreApplication.instance().aboutToQuit.connect(
            self._thread.wait)

    # def closeEvent(self, event):
    #     # This is an alternative to waiting for the threads. Just don't let
    #     # the user close the window.
    #     if self._thread.isRunning():
    #         QtGui.QMessageBox.critical(
    #             self, 'Processing',
    #             'Cannot exit while processing is happening.')
    #         event.ignore()
    #     else:
    #         event.accept()

    def _button_clicked(self):
        # If we are already running the processing, produce an error.
        if self._thread.isRunning():
            QtGui.QMessageBox.critical(
                self, 'Processing',
                'Can only process one directory at a time.')
            return

        # Get the directory name from the user.
        dir_name = QtGui.QFileDialog.getExistingDirectory(
            parent=self,
            caption='Choose files...',
            dir=os.getcwd())

        # Activate the main dialog as it will be deactivated for some reason
        # after the file dialog closes (at least on my machine).
        self.activateWindow()

        # Get the list of files in the directory and prime the progress bar.
        files = os.listdir(dir_name)

        # Set values for progress bar.
        self._progress.setRange(0, len(files))
        self._progress.setValue(0)

        # Create and start the thread.
        self._thread.files = files
        self._thread.start()

    def _file_processed(self, num_files_processed, filename):
        # Called for each file that is processed.
        self._filelist.appendPlainText(filename)
        self._progress.setValue(num_files_processed)
if __name__ == '__main__':
    app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
    w = MyWidget()
    w.show()
    w.raise_()
    raise SystemExit(app.exec_())

This is all fine, but it might not solve your original problem of the file
dialog not closing. On my Mac, the file dialog is gone as soon as the call
to getExistingDirectory() finishes. However, since I don’t have a runnable
portion of your code, I can’t really test it. I would recommend attempting
to run my example to see if it exhibits the same problem as your program.
Hope this helps!

Cheers,



--
Sean Fisk


On Tue, Dec 10, 2013 at 4:43 PM, Frank Rueter | OHUfx <frank at ohufx.com>wrote:

>  Here is an example using signals/slots
>
>
> On 11/12/13 09:56, Janwillem van Dijk wrote:
>
>  Here is the snippet: It reads the filenames in a folder and determines
> new names for photo's based on the exif info.
>
> I apreciate that threading might be a solution but the problem seems too
> simple for that. Can you give an example on how to use the signal concept?
>
>
> self.outFolder = QFileDialog.getExistingDirectory(
>
> caption='Destination folder', dir=self.defOutFolder)
>
> self.outFiles = []
>
> if self.outFolder:
>
> self.outFolder = self.outFolder.replace('\\', '/')
>
> self.lineEdit_dest.setText(self.outFolder)
>
> self.progressBar.setRange(0, self.numFiles)
>
> for i, fname in enumerate(self.inFiles):
>
> self.progressBar.setValue(i + 1)
>
> newpath, newfname = rename_photo(self.inFolder, fname)
>
> newpath = path.join(self.outFolder, newpath)
>
> self.outFiles.append([fname, newpath, newfname])
>
> s = fname + ' --> ' + self.outFolder + '\n'
>
> s += path.join(newpath, newfname).replace(self.outFolder, '')
>
> self.plainTextEdit_dest.appendPlainText(s)
>
>
>
> On 10/12/13 21:35, Sean Fisk wrote:
>
>  Hi Janwillem,
>
> Are you running the “lengthy part that processes a files list” within the
> GUI thread? If so, you will probably see your GUI hang while this is
> happening (you won’t be able to click or do anything). In this case, you
> should consider running the processing in a different thread using QThread<http://seanfisk.github.io/pyside-docs/pyside/PySide/QtCore/QThread.html>or
> QThreadPool<http://seanfisk.github.io/pyside-docs/pyside/PySide/QtCore/QThreadPool.html>
> .
>
> Can you post the relevant part of the code?
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>  --
> Sean Fisk
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 10, 2013 at 3:17 PM, Janwillem van Dijk <jwevandijk at xs4all.nl>wrote:
>
>>  Hi, I have a PySide script that uses QFileDialog.getExistingDirectory().
>> After clicking the Open button the script proceeds with a lengthy part that
>> processes a files list and writes to a QPlainTextEdit. Unfortunately the
>> QFileDialog widget does only disappear after this processing is finished,
>> hiding the QPlainTextEdit.
>>
>> How can I make that the QFileDialog widget is gone before the processing
>> starts?
>>
>> Cheers, Janwillem
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> PySide mailing list
>> PySide at qt-project.org
>> http://lists.qt-project.org/mailman/listinfo/pyside
>>
>>
>
>
>
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