path: root/src/qml/doc/src/syntax/imports.qdoc

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/*!
\page qtqml-syntax-imports.html
\title Import Statements
\brief Description of import statements in QML

\section1 Syntax of an Import Statement

An import statement allows clients to tell the engine which modules, JavaScript
resources and component directories are used within a QML document.  The types
which may be used within a document depends on which modules, resources and
directories are imported by the document.

\section2 Import Types

There are three different types of imports.  Each import type has a slightly
different syntax, and different semantics apply to different import types.

\section3 Module (Namespace) Imports

The most common type of import is a module import.  Clients can import
\l{qtqml-modules-identifiedmodules.html}{QML modules} which register QML object
types and JavaScript resources into a given namespace.

The generic form of a module import is as follows:
\qml
import <ModuleIdentifier> <Version.Number> [as <Qualifier>]
\endqml

\list
  \li The \c <ModuleIdentifier> is an identifier specified in dotted URI
      notation, which uniquely identifies the type namespace provided by the
      module.
  \li The \c <Version.Number> is a version of the form
      \c {MajorVersion.MinorVersion} which specifies which definitions of
      various object types and JavaScript resources will be made available due
      to the import.
  \li The \c <Qualifier> is an optional local namespace identifier into which
      the object types and JavaScript resources provided by the module will be
      installed, if given.  If omitted, the object types and JavaScript
      resources provided by the module will be installed into the global
      namespace.
\endlist

An example of an unqualified module import is as follows:
\qml
import QtQuick 2.0
\endqml

This import allows the use of all of the types provided by the \c QtQuick
module without needing to specify a qualifier.  For example, the client code to
create a rectangle is as follows:

\qml
import QtQuick 2.0

Rectangle {
    width: 200
    height: 100
    color: "red"
}
\endqml

An example of a qualified module import is as follows:
\qml
import QtQuick 2.0 as Quick
\endqml

This import allows multiple modules which provide conflicting type names to be
imported at the same time, however since each usage of a type provided by a
module which was imported into a qualified namespace must be preceded by the
qualifier, the conflict is able to be resolved unambiguously by the QML engine.

An example of client code which creates a rectangle after using a qualified
module import is as follows:

\qml
import QtQuick 2.0 as Quick

Quick.Rectangle {
    width: 200
    height: 100
    color: "red"
}
\endqml

For more information about qualified imports, see the upcoming section on
\l{Importing Into A Qualified Local Namespace}.

Note that if a QML document does not import a module which provides a
particular QML object type, but attempts to use that object type anyway,
an error will occur.  For example, the following QML document does not
import \c QtQuick and thus attempting to use the \c Rectangle type will fail:

\qml
Rectangle {
    width: 200
    height: 100
    color: "red"
}
\endqml

In this case, the engine will emit an error and refuse to load the file.

\section4 Non-module Namespace Imports

Types can also be registered into namespaces directly via the various
registration functions in C++ (such as qmlRegisterType()).  The types which
have been registered into a namespace in this way may be imported by importing
the namespace, as if the namespace was a module identifier.

This is most common in client applications which define their own QML object
types in C++ and register them with the QML type system manually.

\section4 Importing into a Qualified Local Namespace

The \c import statement may optionally use the \c as keyword to specify that
the types should be imported into a particular document-local namespace. If a
namespace is specified, then any references to the types made available by the
import must be prefixed by the local namespace qualifier.

Below, the QtQuick module is imported into the namespace "CoreItems". Now, any
references to types from the \c QtQuick module must be prefixed with the
\c CoreItems name:

\qml
import QtQuick 2.0 as CoreItems

CoreItems.Rectangle {
    width: 100; height: 100

    CoreItems.Text { text: "Hello, world!" }

    // WRONG! No namespace prefix - the Text type won't be found
    Text { text: "Hello, world!" }
}
\endqml

A namespace acts as an identifier for a module within the scope of the file.
The namespace does not become an attribute of the root object that can be
referred to externally as can be done with properties, signals and methods.

The namespaced import is useful if there is a requirement to use two QML types
that have the same name but are located in different modules. In this case the
two modules can be imported into different namespaces to ensure the code is
referring to the correct type:

\qml
import QtQuick 2.0 as CoreItems
import "../textwidgets" as MyModule

CoreItems.Rectangle {
    width: 100; height: 100

    MyModule.Text { text: "Hello from my custom text item!" }
    CoreItems.Text { text: "Hello from QtQuick!" }
}
\endqml

Note that multiple modules can be imported into the same namespace in the same
way that multiple modules can be imported into the global namespace. For example:

\snippet qml/imports/merged-named-imports.qml imports

\section3 Directory Imports

A directory which contains QML documents may also be imported directly in a
QML document.  This provides a simple way for QML types to be segmented into
reusable groupings: directories on the filesystem.

The generic form of a directory import is as follows:
\qml
import "<DirectoryPath>" [as <Qualifier>]
\endqml

\note Import paths are network transparent: applications can import documents
from remote paths just as simply as documents from local paths. See the general
URL resolution rules for \l{qtqml-documents-networktransparency.html}
{Network Transparency} in QML documents.  If the directory is remote, it must
contain a \l{qtqml-syntax-directoryimports.html#directory-listing-qmldir-files}
{directory import listing qmldir file} as the QML engine cannot determine
the contents of a remote directory if that \c qmldir file does not exist.

Similar semantics for the \c <Qualifier> apply to directory imports as for
module imports; for more information on the topic, please see the previous
section about \l{Importing into a Qualified Local Namespace}.

For more information about directory imports, please see the in-depth
documentation about \l{qtqml-syntax-directoryimports.html}{directory imports}.

\section3 JavaScript Resource Imports

JavaScript resources may be imported directly in a QML document.  Every
JavaScript resource must have an identifier by which it is accessed.

The generic form of a JavaScript resource import is as follows:
\qml
import "<JavaScriptFile>" as <Identifier>
\endqml

Note that the \c <Identifier> must be unique within a QML document, unlike the
local namespace qualifier which can be applied to module imports.

\section4 JavaScript Resources from Modules

Javascript files can be provided by modules, by adding identifier
definitions to the \c qmldir file which specifies the module.

For example, if the \c projects.MyQMLProject.MyFunctions module is specified
with the following \c qmldir file, and installed into the QML import path:
\code
module projects.MyQMLProject.MyFunctions
SystemFunctions 1.0 SystemFunctions.js
UserFunctions 1.0 UserFunctions.js
\endcode

a client application is able to import the JavaScript resources declared in the
module by importing the module and using the identifier associated with a
declared resource:

\qml
import QtQuick 2.0
import projects.MyQMLProject.MyFunctions 1.0

Item {
    Component.onCompleted: { SystemFunctions.cleanUp(); }
}
\endqml

If the module was imported into a document-local namespace, the JavaScript
resource identifiers must be prefixed with the namespace qualifier in order
to be used:

\qml
import QtQuick 2.0
import projects.MyQMLProject.MyFunctions 1.0 as MyFuncs
import org.example.Functions 1.0 as TheirFuncs

Item {
    Component.onCompleted: {
        MyFuncs.SystemFunctions.cleanUp();
        TheirFuncs.SystemFunctions.shutdown();
    }
}
\endqml

\section4 Further Information

For more information about JavaScript resources, please see the documentation
about \l{qtqml-javascript-resources.html}
{defining JavaScript resources in QML}, and for more information about how
to import JavaScript resources, and how imports can be used from within
JavaScript resources, please see the in-depth documentation about
\l{qtqml-javascript-imports.html}{importing JavaScript resources in QML}.


\section1 QML Import Path

When an \l{qtqml-modules-installedmodules.html}{installed module} is imported,
the QML engine searches the \e{import path} for a matching module.

This import path, as returned by QQmlEngine::importPathList(), defines the
default locations to be searched by the engine. By default, this list contains:

\list
\li The directory of the current file
\li The location specified by QLibraryInfo::ImportsPath
\li Paths specified by the \c QML_IMPORT_PATH environment variable
\endlist

Additional import paths can be added through QQmlEngine::addImportPath() or the
\c QML_IMPORT_PATH environment variable. When running the
\l{Prototyping with qmlscene}{qmlscene} tool, you can also use the \c -I option
to add an import path.


\section1 Debugging

The \c QML_IMPORT_TRACE environment variable can be useful for debugging
when there are problems with finding and loading modules. See
\l{Debugging module imports} for more information.

*/