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// Copyright (C) 2020 The Qt Company Ltd.
// SPDX-License-Identifier: LicenseRef-Qt-Commercial OR GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-only
/*!
\page distributing-plugins.html
\title Distributing Plugins
To make your plugin available to a wider range of users, you should look
into distributing binary builds of it.
\section1 Creating Binaries
If your plugin runs and works on multiple platforms, you should provide
binary builds for all of the supported platforms.
Qt Creator currently supports:
\list
\li Windows
\li Linux
\li \macos
\endlist
See the toplevel
\l{https://code.qt.io/cgit/qt-creator/qt-creator.git/tree/README.md}
{README.md} file in Qt Creator's sources for a more detailed list.
The \uicontrol {Qt Creator Plugin} wizard already creates a template for
\l{https://help.github.com/en/actions/automating-your-workflow-with-github-actions/about-github-actions}{GitHub
Actions} which can be used to create binaries if you host your plugin
sources on GitHub. See the
\l{https://code.qt.io/cgit/qt-creator/qt-creator.git/tree/share/qtcreator/templates/wizards/qtcreatorplugin/github_workflow_README.md}
{README.md} that is created at the same location for details.
You can also use the provided GitHub Actions recipe as inspiration for
another build service of your choice.
\section1 Packaging
The easiest way to package your plugin is to simply provide a zip file
that the user can unpack to the correct location for Qt Creator to find it.
Qt Creator makes that easy for the user by providing an \uicontrol{Install
Plugin} button in the \uicontrol Help > \uicontrol {About Plugins} dialog
(or \uicontrol {Qt Creator} > \uicontrol {About Plugins} on \macos). The
user chooses a zip file with the plugin, and Qt Creator unpacks that to the
appropriate location.
The following sections describe the options you have for the plugin's
contents layout.
\section2 Single Library
Using a single library is the preferred and simplest option. You provide a
single plugin library file that has all required resources compiled into it
with \l{The Qt Resource System}. This imposes some limitations because you
cannot depend on additional binaries, nor extend some parts of Qt Creator
that rely on external files, like the generic highlighter. You can still
add \l{https://doc.qt.io/qtcreator/creator-project-wizards.html}{wizard
templates} this way, by adding the
\l{https://doc.qt.io/qt/resources.html#using-resources-in-the-application}
{path to the resource directory} into your QRC file with
ProjectExplorer::JsonWizardFactory::addWizardPath(). Registering
documentation and translations can be done in similar ways.
\section3 Summary
\list
\li Single library as single item in a zip file.
\li Resources compiled into the library with \l{The Qt Resource System}.
\li Can be installed locally for a single user for all compatible
Qt Creator installations.
\li Can be installed into a Qt Creator installation for all users.
\endlist
\section2 Multiple Files Following Qt Creator's Filesystem Layout
This is a more flexible solution with regards to what the plugin can do,
but more complicated to set up. This allows the plugin to ship additional
binaries and arbitrary resources.
Since the filesystem layout varies heavily between platforms, the build
system of Qt Creator provides variables like \c IDE_DATA_PATH and \c
IDE_LIBEXEC_PATH. If you build your plugin with CMake, you should use the
provided \c add_qtc_library, \c add_qtc_executable and similar functions
as well.
At runtime you can access these platform dependent locations with
Core::ICore::resourcePath() and Core::ICore::libexecPath().
Plugins that are distributed this way cannot be installed locally for a
single user. They must be installed into the Qt Creator installation
directly.
\section3 Summary
\list
\li Multiple files following standard filesystem layout.
\li Use Qt Creator specific variables and functions in build system.
\li Use Core::ICore to find the locations at runtime.
\li Can only be installed into a Qt Creator installation for all users.
\endlist
*/
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