Struct gtk4::ConstraintLayout

#[repr(transparent)]
pub struct ConstraintLayout { /* private fields */ }

A layout manager using constraints to describe relations between widgets.

ConstraintLayout is a layout manager that uses relations between widget attributes, expressed via Constraint instances, to measure and allocate widgets.

How do constraints work

Constraints are objects defining the relationship between attributes of a widget; you can read the description of the Constraint class to have a more in depth definition.

By taking multiple constraints and applying them to the children of a widget using ConstraintLayout, it’s possible to describe complex layout policies; each constraint applied to a child or to the parent widgets contributes to the full description of the layout, in terms of parameters for resolving the value of each attribute.

It is important to note that a layout is defined by the totality of constraints; removing a child, or a constraint, from an existing layout without changing the remaining constraints may result in an unstable or unsolvable layout.

Constraints have an implicit “reading order”; you should start describing each edge of each child, as well as their relationship with the parent container, from the top left (or top right, in RTL languages), horizontally first, and then vertically.

A constraint-based layout with too few constraints can become “unstable”, that is: have more than one solution. The behavior of an unstable layout is undefined.

A constraint-based layout with conflicting constraints may be unsolvable, and lead to an unstable layout. You can use the property::Constraint::strength property of Constraint to “nudge” the layout towards a solution.

GtkConstraintLayout as GtkBuildable

ConstraintLayout implements the Buildable interface and has a custom “constraints” element which allows describing constraints in a Builder UI file.

An example of a UI definition fragment specifying a constraint:

  <object class="GtkConstraintLayout">
    <constraints>
      <constraint target="button" target-attribute="start"
                  relation="eq"
                  source="super" source-attribute="start"
                  constant="12"
                  strength="required" />
      <constraint target="button" target-attribute="width"
                  relation="ge"
                  constant="250"
                  strength="strong" />
    </constraints>
  </object>

The definition above will add two constraints to the GtkConstraintLayout:

• a required constraint between the leading edge of “button” and the leading edge of the widget using the constraint layout, plus 12 pixels
• a strong, constant constraint making the width of “button” greater than, or equal to 250 pixels

The “target” and “target-attribute” attributes are required.

The “source” and “source-attribute” attributes of the “constraint” element are optional; if they are not specified, the constraint is assumed to be a constant.

The “relation” attribute is optional; if not specified, the constraint is assumed to be an equality.

The “strength” attribute is optional; if not specified, the constraint is assumed to be required.

The “source” and “target” attributes can be set to “super” to indicate that the constraint target is the widget using the GtkConstraintLayout.

There can be “constant” and “multiplier” attributes.

Additionally, the “constraints” element can also contain a description of the GtkConstraintGuides used by the layout:

  <constraints>
    <guide min-width="100" max-width="500" name="hspace"/>
    <guide min-height="64" nat-height="128" name="vspace" strength="strong"/>
  </constraints>

The “guide” element has the following optional attributes:

• “min-width”, “nat-width”, and “max-width”, describe the minimum, natural, and maximum width of the guide, respectively
• “min-height”, “nat-height”, and “max-height”, describe the minimum, natural, and maximum height of the guide, respectively
• “strength” describes the strength of the constraint on the natural size of the guide; if not specified, the constraint is assumed to have a medium strength
• “name” describes a name for the guide, useful when debugging

Using the Visual Format Language

Complex constraints can be described using a compact syntax called VFL, or Visual Format Language.

The Visual Format Language describes all the constraints on a row or column, typically starting from the leading edge towards the trailing one. Each element of the layout is composed by “views”, which identify a ConstraintTarget.

For instance:

  [button]-[textField]

Describes a constraint that binds the trailing edge of “button” to the leading edge of “textField”, leaving a default space between the two.

Using VFL is also possible to specify predicates that describe constraints on attributes like width and height:

  // Width must be greater than, or equal to 50
  [button(>=50)]

  // Width of button1 must be equal to width of button2
  [button1(==button2)]

The default orientation for a VFL description is horizontal, unless otherwise specified:

  // horizontal orientation, default attribute: width
  H:[button(>=150)]

  // vertical orientation, default attribute: height
  V:[button1(==button2)]

It’s also possible to specify multiple predicates, as well as their strength:

  // minimum width of button must be 150
  // natural width of button can be 250
  [button(>=150@required, ==250@medium)]

Finally, it’s also possible to use simple arithmetic operators:

  // width of button1 must be equal to width of button2
  // divided by 2 plus 12
  [button1(button2 / 2 + 12)]

Implements

LayoutManagerExt, glib::ObjectExt, BuildableExt

Implementations

impl ConstraintLayout

pub fn new() -> ConstraintLayout

Creates a new ConstraintLayout layout manager.

Returns

the newly created ConstraintLayout

pub fn add_constraint(&self, constraint: &Constraint)

Adds a constraint to the layout manager.

The property::Constraint::source and property::Constraint::target properties of constraint can be:

• set to NULL to indicate that the constraint refers to the widget using layout
• set to the Widget using layout
• set to a child of the Widget using layout
• set to a ConstraintGuide that is part of layout

The @self acquires the ownership of @constraint after calling this function.

constraint

a Constraint

pub fn add_guide(&self, guide: &ConstraintGuide)

Adds a guide to layout.

A guide can be used as the source or target of constraints, like a widget, but it is not visible.

The layout acquires the ownership of guide after calling this function.

guide

a ConstraintGuide object

pub fn observe_constraints(&self) -> ListModel

Returns a GListModel to track the constraints that are part of the layout.

Calling this function will enable extra internal bookkeeping to track constraints and emit signals on the returned listmodel. It may slow down operations a lot.

Applications should try hard to avoid calling this function because of the slowdowns.

Returns

a GListModel tracking the layout’s constraints

pub fn observe_guides(&self) -> ListModel

Returns a GListModel to track the guides that are part of the layout.

Calling this function will enable extra internal bookkeeping to track guides and emit signals on the returned listmodel. It may slow down operations a lot.

Applications should try hard to avoid calling this function because of the slowdowns.

Returns

a GListModel tracking the layout’s guides

pub fn remove_all_constraints(&self)

Removes all constraints from the layout manager.

pub fn remove_constraint(&self, constraint: &Constraint)

Removes constraint from the layout manager, so that it no longer influences the layout.

constraint

a Constraint

pub fn remove_guide(&self, guide: &ConstraintGuide)

Removes guide from the layout manager, so that it no longer influences the layout.

guide

a ConstraintGuide object

impl ConstraintLayout

pub fn add_constraints_from_description<W: IsA<Widget>>(
    &self,
    lines: &[&str],
    hspacing: i32,
    vspacing: i32,
    views: &HashMap<&str, &W>
) -> Result<Vec<Constraint>, Error>

Creates a list of constraints from a VFL description.

The Visual Format Language, VFL, is based on Apple’s AutoLayout VFL.

The views dictionary is used to match ConstraintTarget instances to the symbolic view name inside the VFL.

The VFL grammar is:

       <visualFormatString> = (<orientation>)?
                              (<superview><connection>)?
                              <view>(<connection><view>)*
                              (<connection><superview>)?
              <orientation> = 'H' | 'V'
                <superview> = '|'
               <connection> = '' | '-' <predicateList> '-' | '-'
            <predicateList> = <simplePredicate> | <predicateListWithParens>
          <simplePredicate> = <metricName> | <positiveNumber>
  <predicateListWithParens> = '(' <predicate> (',' <predicate>)* ')'
                <predicate> = (<relation>)? <objectOfPredicate> (<operatorList>)? ('@' <priority>)?
                 <relation> = '==' | '<=' | '>='
        <objectOfPredicate> = <constant> | <viewName> | ('.' <attributeName>)?
                 <priority> = <positiveNumber> | 'required' | 'strong' | 'medium' | 'weak'
                 <constant> = <number>
             <operatorList> = (<multiplyOperator>)? (<addOperator>)?
         <multiplyOperator> = [ '*' | '/' ] <positiveNumber>
              <addOperator> = [ '+' | '-' ] <positiveNumber>
                 <viewName> = [A-Za-z_]([A-Za-z0-9_]*) // A C identifier
               <metricName> = [A-Za-z_]([A-Za-z0-9_]*) // A C identifier
            <attributeName> = 'top' | 'bottom' | 'left' | 'right' | 'width' | 'height' |
                              'start' | 'end' | 'centerX' | 'centerY' | 'baseline'
           <positiveNumber> // A positive real number parseable by g_ascii_strtod()
                   <number> // A real number parseable by g_ascii_strtod()

Note: The VFL grammar used by GTK is slightly different than the one defined by Apple, as it can use symbolic values for the constraint’s strength instead of numeric values; additionally, GTK allows adding simple arithmetic operations inside predicates.

Examples of VFL descriptions are:

  // Default spacing
  [button]-[textField]

  // Width constraint
  [button(>=50)]

  // Connection to super view
  |-50-[purpleBox]-50-|

  // Vertical layout
  V:[topField]-10-[bottomField]

  // Flush views
  [maroonView][blueView]

  // Priority
  [button(100@strong)]

  // Equal widths
  [button1(==button2)]

  // Multiple predicates
  [flexibleButton(>=70,<=100)]

  // A complete line of layout
  |-[find]-[findNext]-[findField(>=20)]-|

  // Operators
  [button1(button2 / 3 + 50)]

  // Named attributes
  [button1(==button2.height)]

lines

an array of Visual Format Language lines defining a set of constraints

hspacing

default horizontal spacing value, or -1 for the fallback value

vspacing

default vertical spacing value, or -1 for the fallback value

views

a dictionary of [ name, target ] pairs; the name keys map to the view names in the VFL lines, while the target values map to children of the widget using a ConstraintLayout, or guides

Returns

the list of Constraint instances that were added to the layout

Trait Implementations

impl Clone for ConstraintLayout

fn clone(&self) -> Self

Returns a copy of the value.

fn clone_from(&mut self, source: &Self)

Performs copy-assignment from source.

impl Debug for ConstraintLayout

fn fmt(&self, f: &mut Formatter<'_>) -> Result

Formats the value using the given formatter.

impl Default for ConstraintLayout

fn default() -> Self

Returns the “default value” for a type.

impl Display for ConstraintLayout

fn fmt(&self, f: &mut Formatter<'_>) -> Result

Formats the value using the given formatter.

impl Hash for ConstraintLayout

fn hash<H>(&self, state: &mut H)where
    H: Hasher,

Feeds this value into the given Hasher.

fn hash_slice<H>(data: &[Self], state: &mut H)where
    H: Hasher,
    Self: Sized,

Feeds a slice of this type into the given Hasher.

impl Ord for ConstraintLayout

fn cmp(&self, other: &Self) -> Ordering

This method returns an Ordering between self and other.

fn max(self, other: Self) -> Selfwhere
    Self: Sized,

Compares and returns the maximum of two values.

fn min(self, other: Self) -> Selfwhere
    Self: Sized,

Compares and returns the minimum of two values.

fn clamp(self, min: Self, max: Self) -> Selfwhere
    Self: Sized + PartialOrd<Self>,

Restrict a value to a certain interval.

impl ParentClassIs for ConstraintLayout

type Parent = LayoutManager

impl<OT: ObjectType> PartialEq<OT> for ConstraintLayout

fn eq(&self, other: &OT) -> bool

This method tests for self and other values to be equal, and is used by ==.

fn ne(&self, other: &Rhs) -> bool

This method tests for !=. The default implementation is almost always sufficient, and should not be overridden without very good reason.

impl<OT: ObjectType> PartialOrd<OT> for ConstraintLayout

fn partial_cmp(&self, other: &OT) -> Option<Ordering>

This method returns an ordering between self and other values if one exists.

fn lt(&self, other: &Rhs) -> bool

This method tests less than (for self and other) and is used by the < operator.

fn le(&self, other: &Rhs) -> bool

This method tests less than or equal to (for self and other) and is used by the <= operator.

fn gt(&self, other: &Rhs) -> bool

This method tests greater than (for self and other) and is used by the > operator.

fn ge(&self, other: &Rhs) -> bool

This method tests greater than or equal to (for self and other) and is used by the >= operator.

impl StaticType for ConstraintLayout

fn static_type() -> Type

Returns the type identifier of Self.

impl Eq for ConstraintLayout

impl IsA<Buildable> for ConstraintLayout

impl IsA<LayoutManager> for ConstraintLayout