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.

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)

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 )