How to "embed" one window inside another

Question

I have inherited a Qt-based app that handles the master/detail relationship by presenting the detail screens as separate windows. The main window includes a list, and when you tap on a row a separate detail window is opened up.

In the code base, the detail windows are handled by a QML file and a matching .cpp file (the main window also has its own .cpp file). The problem I am facing is that a new client wants me to modify this application for them, except that they want everything to occur within a single window. They want the list to be shown on the left side, and then when a user taps a row, the detail screen is to be shown on the right side of the window in its own panel (but not in a separate window).

For various reasons I can't easily refactor this application. A quicker solution for me would be to continue to present the detail screen in its own window, but to make it a borderless window and position this borderless window over top of the main window (on the right) so that it appears to be a panel within the main window.

Is something like this possible with Qt? I have written Windows apps in the past that hooked into the Windows API to do something like, but I don't know whether this is even possible in a native Mac OS app, so I don't know whether Qt can handle it in some way automaticaly.

Answer 1

One thing you could try is to create a widget based "main" window and then use QWidget::createWindowContainer() to wrap the QtQuick windows for positioning them with QtWidget means, e.g. layouts.