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# QDeclarativeImageProvider Class Reference
[QtDeclarative module]

The QDeclarativeImageProvider class provides an interface for supporting pixmaps and threaded image requests in QML. More...

### Types

- enum ImageType { Image, Pixmap }

### Methods

- __init__ (self, ImageType type)
- __init__ (self, QDeclarativeImageProvider)
- ImageType imageType (self)
- QImage requestImage (self, QString id, QSize size, QSize requestedSize)
- QPixmap requestPixmap (self, QString id, QSize size, QSize requestedSize)

## Detailed Description

The QDeclarativeImageProvider class provides an interface for supporting pixmaps and threaded image requests in QML.

QDeclarativeImageProvider is used to provide advanced image loading features in QML applications. It allows images in QML to be:

- Loaded using QPixmaps rather than actual image files
- Loaded asynchronously in a separate thread, if imageType() is ImageType.Image

To specify that an image should be loaded by an image provider, use the "image:" scheme for the URL source of the image, followed by the identifiers of the image provider and the requested image. For example:

     Image { source: "image://myimageprovider/image.png" }

This specifies that the image should be loaded by the image provider named "myimageprovider", and the image to be loaded is named "image.png". The QML engine invokes the appropriate image provider according to the providers that have been registered through QDeclarativeEngine.addImageProvider().

Note that the identifiers are case-insensitive, but the rest of the URL will be passed on with preserved case. For example, the below snippet would still specify that the image is loaded by the image provider named "myimageprovider", but it would request a different image than the above snippet ("Image.png" instead of "image.png").

     Image { source: "image://MyImageProvider/Image.png" }

If you want the rest of the URL to be case insensitive, you will have to take care of that yourself inside your image provider.

#### An example

Here are two images. Their `source` values indicate they should be loaded by an image provider named "colors", and the images to be loaded are "yellow" and "red", respectively:

     Column {
         Image { source: "image://colors/yellow" }
         Image { source: "image://colors/red" }
     }

When these images are loaded by QML, it looks for a matching image provider and calls its requestImage() or requestPixmap() method (depending on its imageType()) to load the image. The method is called with the `id` parameter set to "yellow" for the first image, and "red" for the second.

Here is an image provider implementation that can load the images requested by the above QML. This implementation dynamically generates QPixmap images that are filled with the requested color:

     class ColorImageProvider : public QDeclarativeImageProvider
     {
     public:
         ColorImageProvider()
             : QDeclarativeImageProvider(QDeclarativeImageProvider.Pixmap)
         {
         }

         QPixmap requestPixmap(const QString &id, QSize *size, const QSize &requestedSize)
         {
             int width = 100;
             int height = 50;

             if (size)
                 *size = QSize(width, height);
             QPixmap pixmap(requestedSize.width() > 0 ? requestedSize.width() : width,
                            requestedSize.height() > 0 ? requestedSize.height() : height);
             pixmap.fill(QColor(id).rgba());

             return pixmap;
         }
     };

To make this provider accessible to QML, it is registered with the QML engine with a "colors" identifier:

     int main(int argc, char *argv[])
     {
         ...

         QDeclarativeEngine engine;
         engine->addImageProvider(QLatin1String("colors"), new ColorPixmapProvider);

         ...
     }

Now the images can be successfully loaded in QML:

A complete example is available in Qt's examples/declarative/cppextensions/imageprovider directory. Note the example registers the provider via a plugin instead of registering it in the application `main()` function as shown above.

#### Asynchronous image loading

Image providers that support QImage loading automatically include support for asychronous loading of images. To enable asynchronous loading for an image source, set the `asynchronous` property to `true` for the relevant Image, BorderImage or AnimatedImage object. When this is enabled, the image request to the provider is run in a low priority thread, allowing image loading to be executed in the background, and reducing the performance impact on the user interface.

Asynchronous loading is not supported for image providers that provide QPixmap rather than QImage values, as pixmaps can only be created in the main thread. In this case, if asynchronous is set to `true`, the value is ignored and the image is loaded synchronously.

#### Image caching

Images returned by a QDeclarativeImageProvider are automatically cached, similar to any image loaded by the QML engine. When an image with a "image://" prefix is loaded from cache, requestImage() and requestPixmap() will not be called for the relevant image provider. If an image should always be fetched from the image provider, and should not be cached at all, set the `cache` property to `false` for the relevant Image, BorderImage or AnimatedImage object.

## Type Documentation

### QDeclarativeImageProvider.ImageType

Defines the type of image supported by this image provider.

Constant | Value | Description
--- | --- | ---
`QDeclarativeImageProvider.Image` | `0` | The Image Provider provides QImage images. The requestImage() method will be called for all image requests.
`QDeclarativeImageProvider.Pixmap` | `1` | The Image Provider provides QPixmap images. The requestPixmap() method will be called for all image requests.

## Method Documentation

### QDeclarativeImageProvider.__init__ (self, ImageType type)

Creates an image provider that will provide images of the given type.

### QDeclarativeImageProvider.__init__ (self, QDeclarativeImageProvider)

### ImageType QDeclarativeImageProvider.imageType (self)

Returns the image type supported by this provider.

### QImage QDeclarativeImageProvider.requestImage (self, QString id, QSize size, QSize requestedSize)

Implement this method to return the image with id. The default implementation returns an empty image.

The id is the requested image source, with the "image:" scheme and provider identifier removed. For example, if the image source was "image://myprovider/icons/home", the given id would be "icons/home".

The requestedSize corresponds to the Image.sourceSize requested by an Image element. If requestedSize is a valid size, the image returned should be of that size.

In all cases, size must be set to the original size of the image. This is used to set the width and height of the relevant Image if these values have not been set explicitly.

Note: this method may be called by multiple threads, so ensure the implementation of this method is reentrant.

### QPixmap QDeclarativeImageProvider.requestPixmap (self, QString id, QSize size, QSize requestedSize)

Implement this method to return the pixmap with id. The default implementation returns an empty pixmap.

The id is the requested image source, with the "image:" scheme and provider identifier removed. For example, if the image source was "image://myprovider/icons/home", the given id would be "icons/home".

The requestedSize corresponds to the Image.sourceSize requested by an Image element. If requestedSize is a valid size, the image returned should be of that size.

In all cases, size must be set to the original size of the image. This is used to set the width and height of the relevant Image if these values have not been set explicitly.