INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS These instructions refer to the package you are installing as some-package.tar.gz or some-package.zip. The .zip file is intended for use on Windows. The directory you choose for the installation will be referred to as your-install-dir. Note to Qt Visual Studio Integration users: In the instructions below, instead of building from command line with nmake, you can use the menu command 'Qt->Open Solution from .pro file' on the .pro files in the example and plugin directories, and then build from within Visual Studio. Unpacking and installation -------------------------- 1. Unpacking the archive (if you have not done so already). On Unix and Mac OS X (in a terminal window): cd your-install-dir gunzip some-package.tar.gz tar xvf some-package.tar This creates the subdirectory some-package containing the files. On Windows: Unpack the .zip archive by right-clicking it in explorer and choosing "Extract All...". If your version of Windows does not have zip support, you can use the infozip tools available from www.info-zip.org. If you are using the infozip tools (in a command prompt window): cd your-install-dir unzip some-package.zip 2. Configuring the package. The configure script is called "configure" on unix/mac and "configure.bat" on Windows. It should be run from a command line after cd'ing to the package directory. You can choose whether you want to use the component by including its source code directly into your project, or build the component as a dynamic shared library (DLL) that is loaded into the application at run-time. The latter may be preferable for technical or licensing (LGPL) reasons. If you want to build a DLL, run the configure script with the argument "-library". Also see the note about usage below. (Components that are Qt plugins, e.g. styles and image formats, are by default built as a plugin DLL.) The configure script will prompt you in some cases for further information. Answer these questions and carefully read the license text before accepting the license conditions. The package cannot be used if you do not accept the license conditions. 3. Building the component and examples (when required). If a DLL is to be built, or if you would like to build the examples, next give the commands qmake make [or nmake if your are using Microsoft Visual C++] The example program(s) can be found in the directory called "examples" or "example". Components that are Qt plugins, e.g. styles and image formats, are ready to be used as soon as they are built, so the rest of this installation instruction can be skipped. 4. Building the Qt Designer plugin (optional). Some of the widget components are provided with plugins for Qt Designer. To build and install the plugin, cd into the some-package/plugin directory and give the commands qmake make [or nmake if your are using Microsoft Visual C++] Restart Qt Designer to make it load the new widget plugin. Note: If you are using the built-in Qt Designer from the Qt Visual Studio Integration, you will need to manually copy the plugin DLL file, i.e. copy %QTDIR%\plugins\designer\some-component.dll to the Qt Visual Studio Integration plugin path, typically: C:\Program Files\Trolltech\Qt VS Integration\plugins Note: If you for some reason are using a Qt Designer that is built in debug mode, you will need to build the plugin in debug mode also. Edit the file plugin.pro in the plugin directory, changing 'release' to 'debug' in the CONFIG line, before running qmake. Solutions components are intended to be used directly from the package directory during development, so there is no 'make install' procedure. Using a component in your project --------------------------------- To use this component in your project, add the following line to the project's .pro file (or do the equivalent in your IDE): include(your-install-dir/some-package/src/some-package.pri) This adds the package's sources and headers to the SOURCES and HEADERS project variables respectively (or, if the component has been configured as a DLL, it adds that library to the LIBS variable), and updates INCLUDEPATH to contain the package's src directory. Additionally, the .pri file may include some dependencies needed by the package. To include a header file from the package in your sources, you can now simply use: #include or alternatively, in pre-Qt 4 style: #include Refer to the documentation to see the classes and headers this components provides. Install documentation (optional) -------------------------------- The HTML documentation for the package's classes is located in the your-install-dir/some-package/doc/html/index.html. You can open this file and read the documentation with any web browser. To install the documentation into Qt Assistant (for Qt version 4.4 and later): 1. In Assistant, open the Edit->Preferences dialog and choose the Documentation tab. Click the Add... button and select the file your-install-dir/some-package/doc/html/some-package.qch For Qt versions prior to 4.4, do instead the following: 1. The directory your-install-dir/some-package/doc/html contains a file called some-package.dcf. Execute the following commands in a shell, command prompt or terminal window: cd your-install-dir/some-package/doc/html/ assistant -addContentFile some-package.dcf The next time you start Qt Assistant, you can access the package's documentation. Removing the documentation from assistant ----------------------------------------- If you have installed the documentation into Qt Assistant, and want to uninstall it, do as follows, for Qt version 4.4 and later: 1. In Assistant, open the Edit->Preferences dialog and choose the Documentation tab. In the list of Registered Documentation, select the item com.nokia.qtsolutions.some-package_version, and click the Remove button. For Qt versions prior to 4.4, do instead the following: 1. The directory your-install-dir/some-package/doc/html contains a file called some-package.dcf. Execute the following commands in a shell, command prompt or terminal window: cd your-install-dir/some-package/doc/html/ assistant -removeContentFile some-package.dcf Using the component as a DLL ---------------------------- 1. Normal components The shared library (DLL) is built and placed in the some-package/lib directory. It is intended to be used directly from there during development. When appropriate, both debug and release versions are built, since the run-time linker will in some cases refuse to load a debug-built DLL into a release-built application or vice versa. The following steps are taken by default to help the dynamic linker to locate the DLL at run-time (during development): Unix: The some-package.pri file will add linker instructions to add the some-package/lib directory to the rpath of the executable. (When distributing, or if your system does not support rpath, you can copy the shared library to another place that is searched by the dynamic linker, e.g. the "lib" directory of your Qt installation.) Mac: The full path to the library is hardcoded into the library itself, from where it is copied into the executable at link time, and ready by the dynamic linker at run-time. (When distributing, you will want to edit these hardcoded paths in the same way as for the Qt DLLs. Refer to the document "Deploying an Application on Mac OS X" in the Qt Reference Documentation.) Windows: the .dll file(s) are copied into the "bin" directory of your Qt installation. The Qt installation will already have set up that directory to be searched by the dynamic linker. 2. Plugins For Qt Solutions plugins (e.g. image formats), both debug and release versions of the plugin are built by default when appropriate, since in some cases the release Qt library will not load a debug plugin, and vice versa. The plugins are automatically copied into the plugins directory of your Qt installation when built, so no further setup is required. Plugins may also be built statically, i.e. as a library that will be linked into your application executable, and so will not need to be redistributed as a separate plugin DLL to end users. Static building is required if Qt itself is built statically. To do it, just add "static" to the CONFIG variable in the plugin/plugin.pro file before building. Refer to the "Static Plugins" section in the chapter "How to Create Qt Plugins" for explanation of how to use a static plugin in your application. The source code of the example program(s) will also typically contain the relevant instructions as comments. Uninstalling ------------ The following command will remove any fils that have been automatically placed outside the package directory itself during installation and building make distclean [or nmake if your are using Microsoft Visual C++] If Qt Assistant documentation or Qt Designer plugins have been installed, they can be uninstalled manually, ref. above. Enjoy! :) - The Qt Solutions Team.