Question

Background

This is only my second PyQt4 project. Developing a Windows app that has INVOICE management as one of its components.

Question

I need suggestions on how to successfully create a list that can be cleanly printed even if it spans across multiple pages.
Something like QTableView or QTableWidget.

UI Details

Few Header Lines (Client info, invoice number etc) followed by rows of:
| SKU # | NAME | DESCRIPTION | QUANTITY | PRICE
With some subtotals and grand totals on the bottom.

Print Functionality

When [Ctrl]+P is pressed or File–>Print is selected, system printer dialog should pop-up allowing you to print the invoice that can span multiple Letter sized pages.
Optionally, is there a quick and easy way to implement a print preview?

I don’t want to spend 3 days using QTableWidget + QPrinter only to find out that it cannot do what I need it to do. Looking for help/tips/insight from your past experience that will save me time and effort.

Thanks

Answer 1

I pretty sure everything you want to achieve is possible using PyQt4.

I have added a basic script below which demonstrates the functionality you’re after. The format of the printed table is very crude, but you could easily achieve something fancier by using html instead of the simple text-table I’ve used.

from PyQt4 import QtGui, QtCore

class Window(QtGui.QWidget):
    def __init__(self):
        QtGui.QWidget.__init__(self)
        self.setWindowTitle(self.tr('Document Printer'))
        self.table = QtGui.QTableWidget(200, 5, self)
        for row in range(self.table.rowCount()):
            for col in range(self.table.columnCount()):
                item = QtGui.QTableWidgetItem('(%d, %d)' % (row, col))
                item.setTextAlignment(QtCore.Qt.AlignCenter)
                self.table.setItem(row, col, item)
        self.table.setHorizontalHeaderLabels(
            'SKU #|NAME|DESCRIPTION|QUANTITY|PRICE'.split('|'))
        self.buttonPrint = QtGui.QPushButton('Print', self)
        self.buttonPrint.clicked.connect(self.handlePrint)
        self.buttonPreview = QtGui.QPushButton('Preview', self)
        self.buttonPreview.clicked.connect(self.handlePreview)
        layout = QtGui.QGridLayout(self)
        layout.addWidget(self.table, 0, 0, 1, 2)
        layout.addWidget(self.buttonPrint, 1, 0)
        layout.addWidget(self.buttonPreview, 1, 1)

    def handlePrint(self):
        dialog = QtGui.QPrintDialog()
        if dialog.exec_() == QtGui.QDialog.Accepted:
            self.handlePaintRequest(dialog.printer())

    def handlePreview(self):
        dialog = QtGui.QPrintPreviewDialog()
        dialog.paintRequested.connect(self.handlePaintRequest)
        dialog.exec_()

    def handlePaintRequest(self, printer):
        document = QtGui.QTextDocument()
        cursor = QtGui.QTextCursor(document)
        table = cursor.insertTable(
            self.table.rowCount(), self.table.columnCount())
        for row in range(table.rows()):
            for col in range(table.columns()):
                cursor.insertText(self.table.item(row, col).text())
                cursor.movePosition(QtGui.QTextCursor.NextCell)
        document.print_(printer)

if __name__ == '__main__':

    import sys
    app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
    window = Window()
    window.resize(640, 480)
    window.show()
    sys.exit(app.exec_())