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<li class="level1"><a href="#basic-qml-syntax">Basic QML Syntax</a></li>
<li class="level1"><a href="#expressions">Expressions</a></li>
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<h1 class="title">QML Syntax</h1>
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<div class="descr"> <a name="details"></a>
<p>QML is a declarative language designed to describe the user interface of a program: both what it looks like, and how it behaves. In QML, a user interface is specified as a tree of objects with properties.</p>
<p>JavaScript is used as a scripting language in QML, so you may want to learn a bit more about it (<a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en/JavaScript/Guide">Javascript Guide</a>) before diving deeper into QML.</p>
<a name="basic-qml-syntax"></a>
<h2>Basic QML Syntax</h2>
<p>QML looks like this:</p>
<pre class="cpp"> import <span class="type">QtQuick</span> <span class="number">1.0</span>
Rectangle {
width: <span class="number">200</span>
height: <span class="number">200</span>
color: <span class="string">"blue"</span>
Image {
source: <span class="string">"pics/logo.png"</span>
anchors<span class="operator">.</span>centerIn: parent
}
}</pre>
<p>Objects are specified by their type, followed by a pair of braces. Object types always begin with a capital letter. In the above example, there are two objects, a <a href="qml-rectangle.html">Rectangle</a>, and an <a href="qml-image.html">Image</a>. Between the braces, we can specify information about the object, such as its properties.</p>
<p>Properties are specified as <tt>propertyname: value</tt>. In the above example, we can see the Image has a property named <tt>source</tt>, which has been assigned the value <tt>"pics/logo.png"</tt>. The property and its value are separated by a colon.</p>
<p>Properties can be specified one-per-line:</p>
<pre class="cpp"> Rectangle {
width: <span class="number">100</span>
height: <span class="number">100</span>
}</pre>
<p>or you can put multiple properties on a single line:</p>
<pre class="cpp"> Rectangle { width: <span class="number">100</span>; height: <span class="number">100</span> }</pre>
<p>When multiple property/value pairs are specified on a single line, they must be separated by a semicolon.</p>
<p>The <tt>import</tt> statement imports the <tt>Qt</tt> <a href="qdeclarativemodules.html#qml-modules">module</a>, which contains all of the standard <a href="qdeclarativeelements.html">QML Elements</a>. Without this import statement, the <a href="qml-rectangle.html">Rectangle</a> and <a href="qml-image.html">Image</a> elements would not be available.</p>
<a name="expressions"></a>
<h2>Expressions</h2>
<p>In addition to assigning values to properties, you can also assign expressions written in JavaScript.</p>
<pre class="cpp"> Rotation {
angle: <span class="number">360</span> <span class="operator">*</span> <span class="number">3</span>
}</pre>
<p>These expressions can include references to other objects and properties, in which case a <i>binding</i> is established: when the value of the expression changes, the property the expression has been assigned to is automatically updated to that value.</p>
<pre class="cpp"> Item {
Text {
id: text1
text: <span class="string">"Hello World"</span>
}
Text {
id: text2
text: text1<span class="operator">.</span>text
}
}</pre>
<p>In the example above, the <tt>text2</tt> object will display the same text as <tt>text1</tt>. If <tt>text1</tt> is changed, <tt>text2</tt> is automatically changed to the same value.</p>
<p>Note that to refer to other objects, we use their <i>id</i> values. (See below for more information on the <i>id</i> property.)</p>
<a name="qml-comments"></a>
<h2>QML Comments</h2>
<p>Commenting in QML is similar to JavaScript.</p>
<ul>
<li>Single line comments start with // and finish at the end of the line.</li>
<li>Multiline comments start with /* and finish with */</li>
</ul>
<pre class="qml"> <span class="type"><a href="qml-text.html">Text</a></span> {
<span class="name">text</span>: <span class="string">"Hello world!"</span> <span class="comment">//a basic greeting</span>
<span class="comment">/*
We want this text to stand out from the rest so
we give it a large size and different font.
*/</span>
<span class="name">font</span>.family: <span class="string">"Helvetica"</span>
<span class="name">font</span>.pointSize: <span class="number">24</span>
}</pre>
<p>Comments are ignored by the engine. They are useful for explaining what you are doing; for referring back to at a later date, or for others reading your QML files.</p>
<p>Comments can also be used to prevent the execution of code, which is sometimes useful for tracking down problems.</p>
<pre class="cpp"> Text {
text: <span class="string">"Hello world!"</span>
<span class="comment">//opacity: 0.5</span>
}</pre>
<p>In the above example, the Text object will have normal opacity, since the line opacity: 0.5 has been turned into a comment.</p>
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