Stretching element to contain all children

Question

How is it possible in QML to automatically stretch element so that all its childs fit in it? And how to specify spacing? For example, I would like to have a rectangle around a text. The rectangle should have some internal spacing.

If I write the following then the rectangle has a size of 0,0.

Rectangle {
    color: "gray"
    anchors.centerIn: parent;

    Text {
        text: "Hello"
    }
}

If I try to fix it by using the Column element, as suggested in How to make QML items to grow to fit contents?, then I get a column through the whole window/parent,

Column {
    anchors.centerIn: parent

    Rectangle {
        color: "gray"
        anchors.fill: parent
    }

    Text {
        anchors.centerIn: parent
        text: "Hello"
    }
}

Edit:

I have also tried to use the Flow element instead of Column, but then I got a row through the whole window/parent.

Answer 1

You can use the childrenRect property for this:

import QtQuick 2.0

Rectangle {
    width: 320
    height: 200

    Rectangle {
        color: "BurlyWood"
        anchors.centerIn: parent
        width: childrenRect.width + 20
        height: childrenRect.height + 20

        Text {
            id: hello
            x: 10
            y: 10
            text: "Hello"
        }

        Text {
            anchors.left: hello.right
            anchors.leftMargin: 10
            anchors.top: hello.top
            text: "World"
        }
    }
}

However, note that using childrenRect in combination with using anchors.centerIn: parent in one of the direct children yields a warning about a binding loop.