PySide’s resource system relies on compiling all resource files before using them, which goes against the normal python workflow. To improve upon this, qte provides functions to dynamically load resources and user interfaces.
Resources should be handled in a similar with qte as with Qt; all resources should be stored in a location referenced by a qrc file. In Qt, this would usually be compiled into a binary resource file when the code is compiled. In qte, it is preferable not to compile anything, so the files are read directly. The loadResource function parses a qrc file and loads all referenced resources into the Qt resource system, so that they can be loaded using normal Qt syntax (e.g. QIcon(':myicon.png')).
ui files created with Qt Designer can be loaded in several different ways, depending on their usage. The simplest way is to create a new instance of the widget defined in the file by calling loadUi. However, if the widget requires further customisation then it is preferable to create a new widget class rather than an instance. This can be done with the uiWrapper function.
The specification for rcc files is not documented, but from a study of the rcc source code, it appears that this is the format: The file is binary and consists of four sections, in order.
This is general information about the file.
| Position | Size | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 4 | “qres” | Magic number |
| 4 | 4 | 0x01 | RCC version. This is always 0x01 |
| 8 | 4 | t_off | Position of start of Tree section (usually 20) |
| 12 | 4 | d_off | Position of start of Data section (= n_off + len(names)) |
| 16 | 4 | n_off | Position of start of Name section (= t_off + len(tree)) |
The Tree section contains information about the relative positions of files and directories in the resource tree. It is a sequence of records, sorted by the hash of the node name in each branch. For example:
The structure of each node depends on whether if references a file or a directory. For directories (including root):
| Position | Size | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 4 | n_off | Offset of name record in the Names section |
| 4 | 2 | flags | A bitwise OR combination of flags. 0x1 indicates a compressed file. 0x2 indicates a directory. |
| 6 | 4 | c_child | The number of children nodes in the tree. The children records will follow this node. |
| 10 | 4 | c_off | The index position of the node in the list of nodes. root is always 1 and they are numbered sequentially, including file nodes (although the number is not recorded for file nodes). |
For files:
| Position | Size | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 4 | n_off | Offset of name record in the Names section |
| 4 | 2 | flags | A bitwise OR combination of flags. 0x1 indicates a compressed file. 0x2 indicates a directory. Normal files are either 0x0 or 0x1. |
| 6 | 2 | l_cntry | The locale’s country code as specified in QLocale. The locale defaults to C. |
| 8 | 2 | l_lang | The locale’s language code as specified in QLocale. The locale defaults to C. |
| 10 | 4 | c_off | The node’s offset in the Data section. |
This section contains a list of node names, in the same order as they appear in the Tree section.
| Position | Size | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 2 | c_name | The length of the name. |
| 4 | 8 | h_name | The hash of the name (calculated using qHash). |
| 8 | 2 * c_name | name | The name, encoded in unicode as 2-bytes per character. |
This is the actual data in the resources and only applies to files, not directories.
| Position | Size | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 4 | l_data | The length of the data. |
| 4 | l_data | data | The data contained in the resource, compressed if the appropriate flag is set in the Tree section. |