[GIS] way to take control of the mouse pointer using python in QGIS

Question

I would like to take control of the mouse pointer in QGIS (for example constraining it to a given extent…) Is there any way to do that using PyQGIS?

Answer 1

This standalone python snippet uses the setPos method of QCursor to move my mouse pointer to the top left corner of my screen:

 from PyQt4.QtCore import *
 from PyQt4.QtGui import *
 app = QApplication([])
 cur = QCursor()
 cur.setPos(0,0)

(Note this is standalone python, not QGIS python. But the last two lines should work in a QGIS python console.)

You could then constrain it to an extent by trapping mouse events and resetting. You need a good understanding of Qt (the underlying user interface library of QGIS) to do this well. Search for "qt move mouse pointer" and similar for much enlightenment.