Pieces Coloring Permutation + Keyboard Input with QKeyEvents

[Necktschnagge]

Conclusion

Features and Fixes

• use event filters instead of grabKeyboard() for in-game keyboard input
• use dynamically created color vector with up to 11 colors
  • dynamically created menu actions for color selection
  • color selection by keyboard input
  • show selected piece color in status bar

Details

dependencies:

• Feature status bar #73
• dynamically creating menu items #123
• Fix qsignalmapper mappedint error #126 solving Investigation or drop a job #125

feature requests:

• Add MenuBar->Input->KeyCapture->{ ON AUTO OFF } (only valid as long as we grabKeyboard())

manual tests prior to merge:

• Whenever game is stopped, Color select Actions are removed from Menubar.
• Selected color is shown in StatusBar

TODOs:

• Remove the color selection Menu Actions in *.ui

Acquired Knowledge:

Qt - informative:

• dynamically added menu items (QActions) -> how to connect signals / slots?
  • see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24943569/dynamically-generated-menu-items-figuring-out-which-one-was-clicked
• Qt Framework Design to be understood here:
  • https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/eventsandfilters.html
  • https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/signalsandslots.html

design decisions:

• Disadvantages of grabKeyboard() on the level of MainWindow

  • It prevents the QKeyEvents from proccessing in children of QMainWindow roughly said.
    • void MainWindow::keyPressEvent(QKeyEvent* e) eats the QKeyEvents.
    • In consequence, arrow keys stop working in mainMenu -> requires a "is focus on main menu" - check to turn on / off grabKeyboard()

• Can we use the grabKeyboard on just the ui elements outside menubar-> SVG, ListView, TreeView in our case?

  • causes need for new inheriting classes providing the void keyPressEvent(QKeyEvent* e);
  • there are better options, see below

• How to check for keyboard input when focus is on one of a certain list of widgets?

  • create a class e.g. class controlKeyEventAgent inheriting from QObject that has a member function

bool eventFilter(QObject* object, QEvent* event) override;

• • Install event filters on all UI elements where QKeyEvents should be caught using

ui->graphicsView->installEventFilter(&controlKeyEventAgent);

[Necktschnagge]

moved away

[Necktschnagge]

needs some DEBUG / DEVELOP mode.

[Necktschnagge]

to be resolved in

• Rethink visibility of menuBar items #132

[Necktschnagge]

Broken by last commit:

• Solver Mode: String output in listview does not match the colors anymore. Use the color vector there too -> fixed
• Solver Mode: keyboard input does not work anymore. ->fixed

[Necktschnagge]

color selection via main menu: permutation missing -> fixed in 6ab36ec