Golang : Qt splash screen with delay example

Back in the 90s and early 2000's most software developers will develop for graphical user interface(GUI) application rather than web based application. It is a common practice to show a splash screen first before allowing the user to use the main application. Below is an example of how to show a splash screen for a Qt GUI application with Golang.

Please follow the setup instruction for Golang-Qt bindings at https://github.com/therecipe/qt

Tips: Dump out the documentation to text files for easier search and viewing.

 $godoc github.com/therecipe/qt/widgets > widgets.txt

 $godoc github.com/therecipe/qt/gui > gui.txt

 $godoc github.com/therecipe/qt/core > core.txt

To run the program below, use your own image file and save it to splash-screen.jpg. We will use this image below for this example.

Credit : https://unsplash.com/search/splash?photo=WKIJ_ozmXNI by @bady

Here you go!

---

 package main

 import (
  "github.com/therecipe/qt/core"
  "github.com/therecipe/qt/gui"
  "github.com/therecipe/qt/widgets"
  "os"
  "time"
 )

 var (
  mainApp *widgets.QApplication
  item *widgets.QGraphicsPixmapItem
  imageFileName string
 )

 func delaySecond(n time.Duration) {
  time.Sleep(n * time.Second)
 }

 func showSplashScreen(delay int) {

  var pixmap = gui.NewQPixmap5("splash-screen.jpg", "", core.Qt__AutoColor)
  splash := widgets.NewQSplashScreen(pixmap, core.Qt__Window)
  splash.Show()
  delaySecond(time.Duration(delay))
  splash.DestroyQSplashScreen()

 }

 func main() {

  mainApp = widgets.NewQApplication(len(os.Args), os.Args)
  mainWindow := widgets.NewQMainWindow(nil, core.Qt__Window)
  mainWindow.SetWindowTitle("Splash screen main window")
  mainWindow.ShowMaximized()

  // can use Go routine to launch splash screen
  // and show for 8 seconds but Qt will complain
  // go showSplashScreen(8)

  showSplashScreen(8)

  widgets.QMessageBox_Information(nil, "OK", "Splash screen is gone now and time to quit. Click OK to close.", widgets.QMessageBox__Ok, widgets.QMessageBox__Ok)

  mainApp.Quit()

 }

---

go build the code above and place the executable in the same directory as the file splash-screen.jpg. Execute the program and you should see the splash screen in action.

Photo credit:

https://unsplash.com/search/splash?photo=WKIJ_ozmXNI by @bady

References:

Golang delay in seconds and minutes function

https://wiki.qt.io/Howtocreateasplashscreenwithaninduced_delay