I'm using a QTableView with a QAbstractTableModel and a QSortFilterProxyModel so that I can sort the items by clicking on the table headers. I'd like to add the option for the user to sort the rows in the view manually, by dragging them. I don't need to be able to do drag and drop from/to any external application, just to change the order in the list. I also don't need to change the data in the model, I only want the order to be different in the view.
I've been looking through the documentation, and it seems like I have to implement mimeTypes, mimeData, and dropMimeData, but this gets very complicated fast! Some of the data in my model is not actually displayed in the view, and like I said I don't want to change the order of data in the model. Is there a way to simply drag items to change their sorting (just like the headers are already able to do) without a huge amount of coding?
Answer
Updated for QT5 to remove deprecated methods
If you are using PyQT All you need to do for your requirements is this:
your_tableview.verticalHeader().setSectionsMovable(True)
your_tableview.verticalHeader().setDragEnabled(True)
your_tableview.verticalHeader().setDragDropMode(QAbstractItemView.InternalMove)
Then rinse and repeat with horizontalHeader if you want those rearrange-able too.
You are absolutely right, you shouldn't need to touch or even know what the model is for this functionality. This is further demonstrated by your proper use of the QSortFilterProxyModel decorator over the model itself.
The stuff you saw about mimeTypes and all of that stuff is for drag-and-drop of actual objects of varying sources from other windows/applications/desktop/etc and isn't needed for what you are trying to accomplish currently.