Overview

The following two sections explain how you can integrate your .slint designs into your C++ application. The entry point is a .slint file that contains your primary component that you instantiate from C++.

There are two ways in that you can instantiate your .slint designs in your C++ application, either by compiling them ahead of time or by dynamically loading them at run-time.

Once instantiated you feed data into it, for example by setting properties, populating data models or setting up callbacks that are invoked when the user activates certain elements.

Compiled .slint designs

You can choose to compile a .slint file to C++, which provides the best performance and lowest memory consumption.

The slint_target_sources cmake command makes the translation automatic and generated code has an API that allows setting and getting property values, etc. That API will use types from the slint namespace, for example slint::SharedString or slint::Color.

Run-time interpreted .slint designs

Instead of compiling .slint designs to C++, you can also choose to dynamically load .slint files at run-time. This is slower than compiling them ahead of time and requires more memory, however it provides more flexibility in your application design.

The entry point to loading a .slint file is the slint::interpreter::ComponentCompiler class in the slint::interpreter namespace.

With the help of slint::interpreter::ComponentCompiler you create a slint::interpreter::ComponentDefinition, which provides you with information about properties and callbacks that are common to all instances. The slint::interpreter::ComponentDefinition::create() function creates new instances, which are wrapped in slint::ComponentHandle. This is a smart pointer that owns the actual instance and keeps it alive as long as at least one slint::ComponentHandle is in scope, similar to std::shared_ptr<T>.

All property values in .slint are mapped to slint::interpreter::Value in C++. This is a polymorphic data type that can hold different kinds of values, such as numbers, strings or even data models.

For more complex UIs it is common to supply data in the form of an abstract data model, that is used with for - in repetitions or ListView elements in the .slint language. All models in C++ with the interpreter API are sub-classes of the slint::Model where the template parameter is slint::interpreter::Value. Therefore to provide your own data model, you can subclass slint::Model<slint::interpreter::Value>.

In .slint files it is possible to declare singletons that are globally available. You can access them from to your C++ code by exporting them and using the getter and setter functions on slint::interpreter::ComponentInstance to change properties and callbacks:

  1. slint::interpreter::ComponentInstance::set_global_property()

  2. slint::interpreter::ComponentInstance::get_global_property()

  3. slint::interpreter::ComponentInstance::set_global_callback()

  4. slint::interpreter::ComponentInstance::invoke_global_callback()