How to create a dock widget correctly in QGIS plugin?

Question

I am building a QGIS plugin and would like to use a dock widget.

I have used QT creator to design the UI, with the object type being a QDockWidget. When the plugin is enabled in QGIS the DockWidget appears to be inside a normal dialog box. I am therefore unable to dock the plugin to the toolbar space etc...

I have looked at other plugins using dock widgets but am unable to spot where I am going wrong. I used the plugin builder to generate my template code.

Result of running my plugin

myplugindialog.py

from PyQt4 import QtCore, QtGui
from ui_Myplugin import Ui_MyPlugin
class MyPluginDialog(QtGui.QDockWidget, Ui_MyPlugin):
 def __init__(self):
 QtGui.QDockWidget.__init__(self)
 self.ui = Ui_MyPlugin()
 self.ui.setupUi(self)

part of myplugin.py

class myplugin:
def __init__(self, iface):
 # Save reference to the QGIS interface and map canvas
 self.iface = iface
 self.canvas = iface.mapCanvas()
 self.mapRenderer = self.canvas.mapRenderer()
 # initialize plugin directory
 self.plugin_dir = os.path.dirname(__file__)
 # initialize locale
 locale = QSettings().value("locale/userLocale")[0:2]
 localePath = os.path.join(self.plugin_dir, 'i18n', 'myplugin_{}.qm'.format(locale))
 if os.path.exists(localePath):
 self.translator = QTranslator()
 self.translator.load(localePath)
 if qVersion() > '4.3.3':
 QCoreApplication.installTranslator(self.translator)
 # Create the dialog (after translation) and keep reference
 self.dlg = mypluginDialog()
def initGui(self):
 # Create action that will start plugin configuration
 self.action = QAction(
 QIcon(":/plugins/myplugin/icon.png"),
 u"My Plugin", self.iface.mainWindow())
 # connect the action to the run method
 self.action.triggered.connect(self.run)
 QObject.connect(self.dlg.ui.searchButton, SIGNAL("clicked()"), self.searchFromDialog)
 QObject.connect(self.dlg.ui.zoomButton, SIGNAL("clicked()"), self.zoom)
 self.toolbar = self.iface.addToolBar("My Plugin")
 self.toolbar.setObjectName("PMy Plugin")
 self.toolbar.addAction(self.action)
 self.toolbarSearch = QLineEdit()
 self.toolbarSearch.setMaximumWidth(200)
 self.toolbarSearch.setAlignment(Qt.AlignLeft)
 self.toolbarSearch.setPlaceholderText("Type address and hit enter")
 self.toolbar.addWidget(self.toolbarSearch)
 self.toolbarSearch.returnPressed.connect(self.searchAddressFromToolbar)
 # Add toolbar button and menu item
 self.iface.addPluginToMenu(u"&My Plugin", self.action)

• Jérôme: I just installed Qt 5.7.1 and Qt 3, and Qt Designer has a QGIS custom widgets section with a QgsDockWidget. I guess it didn't exist back then and it is now the recommended widget class for this use case.

Answer 1

Have a look at this:

http://anitagraser.com/2010/11/08/adding-a-dock-widget-to-qgis/

The relevant part being:

self.dock = MyPluginDialog()
self.iface.addDockWidget( Qt.RightDockWidgetArea, self.dock )

• Matt: Thanks but I have compiled my UI file to python. I am now unsure how to reference my dock widget (rather than self.dock in the example link)?
• Matthias Kuhn: ... See update ...