This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
9.4 Q_OBJECT and moc: A Checklist
QObject supports features not normally available in C++ objects.
- Children (see the first two sections of Chapter 9)
- Signals and slots (see Section 9.3.3)
- MetaObjects, metaproperties, metamethods (see Chapter 15)
- qobject_cast (see Section 15.3)
These features are only possible through the use of generated code. The Meta Object Compiler, moc, generates additional functions for each QObject-derived class that uses the macro. Generated code can be found in files with names moc_filename.cpp.
This means that some errors from the compiler/linker may be confuscated5 when moc is not able to find or process your classes. To help ensure that moc processes each of your QObject-derived classes, here are some guidelines for writing C++ code and qmake project files.
- Each class definition should go in its own .h file.
- Its implementation should go in a corresponding .cpp file.
- The header file should be "#ifndef wrapped" to avoid multiple inclusion.
- Each source (.cpp) file should be listed in the SOURCES variable of the project file, otherwise it will not be compiled.
- The header file should be listed in the HEADERS variable of the .pro file. Without this, moc will not preprocess the file.
- The Q_OBJECT macro must appear inside the class definition, so that moc will know to generate code for it.