Create/Preview Custom Widget without using forms

[Sh1gs]

Hello,

I have created custom widgets using forms before with great success. However, my current work project is to create custom widgets without the use of the form. Is there a way to preview the custom widget to see how it looks before actually building the plugin project, and then adding it to another application? Thanks!

[mrjj]

Hi
If you don't use UI file and all looks comes from code,
how would you be able to
preview it before code is running ?

But!

You can use promotion feature to see it running very easy without adding the an actual plugin. (to creator/designer)
http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/designer-using-custom-widgets.html

See "Promoting Widgets"

[Sh1gs]

@mrjj

The document you provided is a little confusing. I assume that the promotion feature is done on the application side? Is it possible to do so, while still in the development stage of the widget? Let's say I'm building a calculator, but I want to see how my layouts are looking so far, but my entire calculator widget is not yet complete. Is there a way to view what is created up to that point?

[jsulm]

@Sh1gs The promotion feature is for Qt Designer. That means it is used during designing your widget in Qt Designer. So, you would need to use Designer. As @mrjj said it is just not possible to preview widgets created manually in code without executing the app.

[Sh1gs]

@jsulm

I figured that was the case, but I wanted to be sure. I will just make a test application of the widget I want to create and when all that coding works, I'll go ahead and make the custom plugin. Thanks for your inputs!

[mrjj]

@Sh1gs
Just as a note.
You can visually design the UI in Designer and then just grab the c++ code. ;)
If you look inside the setupUI, there is the code for what u have"drawn"