Differerence between calling Qt functions through aqt and using the PyQt5 module

Anki Help
1

TL; DR

I want to know if there’s a significant difference, when writing Anki add-ons, between (1) calling all Qt functions through the aqt Python module and (2) using the PyQt5 module.

The context

Today I’ve been downloading some packages and inspecting their source code so that I can get familiar with Qt and write my own add-ons. I have a question regarding this topic.

I’ve managed to write the following minimal working example. The following code makes Anki show a button called My action in Tools in the menu bar. When My action is clicked, a dialog is opened with a single button called Help which, when pressed, calls my_function.

import aqt
from PyQt5 import QtCore, QtWidgets

class my_form():
    def setup_ui(self, Dialog):
        sizePolicy = QtWidgets.QSizePolicy(
            QtWidgets.QSizePolicy.Expanding,
            QtWidgets.QSizePolicy.MinimumExpanding
        )
        self.buttonBox = QtWidgets.QDialogButtonBox(Dialog)
        self.buttonBox.setEnabled(True)
        self.buttonBox.setSizePolicy(sizePolicy)
        self.buttonBox.setOrientation(QtCore.Qt.Horizontal)
        self.buttonBox.setStandardButtons(QtWidgets.QDialogButtonBox.Help)

        self.retranslate_ui(Dialog)
        QtCore.QMetaObject.connectSlotsByName(Dialog)

    def retranslate_ui(self, Dialog):
        translate = QtCore.QCoreApplication.translate
        Dialog.setWindowTitle(translate("Dialog", "editing_fields"))

class my_dialog(QtWidgets.QDialog):
    def __init__(self):
        QtWidgets.QDialog.__init__(self, parent=aqt.mw)
        self.mw = aqt.mw
        self.form = my_form()
        self.form.setup_ui(self)
        self.setWindowTitle(_("The title of my window"))
        # Connect button to functions
        self.form.buttonBox.helpRequested.connect(self.my_function)
        # Resize window
        self.resize(100, 100)
        # This is mandatory. Otherwise, the dialog won't be shown.
        self.exec_()

    def my_function(self):
        aqt.utils.showInfo('A message from my_function')

my_action = aqt.qt.QAction("My action", aqt.mw)
my_action.triggered.connect(my_dialog)

aqt.mw.form.menuTools.addAction(my_action)

I’ve managed to get the same result only by using the aqt module (please see code block below)

import aqt

class my_form():
    def setup_ui(self, Dialog):
        sizePolicy = aqt.qt.QSizePolicy(
            aqt.qt.QSizePolicy.Expanding,
            aqt.qt.QSizePolicy.MinimumExpanding
        )
        self.buttonBox = aqt.qt.QDialogButtonBox(Dialog)
        self.buttonBox.setEnabled(True)
        self.buttonBox.setSizePolicy(sizePolicy)
        self.buttonBox.setOrientation(aqt.Qt.Horizontal)
        self.buttonBox.setStandardButtons(aqt.qt.QDialogButtonBox.Help)

        self.retranslate_ui(Dialog)
        aqt.QMetaObject.connectSlotsByName(Dialog)

    def retranslate_ui(self, Dialog):
        translate = aqt.QCoreApplication.translate
        Dialog.setWindowTitle(translate("Dialog", "editing_fields"))

class my_dialog(aqt.qt.QDialog):
    def __init__(self):
        aqt.qt.QDialog.__init__(self, parent=aqt.mw)
        self.mw = aqt.mw
        self.form = my_form()
        self.form.setup_ui(self)
        self.setWindowTitle(_("The title of my window"))
        # Connect button to functions
        self.form.buttonBox.helpRequested.connect(self.my_function)
        # Resize window
        self.resize(100, 100)
        # This is mandatory. Otherwise, the dialog won't be shown.
        self.exec_()

    def my_function(self):
        aqt.utils.showInfo('A message from my_function')

my_action = aqt.qt.QAction("My action", aqt.mw)
my_action.triggered.connect(my_dialog)

aqt.mw.form.menuTools.addAction(my_action)

The question

Is there any significant difference between these two ways of writing add-ons in Python?

  1. call everything through the aqt Python module
  2. import relevant modules from the PyQt5 module

I’m more willing to call everything through the aqt Python module, since most of the time I need to press less key when writing source code.

2

Modern Anki versions come in two flavors: Qt5 builds and Qt6 builds. By importing Qt classes from aqt you can write add-ons that will work on both (for the most part, sometimes you have to account for API differences). So it’s generally advisable to import from the aqt.qt shim rather than either PyQt5 or PyQt6.