I have some code creating a QTabWidget from Python using PyQt4. I want to get a 'throbber' animated gif in the tab. The /only way/ I have found how to do this is the following convoluted method.
tabBar = self.tabReports.tabBar()
lbl = QtGui.QLabel(self.tabReports)
movie = QtGui.QMovie(os.path.join(self.basedir, "images\\throbber.gif"))
lbl.setMovie(movie)
QtCore.QObject.connect(movie, QtCore.SIGNAL("frameChanged(int)"), lambda i: movie.jumpToFrame(i))
movie.start()
log.debug("valid = %s"%(movie.isValid()))
tabBar.setTabButton(idxtab, QtGui.QTabBar.LeftSide, lbl)
The debugging call always returns true, but the throbber sometimes works, sometimes is blank, and sometimes has a large ugly delay between frames. In particular, I can't help but think connecting the frameChanged signal from the movie to a function that simply calls jumpToFrame on the same movie is correct.
Even more distressing, if I simply drop the lambda (That is, make the line say QtCore.QObject.connect(movie, QtCore.SIGNAL("frameChanged(int)"), movie.jumpToFrame) it never renders even the first frame.
So, what am I doing wrong?
PS: I realize .tabBar() is a protected member, but I assumed (apparently correctly) that PyQt unprotects protected members :). I'm new to Qt, and i'd rather not subclass QTabWidget if I can help it.