Qt Terms and Concepts
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Here you can find definitions for the terms and concepts used in Qt.
Qt names
Here you can find names of Qt tools and solutions. In documentation, use QDoc macros for them to apply any changes automatically. You can find a list of macros here: QDoc Manual: Product Names
| Name | Description | Do not use | QDoc macro | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Android Deploy Qt (androiddeployqt) | This tool automates the Qt application deployment on Android. | Approved | ||
| Automotive MCU Deployment Platforms | Hardware specific adaptations to allow Qt Quick Ultralite applications to run on target hardware. | Approved | ||
| Boot to Qt | A lightweight, Qt-optimized, full software stack for embedded Linux systems. The stack uses the traditional embedded Linux kernel built with Poky, the reference distribution of Yocto Project. | \B2Q (since Qt 6.8) | Approved | |
| Boot to Qt Software Stack | Provides a system image and a toolchain for each target device. The system image contains the Boot to Qt Software Stack, and it needs to be flashed to an SD card or directly to the target device. | \B2QSS (since Qt 6.8) | Approved | |
| Boot to Qt Startup Screen | Startup screen which automatically appears when you have flashed a target device with a Boot to Qt image. | \B2QST (since Qt 6.8) | Approved | |
| D-Bus Viewer | Introspection tool for D-Bus objects and messages. | Approved | ||
| In-Vehicle Infotainment Reference UI | A Qt reference UI implementation for In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) systems. | Approved | ||
| makeqpf | A tool to generate pre-rendered fonts for embedded Linux. | Approved | ||
| Meta-Object Compiler (moc) | Generates meta-object information for QObject subclasses. | Approved | ||
| Non-automotive MCU Deployment Platforms | Hardware-specific adaptations to allow Qt Quick Ultralite applications to run on target hardware. | Approved | ||
| On-device Deployment and Debugging | On-device debugging and deployment of Qt applications via Qt Creator. | Approved | ||
| Python Shiboken Wizard | A binding generator tool for exposing C++ projects to Python. | Approved | ||
| QDB | A tool for controlling Boot2Qt devices. | Approved | ||
| qmake | Qt's build automation tool that simplifies the build process across different platforms. Note! Although qmake is still supported, the official build tool for Qt is CMake, and we recommend developers to use CMake in new projects. | Approved | ||
| qmlformat | A tool for automatically formatting the QML files in accordance with the QML Coding Conventions. | Approved | ||
| qmllint | A tool for verifying the syntax validity of QML files. | Approved | ||
| QML Live | Provides a live reloader environment for rapid development of Qt Quick applications, dramatically reducing the time it takes to deploy and test changes in the UI design. | Approved | ||
| QML Live Bench | QML Live Bench is the all-inclusive QML live reloading tool that allows you to select a workspace to watch over and provides a Prime QML Live Runtime for the selected QML document. | Approved | ||
| QML Live Runtime | The QML Live Runtime tool provides a default runtime with a default QML viewer and listens on a given port for IPC calls from the remote. This tool is ideal for development on a target device when no extra C++ code is required. | Approved | ||
| QML Language Server | Helps you edit QML code in your favorite LSP (Language Server Protocol) compatible editor. | \QMLLS | Approved | |
| QML Profiler | Enables you to get the necessary diagnostic information, allowing you to analyze the application code for performance issues. | Approved | ||
| QML Runtime | A utility to load and display QML documents. | Approved | ||
| Qt Application Manager | Provides a basis for a multi-application embedded system, taking care of application lifecycle management. | Approved | ||
| Qt Assistant | A tool for viewing Qt documentation. | \QA | Approved | |
| Qt Bridge | Used for importing 2D assets from design tools into Qt Design Studio. | Qt Design Studio Bridge | \QB | Approved |
| Qt Bridge for Adobe Photoshop | Used for importing 2D assets from Adobe Photoshop into Qt Design Studio. | \QBPS | Approved | |
| Qt Bridge for Adobe XD | Used for importing 2D assets from Adobe XD into Qt Design Studio. | \QBXD | Approved | |
| Qt Bridge for Figma | Used for importing 2D assets from Figma into Qt Design Studio. | \QBF | Approved | |
| Qt Bridge for Sketch | Used for importing 2D assets from Sketch into Qt Design Studio. | \QBSK | Approved | |
| Qt Configuration Tool (qtconfig-gui) | A tool for providing features and tools for creating and building smaller Qt binaries. | Approved | ||
| Qt Creator | A cross-platform, complete integrated development environment (IDE) for application developers to develop applications for multiple desktop, embedded, and mobile device platforms. | \QC (since Qt 6.8) | Approved | |
| Qt D-Bus | Classes for inter-process communication over the D-Bus protocol. | Approved | ||
| Qt Designer
Qt Widgets Designer (since Qt 6.8) |
A tool for designing and building graphical user interfaces (GUIs) using Qt Widgets. | \QD | Approved | |
| Qt Design Studio | A UI design and development environment for creating animated user interfaces. | \QDS | Approved | |
| Qt Design Viewer | Allows users to view and share QML-based UI designs online. | \QDV | Approved | |
| Qt Device Utilities | Provides functionality for controlling various settings in embedded applications. | Approved | ||
| Qt Digital Advertising | All-in-one development solution to monetize digital ads on embedded screens/mobile/desktop ads. | Approved | ||
| Qt Distance Field Generator | Generates distance fields to improve load times of text-heavy Qt Quick user interfaces. | Approved | ||
| QDoc | A tool used by Qt Developers to generate documentation for software projects. | Approved | ||
| Qt for Android Automotive | Integrates the Qt Framework, including the UI toolkit, with Android bindings, the Qt IF framework, and the Android Automotive bindings. | \QtAA | Approved | |
| Qt for Android Automotive OS Car Service API | Java bindings for C++ code to interact with the Car API. | Approved | ||
| Qt for MCUs | Offers a lightweight graphics framework and toolkit that enables you to design, develop, and deploy graphical user interfaces (GUI) on microcontrollers (MCU). | \QMCU
\QtMCU (in Qt for MCUs repo) |
Approved | |
| Qt for Python | Offers the official Python bindings for Qt, which enables you to use Python to write your Qt applications. | Approved | ||
| Qt for Python commercial add-ons | Machine-to-machine protocols (CoAP, MQTT, OPC UA) for Python developers. | Approved | ||
| Qt Insight | Qt Insight is an analytics solution designed to provide real customer insights on the usage of applications or devices. Qt Insights was created especially for companies creating connected embedded products to shed light on an application’s performance, usage, and user data that may not be otherwise attainable. | Approved | ||
| Qt Installer Framework | Provides a set of tools and utilities to create installers for the supported desktop platforms. | \IFW (since Qt 6.8) | Approved | |
| Qt Interface Framework | Provides both the tools and the core APIs to implement middleware APIs, middleware back ends, and middleware services. | IVI | Approved | |
| Qt Linguist | A set of tools for translating Qt C++ and Qt Quick applications into local languages. | \QL | Approved | |
| Qt Maintenance Tool | Once Qt is installed, you can use Qt Maintenance Too to add components and update or remove installed components. | \QMT | Approved | |
| Qt Multimedia Widgets | Qt Multimedia sub-module, containing widget-based classes for implementing multimedia functionality. | Approved | ||
| Qt Online Installer | Enables installing the modules and tools you need to develop on a particular desktop platform and to run your applications on one or several desktop platforms, mobile or embedded devices, or MCUs. | \QOI | Approved | |
| Qt Platform Adaptation Layer | A specific SW architecture between Qt and the underlying OS or HW. | Approved | ||
| Qt QML Viewer | The Declarative UI package includes Qt QML Viewer, a tool for loading QML documents that makes it easy to quickly develop and debug QML applications. | \QQV | Approved | |
| Qt Quick Compiler | Runs QML at a speed close to native with a QML Script and QML type compiler. The former compiles functions and expressions in QML files into C++ classes. The latter compiles QML object structures into C++ classes. | Approved | ||
| Qt Quick Compiler Extensions | Decreases the refactoring effort to improve the coverage of compilation. Over time, up to 30% speed-up can be achieved in startup and execution. | Approved | ||
| Qt Quick Calendar | The Calendar provides a collection of modular building blocks for creating calendars in Qt Quick. | Approved | ||
| Qt Quick TreeView | TreeView provides a QML type to display data from any QAbstractItemModel. It extends TableView with expandable and collapsible nodes, which can be used in either a list or a table model. | Approved | ||
| Qt Quick Ultralite | A graphics rendering engine to render QML applications on resource-constrained hardware with low memory requirements. | \QUL | Approved | |
| Qt Quick Ultralite Compiler | Compiles QML files and graphical resources into C++ classes optimized for resources-constrained target platforms such as MCUs. | Qt Quick Ultralight Compiler | Approved | |
| Qt Quick Ultralite Controls | Provides lightweight UI controls that can be customized to create performant user interfaces for embedded devices. | \QULControls | Approved | |
| Qt Quick Ultralite Extras | The Qt Quick Ultralite Extras module provides types useful for extra optimizations of Qt Quick Ultralite applications. | \QULExtras | Approved | |
| Qt Quick Ultralite Layers | The Qt Quick Ultralite Layers module provides types to use layers in Qt Quick Ultralite applications. | \QULLayers | Approved | |
| Qt Quick Ultralite Profiling | The Qt Quick Ultralite Profiling module provides types useful for displaying performance metrics on top of the application user interface. | \QULProfiling | Approved | |
| Qt Quick Ultralite Project Exporter | Exports Qt Quick Ultralite projects to project files for embedded IDEs such as Green Hills MULTI or IAR Embedded Workbench. | Qt Quick Ultralight Project Exporter | Approved | |
| Qt Quick Ultralite Shapes | The Qt Quick Ultralite Shapes module provides types to use vector shapes in Qt Quick Ultralite applications. | \QULShapes | Approved | |
| Qt Quick Ultralite Studio Components | Qt Quick Ultralite Studio Components is a collection of compatible QML types to Qt Quick Studio Components. Currently, it provides a limited set of QML types. | \QULStudioComponents | Approved | |
| Qt Quick Ultralite Timeline | Qt Quick Ultralite Timeline aims to be compatible with Qt Quick Timeline. | \QULTimeline | Approved | |
| Qt Safe Renderer | Provides a UI rendering component that can be used to render safety-critical items, such as warning indicators, in functional safety systems. | Approved | ||
| Qt UI Viewer | Android version of Qt Design Viewer. Allows users to view and share QML-based UI designs online. | \QUV | Approved | |
| Qt Visual Studio Tools | Integrates the Qt development tools into Microsoft Visual Studio. | Approved | ||
| Resource Compiler (rcc) | Embeds resources into Qt applications during the build process. | Approved | ||
| Simulink support for Qt Design Studio | Use the Simulink connector to connect a simulation to your UI. Simulink is a MATLAB-based graphical programming environment for modeling, simulating, and analyzing multi-domain dynamic systems. | Approved | ||
| Tools for Active Qt | Enables Qt integration with the ActiveX components. Includes Interface Description Compiler (IDC), dumpcpp, and dumpdoc tools. | Approved | ||
| User Interface Compiler (uic) | Generates C++ code from user interface files. | Approved | ||
| Windows Deploy Qt (windowdeployqt) | This tool automates the Qt application deployment on Windows. | Approved |
Qt Modules
Qt Essentials
| Name | Description | Do not use | QDoc macro | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qt Core | Core non-graphical classes used by other modules. | Approved | ||
| Qt D-Bus | Classes for inter-process communication over the D-Bus protocol. | Approved | ||
| Qt GUI | Base classes for graphical user interface components. Includes OpenGL. | Approved | ||
| Qt Network | Classes to make network programming easier and more portable. | Approved | ||
| Qt Qml | Provides a framework for developing applications and libraries with the QML language. It defines and implements the language and engine infrastructure, and provides an
API to enable application developers to register custom QML types and modules and integrate QML code with JavaScript and C++. |
Approved | ||
| Qt Quick | A declarative framework for building highly dynamic applications with custom user interfaces. | Approved | ||
| Qt Quick Controls | Provides lightweight QML types for creating performant user interfaces for desktop, embedded, and mobile devices. These types employ a simple styling architecture and are very efficient. | Approved | ||
| Qt Quick Dialogs | Types for creating and interacting with system dialogs from a Qt Quick application. | Approved | ||
| Qt Quick Layouts | A set of QML types used to arrange items in a user interface. | Approved | ||
| Qt Quick Test | A unit test framework for QML applications, where the test cases are written as JavaScript functions. | Approved | ||
| Qt Test | Classes for unit testing Qt applications and libraries. | Approved | ||
| Qt Widgets | Classes to extend Qt GUI with C++ widgets. | Approved |
Qt Addons
| Name | Description | Do not use | QDoc macro | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active Qt | Classes for applications that use ActiveX and COM. | Approved | ||
| Qt 3D | Functionality for near real-time simulation systems with support for 2D and 3D rendering. | Approved | ||
| Qt 5 Core Compatibility APIs | The module contains the Qt Core APIs, which will no longer be supported in Qt 6 and, therefore, were removed from Qt 6. | Approved | ||
| Qt Bluetooth | Provides access to Bluetooth hardware. | Approved | ||
| Qt Charts | UI Components for displaying visually pleasing charts, driven by static or dynamic data models. | Approved | ||
| Qt CoAP | Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) is a machine-to-machine web transfer protocol for use with constrained nodes and networks in the Internet of Things. | Approved | ||
| Qt Concurrent | Classes for writing multi-threaded programs without using low-level threading primitives. | Approved | ||
| Qt Data Visualization | UI Components for creating stunning 3D data visualizations. | Approved | ||
| Qt Graphs | Provides functionality for visualizing data in 3D as bar, scatter, and surface graphs. (Technical Preview) | Approved | ||
| Qt GRPC | Provides an ability to generate Qt-based classes from protobuf specifications used to communicate with gRPC® services. (Technical Preview) | Approved | ||
| Qt Help | Classes for integrating documentation into applications, similar to Qt Assistant. | Approved | ||
| Qt HTTP Server | A framework for embedding an HTTP server into a Qt application. (Technical Preview) | Approved | ||
| Qt Image Formats | Plugins for additional image formats: TIFF, MNG, TGA, WBMP. | Approved | ||
| Qt Location | Provides QML and C++ interfaces to create location-aware applications. (Technical Preview) | Approved | ||
| Qt Lottie Animation | A QML API for rendering graphics and animations in JSON format, exported by the Bodymovin plugin for Adobe® After Effects. | Approved | ||
| Qt MQTT | A machine-to-machine (M2M) protocol that provides a communication channel with minimal overhead. | Approved | ||
| Qt Multimedia | Classes for audio, video, and camera functionality. | Approved | ||
| Qt NFC | Provides access to Near-Field communication (NFC) hardware. | Approved | ||
| Qt Network Authorization | Provides support for OAuth-based authorization to online services. | Approved | ||
| Qt OPC UA | A Qt API for interacting with OPC UA, a protocol for data modeling and data exchange in industrial applications. | Approved | ||
| Qt OpenGL | OpenGL support classes. Deprecated in favor of the QOpenGL classes in the Qt GUI module. | Approved | ||
| Qt PDF | Displays PDF documents. Allows showing product documentation within the application. | Approved | ||
| Qt Positioning | Provides access to position, satellite, and area monitoring classes. | Approved | ||
| Qt Print Support | Classes to make printing easier and more portable. | Approved | ||
| Qt Protobuf | Provides an ability to generate Qt-based classes from protobuf specifications. (Technical Preview) | Approved | ||
| Qt Quick 3D | Provides a high-level API for creating 3D content or UIs based on Qt Quick. | Approved | ||
| Qt Quick 3D Physics | Qt Quick 3D Physics provides a high-level API for physics simulation. It supports simulating interactive rigid bodies as well as static meshes and
non-colliding bodies used for detecting overlaps. |
Approved | ||
| Qt Quick Effect Maker | A standalone tool for creating high-performance shader effects for Qt Quick. Provides both a node and code editor to maximize productivity. | \QQEM (since Qt 6.8) | Approved | |
| Qt Quick Effects | Provides QML types for applying one or more simple graphical effects to Qt Quick items. | Approved | ||
| Qt Quick Particles | Provides QML types for particle effects. | Approved | ||
| Qt Quick Timeline | Enables keyframe-based animations and parameterization. | Approved | ||
| Qt Quick Widgets | Provides a C++ widget class for displaying a Qt Quick user interface. | Approved | ||
| Qt Remote Objects | Provides an easy-to-use mechanism for sharing a QObject's API (Properties/Signals/Slots) between processes or devices. | Approved | ||
| Qt SCXML | Provides classes and tools for creating state machines from SCXML files and embedding them in applications. | Approved | ||
| Qt Sensors | Provides access to sensor hardware and motion gesture recognition. | Approved | ||
| Qt Serial Bus | Provides access to the serial industrial bus interface. Currently, the module supports the CAN bus and Modbus protocols. | Approved | ||
| Qt Serial Port | Provides access to hardware and virtual serial ports. | Approved | ||
| Qt Shader Tools | Tools for the cross-platform Qt shader pipeline that enable processing graphics and compute shaders to make them usable for Qt Quick and other
components in the Qt ecosystem. |
Approved | ||
| Qt Spatial Audio | Provides support for spatial audio. Create sound scenes in 3D space containing different sound sources and room-related properties such as reverb. | Approved | ||
| Qt SQL | Classes for database integration using SQL. | Approved | ||
| Qt State Machine | Provides classes for creating and executing state graphs. | Approved | ||
| Qt SVG | Classes for displaying the contents of SVG files. Supports a subset of the SVG 1.2 Tiny standard. | Approved | ||
| Qt TextToSpeech | Qt TextToSpeech enables Qt applications to access accessibility features such as text-to-speech. | Approved | ||
| Qt UI Tools | Classes for loading QWidget-based forms created in Qt Designer dynamically, at runtime. | Approved | ||
| Qt Virtual Keyboard | A framework for implementing different input methods as well as a QML virtual keyboard. Supports localized keyboard layouts and custom visual themes. | Approved | ||
| Qt Wayland Compositor | Provides a framework to develop a Wayland compositor. | Approved | ||
| Qt WebChannel | Provides access to QObject or QML objects from HTML clients for seamless integration of Qt applications with HTML/JavaScript clients. | Approved | ||
| Qt WebEngine | Classes and functions for embedding web content in applications using the Chromium browser project. | Approved | ||
| Qt WebSockets | Provides WebSocket communication compliant with RFC 6455. | Approved | ||
| Qt WebView | Displays web content in a QML application by using APIs native to the platform, without the need to include a full web browser stack. | Approved | ||
| Qt XML | C++ implementations of SAX and DOM. | Approved |
Qt Quality Assurance tools
| Name | Description | Do not use | QDoc macro | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Axivion Architecture Verification C/C++ | Automated architecture verification checks if the implementation of your C/C++ system and its software architecture match. | Approved | ||
| Axivion Static Code Analysis C/C++ | Fully customizable static code analysis that checks your C/C++ software for style violations and defects. | Approved | ||
| Axivion Static Code Analysis Professional C/C++ | In addition to the coding guideline checks of the Axivion Static Code Analysis C/C++, this product includes Clone Detection and Management, Cycle Detection,
Dead Code Detection and Metrics Monitoring. |
Approved | ||
| Axivion Suite C/C++ | The Axivion Suite C/C++ gives you the full range of Axivion analysis tools for C/C++ in one box. The Axivion Suite C/C++ includes static code analysis, architecture
analysis and verification as well as effective tools for the detection of code smells. |
Approved | ||
| Axivion Suite C# | The Axivion Suite C# gives you all the features of the Axivion analysis tools that are available for C# in one box. The Axivion Suite C# includes architecture analysis
and verification as well as effective tools for the detection of code smells. |
Approved | ||
| Coco | Coco is a multi-language, multi-platform code coverage analysis and profiling tool. | \COCO | Approved | |
| Squish | Squish is a tool for functional GUI test automation. From within a powerful Squish, users can record, author, debug, and execute scripted or Behavior-Driven Developed
test cases for their desktop, mobile, web, or embedded GUI and HMI. |
\SQUISH | Approved | |
| Test Center | Test Center is a centralized test result management platform that organizes, aggregates and monitors your software test results as your application evolves. Web-based,
lightweight, and easily accessed from any browser, Test Center quickly provides application health insights at-a-glance and for the whole team in a cross-collaborative way. |
\TC | Approved |
Qt licensing terms
| Name | Description | Do not use | QDoc macro | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qt Commercial License Agreement | The latest version of the Qt Commercial License Agreement (Qt LA) is Frame Agreement 2024-02. | Approved | ||
| Qt for Application Development | Qt for Application Development (AD) is the product used for creating applications that will run exclusively on desktop and mobile operating systems as one of many
applications (such as email, browser, games, office apps, etc.). |
Approved | ||
| Qt for Application Development Enterprise | The Qt for Application Development Enterprise (ADE) edition is suitable for organizations looking for a more comprehensive feature set for developing applications,
additional value-added services, or full technical support. |
Approved | ||
| Qt for Application Development Professional | The Qt for Application Development Professional (ADP) edition is suitable for individuals and organizations looking for key functionalities for application development
and installation support for Qt tools. |
Approved | ||
| Qt for Device Creation | The Qt for Device Creation (DC) editions include additional features, capabilities, and the rights to create hardware devices, in addition to all the rights and features of the
Qt for Application Development Enterprise edition. Qt for Device Creation must be licensed when an individual or organization is building a device that incorporates or integrates parts of the Qt software libraries or where the main functionality of the device depends on Qt’s software libraries regardless of whether Qt’s assets are distributed. |
Approved | ||
| Qt for Device Creation Enterprise | The Qt for Device Creation Enterprise (DCE) edition is suitable for organizations seeking a more comprehensive feature set for creating devices. | Approved | ||
| Qt for Device Creation Professional | The Qt for Device Creation Professional (DCP) edition is suitable for individuals and organizations looking for a foundation of key functionalities for creating devices. | Approved |
Terms under work
You can give feedback on the terms here. Please remember to include your name in the Reviewer column so that we can contact you if needed.
You can comment, for example, on the following:
- Missing/outdated Qt-specific term
- Inaccurate/outdated description
- Missing QDoc macro
| Name | Feedback | Reviewer | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Module | This term is very overloaded: Qt module, QML module, git (sub)module | Sze Howe Koh | |
| Qt UI Viewer | It is Android-specific, but its name is too generic. There are also references to Qt UI Viewer Android, DV Android, Android Design Viewer, and Android UI Viewer. We need a consistent and specific name. | Sze Howe Koh | |
| Declarative UI package | This term is used to describe "Qt QML Viewer" above. What is it? I've never heard of it. | Sze Howe Koh | |