Python access widgets of parent class in Qthread

Question

I want to access the parent class widgets in the QThread class

This line gives hangs GUI "Example().setWindowTitle("Window")"

How can I do that?

class Example(QWidget):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        self.myclass2 = myclass2()
        self.myclass2.start()
        self.initUI()

    def initUI(self):
        self.setGeometry(300, 300, 300, 220)
        self.setWindowTitle('Icon')
        self.setWindowIcon(QIcon('web.png'))
        self.show()


class myclass2(QThread):
    def __init__(self, parent=None):
        super(myclass2, self).__init__(parent)

    def run(self):
        while True:
            time.sleep(.1)
            print(" in thread \n")
            Example().setWindowTitle("Window")

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app = QApplication(sys.argv)
    ex = Example()
    sys.exit(app.exec_())

Answer 1

You must understand the following expression:

Example().setWindowTitle("Window")

it is equivalent to:

obj = Example()
obj.setWindowTitle("Window")

That is, you are creating another Example object other than ex = Example(), and that object is creating another myclass2 object, and that other myclass2 object is creating another Example, and an infinite loop is clearly being created.

---

Another thing that in the future could cause you problems is to establish the same name for different things, although in this case it is not a problem but in future occasions it could bring you problems, the code to which I refer is:

self.myclass2 = myclass2()

For example, it is recommended that classes should start with capital letters.

---

Another error that is valid only in Qt is that the GUI can not be created or manipulated in a thread other than the main thread. So you can not change the title directly in the other thread but there are 2 methods:

1. QMetaObject::invokeMethod(...)

But for this we must pass the GUI through a property:

class Example(QWidget):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        self.myclass2 = MyClass()
        self.myclass2.gui = self
        self.myclass2.start()
        self.initUI()

    def initUI(self):
        self.setGeometry(300, 300, 300, 220)
        self.setWindowTitle('Icon')
        self.setWindowIcon(QIcon('web.png'))
        self.show()


class MyClass(QThread):
    def run(self):
        while True:
            time.sleep(.1)
            print(" in thread \n")
            QMetaObject.invokeMethod(self.gui, "setWindowTitle", Qt.QueuedConnection, Q_ARG(str, "Window"))

2. signals & slots

class Example(QWidget):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        self.myclass2 = MyClass()
        self.myclass2.titleChanged.connect(self.setWindowTitle)
        self.myclass2.start()
        self.initUI()

    def initUI(self):
        self.setGeometry(300, 300, 300, 220)
        self.setWindowTitle('Icon')
        self.setWindowIcon(QIcon('web.png'))
        self.show()


class MyClass(QThread):
    titleChanged = pyqtSignal(str)

    def run(self):
        while True:
            time.sleep(.1)
            print(" in thread \n")
            self.titleChanged.emit("Window")

PLUS:

You should not modify the GUI from the thread directly but send the data through a signal:

import sys

from PyQt5 import QtCore, QtGui, QtWidgets

class Example(QtWidgets.QWidget):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        lay = QtWidgets.QVBoxLayout(self)
        le = QtWidgets.QLineEdit()
        lay.addWidget(le)
        self.myclass2 = MyClass()
        self.myclass2.titleChanged.connect(self.setWindowTitle)
        self.myclass2.infoChanged.connect(le.setText) # <-- connect signal
        self.myclass2.start()
        self.initUI()

    def initUI(self):
        self.setGeometry(300, 300, 300, 220)
        self.setWindowTitle('Icon')
        self.setWindowIcon(QtGui.QIcon('web.png'))
        self.show()


class MyClass(QtCore.QThread):
    titleChanged = QtCore.pyqtSignal(str)
    infoChanged = QtCore.pyqtSignal(str) # <-- create signal

    def run(self):
        counter = 0
        while True:
            QtCore.QThread.msleep(100)
            print(" in thread \n")
            self.titleChanged.emit("Window")
            self.infoChanged.emit("{}".format(counter)) # <-- emit signal
            counter += 1


if __name__ == '__main__':
    app = QtWidgets.QApplication(sys.argv)
    ex = Example()
    sys.exit(app.exec_())