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qt-creator/doc/src/howto/creator-only/creator-ui.qdoc
Leena Miettinen ec0565b26f Doc: Rename "Debugger Console" as "QML Debugger Console"
Change-Id: I9b1fa57b12210f3839998015075a9dbb3d392ea5
Reviewed-by: hjk <hjk@qt.io>
2019-03-22 09:29:23 +00:00

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/****************************************************************************
**
** Copyright (C) 2019 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.
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****************************************************************************/
// **********************************************************************
// NOTE: the sections are not ordered by their logical order to avoid
// reshuffling the file each time the index order changes (i.e., often).
// Run the fixnavi.pl script to adjust the links to the index order.
// **********************************************************************
/*!
\contentspage index.html
\previouspage creator-overview.html
\page creator-quick-tour.html
\nextpage creator-configuring.html
\title User Interface
When you start \QC, it opens to the \uicontrol Welcome mode, where you can:
\list
\li Open recent sessions and projects
\li Create and open projects
\li Open tutorials and example projects
\li Read news from the online community and Qt blogs
\li Create or manage a Qt Account
\endlist
\image qtcreator-breakdown.png
You can use the mode selector (1) to change to another \QC mode.
You can use the kit selector (2) to select the
\l{glossary-buildandrun-kit}{kit} for running (3), debugging (4), or
building (5) the application. Output from these actions is displayed in the
output panes (7).
You can use the locator (6) to to browse through projects, files, classes,
functions, documentation, and file systems.
For a quick tour of the user interface that takes you to the locations of
these controls, select \uicontrol Help > \uicontrol {UI Tour}.
\section1 Modes
The mode selector allows you to quickly switch between tasks such as editing
project and source files, designing application UIs, configuring how
projects are built and executed, and debugging your applications. To change
modes, click the icons, or use the \l{keyboard-shortcuts}
{corresponding keyboard shortcut}.
To hide the mode selector and to save space on the display, select
\uicontrol Window > \uicontrol {Mode Selector Style} > \uicontrol Hidden.
To only show icons on the mode selector, select the \uicontrol {Icons Only}
style.
The following image displays an example application in \uicontrol Edit mode (1)
and \uicontrol Design mode (2).
\image qtcreator-qt-quick-editors.png "Edit mode and Design mode"
You can use \QC in the following modes:
\list
\li \uicontrol Welcome mode for opening projects.
\li \uicontrol{\l{Coding}{Edit}} mode for editing project and source
files.
\li \uicontrol{\l{Designing User Interfaces}{Design}} mode for designing and
developing application user interfaces. This mode is available for
UI files.
\li \uicontrol{\l{Debugging}{Debug}} mode for inspecting the state of your
application while debugging and for using code analysis tools
to detect memory leaks and profile C++ or QML code.
\li \uicontrol{\l{Specifying Build Settings}{Projects}} mode for configuring
project building and execution. This mode is available when a
project is open.
\li \uicontrol{\l{Getting Help}{Help}} mode for viewing Qt documentation.
\endlist
Certain actions in \QC trigger a mode change. Clicking on \uicontrol {Debug} >
\uicontrol {Start Debugging} > \uicontrol {Start Debugging} automatically switches to
\uicontrol {Debug} mode.
\include creator-sidebar-views.qdocinc using sidebar views
\include creator-sidebar-views.qdocinc projects view
\include creator-sidebar-views.qdocinc file system view
\include creator-sidebar-views.qdocinc outline view
\include creator-sidebar-views.qdocinc class view
\include creator-sidebar-views.qdocinc type hierarchy view
\include creator-sidebar-views.qdocinc include hierarchy view
\section1 Viewing Output
The task pane in \QC can display one of the following panes:
\list
\li \uicontrol{Issues}
\li \uicontrol{Search Results}
\li \uicontrol{Application Output}
\li \uicontrol{Compile Output}
\li \uicontrol {QML Debugger Console}
\li \uicontrol {To-Do Entries}
\li \uicontrol{Version Control}
\li \uicontrol{General Messages}
\li \uicontrol{Test Results}
\endlist
Output panes are available in all \l{Modes}{modes}. Click the name of an
output pane to open the pane. To maximize an open output pane, click the
\uicontrol {Maximize Output Pane} button or press \key {Alt+9}.
To search within the \uicontrol{Application Output} and \uicontrol{Compile Output}
panes, press \key {Ctrl+F} when the pane is active. Enter search criteria in
the \uicontrol Find field and click the left and right arrows to search down and
up in the pane. In these panes, you can also use the zoom buttons to increase and
decrease the text size of the output.
To open the \uicontrol{General Messages} and \l{Using Version Control Systems}
{Version Control} panes, select
\uicontrol {Window > Output Panes}. To display the \uicontrol {To-Do Entries} pane,
enable the Todo plugin.
For more information about the \uicontrol {QML Debugger Console} view, see
\l{Executing JavaScript Expressions}.
\section2 Issues
The \uicontrol{Issues} pane provides lists of following types of issues:
\list
\li \uicontrol {Build System} - Errors and warnings encountered during a
build.
\li \uicontrol {Clang Code Model} -
\l {Parsing C++ Files with the Clang Code Model}
{Errors and warnings from the current editor}.
\li \uicontrol Compile - Selected output from the compiler. Open the
\uicontrol {Compile Output} pane for more detailed information.
\li \uicontrol{Debug Information} - Lists debug information packages that might
be missing.
\li \uicontrol Debugger - Errors encountered while running the
\l{Analyzing Code}{Valgrind code analysis tools}.
\li \uicontrol{Debugger Runtime} - Errors encountered when starting \QC. For
example, information about missing DLLs.
\li \uicontrol Deployment - Errors encountered between building an application
successfully and starting it on a \l{glossary-device}{device}.
\li \uicontrol {My Tasks} - Entries from a task list file (.tasks) generated
by \l{Showing Task List Files in Issues Pane}
{code scanning and analysis tools}.
\li \uicontrol Python - Runtime errors and exceptions of Python scripts.
\li \uicontrol QML and \uicontrol {QML Analysis} -
\l{JavaScript and QML Error Codes}
{QML and JavaScript syntax errors}.
\endlist
The pane filters out irrelevant output from the build tools and presents the
issues in an organized way. To further filter the output by type, select
\uicontrol {Filter Tree}
and then select a filter.
\image qtcreator-build-issues.png
Right-clicking on a line brings up a context menu with actions that you can
apply to the contents of the line. You can remove a line, copy its contents
to the clipboard, or search the Internet for a solution using the contents
of the line as search criteria. In addition, you can show a version control
annotation view of the line that causes the error message.
To navigate to the corresponding source code, click an issue or
select \uicontrol {Show in Editor} in the context menu. The entry must contain the
name of the file where the issue was found.
To view more information about an issue in the \uicontrol {Compile Output} pane,
select \uicontrol {Show Output} in the context menu.
To jump from one issue to the next or previous one, press \key F6 and
\key Shift+F6.
\section2 Search Results
In the \uicontrol{Search Results} pane, you can search through projects, files on
a file system or the currently open files:
\image qtcreator-search-results.png "Search Results output pane"
The search results are stored in the search history (1) from which you can
select earlier searches.
The figure below shows an example search result for all
occurrences of the search string in the specified directory.
\image qtcreator-searchresults.png
For more information about the different search options, see
\l {Finding and Replacing}.
\section2 Application Output
The \uicontrol{Application Output} pane displays the status of a program when
it is executed, and the debug output.
\image qtcreator-application-output.png
If you specify command line arguments in the run settings that are passed
to the application when running it, they are displayed as a part of the
application output. For more information, see
\l{Specifying Run Settings for Desktop Device Types}.
Select toolbar buttons to run applications, to attach the debugger to the
running application, and to stop running or debugging.
To specify settings for displaying application output, select
\uicontrol Tools > \uicontrol Options > \uicontrol {Build & Run} >
\uicontrol General. You can select whether to open the
\uicontrol{Application Output} pane on output when running or debugging
applications, to clear old output on a new run, to word-wrap output, and to
limit output to the specified number of lines.
\section2 Compile Output
The \uicontrol{Compile Output} pane provides all output from the compiler.
The \uicontrol{Compile Output} is a more detailed version of information
displayed in the \uicontrol{Issues} pane.
\image qtcreator-compile-pane.png
Double-click on a file name in an error message to open the file in the
code editor.
Select the \uicontrol {Cancel Build} button to cancel the build.
To specify whether to open the \uicontrol {Compile Output} pane on output
when building applications, select \uicontrol Tools > \uicontrol Options >
\uicontrol {Build & Run} > \uicontrol General, and then select the
\uicontrol {Open Compile Output pane when building} check box.
In the \uicontrol {Limit build output to} field, you can specify the maximum
amount of build output lines to display in the pane.
\section2 To-Do Entries
The \uicontrol {To-Do Entries} pane lists the BUG, FIXME, NOTE, TODO, and
WARNING keywords from the current file, from all project files, or from a
subproject. Click the icons on the toolbar to show only the selected
keywords.
\image qtcreator-todo-pane.png
To add keywords, select \uicontrol Tools > \uicontrol Options >
\uicontrol {To-Do} > \uicontrol Add. Set an icon and a line background color
for the keyword.
\image qtcreator-todo-options.png
To change the icon and line background color of the selected keyword, select
\uicontrol Edit.
To remove the selected keyword, select \uicontrol Remove.
To reset the list to predefined keywords, select \uicontrol Reset. All your
changes will be permanently lost.
To determine whether the keywords in the whole project, in the current file,
or in a subproject are displayed by default, select the appropriate option
in the \uicontrol {Scanning scope} group.
To exclude files from scanning, select \uicontrol {Project Settings} >
\uicontrol {To-Do} in the
\uicontrol Projects mode. Select \uicontrol Add and enter a regular
expression that matches the path to files to exclude. Use a forward slash
(/) as a separator in the path also on Windows.
The Todo plugin is disabled by default. To enable the plugin, select
\uicontrol Help > \uicontrol {About Plugins} > \uicontrol Utilities >
\uicontrol Todo and restart
\QC.
In addition, you can open task list files generated by code scanning and
analysis tools in the \uicontrol Issues pane. For more information, see
\l{Showing Task List Files in Issues Pane}.
\section1 Changing Languages
\QC has been localized into several languages. If the system language is one
of the supported languages, it is automatically selected. To change the
language, select \uicontrol {Tools > Options > Environment} and select a language
in the \uicontrol Language field. The change takes effect after you restart \QC.
\section1 Viewing Images
\QC opens image files in the image viewer.
\image qtcreator-image-viewer.png "Image viewer"
Use the toolbar buttons (1) or \l{Keyboard Shortcuts}{keyboard shortcuts}
to:
\list
\li Export SVG images to pixmaps
\li Switch between background and outline modes
\li Zoom in and out
\li Fit images to screen
\li Return to original size
\li Play and pause animated GIF and MNG images
\endlist
\section2 Exporting SVG Images
If you receive a freely scalable icon in the SVG format from an UI designer,
you can export it to several images of different sizes to create a set of
pixmaps. You can then use QIcon::addPixmap() to add the pixmaps to icons in
different modes and states.
\section1 Navigating with Keyboard
\QC caters not only to developers who are used to using the mouse,
but also to developers who are more comfortable with the keyboard. A wide
range of \l{keyboard-shortcuts}{keyboard} and
\l{Searching with the Locator}{navigation} shortcuts are available to help
speed up the process of developing your application.
\section1 Useful Features
For a list of useful \QC features described in other parts of the
documentation, see \l{Tips and Tricks}.
\section1 Platform Notes
This section describes the cases where the behavior of \QC depends on the
operating system it runs on.
\section2 Location of Functions
\QC uses standard names and locations for standard features, such as
\e options or \e preferences. In this manual, the names and locations on
Windows and Linux are usually used to keep the instructions short. Here are
some places to check if you cannot find a function, dialog, or keyboard
shortcut on \macos when following the instructions:
\table
\header
\li For
\li Look In
\row
\li \uicontrol Tools > \uicontrol Options
\li \uicontrol {\QC} > \uicontrol Preferences
\row
\li \uicontrol Help > \uicontrol {About Plugins}
\li \uicontrol {\QC} > \uicontrol {About Plugins}
\row
\li Keyboard shortcuts
\li \uicontrol {\QC} > \uicontrol Preferences > \uicontrol Environment >
\uicontrol Keyboard
\endtable
\section2 Location of Settings Files
\QC creates the following files and directories:
\list
\li QtCreator.db
\li QtCreator.ini
\li qtversion.xml
\li toolChains.xml
\li qtcreator
\li qtc-qmldump
\endlist
The location of the above files and directories depends on the platform:
\list
\li On Linux and other Unix platforms, the files are located in
\c {~/.config/QtProject} and
\c {~/.local/share/data/QtProject/qtcreator}.
\li On \macos, the files are located in \c {~/.config/QtProject} and
\c {~/Library/Application Support/QtProject/Qt Creator}.
\li On Windows XP, the files are located in
\c {%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Application Data\QtProject} and
\c {%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Local Settings\Application Data\QtProject}.
\li On Windows 7, the files are located in
\c {%SystemDrive%\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\QtProject} and
\c {%SystemDrive%\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\QtProject}.
\endlist
\section2 High DPI Scaling
The operating systems supported by \QC implement high dots-per-inch (DPI)
scaling at varying levels. Therefore, \QC handles high DPI scaling
differently on different operating system:
\list
\li On \macos, high DPI scaling is forced, which means that \QC allows
Qt to use the system scaling factor as the \QC scaling factor.
\li On Windows, if no \l{High DPI Support in Qt}
{scaling environment variables} are set, \QC instructs Qt to detect
the scaling factor and use it for \QC.
\li On Linux, \QC leaves it to the user to enable high DPI scaling,
because the process varies so much on different distributions
and windowing systems that it cannot be reliably done automatically.
\endlist
To override the default approach and always enable high-DPI scaling, select
\uicontrol Tools > \uicontrol Options > \uicontrol Environment >
\uicontrol {Enable high DPI scaling}. The changes will take effect after you
restart \QC.
*/