Qt for Python/GettingStarted/Windows

The Qt library has to be built with the same version of MSVC as Python and PySide2, this can be selected when using the online installer.

Requirements

• Qt package from https://www.qt.io or a custom build of Qt (preferably Qt 5.9)
• Python from https://www.python.org/downloads/ (Python 3.6 or Python 2.7)
• MSVC2015 (for Python 3 on Windows), MSCVC2008 (for Python 2 on Windows)
• CMake from https://cmake.org/download/ (>= 3.1)
• libclang (required for the 5.9 and dev branches) from download.qt.io (>= 3.9)
• virtualenv (optional but recommended)
• Python sphinx package for documentation (optional, pip install sphinx)

Building from sources on Windows 10

The following steps are performed on the command prompt (cmd). A 64bit infrastructure is assumed in the procedure, but if the host is a 32bit environment it is possible to just download the proper architecture packages.

Setting up CLANG

• Download libclang, e.g.

http://download.qt.io/development_releases/prebuilt/libclang/libclang-release_39-windows-vs2015_64.7z

• Extract the files, e.g. using 7zip
• Move the directory libclang to any desire path, e.g c:\, and then set an environment variable with the new path:

set LLVM_INSTALL_DIR=c:\libclang                                               
                                                                                    

Getting PySide2

• You must download git in order to clone the repository.
• Clonning the official repository

git clone --recursive https://codereview.qt-project.org/pyside/pyside-setup         

• Checking out the version that we want to build, e.g. 5.9 (Keep in mind you need to use the same version as your Qt installation)

cd pyside-setup && git checkout 5.9                                                                 

Building PySide2

• You must download Python to build PySide2 (3.6 is recommended)
• Check your Qt installation path, to specifically use that version of qmake to build PySide2.

e.g. E:\Qt\5.9.4\msvc2015_64\bin\qmake.exe

• Build can take a few minutes, so it is recommended to use more than one CPU core (e.g. 8). Remember to replace the paths to your current qmake path:

python setup.py build --qmake=E:\Qt\5.9.4\msvc2015_64\bin\qmake.exe  --build-tests --ignore-git --jobs=8
                                                                                    

Installing PySide2

• To install on the current directory, just run:

python setup.py install --qmake=E:\Qt\5.9.4\msvc2015_64\bin\qmake.exe --build-tests --ignore-git --jobs=8
                                                                                    

Test installation

• You can execute one of the examples to verify the process is properly working.
• Remember to properly set the environment variables for Qt and PySide2.

python examples/examples/widgets/widgets/tetrix.py

Development

Development happens in the 5.9 and dev branches of the pyside-setup repository.

The top level repository has the following submodules:

• sources/pyside2-tools: uic, rcc tools
• examples/

Contributions follow the standard process.

It is helpful to have debug binaries and/or symbols for Python available. On Windows, this is done by choosing Customized Installation when installing Python and ticking the respective check boxes.

It is also recommended to use a Virtual Environment for testing to be able to always start from a clean base and avoid issues with write permissions in installations.

On Windows an installation step may be required:

python -m pip install virtualenv                                                       
python -m virtualenv testenv                                                           
                                                                                       

The Virtual Environment is activated by·

CALL testenv\Scripts\activate.bat                                                                                                                                                                                                           
                                                                                       

Before building the first time, the module Sphinx should be installed into the virtual environment:·

pip install sphinx