How to access a nested QML object from C++?

Question

Here is a reproducible example:

main.qml

---

import QtQuick 2.0

Item {
    id : root
    width: 360
    height: 360

    Text {
        id : t1
        text: qsTr("Hello World")
        property int someNumber: 1000
        anchors.centerIn: parent
    }
    MouseArea {
        anchors.fill: parent
        onClicked: {
            Qt.quit();
        }
    }
}

main.cpp

---

#include <QtGui/QGuiApplication>
#include <QQmlEngine>
#include <QQmlComponent>
#include <QQmlProperty>
#include <QDebug>

#include "qtquick2applicationviewer.h"

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    QGuiApplication app(argc, argv);

    QtQuick2ApplicationViewer viewer;
    viewer.setMainQmlFile(QStringLiteral("qml/untitled/main.qml"));
    viewer.showExpanded();

    QQmlEngine engine;
    QQmlComponent component(&engine, "qml/untitled/main.qml");
    QObject *object = component.create();

    qDebug() << "Property value:" << QQmlProperty::read(object, "root.t1.someNumber").toInt();

    return app.exec();
}

I wish to access the property somenumber of the text of the QML Item. The above method isn't producing the desired result.

How to do it?

Answer 1

You have two ways (at least) to accomplish this depending on your personal preference.

QML code extension

You can add a property alias to the root item as follows:

import QtQuick 2.0

Item {
    id : root
    width: 360
    height: 360

    property alias mySomeNumber: t1.someNumber // This is the addition

    Text {
        id : t1
        text: qsTr("Hello World")
        property int someNumber: 1000
        anchors.centerIn: parent
    }
    MouseArea {
        anchors.fill: parent
        onClicked: {
            Qt.quit();
        }
    }
}

C++ code extension

Since the QML items are QObject, you can look for the children explicitly as well, just as you would do it in a C++ QObject hierarchy. The code would be something like this:

#include <QtGui/QGuiApplication>
#include <QQmlEngine>
#include <QQmlComponent>
#include <QQmlProperty>
#include <QDebug>

#include "qtquick2applicationviewer.h"

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    QGuiApplication app(argc, argv);

    QtQuick2ApplicationViewer viewer;
    viewer.setMainQmlFile(QStringLiteral("qml/untitled/main.qml"));
    viewer.showExpanded();

    QQmlEngine engine;
    QQmlComponent component(&engine, "qml/untitled/main.qml");
    QObject *object = component.create();

    // This line is added

    QObject *childObject = object->findChild<QObject*>("SomeNumberText");

    // The following line is modified respectively

    qDebug() << "Property value:" << QQmlProperty::read(childObject, "someNumber").toInt();

    return app.exec();
}

However, this means you will need to add the objectName: "SomeNumberText" line to your Text child item in the qml file.

Answer 2

What is the use case for this? It might be better to just treat the [text, someNumber] struct or object as the model. Then you only need to find the model object. Or you could create the model object on the C++ side and set it in the QML context. You could access the model and its nested properties in QML:

Text {
        text: model.text
        property int someNumber: model.someNumber
    }

Answer 3

Here you can find a recursive method looking for a QML item by objectName and starting at QQmlApplicationEngine::rootObjects():

////
static QQuickItem* FindItemByName(QList<QObject*> nodes, const QString& name)
{
    for(int i = 0; i < nodes.size(); i++){
        // search for node
        if (nodes.at(i) && nodes.at(i)->objectName() == name){
            return dynamic_cast<QQuickItem*>(nodes.at(i));
        }
        // search in children
        else if (nodes.at(i) && nodes.at(i)->children().size() > 0){
            QQuickItem* item = FindItemByName(nodes.at(i)->children(), name);
            if (item)
                return item;
        }
    }
    // not found
    return NULL;
}

///
static QQuickItem* FindItemByName(QQmlApplicationEngine* engine, const QString& name)
{
    return FindItemByName(engine->rootObjects(), name);
}