Chapter 2: bookdelegate.cpp to bookdelegate.py

Now that your database is in place, port the C++ code for the BookDelegate class. This class offers a delegate to present and edit the data in a QTableView. It inherits QSqlRelationalDelegate interface, which offers features specific for handling relational databases, such as a combobox editor for foreign key fields. To begin with, create bookdelegate.py and add the following imports to it:

from __future__ import annotations

import copy
from pathlib import Path

from PySide6.QtSql import QSqlRelationalDelegate
from PySide6.QtWidgets import QSpinBox, QStyle
from PySide6.QtGui import QPixmap, QPalette

After the necessary import statements, port the constructor code for the BookDelegate class. Both the C++ and Python versions of this code initialize a QSqlRelationalDelegate and QPixmap instance. Here is how they look:

C++ version

        QStyleOptionViewItem opt = option;
        // Since we draw the grid ourselves:
        opt.rect.adjust(0, 0, -1, -1);
        QSqlRelationalDelegate::paint(painter, opt, index);
    } else {
        const QAbstractItemModel *model = index.model();

Python version

from PySide6.QtGui import QPixmap, QPalette
from PySide6.QtCore import QEvent, QSize, Qt


class BookDelegate(QSqlRelationalDelegate):
    """Books delegate to rate the books"""

    def __init__(self, parent=None):

Note

The Python version loads the QPixmap using the absolute path of star.png in the local filesystem.

As the default functionality offered by the QSqlRelationalDelegate is not enough to present the books data, you must reimplement a few functions. For example, painting stars to represent the rating for each book in the table. Here is how the reimplemented code looks like:

C++ version (bookdelegate)

        const QAbstractItemModel *model = index.model();
        QPalette::ColorGroup cg = (option.state & QStyle::State_Enabled) ?
            (option.state & QStyle::State_Active) ?
                        QPalette::Normal :
                        QPalette::Inactive :
                        QPalette::Disabled;

        if (option.state & QStyle::State_Selected)
            painter->fillRect(
                        option.rect,
                        option.palette.color(cg, QPalette::Highlight));

        int rating = model->data(index, Qt::DisplayRole).toInt();
        int width = star.width();
        int height = star.height();
        int x = option.rect.x();
        int y = option.rect.y() + (option.rect.height() / 2) - (height / 2);
        for (int i = 0; i < rating; ++i) {
            painter->drawPixmap(x, y, star);
            x += width;
        }
        // Since we draw the grid ourselves:
        drawFocus(painter, option, option.rect.adjusted(0, 0, -1, -1));
    }

    QPen pen = painter->pen();
    painter->setPen(option.palette.color(QPalette::Mid));
    painter->drawLine(option.rect.bottomLeft(), option.rect.bottomRight());
    painter->drawLine(option.rect.topRight(), option.rect.bottomRight());
    painter->setPen(pen);
}

QSize BookDelegate::sizeHint(const QStyleOptionViewItem &option,
                                 const QModelIndex &index) const
{
    if (index.column() == 5)
        return QSize(5 * star.width(), star.height()) + QSize(1, 1);
    // Since we draw the grid ourselves:
    return QSqlRelationalDelegate::sizeHint(option, index) + QSize(1, 1);
}

bool BookDelegate::editorEvent(QEvent *event, QAbstractItemModel *model,
                               const QStyleOptionViewItem &option,
                               const QModelIndex &index)
{
    if (index.column() != 5)
        return QSqlRelationalDelegate::editorEvent(event, model, option, index);

    if (event->type() == QEvent::MouseButtonPress) {
        QMouseEvent *mouseEvent = static_cast<QMouseEvent*>(event);
        int stars = qBound(0, int(0.7 + qreal(mouseEvent->pos().x()
            - option.rect.x()) / star.width()), 5);
        model->setData(index, QVariant(stars));
        // So that the selection can change:
        return false;
    }

    return true;
}

QWidget *BookDelegate::createEditor(QWidget *parent,
                                    const QStyleOptionViewItem &option,
                                    const QModelIndex &index) const
{
    if (index.column() != 4)
        return QSqlRelationalDelegate::createEditor(parent, option, index);

    // For editing the year, return a spinbox with a range from -1000 to 2100.
    QSpinBox *sb = new QSpinBox(parent);
    sb->setFrame(false);
    sb->setMaximum(2100);
    sb->setMinimum(-1000);

    return sb;
}

Python version (bookdelegate)

        QSqlRelationalDelegate.__init__(self, parent)
        star_png = Path(__file__).parent / "images" / "star.png"
        self.star = QPixmap(star_png)

    def paint(self, painter, option, index):
        """ Paint the items in the table.

            If the item referred to by <index> is a StarRating, we
            handle the painting ourselves. For the other items, we
            let the base class handle the painting as usual.

            In a polished application, we'd use a better check than
            the column number to find out if we needed to paint the
            stars, but it works for the purposes of this example.
        """
        if index.column() != 5:
            # Since we draw the grid ourselves:
            opt = copy.copy(option)
            opt.rect = option.rect.adjusted(0, 0, -1, -1)
            QSqlRelationalDelegate.paint(self, painter, opt, index)
        else:
            model = index.model()
            if option.state & QStyle.State_Enabled:
                if option.state & QStyle.State_Active:
                    color_group = QPalette.Normal
                else:
                    color_group = QPalette.Inactive
            else:
                color_group = QPalette.Disabled

            if option.state & QStyle.State_Selected:
                painter.fillRect(option.rect,
                                 option.palette.color(color_group, QPalette.Highlight))
            rating = model.data(index, Qt.DisplayRole)
            width = self.star.width()
            height = self.star.height()
            x = option.rect.x()
            y = option.rect.y() + (option.rect.height() / 2) - (height / 2)
            for i in range(rating):
                painter.drawPixmap(x, y, self.star)
                x += width

            # Since we draw the grid ourselves:
            self.drawFocus(painter, option, option.rect.adjusted(0, 0, -1, -1))

        pen = painter.pen()
        painter.setPen(option.palette.color(QPalette.Mid))
        painter.drawLine(option.rect.bottomLeft(), option.rect.bottomRight())
        painter.drawLine(option.rect.topRight(), option.rect.bottomRight())
        painter.setPen(pen)

    def sizeHint(self, option, index):
        """ Returns the size needed to display the item in a QSize object. """
        if index.column() == 5:
            size_hint = QSize(5 * self.star.width(), self.star.height()) + QSize(1, 1)
            return size_hint
        # Since we draw the grid ourselves:
        return QSqlRelationalDelegate.sizeHint(self, option, index) + QSize(1, 1)

    def editorEvent(self, event, model, option, index):
        if index.column() != 5:
            return False

        if event.type() == QEvent.MouseButtonPress:
            mouse_pos = event.pos()
            new_stars = int(0.7 + (mouse_pos.x() - option.rect.x()) / self.star.width())
            stars = max(0, min(new_stars, 5))
            model.setData(index, stars)
            # So that the selection can change
            return False

        return True

    def createEditor(self, parent, option, index):
        if index.column() != 4:
            return QSqlRelationalDelegate.createEditor(self, parent, option, index)

        # For editing the year, return a spinbox with a range from -1000 to 2100.
        spinbox = QSpinBox(parent)
        spinbox.setFrame(False)
        spinbox.setMaximum(2100)
        spinbox.setMinimum(-1000)
        return spinbox

Now that the delegate is in place, run the following main.py to see how the data is presented:

from __future__ import annotations

import sys

from PySide6.QtSql import QSqlQueryModel
from PySide6.QtWidgets import QTableView, QApplication

import createdb
from bookdelegate import BookDelegate

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app = QApplication()
    createdb.init_db()

    model = QSqlQueryModel()
    model.setQuery("select title, author, genre, year, rating from books")

    table = QTableView()
    table.setModel(model)
    table.setItemDelegate(BookDelegate())
    table.resize(800, 600)
    table.show()

    sys.exit(app.exec())

Here is how the application will look when you run it:

The only difference you’ll notice now in comparison to chapter 1 is that the rating column looks different.

Try improving the table even further by adding these features:

• Title for each column

• SQL relation for the author_id and genre_id columns

• Set a title to the window

With these features, this is how your table will look like: