forked from qt-creator/qt-creator
33487984b9
or use direct links where possible. Change-Id: I00d559ad53a95caf91c39985bd9fb5ea99f9aed7 Reviewed-by: Leena Miettinen <riitta-leena.miettinen@qt.io>
125 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
125 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
/****************************************************************************
|
|
**
|
|
** Copyright (C) 2020 The Qt Company Ltd.
|
|
** Contact: https://www.qt.io/licensing/
|
|
**
|
|
** This file is part of the Qt Creator documentation.
|
|
**
|
|
** Commercial License Usage
|
|
** Licensees holding valid commercial Qt licenses may use this file in
|
|
** accordance with the commercial license agreement provided with the
|
|
** Software or, alternatively, in accordance with the terms contained in
|
|
** a written agreement between you and The Qt Company. For licensing terms
|
|
** and conditions see https://www.qt.io/terms-conditions. For further
|
|
** information use the contact form at https://www.qt.io/contact-us.
|
|
**
|
|
** GNU Free Documentation License Usage
|
|
** 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. Please review the following information to ensure
|
|
** the GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 requirements
|
|
** will be met: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl-1.3.html.
|
|
**
|
|
****************************************************************************/
|
|
|
|
/*!
|
|
\page distributing-plugins.html
|
|
\title Distributing Plugins
|
|
|
|
To make your plugin available to a wider range of users, you should look
|
|
into distributing binary builds of it.
|
|
|
|
\section1 Creating Binaries
|
|
|
|
If your plugin runs and works on multiple platforms, you should provide
|
|
binary builds for all of the supported platforms.
|
|
|
|
Qt Creator currently supports:
|
|
|
|
\list
|
|
\li Windows
|
|
\li Linux
|
|
\li \macos
|
|
\endlist
|
|
|
|
See the toplevel
|
|
\l{https://code.qt.io/cgit/qt-creator/qt-creator.git/tree/README.md}
|
|
{README.md} file in Qt Creator's sources for a more detailed list.
|
|
|
|
The \uicontrol {Qt Creator Plugin} wizard already creates a template for
|
|
\l{https://help.github.com/en/actions/automating-your-workflow-with-github-actions/about-github-actions}{GitHub
|
|
Actions} which can be used to create binaries if you host your plugin
|
|
sources on GitHub. See the
|
|
\l{https://code.qt.io/cgit/qt-creator/qt-creator.git/tree/share/qtcreator/templates/wizards/qtcreatorplugin/github_workflow_README.md}
|
|
{README.md} that is created at the same location for details.
|
|
|
|
You can also use the provided GitHub Actions recipe as inspiration for
|
|
another build service of your choice.
|
|
|
|
\section1 Packaging
|
|
|
|
The easiest way to package your plugin is to simply provide a zip file
|
|
that the user can unpack to the correct location for Qt Creator to find it.
|
|
Qt Creator makes that easy for the user by providing an \uicontrol{Install
|
|
Plugin} button in the \uicontrol Help > \uicontrol {About Plugins} dialog
|
|
(or \uicontrol {Qt Creator} > \uicontrol {About Plugins} on \macos). The
|
|
user chooses a zip file with the plugin, and Qt Creator unpacks that to the
|
|
appropriate location.
|
|
|
|
The following sections describe the options you have for the plugin's
|
|
contents layout.
|
|
|
|
\section2 Single Library
|
|
|
|
Using a single library is the preferred and simplest option. You provide a
|
|
single plugin library file that has all required resources compiled into it
|
|
with \l{The Qt Resource System}. This imposes some limitations because you
|
|
cannot depend on additional binaries, nor extend some parts of Qt Creator
|
|
that rely on external files, like the generic highlighter. You can still
|
|
add \l{https://doc.qt.io/qtcreator/creator-project-wizards.html}{wizard
|
|
templates} this way, by adding the
|
|
\l{https://doc.qt.io/qt/resources.html#using-resources-in-the-application}
|
|
{path to the resource directory} into your QRC file with
|
|
ProjectExplorer::JsonWizardFactory::addWizardPath(). Registering
|
|
documentation and translations can be done in similar ways.
|
|
|
|
\section3 Summary
|
|
|
|
\list
|
|
\li Single library as single item in a zip file.
|
|
\li Resources compiled into the library with \l{The Qt Resource System}.
|
|
\li Can be installed locally for a single user for all compatible
|
|
Qt Creator installations.
|
|
\li Can be installed into a Qt Creator installation for all users.
|
|
\endlist
|
|
|
|
\section2 Multiple Files Following Qt Creator's Filesystem Layout
|
|
|
|
This is a more flexible solution with regards to what the plugin can do,
|
|
but more complicated to set up. This allows the plugin to ship additional
|
|
binaries and arbitrary resources.
|
|
|
|
Since the filesystem layout varies heavily between platforms, the build
|
|
system of Qt Creator provides variables like \c IDE_DATA_PATH and \c
|
|
IDE_LIBEXEC_PATH. If you build your plugin with CMake, you should use the
|
|
provided \c add_qtc_library, \c add_qtc_executable and similar functions
|
|
as well.
|
|
|
|
At runtime you can access these platform dependent locations with
|
|
Core::ICore::resourcePath() and Core::ICore::libexecPath().
|
|
|
|
Plugins that are distributed this way cannot be installed locally for a
|
|
single user. They must be installed into the Qt Creator installation
|
|
directly.
|
|
|
|
\section3 Summary
|
|
|
|
\list
|
|
\li Multiple files following standard filesystem layout.
|
|
\li Use Qt Creator specific variables and functions in build system.
|
|
\li Use Core::ICore to find the locations at runtime.
|
|
\li Can only be installed into a Qt Creator installation for all users.
|
|
\endlist
|
|
*/
|