Qt 4.8: QVariantAnimation Class Reference

Qt Reference Documentation

# QVariantAnimation Class Reference

The QVariantAnimation class provides an abstract base class for animations. More...

     #include <QVariantAnimation>

Inherits: QAbstractAnimation.

Inherited by: QPropertyAnimation.

This class was introduced in Qt 4.6.

- List of all members, including inherited members

## Public Types

typedef | KeyValue
typedef | KeyValues

## Properties

currentValue : const QVariant duration : int easingCurve : QEasingCurve | endValue : QVariant startValue : QVariant

- 6 properties inherited from QAbstractAnimation
- 1 property inherited from QObject

## Public Functions

| QVariantAnimation ( QObject * parent = 0 )
| ~QVariantAnimation ()
QVariant | currentValue () const
QEasingCurve | easingCurve () const
QVariant | endValue () const
QVariant | keyValueAt ( qreal step ) const
KeyValues | keyValues () const
void | setDuration ( int msecs )
void | setEasingCurve ( const QEasingCurve & easing )
void | setEndValue ( const QVariant & value )
void | setKeyValueAt ( qreal step, const QVariant & value )
void | setKeyValues ( const KeyValues & keyValues )
void | setStartValue ( const QVariant & value )
QVariant | startValue () const

## Reimplemented Public Functions

virtual int | duration () const

- 11 public functions inherited from QAbstractAnimation
- 29 public functions inherited from QObject

## Signals

void | valueChanged ( const QVariant & value )

- 4 signals inherited from QAbstractAnimation
- 1 signal inherited from QObject

## Protected Functions

virtual QVariant | interpolated ( const QVariant & from, const QVariant & to, qreal progress ) const
virtual void | updateCurrentValue ( const QVariant & value ) = 0

## Reimplemented Protected Functions

virtual bool | event ( QEvent * event )
virtual void | updateCurrentTime ( int )
virtual void | updateState ( QAbstractAnimation::State newState, QAbstractAnimation::State oldState )

- 4 protected functions inherited from QAbstractAnimation
- 8 protected functions inherited from QObject

## Related Non-Members

void | qRegisterAnimationInterpolator ( QVariant(* ) ( const T & from, const T & to, qreal progress ) func )

### Additional Inherited Members

- 6 public slots inherited from QAbstractAnimation
- 1 public slot inherited from QObject
- 7 static public members inherited from QObject

## Detailed Description

The QVariantAnimation class provides an abstract base class for animations.

This class is part of The Animation Framework. It serves as a base class for property and item animations, with functions for shared functionality.

QVariantAnimation cannot be used directly as it is an abstract class; it has a pure virtual method called updateCurrentValue(). The class performs interpolation over QVariants, but leaves using the interpolated values to its subclasses. Currently, Qt provides QPropertyAnimation, which animates Qt properties. See the QPropertyAnimation class description if you wish to animate such properties.

You can then set start and end values for the property by calling setStartValue() and setEndValue(), and finally call start() to start the animation. QVariantAnimation will interpolate the property of the target object and emit valueChanged(). To react to a change in the current value you have to reimplement the updateCurrentValue() virtual function.

It is also possible to set values at specified steps situated between the start and end value. The interpolation will then touch these points at the specified steps. Note that the start and end values are defined as the key values at 0.0 and 1.0.

There are two ways to affect how QVariantAnimation interpolates the values. You can set an easing curve by calling setEasingCurve(), and configure the duration by calling setDuration(). You can change how the QVariants are interpolated by creating a subclass of QVariantAnimation, and reimplementing the virtual interpolated() function.

Subclassing QVariantAnimation can be an alternative if you have QVariants that you do not wish to declare as Qt properties. Note, however, that you in most cases will be better off declaring your QVariant as a property.

Not all QVariant types are supported. Below is a list of currently supported QVariant types:

- Int
- Double
- Float
- QLine
- QLineF
- QPoint
- QPointF
- QSize
- QSizeF
- QRect
- QRectF
- QColor

If you need to interpolate other variant types, including custom types, you have to implement interpolation for these yourself. To do this, you can register an interpolator function for a given type. This function takes 3 parameters: the start value, the end value and the current progress.

Example:

     QVariant myColorInterpolator(const QColor &start, const QColor &end, qreal progress)
     {
         ...
         return QColor(...);
     }
     ...
     qRegisterAnimationInterpolator<QColor>(myColorInterpolator);

Another option is to reimplement interpolated(), which returns interpolation values for the value being interpolated.

See also QPropertyAnimation, QAbstractAnimation, and The Animation Framework.

## Member Type Documentation

### typedef QVariantAnimation::KeyValue

This is a typedef for QPair<qreal, QVariant>.

### typedef QVariantAnimation::KeyValues

This is a typedef for QVector<KeyValue>

## Property Documentation

### currentValue : const QVariant

This property holds the current value of the animation.

This property describes the current value; an interpolated value between the start value and the end value, using the current time for progress. The value itself is obtained from interpolated(), which is called repeatedly as the animation is running.

QVariantAnimation calls the virtual updateCurrentValue() function when the current value changes. This is particularly useful for subclasses that need to track updates. For example, QPropertyAnimation uses this function to animate Qt properties.

Access functions:

QVariant | currentValue () const

Notifier signal:

void | valueChanged ( const QVariant & value )

See also startValue and endValue.

### duration : int

This property holds the duration of the animation.

This property describes the duration in milliseconds of the animation. The default duration is 250 milliseconds.

Access functions:

virtual int | duration () const
void | setDuration ( int msecs )

See also QAbstractAnimation::duration().

### easingCurve : QEasingCurve

This property holds the easing curve of the animation.

This property defines the easing curve of the animation. By default, a linear easing curve is used, resulting in linear interpolation. Other curves are provided, for instance, QEasingCurve::InCirc, which provides a circular entry curve. Another example is QEasingCurve::InOutElastic, which provides an elastic effect on the values of the interpolated variant.

QVariantAnimation will use the QEasingCurve::valueForProgress() to transform the "normalized progress" (currentTime / totalDuration) of the animation into the effective progress actually used by the animation. It is this effective progress that will be the progress when interpolated() is called. Also, the steps in the keyValues are referring to this effective progress.

The easing curve is used with the interpolator, the interpolated() virtual function, the animation's duration, and iterationCount, to control how the current value changes as the animation progresses.

Access functions:

QEasingCurve | easingCurve () const
void | setEasingCurve ( const QEasingCurve & easing )

### endValue : QVariant

This property holds the end value of the animation.

This property describes the end value of the animation.

Access functions:

QVariant | endValue () const
void | setEndValue ( const QVariant & value )

See also startValue.

### startValue : QVariant

This property holds the optional start value of the animation.

This property describes the optional start value of the animation. If omitted, or if a null QVariant is assigned as the start value, the animation will use the current position of the end when the animation is started.

Access functions:

QVariant | startValue () const
void | setStartValue ( const QVariant & value )

See also endValue.

## Member Function Documentation

### QVariantAnimation::QVariantAnimation ( QObject * parent = 0 )

Construct a QVariantAnimation object. parent is passed to QAbstractAnimation's constructor.

### QVariantAnimation::~QVariantAnimation ()

Destroys the animation.

### bool QVariantAnimation::event ( QEvent * event )`[virtual protected]`

Reimplemented from QObject::event().

### QVariant QVariantAnimation::interpolated ( const QVariant & from, const QVariant & to, qreal progress ) const`[virtual protected]`

This virtual function returns the linear interpolation between variants from and to, at progress, usually a value between 0 and 1. You can reimplement this function in a subclass of QVariantAnimation to provide your own interpolation algorithm.

Note that in order for the interpolation to work with a QEasingCurve that return a value smaller than 0 or larger than 1 (such as QEasingCurve::InBack) you should make sure that it can extrapolate. If the semantic of the datatype does not allow extrapolation this function should handle that gracefully.

You should call the QVariantAnimation implementation of this function if you want your class to handle the types already supported by Qt (see class QVariantAnimation description for a list of supported types).

See also QEasingCurve.

### QVariant QVariantAnimation::keyValueAt ( qreal step ) const

Returns the key frame value for the given step. The given step must be in the range 0 to 1. If there is no KeyValue for step, it returns an invalid QVariant.

See also keyValues() and setKeyValueAt().

### KeyValues QVariantAnimation::keyValues () const

Returns the key frames of this animation.

See also keyValueAt() and setKeyValues().

### void QVariantAnimation::setKeyValueAt ( qreal step, const QVariant & value )

Creates a key frame at the given step with the given value. The given step must be in the range 0 to 1.

See also setKeyValues() and keyValueAt().

### void QVariantAnimation::setKeyValues ( const KeyValues & keyValues )

Replaces the current set of key frames with the given keyValues. the step of the key frames must be in the range 0 to 1.

See also keyValues() and keyValueAt().

### void QVariantAnimation::updateCurrentTime ( int )`[virtual protected]`

Reimplemented from QAbstractAnimation::updateCurrentTime().

### void QVariantAnimation::updateCurrentValue ( const QVariant & value )`[pure virtual protected]`

This pure virtual function is called every time the animation's current value changes. The value argument is the new current value.

See also currentValue.

### void QVariantAnimation::updateState ( QAbstractAnimation::State newState, QAbstractAnimation::State oldState )`[virtual protected]`

Reimplemented from QAbstractAnimation::updateState().

### void QVariantAnimation::valueChanged ( const QVariant & value )`[signal]`

QVariantAnimation emits this signal whenever the current value changes.

See also currentValue, startValue, and endValue.

## Related Non-Members

### void qRegisterAnimationInterpolator ( QVariant(* ) ( const T & from, const T & to, qreal progress ) func )

Registers a custom interpolator func for the template type `T`. The interpolator has to be registered before the animation is constructed. To unregister (and use the default interpolator) set func to 0.

Note: This function is thread-safe.