Document how to expose value types with enumerations6.5

Fixes: QTBUG-108883
Change-Id: I7d3de174cff6a04af4996375500b7dc18e21ef2c
Reviewed-by: Fabian Kosmale <fabian.kosmale@qt.io>
Reviewed-by: Pierre-Yves Siret <gr3cko@gmail.com>
Reviewed-by: Sami Shalayel <sami.shalayel@qt.io>
(cherry picked from commit 6c4f44773d9844ccf69cb209aa44698712b5be4c)
(cherry picked from commit facd6c685bbf4238e54e940dfcce7761befbae07)
Reviewed-by: Qt Cherry-pick Bot <cherrypick_bot@qt-project.org>

2 files changed, 70 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/src/qml/doc/src/cppintegration/definetypes.qdoc b/src/qml/doc/src/cppintegration/definetypes.qdoc
index 34c8bce1c8..1701d2766d 100644
--- a/src/qml/doc/src/cppintegration/definetypes.qdoc
+++ b/src/qml/doc/src/cppintegration/definetypes.qdoc
@@ -206,6 +206,60 @@ There are some further limitations on what you can do with value types:
     and subject to future changes.
 \endlist
 
+\section2 Value Types with Enumerations
+
+Exposing enumerations from a value type to QML requires some extra steps.
+
+Value types have lower case names in QML and types with lower case
+names are generally not addressable in JavaScript code (unless you specify
+\l{ValueTypeBehavior}{pragma ValueTypeBehavior: Addressable}). If you have
+a value type in C++ with an enumeration you want to expose to QML, you
+need to expose the enumeration separately.
+
+This can be solved by using \l{QML_FOREIGN_NAMESPACE}. First, derive from
+your value type to create a separate C++ type:
+
+\code
+class Person
+{
+    Q_GADGET
+    Q_PROPERTY(QString firstName READ firstName WRITE setFirstName)
+    Q_PROPERTY(QString lastName READ lastName WRITE setLastName)
+    QML_VALUE_TYPE(person)
+public:
+    enum TheEnum { A, B, C };
+    Q_ENUM(TheEnum)
+    //...
+};
+
+class PersonDerived: public Person
+{
+    Q_GADGET
+};
+\endcode
+
+Then expose the derived type as a foreign namespace:
+
+\code
+namespace PersonDerivedForeign
+{
+    Q_NAMESPACE
+    QML_NAMED_ELEMENT(Person)
+    QML_FOREIGN_NAMESPACE(PersonDerived)
+}
+\endcode
+
+This produces a \l{qtqml-typesystem-namespaces.html}{QML Namespace}
+called \c Person (upper case) with an enumeration called \c TheEnum and
+values \c{A}, \c{B}, and \c{C}. Then you can write the following in QML:
+
+\qml
+    someProperty: Person.A
+\endqml
+
+At the same time you can still use your value type called \c person
+(lower case) exactly as before.
+
 \section2 Registering Non-Instantiable Types
 
 Sometimes a QObject-derived class may need to be registered with the QML type
diff --git a/src/qml/doc/src/qmllanguageref/typesystem/namespaces.qdoc b/src/qml/doc/src/qmllanguageref/typesystem/namespaces.qdoc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0635dbd026
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/qml/doc/src/qmllanguageref/typesystem/namespaces.qdoc
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+// Copyright (C) 2023 The Qt Company Ltd.
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: LicenseRef-Qt-Commercial OR GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-only
+/*!
+\page qtqml-typesystem-namespaces.html
+\title QML Namespaces
+\brief Description of QML Namespaces
+
+A QML Namespace is a special kind of type that only exposes enumerations and cannot
+be instantiated. A namespace can only be declared in C++, using the \l QML_ELEMENT or
+\l QML_NAMED_ELEMENT macro inside a C++ namespace marked with \l{Q_NAMESPACE}.
+
+QML namespaces can be used to
+\l{qtqml-cppintegration-definetypes.html#value-types-with-enumerations}{extract enumerations}
+from other types.
+
+*/