QInputMethod Class | Qt GUI | Qt 6.12.0
Description: The QInputMethod class provides access to the active text input method.
Keywords: class

- Qt 6.12
- Qt GUI
- C++ Classes
- QInputMethod
- Qt 6.12.0 Reference Documentation

# QInputMethod Class

The QInputMethod class provides access to the active text input method. More...

Header: | `#include <QInputMethod>`
CMake: | `find_package(Qt6 REQUIRED COMPONENTS Gui)` `target_link_libraries(mytarget PRIVATE Qt6::Gui)`
qmake: | `QT += gui`
Inherits: | QObject

- List of all members, including inherited members

## Public Types

enum | Action { Click, ContextMenu }

## Properties

anchorRectangle : QRectF animating : bool cursorRectangle : QRectF inputDirection : Qt::LayoutDirection | inputItemClipRectangle : QRectF keyboardRectangle : QRectF locale : QLocale visible : bool

## Public Functions

QRectF | anchorRectangle() const
QRectF | cursorRectangle() const
Qt::LayoutDirection | inputDirection() const
QRectF | inputItemClipRectangle() const
QRectF | inputItemRectangle() const
QTransform | inputItemTransform() const
bool | isAnimating() const
bool | isVisible() const
QRectF | keyboardRectangle() const
QLocale | locale() const
void | setInputItemRectangle(const QRectF &rect)
void | setInputItemTransform(const QTransform &transform)
void | setVisible(bool visible)

## Public Slots

void | commit()
void | hide()
void | invokeAction(QInputMethod::Action a, int cursorPosition)
void | reset()
void | show()
void | update(Qt::InputMethodQueries queries)

## Signals

void | anchorRectangleChanged()
void | animatingChanged()
void | cursorRectangleChanged()
void | inputDirectionChanged(Qt::LayoutDirection newDirection)
void | inputItemClipRectangleChanged()
void | keyboardRectangleChanged()
void | localeChanged()
void | visibleChanged()

## Static Public Members

QVariant | queryFocusObject(Qt::InputMethodQuery query, const QVariant &argument)

## Detailed Description

QInputMethod is used by the text editors for integrating to the platform text input methods and more commonly by application views for querying various text input method-related information like virtual keyboard visibility and keyboard dimensions.

Qt Quick also provides access to QInputMethod in QML through Qt global object as `Qt.inputMethod` property.

## Member Type Documentation

### enum QInputMethod::Action

Indicates the kind of action performed by the user.

Constant | Value | Description
--- | --- | ---
`QInputMethod::Click` | `0` | A normal click/tap
`QInputMethod::ContextMenu` | `1` | A context menu click/tap (e.g. right-button or tap-and-hold)

See also invokeAction().

## Property Documentation

### `[read-only]` anchorRectangle : QRectF

Input item's anchor rectangle in window coordinates.

Anchor rectangle is often used by various text editing controls like text prediction popups for following the text selection.

Access functions:

QRectF | anchorRectangle() const

Notifier signal:

void | anchorRectangleChanged()

### `[read-only]` animating : bool

True when the virtual keyboard is being opened or closed.

Animating is false when keyboard is fully open or closed. When `animating` is `true` and `visibility` is `true` keyboard is being opened. When `animating` is `true` and `visibility` is false keyboard is being closed.

Access functions:

bool | isAnimating() const

Notifier signal:

void | animatingChanged()

### `[read-only]` cursorRectangle : QRectF

Input item's cursor rectangle in window coordinates.

Cursor rectangle is often used by various text editing controls like text prediction popups for following the text being typed.

Access functions:

QRectF | cursorRectangle() const

Notifier signal:

void | cursorRectangleChanged()

### `[read-only]` inputDirection : Qt::LayoutDirection

Current input direction.

Access functions:

Qt::LayoutDirection | inputDirection() const

Notifier signal:

void | inputDirectionChanged(Qt::LayoutDirection newDirection)

### `[read-only]` inputItemClipRectangle : QRectF

Input item's clipped rectangle in window coordinates.

The clipped input rectangle is often used by various input methods to determine how much screen real estate is available for the input method (e.g. Virtual Keyboard).

Access functions:

QRectF | inputItemClipRectangle() const

Notifier signal:

void | inputItemClipRectangleChanged()

### `[read-only]` keyboardRectangle : QRectF

Virtual keyboard's geometry in window coordinates.

This might be an empty rectangle if it is not possible to know the geometry of the keyboard. This is the case for a floating keyboard on android.

Access functions:

QRectF | keyboardRectangle() const

Notifier signal:

void | keyboardRectangleChanged()

### `[read-only]` locale : QLocale

Current input locale.

Access functions:

QLocale | locale() const

Notifier signal:

void | localeChanged()

### `[read-only]` visible : bool

Virtual keyboard's visibility on the screen

Input method visibility remains false for devices with no virtual keyboards.

Access functions:

bool | isVisible() const

Notifier signal:

void | visibleChanged()

See also show() and hide().

## Member Function Documentation

### `[slot]` void QInputMethod::commit()

Commits the word user is currently composing to the editor. The function is mostly needed by the input methods with text prediction features and by the methods where the script used for typing characters is different from the script that actually gets appended to the editor. Any kind of action that interrupts the text composing needs to flush the composing state by calling the commit() function, for example when the cursor is moved elsewhere.

### `[slot]` void QInputMethod::hide()

Requests virtual keyboard to close.

Normally applications should not need to call this function, keyboard should automatically close when the text editor loses focus, for example when the parent view is closed.

### QRectF QInputMethod::inputItemRectangle() const

Returns the input item's geometry in input item coordinates.

See also setInputItemRectangle().

### QTransform QInputMethod::inputItemTransform() const

Returns the transformation from input item coordinates to the window coordinates.

See also setInputItemTransform().

### `[slot]` void QInputMethod::invokeAction(QInputMethod::Action a, int cursorPosition)

Called by the input item when the word currently being composed is tapped by the user, as indicated by the action a and the given cursorPosition. Input methods often use this information to offer more word suggestions to the user.

### `[static]` QVariant QInputMethod::queryFocusObject(Qt::InputMethodQuery query, const QVariant &argument)

Send query to the current focus object with parameters argument and return the result.

### `[slot]` void QInputMethod::reset()

Resets the input method state. For example, a text editor normally calls this method before inserting a text to make widget ready to accept a text.

Input method resets automatically when the focused editor changes.

### void QInputMethod::setInputItemRectangle(const QRectF &rect)

Sets the input item's geometry to be rect, in input item coordinates. This needs to be updated by the focused window like QQuickCanvas whenever item is moved inside the scene, or focus is changed.

See also inputItemRectangle().

### void QInputMethod::setInputItemTransform(const QTransform &transform)

Sets the transformation from input item coordinates to window coordinates to be transform. Item transform needs to be updated by the focused window like QQuickCanvas whenever item is moved inside the scene.

See also inputItemTransform().

### void QInputMethod::setVisible(bool visible)

Controls the keyboard visibility. Equivalent to calling show() (if visible is `true`) or hide() (if visible is `false`).

See also isVisible(), show(), and hide().

### `[slot]` void QInputMethod::show()

Requests virtual keyboard to open. If the platform doesn't provide virtual keyboard the visibility remains false.

Normally applications should not need to call this function, keyboard should automatically open when the text editor gains focus.

### `[slot]` void QInputMethod::update(Qt::InputMethodQueries queries)

Called by the input item to inform the platform input methods when there has been state changes in editor's input method query attributes. When calling the function queries parameter has to be used to tell what has changes, which input method can use to make queries for attributes it's interested with QInputMethodQueryEvent.

In particular calling update whenever the cursor position changes is important as that often causes other query attributes like surrounding text and text selection to change as well. The attributes that often change together with cursor position have been grouped in Qt::ImQueryInput value for convenience.