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Please review the following information to ensure ** the GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 requirements ** will be met: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html. ** $QT_END_LICENSE$ ** ****************************************************************************/ /*! \group plugins \title Plugin Classes \ingroup groups \brief Plugin related classes. These classes deal with shared libraries, (e.g. .so and DLL files), and with Qt plugins. See the \link plugins-howto.html plugins documentation\endlink. See also the \l{ActiveQt framework} for Windows. */ /*! \page plugins-howto.html \title How to Create Qt Plugins \brief A guide to creating plugins to extend Qt applications and functionality provided by Qt. \ingroup frameworks-technologies \ingroup qt-basic-concepts \keyword QT_DEBUG_PLUGINS \keyword QT_NO_PLUGIN_CHECK Qt provides two APIs for creating plugins: \list \li A higher-level API for writing extensions to Qt itself: custom database drivers, image formats, text codecs, custom styles, etc. \li A lower-level API for extending Qt applications. \endlist For example, if you want to write a custom QStyle subclass and have Qt applications load it dynamically, you would use the higher-level API. Since the higher-level API is built on top of the lower-level API, some issues are common to both. If you want to provide plugins for use with Qt Designer, see the QtDesigner module documentation. Topics: \tableofcontents \section1 The Higher-Level API: Writing Qt Extensions Writing a plugin that extends Qt itself is achieved by subclassing the appropriate plugin base class, implementing a few functions, and adding a macro. There are several plugin base classes. Derived plugins are stored by default in sub-directories of the standard plugin directory. Qt will not find plugins if they are not stored in the right directory. \table \header \li Base Class \li Directory Name \li Key Case Sensitivity \row \li QAccessibleBridgePlugin \li \c accessiblebridge \li Case Sensitive \row \li QAccessiblePlugin \li \c accessible \li Case Sensitive \row \li QDecorationPlugin \li \c decorations \li Case Insensitive \row \li QFontEnginePlugin \li \c fontengines \li Case Insensitive \row \li QIconEnginePlugin \li \c iconengines \li Case Insensitive \row \li QImageIOPlugin \li \c imageformats \li Case Sensitive \row \li QInputContextPlugin \li \c inputmethods \li Case Sensitive \row \li QKbdDriverPlugin \li \c kbddrivers \li Case Insensitive \row \li QMouseDriverPlugin \li \c mousedrivers \li Case Insensitive \row \li QScreenDriverPlugin \li \c gfxdrivers \li Case Insensitive \row \li QScriptExtensionPlugin \li \c script \li Case Sensitive \row \li QSqlDriverPlugin \li \c sqldrivers \li Case Sensitive \row \li QStylePlugin \li \c styles \li Case Insensitive \row \li QTextCodecPlugin \li \c codecs \li Case Sensitive \endtable Suppose that you have a new style class called \c MyStyle that you want to make available as a plugin. The required code is straightforward, here is the class definition (\c mystyleplugin.h): \snippet code/doc_src_plugins-howto.cpp 0 Ensure that the class implementation is located in a \c .cpp file: \snippet code/doc_src_plugins-howto.cpp 1 (Note that QStylePlugin is case insensitive, and the lower-case version of the key is used in our \l{QStylePlugin::create()}{create()} implementation; most other plugins are case sensitive.) In addition a \c mystyleplugin.json file containing meta data describing the plugin is required for most plugins. For style plugins it simply contains a list of styles that can be created by the plugin: \snippet code/doc_src_plugins-howto.qdoc 6 The type of information that needs to be provided in the json file is plugin dependent, please see the class documentation for details on the information that needs to be contained in the file. For database drivers, image formats, text codecs, and most other plugin types, no explicit object creation is required. Qt will find and create them as required. Styles are an exception, since you might want to set a style explicitly in code. To apply a style, use code like this: \snippet code/doc_src_plugins-howto.cpp 2 Some plugin classes require additional functions to be implemented. See the class documentation for details of the virtual functions that must be reimplemented for each type of plugin. The \l{Style Plugin Example} shows how to implement a plugin that extends the QStylePlugin base class. \section1 The Lower-Level API: Extending Qt Applications Not only Qt itself but also Qt application can be extended through plugins. This requires the application to detect and load plugins using QPluginLoader. In that context, plugins may provide arbitrary functionality and are not limited to database drivers, image formats, text codecs, styles, and the other types of plugin that extend Qt's functionality. Making an application extensible through plugins involves the following steps: \list 1 \li Define a set of interfaces (classes with only pure virtual functions) used to talk to the plugins. \li Use the Q_DECLARE_INTERFACE() macro to tell Qt's \l{meta-object system} about the interface. \li Use QPluginLoader in the application to load the plugins. \li Use qobject_cast() to test whether a plugin implements a given interface. \endlist Writing a plugin involves these steps: \list 1 \li Declare a plugin class that inherits from QObject and from the interfaces that the plugin wants to provide. \li Use the Q_INTERFACES() macro to tell Qt's \l{meta-object system} about the interfaces. \li Export the plugin using the Q_PLUGIN_METADATA() macro. \li Build the plugin using a suitable \c .pro file. \endlist For example, here's the definition of an interface class: \snippet tools/plugandpaint/interfaces.h 2 Here's the definition of a plugin class that implements that interface: \snippet tools/plugandpaintplugins/extrafilters/extrafiltersplugin.h 0 The \l{tools/plugandpaint}{Plug & Paint} example documentation explains this process in detail. See also \l{Creating Custom Widgets for Qt Designer} for information about issues that are specific to Qt Designer. You can also take a look at the \l{Echo Plugin Example} which is a more trivial example on how to implement a plugin that extends Qt applications. Please note that a QCoreApplication must have been initialized before plugins can be loaded. \section1 Locating Plugins Qt applications automatically know which plugins are available, because plugins are stored in the standard plugin subdirectories. Because of this applications don't require any code to find and load plugins, since Qt handles them automatically. During development, the directory for plugins is \c{QTDIR/plugins} (where \c QTDIR is the directory where Qt is installed), with each type of plugin in a subdirectory for that type, e.g. \c styles. If you want your applications to use plugins and you don't want to use the standard plugins path, have your installation process determine the path you want to use for the plugins, and save the path, e.g. using QSettings, for the application to read when it runs. The application can then call QCoreApplication::addLibraryPath() with this path and your plugins will be available to the application. Note that the final part of the path (e.g., \c styles) cannot be changed. If you want the plugin to be loadable then one approach is to create a subdirectory under the application and place the plugin in that directory. If you distribute any of the plugins that come with Qt (the ones located in the \c plugins directory), you must copy the sub-directory under \c plugins where the plugin is located to your applications root folder (i.e., do not include the \c plugins directory). For more information about deployment, see the \l {Deploying Qt Applications} and \l {Deploying Plugins} documentation. \section1 Static Plugins The normal and most flexible way to include a plugin with an application is to compile it into a dynamic library that is shipped separately, and detected and loaded at runtime. Plugins can be linked statically against your application. If you build the static version of Qt, this is the only option for including Qt's predefined plugins. Using static plugins makes the deployment less error-prone, but has the disadvantage that no functionality from plugins can be added without a complete rebuild and redistribution of the application. When compiled as a static library, Qt provides the following static plugins: \table \header \li Plugin name \li Type \li Description \row \li \c qtaccessiblewidgets \li Accessibility \li Accessibility for Qt widgets \row \li \c qgif \li Image formats \li GIF \row \li \c qjpeg \li Image formats \li JPEG \row \li \c qmng \li Image formats \li MNG \row \li \c qico \li Image formats \li ICO \row \li \c qsvg \li Image formats \li SVG \row \li \c qtiff \li Image formats \li TIFF \row \li \c qsqldb2 \li SQL driver \li IBM DB2 \row \li \c qsqlibase \li SQL driver \li Borland InterBase \row \li \c qsqlite \li SQL driver \li SQLite version 3 \row \li \c qsqlite2 \li SQL driver \li SQLite version 2 \row \li \c qsqlmysql \li SQL driver \li MySQL \row \li \c qsqloci \li SQL driver \li Oracle (OCI) \row \li \c qsqlodbc \li SQL driver \li Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) \row \li \c qsqlpsql \li SQL driver \li PostgreSQL \row \li \c qsqltds \li SQL driver \li Sybase Adaptive Server (TDS) \endtable To link statically against those plugins, you need to use the Q_IMPORT_PLUGIN() macro in your application and you need to add the required plugins to your build using \c QTPLUGIN. For example, in your \c main.cpp: \snippet code/doc_src_plugins-howto.cpp 4 In the \c .pro file for your application, you need the following entry: \snippet code/doc_src_plugins-howto.pro 5 It is also possible to create your own static plugins, by following these steps: \list 1 \li Add \c{CONFIG += static} to your plugin's \c .pro file. \li Use the Q_IMPORT_PLUGIN() macro in your application. \li Link your application with your plugin library using \c LIBS in the \c .pro file. \endlist See the \l{tools/plugandpaint}{Plug & Paint} example and the associated \l{tools/plugandpaintplugins/basictools}{Basic Tools} plugin for details on how to do this. \note If you are not using qmake to build your application you need to make sure that the \c{QT_STATICPLUGIN} preprocessor macro is defined. \section1 Deploying and Debugging Plugins The \l{Deploying Plugins} document covers the process of deploying plugins with applications and debugging them when problems arise. \sa QPluginLoader, QLibrary, {Plug & Paint Example} */