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/****************************************************************************
**
** Copyright (C) 2016 The Qt Company Ltd.
** Contact: https://www.qt.io/licensing/
**
** This file is part of the Qt Creator documentation.
**
** Commercial License Usage
** Licensees holding valid commercial Qt licenses may use this file in
** accordance with the commercial license agreement provided with the
** Software or, alternatively, in accordance with the terms contained in
** a written agreement between you and The Qt Company. For licensing terms
** and conditions see https://www.qt.io/terms-conditions. For further
** information use the contact form at https://www.qt.io/contact-us.
**
** GNU Free Documentation License Usage
** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU Free
** Documentation License version 1.3 as published by the Free Software
** Foundation and appearing in the file included in the packaging of
** this file. Please review the following information to ensure
** the GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 requirements
** will be met: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl-1.3.html.
**
****************************************************************************/
/*!
\page extending-index.html
\title Extending Qt Creator Manual
\QC is a cross-platform integrated development environment (IDE) tailored to
the needs of Qt developers.
\QC is extensible in various ways. For example, \QC architecture is based on
a plugin loader, which means that all functionality beyond plugin loading
is implemented in plugins. However, you can extend and tweak many parts of
\QC without the need to resort to coding in C++ and implementing such a
plugin.
This document gives you an overview of the various ways in which you can
extend \QC, depending on what you want to achieve, and points you to the
relevant documentation.
\section1 Generating Domain Specific Code and Templates
If you regularly need to write the same code, be it little code snippets,
whole files or classes spread over multiple files, or complete projects, you
can create code snippets, templates, and wizards for that purpose.
\section2 Snippets
Typically, snippets consist of a few lines of code (although they can also
be plain text) that you regularly want to insert into a bigger body of code,
but do not want to type each time. For example, \c while and \c for loops,
\c if-else and \c try-catch constructs, and class skeletons. Snippets are
triggered in the same way as normal code completion (see
\l{Code Assist}{Providing Code Assist}).
\QC contains a set of preconfigured snippets groups to which you can add
your own snippets.
\list
\li \l{http://doc.qt.io/qtcreator/creator-completing-code.html#editing-code-snippets}
{Snippets User Interface}
\li \l{Snippets}{Adding Snippets Groups}
\endlist
\section2 File and Project Templates
You can extend the wizards in \uicontrol File >
\uicontrol {New File or Project} with your own file and project templates by
writing JSON definition files for them.
\list
\li \l{http://doc.qt.io/qtcreator/creator-project-wizards.html}
{Adding New Custom Wizards}
\li \l{User Interface Text Guidelines}
\endlist
\section2 Custom Wizards
If the above methods for code snippets and templates are not sufficient for
your use case, you can create a custom \QC plugin. While this gives you
complete control over the wizard, it also requires you to write most of the
UI and the logic yourself.
\list
\li \l{Creating Plugins}
\li \l{Qt Creator Coding Rules}
\li \l{Creating Wizards in Code}
\li \l{User Interface Text Guidelines}
\endlist
\section1 Supporting Additional File Types
If you have files with extensions or MIME types that \QC does not handle by
default, you can edit the MIME type definitions, add highlight definition
files, and create your own text editors.
\section2 MIME Types
You might find that \QC could handle a particular file of yours if it knew
about the type of its contents. For example, C++ header or source files
with file extensions that are not known to \QC. You can adapt the MIME type
definitions in \QC to your specific setup, by adding or removing file
extensions and specifying magic headers.
\list
\li \l{http://doc.qt.io/qtcreator/creator-mime-types.html}
{Editing MIME Types}
\li \l{http://standards.freedesktop.org/shared-mime-info-spec/shared-mime-info-spec-latest.html}
{MIME Type Specification Files}
\endlist
\section2 Text Highlighting and Indentation
For text files, \QC provides an easy way to add highlighting and indentation
for file types that are not known to it by default. Generic highlighting is
based on highlight definition files that are provided by the Kate Editor.
You can download highlight definition files for use with \QC and create
your own definition files.
\list
\li \l{http://doc.qt.io/qtcreator/creator-editor-options.html#generic-highlighting}
{Generic Highlighting}
\li \l{http://kate-editor.org/2005/03/24/writing-a-syntax-highlighting-file/}
{Writing a Syntax Highlighting File}
\endlist
\section2 Custom Text Editors
If you need more advanced features than the MIME type and highlighting
features described above, such as custom text completion or features that
rely on semantic analysis, you can extend \QC with a text editor of your
own. \QC provides a special API for text editors that gives you a basis to
build on, taking away some of the pain of implementing a text editor from
the ground up.
\list
\li \l{Creating Plugins}
\li \l{Qt Creator Coding Rules}
\li \l{Text Editors}
\li \l{CodeAssist} {Providing Code Assist}
\endlist
\section2 Other Custom Editors
You can also add a completely custom editor to gain complete control over
its appearance and behavior.
\list
\li \l{Creating Plugins}
\li \l{Qt Creator Coding Rules}
\li \l{Editors}
\endlist
\section1 Running External Tools
Most software projects and development processes require various external
tools. Several external tools, such as popular version control systems and
build tool chains are integrated into \QC. However, it is impossible for a
single tool to cover all the use cases, and therefore you can integrate
additional tools to \QC.
\section2 Simple External Tools
In \QC, you can specify tools that you can then run from a menu or by using
a keyboard shortcut that you assign. This allows you to accomplish several
things, with some limitations. You specify a command to run, arguments and
input for running it, and how to handle the output. To specify the values,
you can use a set of internal \QC variables, such as the file name of the
current document or project, or the currently selected text in a text
editor. If you find variables missing, please do not hesitate to fill a
feature suggestion. The tool descriptions are saved as XML files that you
can share.
\list
\li \l{http://doc.qt.io/qtcreator/creator-editor-external.html}
{Using External Tools}
\li \l{External Tool Specification Files}
\endlist
\section2 Complex External Tools
When you plan to integrate more complex tools, carefully consider whether
there really are advantages to be gained by tightly integrating the tool
into \QC over loosely integrating it by mainly providing a means of starting
the tool with fitting parameters.
\section3 Loosely Integrating Tools
If no interaction is needed between \QC and the external tool, just starting
an external application with its own user interface is preferable. That way
cluttering the \QC UI is avoided, and the tool will be available with a
nice interface even without using \QC at all.
Usually, you can use the external tool specification files to start the
tool. If starting the tool and handling its output require more complex
logic, you can add a menu item to \QC with a plugin. If you need a way to
configure the tool in \QC, you can add an \uicontrol Options page for it.
\list
\li \l{http://doc.qt.io/qtcreator/creator-editor-external.html}{Using External Tools}
\li \l{External Tool Specification Files}
\li \l{Creating Plugins}
\li \l{Qt Creator Coding Rules}
\li \l{Menus and Menu Items}
\li \l{Options Pages}
\endlist
\section3 Interacting with Tool Output
In some cases, running an external tool would not require tight integration
with \QC, but investigating the output of the tool would benefit from it.
For example, some tools generate lists of issues in files that are part of
the project and some tools create output that is related to the code. For
these tools, it is useful to interactively switch between the output and
the corresponding code.
One way to handle that would be to let the tool create an output file, which
is then opened within \QC. You provide an editor (probably read-only) for
handling this file. For lists of issues, consider creating task list files
which are shown in the \uicontrol Issues output pane.
\list
\li \l{http://doc.qt.io/qtcreator/creator-task-lists.html}
{Showing Task List Files in the Issues Pane}
\li \l{Creating Plugins}
\li \l{Qt Creator Coding Rules}
\li \l{Menus and Menu Items}
\li \l{Options Pages}
\li \l{Editors}
\endlist
\section1 All Topics
\list
\li \l{Developing Qt Creator Plugins}
\list
\li \l{Creating Plugins}
\li \l{Menus and Menu Items}
\li \l{Creating Wizards in Code}
\li \l{Editors}
\li \l{Text Editors}
\li \l{Options Pages}
\endlist
\li Reference
\list
\li \l{http://standards.freedesktop.org/shared-mime-info-spec/shared-mime-info-spec-latest.html}
{MIME Type Specification Files}
\li \l{External Tool Specification Files}
\li \l{http://kate-editor.org/2005/03/24/writing-a-syntax-highlighting-file/}
{Highlight Definition Files}
\li \l{Qt Creator Variables}
\li \l{User Interface Text Guidelines}
\li \l{Writing Documentation}
\li \l{Qt Creator Coding Rules}
\li \l{Qt Creator API Reference}
\endlist
\endlist
*/
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