qt-creator/doc/api/qtcreator-api.qdoc

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**
** Copyright (C) 2015 The Qt Company Ltd.
** Contact: http://www.qt.io/licensing
**
** This file is part of Qt Creator
**
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** GNU Free Documentation License
**
** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU Free
** Documentation License version 1.3 as published by the Free Software
** Foundation and appearing in the file included in the packaging of this
** file.
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/*!
    \page qtcreator-api.html

    \title Qt Creator API Reference

    The core of \QC is basically only a \l{ExtensionSystem}{plugin loader}. All
    functionality is implemented in plugins. The basis of \QC is implemented in
    the \l{Core}{Core} Plugin. The plugin manager provides simple means for
    plugin cooperation that allow plugins to provide hooks for other plugin's
    extensions.

    \section1 Libraries

    \section2 Core Libraries

    There are a few core libraries used by many parts of Qt Creator.

    \table
        \header
            \li Library Name
            \li Description

        \row
            \li \l{Aggregation}
            \li Adds functionality for "glueing" QObjects of different types
                together, so you can "cast" between them.

        \row
            \li \l{ExtensionSystem}
            \li Implements the plugin loader framework. Provides a base class
                for plugins and basic mechanisms for plugin interaction like an
                object pool.

        \row
            \li \l{Utils}
            \li General utility library.

        \row
            \li \l{QmlJS}
            \li QML and JavaScript language support library.

    \endtable

    \section2 Additional libraries

    \table
        \header
            \li Library Name
            \li Description

        \row
            \li \l{qtcreatorcdbext}
            \li Windows CDB debugger extension
    \endtable

    \section1 Plugins

    As already mentioned, \QC is basically only a plugin loader framework
    which gets its IDE functionality through plugins. The most important plugin
    is the \c Core plugin which provides all the basic functionality needed
    later to integrate e.g. editors or mode windows.

    \table
        \header
            \li Plugin Name
            \li Description

        \row
            \li \l{Core}
            \li The core plugin. Provides the main window and managers for
                editors, actions, mode windows and files, just to mention the
                most important ones.

        \row
            \li \l{ProjectExplorer}
            \li The project explorer plugin. Provides base classes for project
                handling.

        \row
            \li \l{Find}
            \li Support for searching text in arbitrary widgets, and arbitrary
                other things.

        \row
            \li \l{Locator}
            \li Hooks for providing content for Locator.

        \row
            \li \l{Debugger}
            \li Debugging functionality.

        \row
            \li \l{VcsBase}
            \li Base classes for version control support.

        \row
            \li \l{TextEditor}
            \li This is where everything starts if you want to create a text
                editor. Besides the base editor itself, this plugin contains
                APIs for supporting functionality like \l{Snippets}{snippets},
                highlighting, \l{CodeAssist}{code assist}, indentation and
                style, and others.
    \endtable
*/

/*!
    \page classes.html
    \title Qt Creator Classes

    \generatelist classes
*/

/*!
    \page namespaces.html
    \title Qt Creator Namespaces

    \generatelist namespaces
*/

/*!
    \page mainclasses.html
    \title Qt Creator Main Classes

    \generatelist mainclasses

*/

/*!
    \page functions.html
    \title Qt Creator Functions

    \generatelist functionindex
*/

/*!
    \page common_extension_tasks.html
    \title Common Extension Tasks

    This section summarizes the API functions that you can use to add UI
    components to \QC.

    \table
        \header
            \li Task
            \li Details
            \li API

        \row
            \li Add a menu or menu item.
            \li You can extend existing menus or create new ones.
            \li \l{Core::ActionManager}, \l{Core::Command}

        \row
            \li Add a configurable keyboard shortcut.
            \li Registering shortcuts makes it possible for users to configure
                them in the common shortcut settings dialog.
            \li \l{Core::ActionManager}, \l{Core::Command}

        \row
            \li Add a mode.
            \li Modes correspond to complete screens of controls, specialized
                for a task.
            \li \l{Core::IMode}

        \row
            \li Add a new editor type.
            \li Such as an editor for XML files.
            \li \l{Core::IEditorFactory}, \l{Core::IEditor}, \l{Core::IDocument}

        \row
            \li Add a new wizard.
            \li You can extend the wizards in File > New File or Project with
                your own file and project templates.
            \li \l{Core::IWizard}, \l{Core::StandardFileWizard},
                \l{Core::BaseFileWizard}, \l{Core::BaseFileWizardParameters}

        \row
            \li Add support for a new version control system.
            \li Version control systems integrated in \QC are Bazaar, CVS, Git,
                Mecurial, Perforce, and Subversion.
            \li \l{Core::IVersionControl}

        \row
            \li Add a view to the navigation sidebar.
            \li The one which shows the project tree, filesystem, open documents
                or bookmarks.
            \li \l{Core::INavigationWidgetFactory}

        \row
            \li Add an options page to the \uicontrol Options dialog.
            \li Add a new page to existing or new category in
                \uicontrol Tools > \uicontrol Options.
            \li \l{Core::IOptionsPage}

        \row
            \li Add a find filter to the \uicontrol Find dialog.
            \li Implement any kind of search term based search.
            \li \l{Find::IFindFilter}, \l{Core::SearchResultWindow}

        \row
            \li Add support for the find tool bar to a widget.
            \li The widget that has focus is asked whether it supports text
                search. You can add support for widgets under your control.
            \li \l{Core::IFindSupport}, \l{Find::BaseTextFind}

        \row
            \li Add a completely new project type.
            \li
            \li

        \row
            \li Add a new type of build step.
            \li
            \li

        \row
            \li Add a new filter to the locator.
            \li For a text typed in by the user you provide a list of things to
                show in the popup. When the user selects an entry you are
                requested to do whatever you want.
            \li \l{Core::ILocatorFilter}, \l{Core::LocatorFilterEntry},
                \l{Locator::BaseFileFilter}

        \row
            \li Show a progress indicator for a concurrently running task.
            \li You can show a progress indicator for your tasks in the left
                hand tool bar, and also in the application icon (on platforms
                that support it).
            \li \l{Core::ProgressManager}, \l{Core::FutureProgress}

        \row
            \li
            \li
            \li

    \endtable
*/