using qt 4 with visual studio 2005

7/31/2019 Using Qt 4 With Visual Studio 2005

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Ian Davis Using Qt 4 with Visual Studio 2005 Page 1 of 34

Using Qt 4.0 with Visual

Studio 2005

Version 1.5

Ian Davis
http://www.bcltechnologies.com/easypdf/http://www.bcltechnologies.com/easypdf/


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Table of ContentsNOTES....................................................................................................................................................................................................3

CONFIGURING THE ENVIRONMENT.........................................................................................................................................................4

CREATING A PROJECT ............................................................................................................................................................................7

USING THE QT DESIGNER.....................................................................................................................................................................22

Table of FiguresFIGURE 1: SELECTING THE OPTIONS MENU ................................................................................................................................................5

FIGURE 2: VISUAL STUDIO OPTIONS...........................................................................................................................................................6

FIGURE 3: CREATING ANEW PROJECT........................................................................................................................................................7

FIGURE 4: SELECTING A C++ MAKEFILE PROJECT......................................................................................................................................8

FIGURE 5: MAKEFILE APPLICATION WIZARD SCREEN 1 .............................................................................................................................9

FIGURE 6: MAKEFILE APPLICATION WIZARD SCREEN 2 ...........................................................................................................................10

FIGURE 7: MAKEFILE APPLICATION WIZARD SCREEN 3 ...........................................................................................................................11

FIGURE 8: SELECTING PROJECT PROPERTIES ............................................................................................................................................12

FIGURE 9: DEBUGNMAKE PROPERTIES....................................................................................................................................................13

FIGURE 10: DEBUG REBUILD ALL COMMAND LINE..................................................................................................................................14

FIGURE 11: RELEASENMAKE PROPERTIES...............................................................................................................................................15

FIGURE 12: RELEASE REBUILD ALL COMMAND LINE...............................................................................................................................16FIGURE 13: ADDINGNEW SOURCE FILE ...................................................................................................................................................17

FIGURE 14: SELECTING C++ SOURCE .......................................................................................................................................................18

FIGURE 15: EDITING THE CODE ................................................................................................................................................................19

FIGURE 16: CODE COMPLETION IN ACTION ..............................................................................................................................................20

FIGURE 17: BUILDING AND RUNNING THE APPLICATION ..........................................................................................................................21

FIGURE 18: RUNNING APPLICATION .........................................................................................................................................................21

FIGURE 19: ADDING A .UI FILE 1...............................................................................................................................................................22

FIGURE 20: ADDING A .UI FILE 2...............................................................................................................................................................23

FIGURE 21: ADDINGNEW DEFAULT APPLICATION ...................................................................................................................................24

FIGURE 22: OPEN WITH WINDOW.............................................................................................................................................................25

FIGURE 23: ADD PROGRAM WINDOW.......................................................................................................................................................26

FIGURE 24: SETTING DEFAULT APPLICATION ...........................................................................................................................................27

FIGURE 25: FINALIZING DEFAULT PROGRAM ...........................................................................................................................................28

FIGURE 26: CHANGING PROJECT PROPERTIES..........................................................................................................................................29

FIGURE 27: DEBUG CONFIGURATION........................................................................................................................................................30

FIGURE 28: DEBUG REBUILD ALL HEADERGENERATION ........................................................................................................................ 30

FIGURE 29: RELEASE CONFIGURATION.....................................................................................................................................................31

FIGURE 30: RELEASE REBUILD ALL HEADERGENERATION......................................................................................................................31

FIGURE 31: GENERATE HEADERS FROM .UI FILE ......................................................................................................................................32

FIGURE 32: ADDING GENERATED HEADER...............................................................................................................................................33


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Notes

Important areas of a screen shot are highlighted in a red square.

I am using the Professional version of Visual Studio 2005 and the Open Source version of Qt 4.0.1I am not using NMake. I am using the mingw32-make that is installed as part of the Qt installation.


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Configuring the Environment

In order to have a usable environment for Qt for, a couple of steps must be taken:1. Configure Qt

2. Configure Visual Studio 2005

Configuring Qt

1. Download and Installa. Download the Qt 4.0.1 installer. In my case it is qt-win-opensource-4.0.1-mingw.exeb. Run the installer and make sure to download and install mingw.

c. Once the installers are finished, reboot your computer.

d. In this step you can also refer to C:\Qt\4.0.1\doc\html\install-win.html as I am cutting to thechase and you may need to follow a step in their document (i.e. for licensing as I am using the

Open Source version). I am assuming at this point that you are going to use mingw32-make

instead of NMake. Qt creates a batch file that wraps mingw32-make and will run if you typemake in the command prompt. The Qt installer added it to your PATH so you should not need

to worry about it.

e. Now that your system is back up, open a command prompt (StartRuncmd) and browse to

your Qt install dir (C:\Qt\4.0.1).2. Configure

a. Run C:\Qt\4.0.1>configure.exe (This can take a long time, find something else to do)

3. Builda. Run C:\Qt\4.0.1>make (This will take a very long time. Go out to dinner or something).

4. At this point Qt should be usable. If you tried to write a program before following these steps you were

probably very frustrated. Reboot your computer and continue on to the next section.


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In the treeview select Projects and SolutionsVC++ Directories. In the Show directories for: dropdown,select Include files and then click on the new folder button. Click on the button and browse to your Qt

install directory. This path should have no spaces. Once done, click the OK button. The environment for Visual

Studio should now be set up completely.

Figure 2: Visual Studio Options


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Creating a Project

In order to use Qt in Visual Studio 2005 we must use VC++ projects, but more than that we must control thebuild system with makefiles. For a beginner I have set up a few item in the guide to suite their needs. I will note

them as a step is encountered.

After opening Visual Studio 2005, select File NewProject

Figure 3: Creating a New Project


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In the treeview select Other LanguagesVisual C++ and then select Makefile Project in the listview to

the right. Enter your project name and location and click OK.

Figure 4: Selecting a C++ Makefile Project


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Click Next.

Figure 5: Makefile Application Wizard Screen 1


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Change all fields so that they look like the ones presented below. You can leave Rebuild command line: blankif you wish. When done click on the Release Configuration Settings link.



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Change all fields so that they look like the ones presented below. You can leave Rebuild command line: blankif you wish. You will have to uncheck the Same as debug configuration check box to change these settings.

When done, click Finish.



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We must now finish customizing our build properties to that Visual Studios build options worked as we wouldexpect. Select Project Properties.

Figure 8: Selecting Project Properties


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Select the Debug Configuration and choose NMake from the treeview on the left. Click on the Rebuild AllCommand Line button.

Figure 9: Debug NMake Properties


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Enter the following lines:qmake project

qmake

make clean

make debug

The first two lines are for beginners who do not want to create their own makefiles. These lines will create the

project file, add all needed sources to the build list, and create platform specific makefiles. In the last line we

tell make to create the debug build which is output to Debug\ which follows the settings we entered before.

Figure 10: Debug Rebuild All Command Line


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Now that the Debug Configuration is complete we must repeat it for the Release Configuration. Again, noticethe Output: Release\ - this tells Visual Studio what to execute on a successful build. The mingw32-

make automatically puts the built files in the \Debug or Release\ folders based on your make parameters. We

are just telling Visual Studio about this convention.

Figure 11: Release NMake Properties


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Again we add the four lines, but we add release instead of debug to the make command.

Figure 12: Release Rebuild All Command Line


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Now we can add a source file. Select Project Add New Item

Figure 13: Adding New Source File


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Select Visual C++Code in the treeview and then C++ file (.cpp) from the list. Enter your file name and

click Add.

Figure 14: Selecting C++ Source


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Enter your source code. I have provided a very basic example below.

Figure 15: Editing the Code

int main(int argc, char *argv[])

{QApplication app(argc, argv);QPushButton hello("Hello World!");hello.resize(100, 30);QObject::connect(&hello, SIGNAL(clicked()),

&app, SLOT(quit()));hello.show();

return app.exec();}


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Remember when we configured the include path? Because of that we have code completion and a few other funtoys.

Figure 16: Code Completion in Action


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After entering your code you can click the Start Debugging arrow and your application will build and run ifsuccessful. All errors will be available in the error tab at the bottom of the IDE just as with any other project

that is native to Visual Studio. You will likely get a warning about the debug target. Select to ignore this

warning from now on.

Figure 17: Building and Running the Application

And here is the sample application running.

Figure 18: Running Application


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Using the Qt Designer

One key feature that is needed is to be able to use and Qt Designer and Visual Studio. But how? It is really notthat difficult and I will take you through step-by-step.

Create a .ui file in the Qt Designer and then save it in your Visual Studio project folder. Now switch to VisualStudio and select Project Add Existing Item

Figure 19: Adding a .ui File 1


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Change the Files of type: to display All Files (*.*) and then choose your .ui file and click Add.

Figure 20: Adding a .ui File 2


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You must follow the next five steps for the first time you have added a .ui file to your project. Locate your .uifile in the Solution Explorer and right-click on it. Select Open With.

Figure 21: Adding New Default Application


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Click Add

Figure 22: Open With Window


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Browse to your Qt installation bin directory and paste its location into the top box. Enter Qt Designer in thelower box and click OK.

Figure 23: Add Program Window


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Select Qt Designer and click Set as Default.

Figure 24: Setting Default Application


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Click OK. Now, every time you double-click on a .ui file in the Solution Explorer it will open the file in the QtDesigner. We are however, left with a problem. There is a .ui file, but no .h file that our application needs. Also,

what happens if we update the .ui file? These issues are taken care in the next steps.

Figure 25: Finalizing Default Program


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Select Project Properties

Figure 26: Changing Project Properties


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Select the Debug Configuration and open the Rebuild Command Line item.

Figure 27: Debug Configuration

We now add a new line to the top of the batch list. uic Qt4VS2005.ui o qt4vs2005.h is added so that every

time we change our .ui file, all we have to do is perform a Rebuild All and the headers will be regenerated. Foryour project it will be :

uic .ui o .h

You can do this for every .ui file you have. We must also do this for the Release Configuration.

Figure 28: Debug Rebuild All Header Generation


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Select the Release Configuration and open the Rebuild Command Line item. And mirror the previous step

Figure 29: Release Configuration

Figure 30: Release Rebuild All Header Generation


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Select Build Rebuild and your header will be generated. Be care with the uic commandas you can destroy the .ui file.

Figure 31: Generate Headers from .ui File


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Now we can add the new header to our solution. Select Project Add Existing Item

Figure 32: Adding Generated Header


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Select the header you specified and you can now view it in your project.

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