KJob Class

Header: #include <KJob>
CMake: find_package(KF6 REQUIRED COMPONENTS CoreAddons)
target_link_libraries(mytarget PRIVATE KF6::CoreAddons)
Inherited By:

KCompositeJob and KListOpenFilesJob

Public Types

flags Capabilities
enum Capability { NoCapabilities, Killable, Suspendable }
enum Unit { Bytes, Files, Directories, Items, UnitsCount }

Public Functions

KJob(QObject *parent = nullptr)
KJob::Capabilities capabilities() const
int error() const
virtual QString errorString() const
QString errorText() const
bool exec()
bool isAutoDelete() const
(since 5.92) bool isFinishedNotificationHidden() const
(since 5.95) bool isStartedWithExec() const
bool isSuspended() const
unsigned long percent() const
qulonglong processedAmount(KJob::Unit unit) const
void setAutoDelete(bool autodelete)
(since 5.92) void setFinishedNotificationHidden(bool hide = true)
void setUiDelegate(KJobUiDelegate *delegate)
virtual void start() = 0
qulonglong totalAmount(KJob::Unit unit) const
KJobUiDelegate *uiDelegate() const

Public Slots

bool kill(KJob::KillVerbosity verbosity = KJob::Quietly)
bool resume()
bool suspend()

Signals

void description(KJob *job, const QString &title, const QPair<QString, QString> &field1 = QPair<QString, QString>(), const QPair<QString, QString> &field2 = QPair<QString, QString>())
void infoMessage(KJob *job, const QString &message)
void percentChanged(KJob *job, unsigned long percent)
void processedSize(KJob *job, qulonglong size)
void result(KJob *job)
void speed(KJob *job, unsigned long speed)
void totalSize(KJob *job, qulonglong size)
void warning(KJob *job, const QString &message)

Protected Functions

virtual bool doKill()
virtual bool doResume()
virtual bool doSuspend()
void emitPercent(qulonglong processedAmount, qulonglong totalAmount)
void emitResult()
void emitSpeed(unsigned long speed)
void setCapabilities(KJob::Capabilities capabilities)
void setError(int errorCode)
void setErrorText(const QString &errorText)
void setPercent(unsigned long percentage)
void setProcessedAmount(KJob::Unit unit, qulonglong amount)
(since 5.76) void setProgressUnit(KJob::Unit unit)
void setTotalAmount(KJob::Unit unit, qulonglong amount)

Detailed Description

The base class for all jobs. For all jobs created in an application, the code looks like

void SomeClass::methodWithAsynchronousJobCall()
{
  KJob *job = someoperation(some parameters);
  connect(job, &KJob::result, this, &SomeClass::handleResult);
  job->start();
}

(other connects, specific to the job)

And handleResult is usually at least:

void SomeClass::handleResult(KJob *job)
{
  if (job->error()) {
      doSomething();
  }
}

With the synchronous interface the code looks like

void SomeClass::methodWithSynchronousJobCall()
{
  KJob *job = someoperation( some parameters );
  if (!job->exec()) {
      // An error occurred
  } else {
      // Do something
  }
}

Subclasses must implement start(), which should trigger the execution of the job (although the work should be done asynchronously). errorString() should also be reimplemented by any subclasses that introduce new error codes.

Note: KJob and its subclasses are meant to be used in a fire-and-forget way. Jobs will delete themselves when they finish using deleteLater() (although this behaviour can be changed), so a job instance will disappear after the next event loop run.

Member Type Documentation

enum KJob::Capability
flags KJob::Capabilities

ConstantValueDescription
KJob::NoCapabilities0x0000None of the capabilities exist
KJob::Killable0x0001The job can be killed
KJob::Suspendable0x0002The job can be suspended

The Capabilities type is a typedef for QFlags<Capability>. It stores an OR combination of Capability values.

enum KJob::Unit

Describes the unit used in the methods that handle reporting the job progress info.

ConstantValueDescription
KJob::Bytes0Directory and file sizes in bytes
KJob::Files1The number of files handled by the job
KJob::Directories2The number of directories handled by the job
KJob::Items (since KCoreAddons 5.72)3The number of items (e.g. both directories and files) handled by the job
KJob::UnitsCount (since KCoreAddons 5.87)4Used internally only, do not use

See also totalAmount.

Member Function Documentation

[explicit] KJob::KJob(QObject *parent = nullptr)

Creates a new KJob object.

parent the parent QObject

KJob::Capabilities KJob::capabilities() const

Returns the capabilities of this job.

Returns the capabilities that this job supports

Note: Getter function for property capabilities.

See also setCapabilities().

[signal] void KJob::description(KJob *job, const QString &title, const QPair<QString, QString> &field1 = QPair<QString, QString>(), const QPair<QString, QString> &field2 = QPair<QString, QString>())

Emitted to display general description of this job. A description has a title and two optional fields which can be used to complete the description.

Examples of titles are "Copying", "Creating resource", etc. The fields of the description can be "Source" with an URL, and, "Destination" with an URL for a "Copying" description. job the job that emitted this signal title the general description of the job field1 first field (localized name and value) field2 second field (localized name and value)

[virtual protected] bool KJob::doKill()

Aborts this job quietly.

This simply kills the job, no error reporting or job deletion should be involved.

Returns true if the operation is supported and succeeded, false otherwise

[virtual protected] bool KJob::doResume()

Resumes this job.

Returns true if the operation is supported and succeeded, false otherwise

[virtual protected] bool KJob::doSuspend()

Suspends this job.

Returns true if the operation is supported and succeeded, false otherwise

[protected] void KJob::emitPercent(qulonglong processedAmount, qulonglong totalAmount)

Utility function for inherited jobs. Emits the percent signal if bigger than previous value, after calculating it from the parameters.

processedAmount the processed amount

totalAmount the total amount

See also percent().

[protected] void KJob::emitResult()

Utility function to emit the result signal, and end this job. It first notifies the observers to hide the progress for this job using the finished() signal.

Note: Deletes this job using deleteLater().

See also result() and finished().

[protected] void KJob::emitSpeed(unsigned long speed)

Utility function for inherited jobs. Emits the speed signal and starts the timer for removing that info

speed the speed in bytes/s

int KJob::error() const

Returns the error code, if there has been an error.

Only call this method from the slot connected to result().

Returns the error code for this job, 0 if no error.

Note: Getter function for property error.

See also setError().

[virtual] QString KJob::errorString() const

A human-readable error message.

This provides a translated, human-readable description of the error. Only call if error is not 0.

Subclasses should implement this to create a translated error message from the error code and error text. For example:

if (error() == ReadFailed) {
  i18n("Could not read \"%1\"", errorText());
}

Returns a translated error message, providing error() is 0

Note: Getter function for property errorString.

QString KJob::errorText() const

Returns the error text if there has been an error.

Only call if error is not 0.

This is usually some extra data associated with the error, such as a URL. Use errorString() to get a human-readable, translated message.

Returns a string to help understand the error

Note: Getter function for property errorText.

See also setErrorText().

bool KJob::exec()

Executes the job synchronously.

This will start a nested QEventLoop internally. Nested event loop can be dangerous and can have unintended side effects, you should avoid calling exec() whenever you can and use the asynchronous interface of KJob instead.

Should you indeed call this method, you need to make sure that all callers are reentrant, so that events delivered by the inner event loop don't cause non-reentrant functions to be called, which usually wreaks havoc.

Note that the event loop started by this method does not process user input events, which means your user interface will effectively be blocked. Other events like paint or network events are still being processed. The advantage of not processing user input events is that the chance of accidental reentrance is greatly reduced. Still you should avoid calling this function.

Returns true if the job has been executed without error, false otherwise

[signal] void KJob::infoMessage(KJob *job, const QString &message)

Emitted to display state information about this job. Examples of message are "Resolving host", "Connecting to host...", etc.

job the job that emitted this signal message the info message

bool KJob::isAutoDelete() const

Returns whether this job automatically deletes itself once the job is finished.

Returns whether the job is deleted automatically after finishing.

[since 5.92] bool KJob::isFinishedNotificationHidden() const

Whether to <em>not</em> show a finished notification when a job's finished signal is emitted.

This function was introduced in 5.92.

See also setFinishedNotificationHidden().

[since 5.95] bool KJob::isStartedWithExec() const

Returns true if this job was started with exec(), which starts a nested event-loop (with QEventLoop::ExcludeUserInputEvents, which blocks the GUI), otherwise returns false which indicates this job was started asynchronously with start().

This is useful for code that for example shows a dialog to ask the user a question, and that would be no-op since the user cannot interact with the dialog.

This function was introduced in 5.95.

bool KJob::isSuspended() const

Returns if the job was suspended with the suspend() call.

Returns if the job was suspended

See also suspend() and resume().

[slot] bool KJob::kill(KJob::KillVerbosity verbosity = KJob::Quietly)

Aborts this job.

This kills and deletes the job.

verbosity if equals to EmitResult, Job will emit signal result and ask uiserver to close the progress window.

verbosity is set to EmitResult for subjobs. Whether applications should call with Quietly or EmitResult depends on whether they rely on result being emitted or not. Please notice that if verbosity is set to Quietly, signal result will NOT be emitted. Returns true if the operation is supported and succeeded, false otherwise

unsigned long KJob::percent() const

Returns the overall progress of this job

Note: Getter function for property percent.

See also setPercent().

qulonglong KJob::processedAmount(KJob::Unit unit) const

Returns the processed amount of a given unit for this job.

unit the unit of the requested amount

Returns the processed size

See also setProcessedAmount().

[signal] void KJob::processedSize(KJob *job, qulonglong size)

Regularly emitted to show the progress of this job (current data size in bytes for transfers, entries listed, etc.).

Note: This is a private signal, it shouldn't be emitted directly by subclasses of KJob, use setProcessedAmount() instead.

job the job that emitted this signal size the processed size

[slot] bool KJob::resume()

Resumes this job.

Returns true if the operation is supported and succeeded, false otherwise

void KJob::setAutoDelete(bool autodelete)

Sets the auto-delete property of the job. If autodelete is set to false the job will not delete itself once it is finished.

The default for any KJob is to automatically delete itself, which implies that the job was created on the heap (using <tt>new</tt>). If the job is created on the stack (which isn't the typical use-case for a job) then you must set auto-delete to false, otherwise you could get a crash when the job finishes and tries to delete itself.

Note: If you set auto-delete to false then you need to kill the job manually, ideally by calling kill().

autodelete set to false to disable automatic deletion of the job.

See also isAutoDelete().

[protected] void KJob::setCapabilities(KJob::Capabilities capabilities)

Sets the capabilities for this job.

capabilities are the capabilities supported by this job

See also capabilities().

[protected] void KJob::setError(int errorCode)

Sets the error code.

It should be called when an error is encountered in the job, just before calling emitResult().

You should define an (anonymous) enum of error codes, with values starting at KJob::UserDefinedError, and use those. For example,

enum {
  InvalidFoo = UserDefinedError,
  BarNotFound,
};

errorCode the error code

See also error() and emitResult().

[protected] void KJob::setErrorText(const QString &errorText)

Sets the error text.

It should be called when an error is encountered in the job, just before calling emitResult().

Provides extra information about the error that cannot be determined directly from the error code. For example, a URL or filename. This string is not normally translatable.

errorText the error text

See also errorText(), emitResult(), errorString(), and setError().

[since 5.92] void KJob::setFinishedNotificationHidden(bool hide = true)

This method can be used to indicate to classes listening to signals from a job that they should ideally show a progress bar, but not a finished notification.

For example when opening a remote URL, a job will emit the progress of the download, which can be used to show a progress dialog or a Plasma notification, then when the job is done it'll emit e.g. the finished signal. Showing the user the progress dialog is useful, however the dialog/notification about the download being finished isn't of much interest, because the user can see the application that invoked the job opening the actual file that was downloaded.

This function was introduced in 5.92.

See also isFinishedNotificationHidden().

[protected] void KJob::setPercent(unsigned long percentage)

Sets the overall progress of the job. The percent() signal is emitted if the value changed.

The job takes care of this if you call setProcessedAmount in Bytes (or the unit set by setProgressUnit). This method allows you to set your own progress, as an alternative.

percentage the new overall progress

See also percent().

[protected] void KJob::setProcessedAmount(KJob::Unit unit, qulonglong amount)

Sets the processed size. The processedAmount() and percent() signals are emitted if the values changed. The percent() signal is emitted only for the progress unit.

unit the unit of the new processed amount

amount the new processed amount

See also processedAmount().

[protected, since 5.76] void KJob::setProgressUnit(KJob::Unit unit)

Sets the unit that will be used internally to calculate the progress percentage. The default progress unit is Bytes.

This function was introduced in 5.76.

[protected] void KJob::setTotalAmount(KJob::Unit unit, qulonglong amount)

Sets the total size. The totalSize() and percent() signals are emitted if the values changed. The percent() signal is emitted only for the progress unit.

unit the unit of the new total amount

amount the new total amount

See also totalAmount().

void KJob::setUiDelegate(KJobUiDelegate *delegate)

Attach a UI delegate to this job.

If the job had another UI delegate, it's automatically deleted. Once attached to the job, the UI delegate will be deleted with the job.

delegate the new UI delegate to use

See also uiDelegate() and KJobUiDelegate.

[signal] void KJob::speed(KJob *job, unsigned long speed)

Emitted to display information about the speed of this job.

Note: This is a private signal, it shouldn't be emitted directly by subclasses of KJob, use emitSpeed() instead.

job the job that emitted this signal speed the speed in bytes/s

[pure virtual] void KJob::start()

Starts the job asynchronously.

When the job is finished, result() is emitted.

Warning: Never implement any synchronous workload in this method. This method should just trigger the job startup, not do any work itself. It is expected to be non-blocking.

This is the method all subclasses need to implement. It should setup and trigger the workload of the job. It should not do any work itself. This includes all signals and terminating the job, e.g. by emitResult(). The workload, which could be another method of the subclass, is to be triggered using the event loop, e.g. by code like:

void ExampleJob::start()
{
 QTimer::singleShot(0, this, &ExampleJob::doWork);
}

[slot] bool KJob::suspend()

Suspends this job. The job should be kept in a state in which it is possible to resume it.

Returns true if the operation is supported and succeeded, false otherwise

qulonglong KJob::totalAmount(KJob::Unit unit) const

Returns the total amount of a given unit for this job.

unit the unit of the requested amount

Returns the total size

See also setTotalAmount().

[signal] void KJob::totalSize(KJob *job, qulonglong size)

Emitted when we know the size of this job (data size in bytes for transfers, number of entries for listings, etc).

Note: This is a private signal, it shouldn't be emitted directly by subclasses of KJob, use setTotalAmount() instead.

job the job that emitted this signal size the total size

KJobUiDelegate *KJob::uiDelegate() const

Retrieves the delegate attached to this job.

Returns the delegate attached to this job, or nullptr if there's no such delegate

See also setUiDelegate().

[signal] void KJob::warning(KJob *job, const QString &message)

Emitted to display a warning about this job.

job the job that emitted this signal message the warning message