In Qt Safe Renderer, the safety-critical UI elements are implemented as QML Types. To include these to your application, you must add them to Qt Quick UI Forms (.ui.qml files). This topic introduces the Qt Safe Renderer QML types. For more information how to work with .ui.qml files, see Creating Safety-Critical UI with Qt Tools.

Qt Safe Renderer provides the following safety-critical QML types:

• SafeImage
• SafePicture
• SafeText

The safety-critical QML types are rendered in the UI by Qt Safe Renderer. They are rendered as raw bitmaps. The Qt Safe Renderer messaging interface defines how non-safe parts of system can communicate with safety-critical items on runtime. For more information, see the safety-critical QML type topics.

There are also many other properties available for the safety-critical QML types than listed in the sections below. See Specifying Item Properties for more information about using the properties.

Mandatory Properties for Safe QML Types

If you are using output verification, remember to define the following properties for each safe QML type that you add to the canvas:

For more information, see Output Verification.

SafeImage QML Type

With the SafeImage QML type, you can add images to your UI. The SafeImage supports the image formats listed in Qt Image Formats.

If you are using a resource collection file (.qrc) for storing your images, you can add the image file into the .qrc file as follows:

1. In Qt Creator, open the Edit mode.
2. In Projects, right-click the .qrc file.
3. Select Open in Editor.
4. Select Add Files.
5. Browse to the image file and select Open.

See Enabling Qt Safe Resource Compiler Tool for more information about how to use Qt Safe Resource Compiler Tool for generating MISRA compliant data structures.

You can change the image in SafeImage with the following steps:

1. In Qt Creator, open the Design mode.
2. Right-click SafeImage in the canvas or in the item navigator.
3. Select Change Source URL in the context menu.
4. Browse to the image file and select Open.

An example source code for SafeImage:

    SafeImage {
    id: safeImage1
    x: 314
    y: 235
    width: 65
    height: 65
    // image added to the .qrc file
    source: "safeimage.png"
}

Runtime Functionality

On runtime, you can change the position of SafeImage on the layout.

SafePicture QML Type

With SafePicture QML type, you can add safety-critical ISO icons to your UI.

Add the ISO icon to SafePicture with the following steps:

1. Drag and drop SafePicture to the canvas from Components in Library.
2. Right-click the picture element and select Choose Icon to open the ISO Icon Browser.
3. To find icons, select a criterion for filtering icons and enter a search string.
4. Select an icon in the list and then select OK to add the icon.

You can also adjust the icon color:

1. Right-click the icon on the canvas or in the navigator.
2. Select Edit Color in the context menu or open Properties.
3. Select color.
4. In Properties, edit fillColor. Setting the fillColor is mandotory, if you are using output verification.

See also ISO Icon Browser.

In the .pro file, the used ISO icons are listed as follows:

ISO_ICONS += \
    iso_grs_7000_4_2423 \
    iso_grs_7000_4_0238 \
    iso_grs_7000_4_0245 \

An example source code for SafePicture:

SafePicture {
    id: safePicture
    x: 90
    y: 226
    width: 65
    height: 65
    source: "qrc:/iso-icons/iso_grs_7000_4_0004.dat"
}

Runtime Functionality

On runtime, you can change the position of SafePicture on the layout. From Qt Safe Renderer 1.2 onwards, you can change the color of SafePicture on runtime. The color is changed by using an event provided by SafeRenderer::QSafeEventSetColor.

SafeText QML Type

With the SafeText QML Type, you can add safety-critical texts to your UI. Qt Safe Renderer utilizes the Qt Prerendered Fonts (QPF2) in the safe texts. The texts in the QML source code can be internationalized just like any other Qt Quick code. For more information, see Internationalization and Localization with Qt Quick.

You can add the text in the Properties window. The SafeText properties are visible in the window after you have highlighted the SafeText type in the navigator or on the canvas.

Add the text in SafeText as follows:

1. Select SafeText on the canvas or in the navigator.
2. In SafeText properties window, type the text into Text.

The default color of the text is black. If the background color in your view is black, remember to change the text color for SafeText:

1. Right-click SafeText on the canvas or in the navigator.
2. Select Edit Color in the context menu or open Properties.
3. Select color.
4. In Properties, edit fillColor. Setting the fillColor is mandotory, if you are using output verification.

An example source code for SafeText:

SafeText {
    id: safeText
    x: 80
    y: 80
    width: 129
    height: 65
    text: "text"
}

Dynamic SafeText

With the dynamic SafeText, you can change the text in the SafeText QML type on runtime. The dynamic SafeText is availabe from Qt Safe Renderer 1.1 onwards. You can enable the dynamic SafeText as follows:

1. Select SafeText on the canvas or in the navigator.
2. In SafeText properties window, enable Dynamic.

In the generated QML source code, the runtimeEditable property is set to true.

When you build a Qt Quick project that contains dynamic SafeText types, a .qpf2 file is generated for each font type that you use in dynamic SafeText QML types. If the runtimeEditable property is left to its default value false, an .srb file is generated. For more information about the generated files, see Generating Safe Layout Data.

Runtime Functionality

On runtime, you can change the position of SafeText on the layout. From Qt Safe Renderer 1.1 onwards, you can also change the text and color on runtime.

For more information about changing the text, see Dynamic SafeText.

You can change the color on runtime by using an event provided by SafeRenderer::QSafeEventSetColor.

Localizing Safety-Critical QML Types

You can use localized bitmaps and static texts in safety-critical QML types.

Add localized bitmaps to your project via Qt resource file (.qrc) as follows:

<RCC>
<qresource prefix="/" lang="fi">
    <file alias="flag.png">flags/fi.png</file>
</qresource>
<qresource prefix="/" lang="en">
    <file alias="flag.png">flags/gb.png</file>
</qresource>
</RCC>

See Resource Compiler (rcc) for more information about resource compiler in Qt.

Use qsTr function for marking texts for translation as follows:

SafeText {
    id: textItem
    objectName: "textItem"
    height: 84
    width: 384
    color: "black"
    verticalAlignment: Text.AlignVCenter
    font.pixelSize: 64
    fillColor: "white"
    text: qsTr("Hello world!")
}

Translations for different languages are provided in separate translation files (.ts). For more information, see Internationalization and Localization with Qt Quick and Qt Linguist Manual.

See the following topics for more information about localization in Qt Safe Renderer:

• Enabling Localization lists all variables required in the project file (.pro) for localization.
• The Localization example demonstrates how to localize safety-critical UI content.

Previewing Qt Quick UI Form

Previewing via QML Scene

The created Qt Quick UI forms (.ui.qml) can be previewed with the QML Scene as follows:

1. Open the Qt Quick UI form in Qt Creator's Edit mode.
2. Select Tools > External > Qt Quick > Qt Quick 2 Preview (qmlscene).

QML Scene enables you to load QML documents for viewing and testing while you are developing an application.

If you have added SafePicture QML Types to your UI form by using ISO Icon Browser, generated code contains a qrc:/ prefix:

SafePicture {
    id: safePicture1
    x: 182
    y: 135
    source: "qrc:/iso-icons/iso_grs_7000_4_0001.dat"
}

QML Scene does not render the icon if the prefix is in the QML code. You need to remove it manually before using QML Scene:

source: "iso-icons/iso_grs_7000_4_0001.dat"

Running the Project

You can preview the UI forms on your host environment by running the project. To run the project, select Build > Run.

If you have added your safety-critical elements to Qt Quick UI forms in the Qt Quick Application - Stack project, you should be able to run the project without enabling the Qt Safe Renderer tools. For more information about the tools and required project file modifications, see Enabling Qt Safe Renderer in Project.

Constraints

The Qt Safe Renderer QML types have the following constraints:

• There is no localization support for the dynamic SafeText.
• The Qt Safe Renderer QML types cannot be used in the views defined by Qt Quick View QML types.
• The supported positioners are a column, a row, anchors, and an absolute x-coordinate and y-coordinate.
• The objectName and the id must be equal. Otherwise an unhandled exception is thrown.
• In general, the function calls are not supported. The only supported function call is qsTr(). qsTrId() is not supported. For more information about using qsTr(), see Text ID based translations.

In general, the Qt Safe Renderer QML types should not be mixed with regular Qt Quick QML types, such as MouseArea. Especially, Qt Safe Renderer does not support the following features and types in the Qt Quick UI form files: