KHexEdit

Introduction

The KHexEdit interfaces - also called KHE interfaces - are a set of well-defined interfaces which a library can implement to provide byte level editing services. Programs which utilise these interfaces can thus allow the user to choose which implementation of the hex editor component to use. At the time of KDE Platform 4.6 the only implementation known is the Okteta Component (found in kdesdk/okteta/parts/kbytesedit).

How to use the KHexEdit Interfaces

This HOWTO will explain step by step how to create a KHexEdit component and prepare it for usage.

The code lines

The following source code tries to create a hexedit component. If the component could not be created, a simple message label is created. Otherwise we set the data and configure it to our needs by using the different interfaces if available.

// used interfaces
#include <khexedit/byteseditinterface.h>
#include <khexedit/valuecolumninterface.h>
#include <khexedit/charcolumninterface.h>
#include <khexedit/clipboardinterface.h>

//
const char *data = 0;
int dataSize = 0;

// create data field and set dataSize
// ...

QWidget *bytesEditWidget = KHE::createBytesEditWidget( parent );

// no hexedit component installed?
if( !bytesEditWidget )
{
  bytesEditWidget = new QLabel( parent, i18n("Could not find a hexedit component.") );
}
// component found and widget created
else
{
  // fetch the editor interface
  KHE::BytesEditInterface *bytesEdit = KHE::bytesEditInterface( bytesEditWidget );
  Q_ASSERT( bytesEdit ); // This should not fail!

  // now use the editor.
  bytesEdit->setData( data, dataSize, -1 );
  bytesEdit->setMaxDataSize( dataSize );
  bytesEdit->setReadOnly( false );
  bytesEdit->setAutoDelete( true );

  KHE::ValueColumnInterface *valueColumn = KHE::valueColumnInterface( bytesEditWidget );
  if( valueColumn )
  {
    valueColumn->setCoding( KHE::ValueColumnInterface::BinaryCoding );
    valueColumn->setByteSpacingWidth( 2 );
    valueColumn->setNoOfGroupedBytes( 4 );
    valueColumn->setGroupSpacingWidth( 12 );
  }

  KHE::CharColumnInterface *charColumn = KHE::charColumnInterface( bytesEditWidget );
  if( charColumn )
  {
    charColumn->setShowUnprintable( false );
    charColumn->setSubstituteChar( '*' );
  }

  KHE::ClipboardInterface *clipboard = KHE::clipboardInterface( bytesEditWidget );
  if( clipboard )
  {
    // Yes, use bytesEditWidget, not clipboard, because that's the QObject, indeed hacky...
    connect( bytesEditWidget, SIGNAL(copyAvailable(bool)), this, SLOT(offerCopy(bool)) );
  }
}

// now you can use bytesEditWidget like any other widget object...

Notes

As the KHexEdit interfaces are header-only, you don't need to link against any additional libraries.

Author(s):

Friedrich W. H. Kossebau <kossebau@kde.org>

Maintainer(s):

Friedrich W. H. Kossebau <kossebau@kde.org>

License(s):

LGPLv2