QPluginLoader

The QPluginLoader class loads a plugin at run-time. More…

Inheritance diagram of PySide6.QtCore.QPluginLoader

Synopsis

Functions

Static functions

Detailed Description

QPluginLoader provides access to a Qt plugin. A Qt plugin is stored in a shared library (a DLL) and offers these benefits over shared libraries accessed using QLibrary :

  • QPluginLoader checks that a plugin is linked against the same version of Qt as the application.

  • QPluginLoader provides direct access to a root component object ( instance() ), instead of forcing you to resolve a C function manually.

An instance of a QPluginLoader object operates on a single shared library file, which we call a plugin. It provides access to the functionality in the plugin in a platform-independent way. To specify which plugin to load, either pass a file name in the constructor or set it with setFileName() .

The most important functions are load() to dynamically load the plugin file, isLoaded() to check whether loading was successful, and instance() to access the root component in the plugin. The instance() function implicitly tries to load the plugin if it has not been loaded yet. Multiple instances of QPluginLoader can be used to access the same physical plugin.

Once loaded, plugins remain in memory until all instances of QPluginLoader has been unloaded, or until the application terminates. You can attempt to unload a plugin using unload() , but if other instances of QPluginLoader are using the same library, the call will fail, and unloading will only happen when every instance has called unload() . Right before the unloading happens, the root component will also be deleted.

See How to Create Qt Plugins for more information about how to make your application extensible through plugins.

Note that the QPluginLoader cannot be used if your application is statically linked against Qt. In this case, you will also have to link to plugins statically. You can use QLibrary if you need to load dynamic libraries in a statically linked application.

class PySide6.QtCore.QPluginLoader([parent=None])

PySide6.QtCore.QPluginLoader(fileName[, parent=None])

Parameters

Constructs a plugin loader with the given parent.

Constructs a plugin loader with the given parent that will load the plugin specified by fileName.

To be loadable, the file’s suffix must be a valid suffix for a loadable library in accordance with the platform, e.g. .so on Unix, - .dylib on macOS and iOS, and .dll on Windows. The suffix can be verified with isLibrary() .

See also

setFileName()

PySide6.QtCore.QPluginLoader.errorString()
Return type

str

Returns a text string with the description of the last error that occurred.

PySide6.QtCore.QPluginLoader.fileName()
Return type

str

This property holds the file name of the plugin.

We recommend omitting the file’s suffix in the file name, since QPluginLoader will automatically look for the file with the appropriate suffix (see isLibrary() ).

When loading the plugin, QPluginLoader searches in all plugin locations specified by libraryPaths() , unless the file name has an absolute path. After loading the plugin successfully, returns the fully-qualified file name of the plugin, including the full path to the plugin if one was given in the constructor or passed to .

If the file name does not exist, it will not be set. This property will then contain an empty string.

By default, this property contains an empty string.

See also

load()

PySide6.QtCore.QPluginLoader.instance()
Return type

PySide6.QtCore.QObject

Returns the root component object of the plugin. The plugin is loaded if necessary. The function returns None if the plugin could not be loaded or if the root component object could not be instantiated.

If the root component object was destroyed, calling this function creates a new instance.

The root component, returned by this function, is not deleted when the QPluginLoader is destroyed. If you want to ensure that the root component is deleted, you should call unload() as soon you don’t need to access the core component anymore. When the library is finally unloaded, the root component will automatically be deleted.

The component object is a QObject . Use qobject_cast() to access interfaces you are interested in.

See also

load()

PySide6.QtCore.QPluginLoader.isLoaded()
Return type

bool

Returns true if the plugin is loaded; otherwise returns false.

See also

load()

PySide6.QtCore.QPluginLoader.load()
Return type

bool

Loads the plugin and returns true if the plugin was loaded successfully; otherwise returns false. Since instance() always calls this function before resolving any symbols it is not necessary to call it explicitly. In some situations you might want the plugin loaded in advance, in which case you would use this function.

See also

unload()

PySide6.QtCore.QPluginLoader.loadHints()
Return type

LoadHints

This property holds Give the load() function some hints on how it should behave..

You can give hints on how the symbols in the plugin are resolved. By default since Qt 5.7, PreventUnloadHint is set.

See the documentation of loadHints for a complete description of how this property works.

See also

loadHints

PySide6.QtCore.QPluginLoader.metaData()
Return type

QJsonObject

Returns the meta data for this plugin. The meta data is data specified in a json format using the Q_PLUGIN_METADATA() macro when compiling the plugin.

The meta data can be queried in a fast and inexpensive way without actually loading the plugin. This makes it possible to e.g. store capabilities of the plugin in there, and make the decision whether to load the plugin dependent on this meta data.

PySide6.QtCore.QPluginLoader.setFileName(fileName)
Parameters

fileName – str

This property holds the file name of the plugin.

We recommend omitting the file’s suffix in the file name, since QPluginLoader will automatically look for the file with the appropriate suffix (see isLibrary() ).

When loading the plugin, QPluginLoader searches in all plugin locations specified by libraryPaths() , unless the file name has an absolute path. After loading the plugin successfully, returns the fully-qualified file name of the plugin, including the full path to the plugin if one was given in the constructor or passed to .

If the file name does not exist, it will not be set. This property will then contain an empty string.

By default, this property contains an empty string.

See also

load()

PySide6.QtCore.QPluginLoader.setLoadHints(loadHints)
Parameters

loadHints – LoadHints

This property holds Give the load() function some hints on how it should behave..

You can give hints on how the symbols in the plugin are resolved. By default since Qt 5.7, PreventUnloadHint is set.

See the documentation of loadHints for a complete description of how this property works.

See also

loadHints

static PySide6.QtCore.QPluginLoader.staticInstances()
Return type

Returns a list of static plugin instances (root components) held by the plugin loader.

See also

staticPlugins()

PySide6.QtCore.QPluginLoader.unload()
Return type

bool

Unloads the plugin and returns true if the plugin could be unloaded; otherwise returns false.

This happens automatically on application termination, so you shouldn’t normally need to call this function.

If other instances of QPluginLoader are using the same plugin, the call will fail, and unloading will only happen when every instance has called .

Don’t try to delete the root component. Instead rely on that will automatically delete it when needed.

See also

instance() load()