QTextBrowser Class

The contents of QTextEdit are set with setHtml() or setPlainText(), but QTextBrowser also implements the setSource() function, making it possible to use a named document as the source text. The name is looked up in a list of search paths and in the directory of the current document factory.

If a document name ends with an anchor (for example, "#anchor"), the text browser automatically scrolls to that position (using scrollToAnchor()). When the user clicks on a hyperlink, the browser will call setSource() itself with the link's href value as argument. You can track the current source by connecting to the sourceChanged() signal.

QTextBrowser provides backward() and forward() slots which you can use to implement Back and Forward buttons. The home() slot sets the text to the very first document displayed. The anchorClicked() signal is emitted when the user clicks an anchor. To override the default navigation behavior of the browser, call the setSource() function to supply new document text in a slot connected to this signal.

If you want to load documents stored in the Qt resource system use qrc as the scheme in the URL to load. For example, for the document resource path :/docs/index.html use qrc:/docs/index.html as the URL with setSource().

See also QTextEdit, QTextDocument

This property holds whether the contents of the text browser have been modified

Specifies whether QTextBrowser should automatically open links to external sources using QDesktopServices::openUrl() instead of emitting the anchorClicked signal. Links are considered external if their scheme is neither file or qrc.

The default value is false.

Access functions:

• bool openExternalLinks() const

• void setOpenExternalLinks(bool open)

This property specifies whether QTextBrowser should automatically open links the user tries to activate by mouse or keyboard.

Regardless of the value of this property the anchorClicked signal is always emitted.

The default value is true.

Access functions:

• bool openLinks() const

• void setOpenLinks(bool open)

This property holds whether the text browser is read-only

By default, this property is true.

Access functions:

• bool isReadOnly() const

• void setReadOnly(bool ro)

This property holds the search paths used by the text browser to find supporting content

QTextBrowser uses this list to locate images and documents.

By default, this property contains an empty string list.

Access functions:

• searchPaths() const

• void setSearchPaths(const &paths)

This property holds the name of the displayed document.

This is a an invalid url if no document is displayed or if the source is unknown.

When setting this property QTextBrowser tries to find a document with the specified name in the paths of the searchPaths property and directory of the current source, unless the value is an absolute file path. It also checks for optional anchors and scrolls the document accordingly

If the first tag in the document is <qt type=detail>, the document is displayed as a popup rather than as new document in the browser window itself. Otherwise, the document is displayed normally in the text browser with the text set to the contents of the named document with QTextDocument::setHtml() or QTextDocument::setMarkdown(), depending on whether the filename ends with any of the known Markdown file extensions.

If you would like to avoid automatic type detection and specify the type explicitly, call setSource() rather than setting this property.

By default, this property contains an empty URL.

Access functions:

• source() const

• void setSource(const &url, type = QTextDocument::UnknownResource)

This property holds the type of the displayed document

This is QTextDocument::UnknownResource if no document is displayed or if the type of the source is unknown. Otherwise it holds the type that was detected, or the type that was specified when setSource() was called.

Access functions:

• sourceType() const

This property holds whether the text browser supports undo/redo operations

By default, this property is false.

Access functions:

• bool isUndoRedoEnabled() const

• void setUndoRedoEnabled(bool enable)

Constructs an empty QTextBrowser with parent parent.

This signal is emitted when the user clicks an anchor. The URL referred to by the anchor is passed in link.

Note that the browser will automatically handle navigation to the location specified by link unless the openLinks property is set to false or you call setSource() in a slot connected. This mechanism is used to override the default navigation features of the browser.

Changes the document displayed to the previous document in the list of documents built by navigating links. Does nothing if there is no previous document.

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This signal is emitted when the availability of backward() changes. available is false when the user is at home(); otherwise it is true.

Returns the number of locations backward in the history.

Clears the history of visited documents and disables the forward and backward navigation.

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Attempts to load the document at the given url with the specified type.

setSource() calls doSetSource. In Qt 5, setSource(const QUrl &url) was virtual. In Qt 6, doSetSource() is virtual instead, so that it can be overridden in subclasses.

Reimplements: QAbstractScrollArea::event(QEvent *event).

Reimplements: QTextEdit::focusNextPrevChild(bool next).

Reimplements: QTextEdit::focusOutEvent(QFocusEvent *e).

Changes the document displayed to the next document in the list of documents built by navigating links. Does nothing if there is no next document.

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This signal is emitted when the availability of forward() changes. available is true after the user navigates backward() and false when the user navigates or goes forward().

Returns the number of locations forward in the history.

This signal is emitted when the user has selected but not activated an anchor in the document. The URL referred to by the anchor is passed in link.

This signal is emitted when the history changes.

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Returns the documentTitle() of the HistoryItem.

backaction.setToolTip(browser.historyTitle(-1));
forwardaction.setToolTip(browser.historyTitle(+1));

Returns the url of the HistoryItem.

Changes the document displayed to be the first document from the history.

Returns true if the text browser can go backward in the document history using backward().

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Returns true if the text browser can go forward in the document history using forward().

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Reimplements: QTextEdit::keyPressEvent(QKeyEvent *e).

The event ev is used to provide the following keyboard shortcuts:

Reimplements: QTextEdit::loadResource(int type, const QUrl &name).

This function is called when the document is loaded and for each image in the document. The type indicates the type of resource to be loaded. An invalid QVariant is returned if the resource cannot be loaded.

The default implementation ignores type and tries to locate the resources by interpreting name as a file name. If it is not an absolute path it tries to find the file in the paths of the searchPaths property and in the same directory as the current source. On success, the result is a QVariant that stores a QByteArray with the contents of the file.

If you reimplement this function, you can return other QVariant types. The table below shows which variant types are supported depending on the resource type:

Reimplements: QTextEdit::mouseMoveEvent(QMouseEvent *e).

Reimplements: QTextEdit::mousePressEvent(QMouseEvent *e).

Reimplements: QTextEdit::mouseReleaseEvent(QMouseEvent *e).

Reimplements: QTextEdit::paintEvent(QPaintEvent *event).

Reloads the current set source.

Attempts to load the document at the given url with the specified type.

If type is UnknownResource (the default), the document type will be detected: that is, if the url ends with an extension of .md, .mkd or .markdown, the document will be loaded via QTextDocument::setMarkdown(); otherwise it will be loaded via QTextDocument::setHtml(). This detection can be bypassed by specifying the type explicitly.

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This signal is emitted when the source has changed, src being the new source.

Source changes happen both programmatically when calling setSource(), forward(), backward() or home() or when the user clicks on links or presses the equivalent key sequences.