path: root/src/quickcontrols2/doc/src/qt6-changes.qdoc

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/*!
    \page qtquickcontrols-changes-qt6.html
    \title Changes to Qt Quick Controls
    \ingroup changes-qt-5-to-6
    \brief Migrate Qt Quick Controls to Qt 6.

    Qt 6 is a result of the conscious effort to make the framework more
    efficient and easy to use.

    We try to maintain compatibility for all the public APIs in each release.
    Some changes were inevitable in an effort to make Qt a better framework.

    In this topic we summarize those changes in Qt Quick Controls, and provide
    guidance to handle them.

    \section1 Migrating from Qt Quick Controls 1

    Qt Quick Controls 1 was deprecated in Qt 5.11 and is removed from
    Qt 6.0. Use Qt Quick Controls (previously known as Qt Quick Controls 2)
    instead. For more information, refer to the
    \l{Qt 5.15: Qt Quick Controls vs Qt Quick Controls 1} topic in the Qt 5
    documentation.

    \section1 Type registration changes

    Qt Quick Controls has undergone some large, mostly internal changes in Qt
    6. By making use of the improved type registration introduced in Qt 5.15,
    we pave the way for compilation of the module's QML files to C++ and enable
    tooling to become more effective. In particular, Qt Creator's QML code
    model should have a more complete picture of types, making its completion
    and error checking of Qt Quick Controls code more reliable. Static analysis
    tools like qmllint and qmlformat also benefit by becoming aware of the
    types that are now declared at compile time in C++.

    As a result of these changes, some things are done a little differently.

    \section2 Custom styles are now proper QML modules

    To enable compile time type registration, each Qt Quick Controls style is
    now a proper QML module. Previously, a single \c Button.qml was sufficient
    to create your own style. While convenient, this required some non-standard
    API, which in turn required adaptation in tooling like Qt Designer.

    Now, all QML types that a style implements must be declared in that style's
    qmldir file:

    \code
    module MyStyle
    Button 1.0 Button.qml
    \endcode

    \omit
    TODO: Once we have documentation for the CMake function qt6_add_qml_module,
    this would be a good place to link to it, stating that you don't have to
    manually write the qmldir files.
    \endomit

    By unifying this with the rest of the QML world, styles become more
    familiar to developers and hopefully easier to understand for beginners. As
    a consequence, the following API had to be removed:

    \list
        \li QQuickStyle::addStylePath()
        \li QQuickStyle::availableStyles()
        \li QQuickStyle::path()
        \li QQuickStyle::stylePathList()
        \li QT_QUICK_CONTROLS_STYLE_PATH
    \endlist

    Now that the styles are required to be found in the QML engine's import
    path like any other QML module, it is no longer necessary or possible to
    support this API.

    \section3 Style names

    In addition, there is now only one valid, case-sensitive form for style
    names: "Material", "MyStyle", and so on. That is: the style name must
    exactly match the name of the QML module. This also applies to file
    selectors, where previously, all style names were lower case. For example,
    where the following was a valid structure for a Qt 5 project:

    \badcode
    MyProject
    ├── main.qml
    ├── HomePage.qml
    └── +material
        └───HomePage.qml
    \endcode

    In Qt 6, \c +material becomes \c +Material:

    \badcode
    MyProject
    ├── main.qml
    ├── HomePage.qml
    └── +Material
        └───HomePage.qml
    \endcode

    All of the existing ways to \l {Using Styles in Qt Quick Controls}{run an
    application with a specific style} are still supported.

    \section2 Runtime and compile time style selection

    Importing a style now has extra meaning due to the way that imports work
    internally. Previously, importing \c QtQuick.Controls would register the
    control types from the current style with the QML engine:

    \qml
    import QtQuick.Controls
    \endqml

    We refer to this as runtime style selection, as the style is selected at
    runtime.

    Explicitly importing \c QtQuick.Controls.Material would then simply expose
    any extra API provided by that style (for example, the attached Material
    type):

    \qml
    import QtQuick.Controls.Material
    \endqml

    Now, explicitly importing a style does both.

    This effectively means that the control types (like Button) from the last
    imported style will be used. We refer to this as compile time style
    selection.

    This has implications for existing code. Namely, if your application
    supports more than one style, move these imports into their own QML files
    that are file-selected.

    For example, if you have the following \c main.qml:

    \qml
    import QtQuick.Controls
    import QtQuick.Controls.Material
    import QtQuick.Controls.Universal

    ApplicationWindow {
        width: 600
        height: 400
        visible: true

        Material.theme: darkMode ? Material.Dark : Material.Light
        Universal.theme: darkMode ? Universal.Dark : Universal.Light

        // Child items, etc.
    }
    \endqml

    You can move the common code into a "base" component:

    \qml
    // MainWindow.qml

    import QtQuick.Controls

    ApplicationWindow {}
    \endqml

    Then, add a \c +Material subdirectory, and in it, add the Material-specific code into \c MainWindow.qml:

    \qml
    // +Material/MainWindow.qml

    import QtQuick.Controls.Material

    ApplicationWindow {
        Material.theme: darkMode ? Material.Dark : Material.Light
    }
    \endqml

    Do the same for Universal:

    \qml
    // +Universal/MainWindow.qml

    import QtQuick.Controls.Universal

    ApplicationWindow {
        Universal.theme: darkMode ? Universal.Dark : Universal.Light
    }
    \endqml

    Then, in \c main.qml:

    \qml
    import QtQuick.Controls

    MainWindow {
        width: 600
        height: 400
        visible: true

        // Child items, etc.
    }
    \endqml

    See also: \l {Using File Selectors with Qt Quick Controls}.

    \section1 Default Style

    The Default style was renamed to "Basic", as it is no longer the default
    style. Instead, the default style is now chosen based on the platform
    that Qt was built for:

    \list
    \li Android: \l {Material Style}
    \li Linux: \l {Fusion Style}
    \li macOS: \macos Style
    \li Windows: Windows Style
    \li All other platforms: \l {Basic Style}
    \endlist

    Therefore, applications that didn't specify a style in Qt 5 and have customized
    controls should \l {Using Styles in Qt Quick Controls}{explicitly specify}
    the Basic style in Qt 6 to ensure that those controls look and behave as
    they did with Qt 5.

    \section1 Palette

    The palette API was moved to QQuickItem. The various APIs that use palettes
    in Qt Quick Controls are unchanged.

    \section1 Controls

    \section2 ApplicationWindow

    The deprecated overlay properties and attached API were removed. Use the
    \l Overlay attached type instead.

    \section2 ComboBox

    The \l {ComboBox::}{pressed} property is now read-only. To modify the
    visual pressed state of a ComboBox, use the \l {ComboBox::}{down} property
    instead.

    \section2 Container

    The deprecated \c removeItem(var) function was removed.
    \l {Container::}{removeItem(Item)} or \l {Container::}{takeItem(int)} can
    be used instead.

    \section2 Dialog

    \l {Dialog}'s \l {Dialog::}{accepted()} and \l {Dialog::}{rejected()}
    signals are now emitted before \l {Popup::}{closed()} when calling
    \l {Dialog::}{done()}, \l {Dialog::}{accept()} and \l {Dialog::}{reject()}.

    \section2 Menu

    The deprecated \c removeItem(var) function was removed.
    \l {Menu::}{removeItem(Item)} or \l {Menu::}{takeItem(int)} can be used
    instead.

    \section2 ToolTip

    \l {ToolTip}'s timeout now begins only after \l {Popup::}{opened()} has
    been emitted. This results in tooltips with enter transitions being visible
    for the entire duration of the timeout property. This means that they are
    visible slightly longer than they were before, so it may be worthwhile to
    visually check tooltips in your application and adjust timeouts if
    necessary.

    \section2 StackView

    The StackView.Transition enum value was deprecated. The operation argument
    can be omitted in order to use the default transition for any given
    operation.

    \section2 Tumbler

    \l {Item::}{implicitWidth} and \l {Item::}{implicitHeight} must now be
    provided for \l {Tumbler}'s \l {Control::}{contentItem}, making it
    consistent with all other controls.
*/