Draw an item in a static location relative to the QGraphicsView

Question

I would like to draw a notification that always appears in the upper right corner of my QGraphicsView. However, QGraphicsItems positions are specif

Answer 1

The naive solution of having the notification be a part of the original scene is bad - it breaks the model-view separation. You can have multiple views, all showing one scene, but generally on only one of them can the notification appear as desired.

Another simple way to do it would be to overlay a QWidget notification on top of your view. The problem is that on some architectures, overlaying regular QWidgets on top of accelerated QGLWidgets will make the former disappear. Do note that a QGraphicsView's viewport may be a QGLWidget!

Thus, the only portable solution is to explicitly do the painting on top of everything else in QGraphicsSceneView's viewport().

Below is a complete example.

// main.cpp
#include <QApplication>
#include <QGraphicsScene>
#include <QGraphicsView>
#include <QGraphicsItem>

qreal rnd() { return qrand() / (float)RAND_MAX; }

class OverlaidGraphicsView : public QGraphicsView
{
    Q_OBJECT
    QGraphicsScene * m_overlayScene;
public:
    explicit OverlaidGraphicsView(QWidget* parent = 0) :
        QGraphicsView(parent), m_overlayScene(NULL) {}
    explicit OverlaidGraphicsView(QGraphicsScene * scene = 0, QWidget * parent = 0) :
        QGraphicsView(scene, parent), m_overlayScene(NULL) {}
    void setOverlayScene(QGraphicsScene * scene) {
        if (scene == m_overlayScene) return;
        m_overlayScene = scene;
        connect(scene, SIGNAL(changed(QList<QRectF>)), SLOT(overlayChanged()));
        update();
    }
    QGraphicsScene * overlayScene() const { return m_overlayScene; }
    void paintEvent(QPaintEvent *ev) {
        QGraphicsView::paintEvent(ev);
        if (m_overlayScene) paintOverlay();
    }
    virtual void paintOverlay() {
        QPainter p(viewport());
        p.setRenderHints(renderHints());
        m_overlayScene->render(&p, viewport()->rect());
    }
    Q_SLOT void overlayChanged() { update(); }
};

class Window : public QWidget
{
    QGraphicsScene scene, notification;
    OverlaidGraphicsView * view;
    QGraphicsSimpleTextItem * item;
    int timerId;
    int time;
public:
    Window() :
        view(new OverlaidGraphicsView(&scene, this)),
        timerId(-1), time(0)
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < 20; ++ i) {
            qreal w = rnd()*0.3, h = rnd()*0.3;
            scene.addEllipse(rnd()*(1-w), rnd()*(1-h), w, h, QPen(Qt::red), QBrush(Qt::lightGray));
        }
        view->fitInView(0, 0, 1, 1);
        view->setResizeAnchor(QGraphicsView::AnchorViewCenter);
        view->setRenderHint(QPainter::Antialiasing);
        view->setOverlayScene(&notification);
        item = new QGraphicsSimpleTextItem();
        item->setPen(QPen(Qt::blue));
        item->setBrush(Qt::NoBrush);
        item->setPos(95, 0);
        notification.addItem(item);
        notification.addRect(0, 0, 100, 0, Qt::NoPen, Qt::NoBrush); // strut
        timerId = startTimer(1000);
        QTimerEvent ev(timerId);
        timerEvent(&ev);
    }
    void resizeEvent(QResizeEvent * ev) {
        view->resize(size());
        view->fitInView(0, 0, 1, 1, Qt::KeepAspectRatio);
        QWidget::resizeEvent(ev);
    }
    void timerEvent(QTimerEvent * ev) {
        if (ev->timerId() != timerId) return;
        item->setText(QString::number(time++));
    }
};

int main(int argc, char ** argv)
{
    QApplication a(argc, argv);

    Window window;
    window.show();
    a.exec();
}

#include "main.moc"