Inserting html and plain text in QTextEdit

[alexandernst]

I think there might be a bug in QTextEdit and .insertHtml and .insertText methods.

Here an example:

import sys
from PyQt4 import *
from PyQt4 import QtCore
from PyQt4 import QtGui
from PyQt4.QtCore import *
from PyQt4.QtGui import *
 
class Gui(QWidget):
    def __init__(self):
        QWidget.__init__(self, parent=None)
        screen = QDesktopWidget().screenGeometry()
        self.resize(screen.width(), screen.height()/2)
        self.move((screen.width() - self.geometry().width()) / 2, 0)
        self.textArea = QTextEdit(self)
        self.cursor = QTextCursor(self.textArea.document())
        self.show()
        self.cursor.insertHtml("<a href='http://www.w3schools.com/'>Link!</a>")
        self.cursor.insertText("something")
 
class Main(QMainWindow):
    def __init__(self):
        QMainWindow.__init__(self, parent=None)
        self.gui = Gui()
 
 
 
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
window = Main()
sys.exit(app.exec_())

import sys
from PyQt4 import *
from PyQt4 import QtCore
from PyQt4 import QtGui
from PyQt4.QtCore import *
from PyQt4.QtGui import *

class Gui(QWidget):
    def __init__(self):
        QWidget.__init__(self, parent=None)
        screen = QDesktopWidget().screenGeometry()
        self.resize(screen.width(), screen.height()/2)
        self.move((screen.width() - self.geometry().width()) / 2, 0)
        self.textArea = QTextEdit(self)
        self.cursor = QTextCursor(self.textArea.document())
        self.show()
        self.cursor.insertHtml("<a href='http://www.w3schools.com/'>Link!</a>")
        self.cursor.insertText("something")

class Main(QMainWindow):
    def __init__(self):
        QMainWindow.__init__(self, parent=None)
        self.gui = Gui()


    
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
window = Main()
sys.exit(app.exec_())

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A normal webbrowser will render "<a href='http://www.w3schools.com/'>Link!</a>something" as "Link!something", but instead of that QTextEdit renders it as "Link!something"

Where is the problem? And how can I prevent QTextEdit acting like that?

[JohannesMunk]

This works fine on Qt4.6, Windows:

#include <QtCore>
#include <QtGui>
 
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    QApplication a(argc, argv);
 
    QTextEdit te;
    te.setHtml("<a href='http://www.w3schools.com/'>Link!</a>aah");
    te.show();
    return a.exec();
}

#include <QtCore>
#include <QtGui>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    QApplication a(argc, argv);

    QTextEdit te;
    te.setHtml("<a href='http://www.w3schools.com/'>Link!</a>aah");
    te.show();
    return a.exec();
}

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What version of Qt do you use?

Johannes

[alexandernst]

I know that setting it all together it will work. But I want to be able to set html data, and then append plain text, then html data, plain text, etc etc etc...
I'm using 4.6 on Arch.

[JohannesMunk]

You can add your plaintext as html code and it will be shown as plaintext, as long as it doesn't contain any html-formatting.. So you can compile one big QString with all your links and plaintext and set it as html-text of your textedit. Or do you intend to ignore the html-tags of your plaintext? Does that even work?

Johannes

[alexandernst]

I can't do that because I don't know what will be the next string that I'd append. That's why I need to be able to insertHtml and PlaintText.
Is there any way to force PlainText or something?

[JohannesMunk]

I don't understand. Why don't you just add it as html? The same text. Just the other method. Does it work then?

[alexandernst]

No, it woesn't work
Could you try it to be sure?

[JohannesMunk]

#include <QtGui>
 
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    QApplication a(argc, argv);
 
    QTextEdit te;
    QTextCursor cursor = te.textCursor();
    cursor.insertHtml("<a href='http://www.w3schools.com/'>Link!</a>oops<br>");
    cursor.insertHtml("<a href='http://www.w3schools.com/'>Link!</a>");
    cursor.insertHtml("something");
    cursor.insertHtml("<br>");
    cursor.insertHtml("<a href='http://www.w3schools.com/'>Link!</a>");
    cursor.insertText("something");
    te.show();
    return a.exec();
}

#include <QtGui>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    QApplication a(argc, argv);

    QTextEdit te;
    QTextCursor cursor = te.textCursor();
    cursor.insertHtml("<a href='http://www.w3schools.com/'>Link!</a>oops<br>");
    cursor.insertHtml("<a href='http://www.w3schools.com/'>Link!</a>");
    cursor.insertHtml("something");
    cursor.insertHtml("<br>");
    cursor.insertHtml("<a href='http://www.w3schools.com/'>Link!</a>");
    cursor.insertText("something");
    te.show();
    return a.exec();
}

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LinkEdit..png
So you are right.. this is unexpected beviour. But inserting as html seems to work..

BTW:

self.cursor = QTextCursor(self.textArea.document())

self.cursor = QTextCursor(self.textArea.document())

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Is this correct for PyQt? Seems strange to me.

Johannes

[alexandernst]

I guess I'll be using only .insertHtml

About the self.cursor = QTextCursor(self.textArea.document())

textArea is a QTextEdit, and .document() returns a QTextDocument.
On the other hand, QTextCursor can be initialized with a QTextDocument, so, yes, it's correct (at least according to docs )
QTextCursor can also be inialized with QTextFrame, QTextCursor or without args.


Thanks for the help