Manipulating Object and Value Types#

inject-code#

The inject-code node inserts the given code into the generated code for the given type or function, and it is a child of the object-type, value-type, modify-function and add-function nodes. It may contain insert-template child nodes.

<inject-code class="native | target"
             position="beginning | end" since="..."
             file="[file]"
             snippet="[label]"/>

The class attribute specifies which module of the generated code that will be affected by the code injection (see Code Generation Terminology). The class attribute accepts the following values:

  • native: The c++ code

  • target: The binding code

If the position attribute is set to beginning (the default), the code is inserted at the beginning of the function. If it is set to end, the code is inserted at the end of the function.

For a detailed description of how to above attributes interact, see Code Injection Semantics.

The optional file attribute specifies the file name (see Using Snippets From External Files).

The optional snippet attribute specifies the snippet label (see Using Snippets From External Files).

There are a number of placeholders which are replaced when injecting code (see Type System Variables).

There are severals ways to specify the code:

Embedding Code into XML#

The code can be embedded into XML (be careful to use the correct XML entities for characters like ‘<’, ‘>’, ‘&’):

<value-type>
    <inject-code class="native | target"
        position="beginning | end" since="...">
        // the code
    </inject-code>
</value-type>

Using a Template Specified in XML#

It is possible to create code templates for reuse in XML (see Using Code Templates). This allows for replacing of custom placeholders.

<value-type>
    <inject-code class="native | target" class="native | target">
        <insert-template name="template_name"/>
    </inject-code>
</value-type>

Using Snippets From External Files#

Code or documentation snippets can also be retrieved from external files found in the typesystem search path (see -T<path>, --typesystem-paths=<path>[:<path>:...]).

<value-type>
    <inject-code class="native | target"
        position="beginning | end" since="..."
        file="external_source.cpp"
        snippet="label"/>
</value-type>

In the external file external_source.cpp, the code between annotations of the form:

// @snippet label
...
// @snippet label

will be extracted.

modify-field#

The modify-field node allows you to alter the access privileges for a given C++ field when mapping it onto the target language, and it is a child of an object-type or a value-type node.

<object-type>
    <modify-field name="..."
        write="true | false"
        read="true | false"
        remove="true | false"
        opaque-container = "yes | no"
        snake-case="yes | no | both" />
</object-type>

The name attribute is the name of the field, the optional write and read attributes specify the field’s access privileges in the target language API (both are set to true by default).

The remove attribute is an optional boolean attribute, which can mark the field to be discarded on generation.

The optional rename attribute can be used to change the name of the given field in the generated target language API.

The optional opaque-container attribute specifies whether an opaque container should be returned on read access (see Opaque Containers).

The optional snake-case attribute allows for overriding the value specified on the class entry or typesystem element.

modify-function#

The modify-function node allows you to modify a given C++ function when mapping it onto the target language, and it is a child of a function, namespace-type, object-type or a value-type node. Use the modify-argument node to specify which argument the modification affects.

<object-type>
    <modify-function signature="..."
                     since="..."
                     remove="true | false"
                     access="public | private | protected"
                     allow-thread="true | auto | false"
                     exception-handling="no | auto-off | auto-on | yes"
                     final="true | false"
                     overload-number="number"
                     rename="..."
                     snake-case="yes | no | both"
                     deprecated = "true | false" />
</object-type>

The signature attribute is a normalized C++ signature, excluding return values but including potential const declarations. It is not required when modify-function appears as a child of a function node to modify a global function.

The since attribute specify the API version when this function was modified.

The allow-thread attribute specifies whether a function should be wrapped into Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS and Py_END_ALLOW_THREADS, that is, temporarily release the GIL (global interpreter lock). Doing so is required for any thread-related function (wait operations), functions that might call a virtual function (potentially reimplemented in Python), and recommended for lengthy I/O operations or similar. It has performance costs, though. The value auto means that it will be turned off for functions for which it is deemed to be safe, for example, simple getters. The attribute defaults to false.

The exception-handling attribute specifies whether to generate exception handling code (nest the function call into try / catch statements). It accepts the following values:

  • no, false: Do not generate exception handling code

  • auto-off: Generate exception handling code for functions declaring a non-empty throw list

  • auto-on: Generate exception handling code unless function declares noexcept

  • yes, true: Always generate exception handling code

The optional overload-number attribute specifies the position of the overload when checking arguments. Typically, when a number of overloads exists, as for in example in Qt:

void QPainter::drawLine(QPointF, QPointF);
void QPainter::drawLine(QPoint, QPoint);

they will be reordered such that the check for matching arguments for the one taking a QPoint is done first. This is to avoid a potentially costly implicit conversion from QPoint to QPointF when using the 2nd overload. There are cases though in which this is not desired; most prominently when a class inherits from a container and overloads exist for both types as is the case for the QPolygon class:

class QPolygon : public QList<QPoint> {};

void QPainter::drawPolygon(QPolygon);
void QPainter::drawPolygon(QList<QPoint>);

By default, the overload taking a QList will be checked first, trying to avoid constructing a QPolygon from QList. The type check for a list of points will succeed for a parameter of type QPolygon, too, since it inherits QList. This presents a problem since the sequence type check is costly due to it checking that each container element is a QPoint. It is thus preferable to check for the QPolygon overload first. This is achieved by specifying numbers as follows:

<object-type name="QPainter">
    <modify-function signature="drawPolygon(QPolygon)" overload-number="0"/>
    <modify-function signature="drawPolygon(QList&lt;QPoint&gt;)" overload-number="1"/>
</object-type>

Numbers should be given for all overloads; otherwise, the order will be in declaration order.

The optional final attribute can be specified for virtual functions and disables generating the code for overriding the function in Python (native call). This is useful when the result type is not constructible.

The remove attribute is an optional boolean attribute, which can mark the function to be discarded on generation.

The optional rename attribute can be used to change the name of the given function in the generated target language API.

The optional access attribute changes the access privileges of the given function in the generated target language API.

The optional snake-case attribute allows for overriding the value specified on the class entry or typesystem element.

The optional deprecated attribute allows for overriding deprecation as detected by the C++ attribute. It works in both ways.

add-function#

The add-function node allows you to add a given function onto the target language, and it is a child of an object-type or value-type nodes if the function is supposed to be a method, or namespace-type and typesystem if the function is supposed to be a function inside a namespace or a global function. It may contain modify-argument nodes.

Typically when adding a function some code must be injected to provide the function logic. This can be done using the inject-code node.

<object-type>
    <add-function signature="..." return-type="..."
                  access="public | protected"
                  overload-number="number"
                  static="yes | no" classmethod="yes | no"
                  since="..."/>
</object-type>

The return-type attribute defaults to void, the access to public and the static one to no.

The since attribute specifies the API version when this function was added.

The classmethod attribute specifies whether the function should be a Python class method. It sets the METH_CLASS flag which means that PyTypeObject instead of an instance PyObject is passed as self, which needs to be handled in injected code.

For the optional attribute overload-number, see modify-function.

Note that the label “static” in Qt’s class documentation almost always means that a Python classmethod should be generated, because an object’s class is always accessible from the static C++ code, while Python needs the explicit “self” parameter that classmethod provides.

In order to create keyword argument supporting function parameters, enclose the specific function parameter with a @ in the signature field.

<add-function signature="foo(int @parameter1@,float @parameter2@)">
    ...
</add-function>

With keyword arguments, add-function makes it easy to specify a default argument within the signature field

<add-function signature="foo(int @parameter1@=1,float @parameter2@=2)">
    ...
</add-function>

See Sequence Protocol for adding the respective functions.

declare-function#

The declare-function node allows you to declare a function present in the type and it is a child of an object-type or value-type nodes if the function is supposed to be a method, or namespace-type and typesystem if the function is supposed to be a function inside a namespace or a global function. It may contain modify-argument nodes.

<container-type>
    <declare-function signature="..." return-type="..." since="..."
                      allow-thread="true | auto | false"
                      exception-handling="off | auto-off | auto-on | on"
                      overload-number="number"
                      snake-case="yes | no | both"/>
</container-type>

The return-type attribute defaults to void.

The since attribute specifies the API version when this function was added.

For the optional attributes allow-thread, exception-handling, overload-number and snake-case, see modify-function.

This is useful to make functions known to shiboken which its code parser does not detect. For example, in Qt 6, the append() function of the QList<T> container takes an argument of parameter_type which is specialized to T for simple types and const T & for complex types by some template expression which the code parser cannot resolve. In that case, the function can be declared with a simple signature:

<container-type name="QList">
    <declare-function signature="append(T)"/>
</container-type>

This tells shiboken a public function of that signature exists and bindings will be created in specializations of QList.

add-pymethoddef#

The add-pymethoddef element allows you to add a free function to the PyMethodDef array of the type. No argument or result conversion is generated, allowing for variadic functions and more flexible arguments checking.

<add-pymethoddef name="..." function="..." flags="..." doc="..."
                 signatures="..."/>

The name attribute specifies the name.

The function attribute specifies the implementation (a static function of type PyCFunction).

The flags attribute specifies the flags (typically METH_VARARGS, see Common Object Structures).

The optional doc attribute specifies the documentation to be set to the ml_doc field.

The optional signatures attribute specifies a semicolon-separated list of signatures of the function.

property#

The property element allows you to specify properties consisting of a type and getter and setter functions.

It may appear as a child of a complex type such as object-type or value-type.

If the PySide6 extension is not present, code will be generated using the PyGetSetDef struct, similar to what is generated for fields.

If the PySide6 extension is present, those properties complement the properties obtained from the Q_PROPERTY macro in Qt-based code. The properties will be handled in libpyside unless code generation is forced.

<property name="..." type="..." get="..." set="..."
          generate-getsetdef="yes | no" since="..."/>

The name attribute specifies the name of the property, the type attribute specifies the C++ type and the get attribute specifies the name of the accessor function.

The optional set attribute specifies name of the setter function.

The optional generate-getsetdef attribute specifies whether to generate code for if the PySide6 extension is present (indicating this property is not handled by libpyside). It defaults to no.

The optional since attribute specifies the API version when this property appears.

For a typical C++ class, like:

class Test {
public:
    int getValue() const;
    void setValue();
};

value can then be specified to be a property:

<value-type name="Test">
    <property name="value" type="int" get="getValue" set="setValue"/>

With that, a more pythonic style can be used:

test = Test()
test.value = 42

For Qt classes (with the PySide6 extension present), additional setters and getters that do not appear as Q_PROPERTY, can be specified to be properties:

<object-type name="QMainWindow">
    <property name="centralWidget" type="QWidget *"
              get="centralWidget" set="setCentralWidget"/>

in addition to the normal properties of QMainWindow defined for Qt Designer usage.

Note

In the Qt coding style, the property name typically conflicts with the getter name. It is recommended to exclude the getter from the wrapper generation using the remove function modification.

configuration#

The configuration element allows you to generate a preprocessor condition excluding a type depending on an expression into the module header. This is specifically tailored to the Qt Feature system , but may also be used for similar systems.

It may appear as a child of a complex type such as object-type or value-type.

<configuration condition="..."/>

The condition attribute specifies the preprocessor condition.

This is an alternative way of omitting classes depending on some configuration (see also option --drop-type-entries="<TypeEntry0>[;TypeEntry1;...]") intended for building several configurations from one generated source tree, but still requires listing the correct source files in the CMakeLists.txt file.