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h1. Deploying Windows Applications
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[[Category:HowTo]]
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<div style="float:left;padding:14px;">__TOC__</div>


== What does that mean? ==
== What does that mean? ==
Line 11: Line 12:
== List of Libraries needed ==
== List of Libraries needed ==


Besides your compiled .exe file you need some libraries contained in the same directory as the executable.<br />All needed libraries are located in your Qt installation bin directory, e.g. '''C:.4\mingw491_32\bin'''. If you have installed more than one development kits you need to copy the libraries from the correct kit of course.
Besides your compiled .exe file you need some libraries contained in the same directory as the executable.
All needed libraries are located in your Qt installation bin directory, e.g. '''C:\Qt\5.4\mingw491_32\bin'''. If you have installed more than one development kits you need to copy the libraries from the correct kit of course.


'''WARNING: Don't take the library files from the QtCreator directory which is compiled with MSVC and has slightly different entry points.'''
'''WARNING: Don't take the library files from the QtCreator directory which is compiled against MSVC libraries and has different entry points.'''


In either case you need the following non-Qt libraries. The list was created from a Qt 5.4 installation:
In either case you need the following non-Qt libraries. The list was created from a Qt 5.4 installation:


{background:#009900;color:white}. |''. Library Name |''. Size |_. Remarks |<br />|&gt;. icudt53.dll | 21M | Unicode Lib |<br />|&gt;. icuin53.dll | 3.6M | Unicode Lib |<br />|&gt;. icuuc53.dll | 2.0M | Unicode Lib |<br />|&gt;. libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll | 118K | GCC Lib |<br />|&gt;. libstdc+''–6.dll | 1003K | Standard C''+ Library |<br />|&gt;. libwinpthread-1.dll | 48K | Pthreads for Windows |
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:left;" width="50%"
! style="text-align:left;background:#5CAA15;color:white;" | Library Name
! style="text-align:left;background:#5CAA15;color:white;" | Size
! style="text-align:left;background:#5CAA15;color:white;" | Remarks
|-
| icudt53.dll || 21M || Unicode Lib
|-
| icuin53.dll || 3.6M || Unicode Lib
|-
| icuuc53.dll || 2.0M || Unicode Lib
|-
| libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll || 118K || GCC Lib
|-
| libstdc+''–6.dll || 1003K || Standard C''+ Library
|-
| libwinpthread-1.dll || 48K || Pthreads for Windows
|}
 
Some might argue that there might arise a ''small problem'' with shipping '''27M''' ICU libraries. If you don't need ICU (http://site.icu-project.org/) you have to recompile Qt with <tt>./configure -without-icu</tt>.
 
Next we need &mdash; depending on what your application needs &mdash; to copy the Qt DLLs. First have a look at your .pro file that has a line like:
 
QT += widgets
 
In this case you need to copy the following files:
 
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:left;" width="50%"
! style="text-align:left;background:#5CAA15;color:white;" | Library Name
! style="text-align:left;background:#5CAA15;color:white;" | Size
! style="text-align:left;background:#5CAA15;color:white;" | Remarks
|-
| Qt5Core.dll || 4.7M || Qt Core classes &mdash; always needed!
|-
| Qt5Gui.dll || 5.0M || Graphical User Interface Classes
|-
| Qt5Widgets.dll || 6.2M || Widget Classes
|}
 
So far for the core libraries to make the program run on other machines. But wait. Something important is missing:
 
== Platform Plugins ==
 
Some vital functions for starting Windows applications are contained in '''qwindows.dll''' Located in '''C:\Qt\5.4\mingw491_32\plugins\platforms'''. Copying this file to the same directory to the other DLLs would not work. This file is expected in the '''platforms''' subdirectory:
 
.
├── Qt5Core.dll
├── Qt5Gui.dll
├── Qt5Sql.dll
├── Qt5Widgets.dll
├── icudt53.dll
├── icuin53.dll
├── icuuc53.dll
├── libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll
├── libstdc–6.dll
├── libwinpthread-1.dll
└── '''platforms'''
     └── '''qwindows.dll'''


Some might argue that there might arise a ''small problem'' with shipping '''27M''' ICU libraries. If you don't need ICU (http://site.icu-project.org/) you need to recompile Qt with configure -without-icu.
Now your application is good to go and able to run on other machines not having a full blown Qt installation preinstalled. Unfortunately you still need to ship a total of approximately 45M (half without ICU).


Next we need — depending on what your application needs — to copy the Qt DLLs. First have a look at your .pro file that has a line like:
== Database Applications ==


<code>QT ''= widgets<code>
When shipping applications that need to establish a database connection you need to ship the '''Qt5Sql.dll''' and the database driver library you use to connect to the database. In this example we make use of SQLite:
<br />In this case you need to copy the following files:
<br />{background:#009900;color:white}. |''. Library Name |''. Size |_. Remarks |<br />|&gt;. Qt5Core.dll | 4.7M | Qt Core classes — always needed! |<br />|&gt;. Qt5Gui.dll | 5.0M | Graphical User Interface Classes |<br />|&gt;. Qt5Widgets.dll | 6.2M | Widget Classes |
<br />So far for the core libraries to make the program run on other machines. But wait. Something important is missing:
<br />h2. Platform Plugins
<br />For some reason some vital functions for starting Windows applications are contained in '''qwindows.dll''' Located in '''C:.4\mingw491_32\plugins\platforms'''. Copying this file to the same directory to the other DLLs would not work. This file is expected in the '''platforms''' subdirectory:
<br /></code><br />.<br />├── Qt5Core.dll<br />├── Qt5Gui.dll<br />├── Qt5Sql.dll<br />├── Qt5Widgets.dll<br />├── icudt53.dll<br />├── icuin53.dll<br />├── icuuc53.dll<br />├── libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll<br />├── libstdc–6.dll<br />├── libwinpthread-1.dll<br />└── platforms<br />    └── qwindows.dll<br /><code>
<br />Now your application is good to go and able to run on other machines not having a fully blown Qt installation preinstalled. Unfortunately you still need to ship a total of approx. 45M (half without ICU).
<br />h2. Database Applications
<br />When shipping applications that need to establish a database connection you need to ship the '''Qt5Sql.dll''' and the database driver library you use to connect to the database. In this example we make use of SQLite:
<br /></code><br />.<br />├── Qt5Core.dll<br />├── Qt5Gui.dll<br />├── Qt5Widgets.dll<br />├── Qt5Sql.dll<br />├── icudt53.dll<br />├── icuin53.dll<br />├── icuuc53.dll<br />├── libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll<br />├── libstdc''+–6.dll<br />├── libwinpthread-1.dll<br />├── platforms<br />│   └── qwindows.dll<br />└── sqldrivers<br /> └── qsqlite.dll<br /><code>


You noticed that we created a sqldrivers directory holding the sqlite.dll copied from '''C:.4\mingw491_32\plugins\sqldrivers'''
.
├── Qt5Core.dll
├── Qt5Gui.dll
├── Qt5Widgets.dll
├── Qt5Sql.dll
├── icudt53.dll
├── icuin53.dll
├── icuuc53.dll
├── libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll
├── libstdc''+–6.dll
├── libwinpthread-1.dll
├── platforms
│   └── qwindows.dll
└── '''sqldrivers'''
    └── '''qsqlite.dll'''
 
You noticed that we created a sqldrivers directory holding the sqlite.dll copied from '''C:\Qt5.4\mingw491_32\plugins\sqldrivers'''


== Building a Windows Installer ==
== Building a Windows Installer ==


First head over to http://download.qt.io/official_releases/qt-installer-framework/1.5.0/ and download the package for your operating system.
First head over to https://download.qt.io/official_releases/qt-installer-framework/ and download the package for your operating system.


After installation — we assume *c: — we need to create some files holding the installer meta data. I suggest creating a directory in your source root directory called &quot;installer&amp;quot; with this structure:
After installation we need to create some files holding the installer meta data. I suggest creating a directory in your source root directory called ''installer'' with this structure:


</code><br />.<br />├── config<br />│   └── config.xml<br />└── packages<br /> └── my-package<br /> ├── data<br /> │ ├── my-executable.exe<br /> │ ├── …<br /> │ .<br /> └── meta<br /> ├── installshortcut.qs<br /> ├── license.txt<br /> └── package.xml<br /><code>
.
├── config
│   └── config.xml
└── packages
    └── my-package
        ├── data
          ├── my-executable.exe
          ├── …
          .
        └── meta
            ├── installshortcut.qs
            ├── license.txt
            └── package.xml


The installer can be instructed to install one or more '''packages'''. They are all located in the packages subdirectory. In the above example we have one package called '''my-package'''. In the meta directory we store the license, an installation script for the Windows Shortcut and a package.xml containing the meta data:
The installer can be instructed to install one or more '''packages'''. They are all located in the packages subdirectory. In the above example we have one package called '''my-package'''. In the meta directory we store the license, an installation script for the Windows Shortcut and a package.xml containing the meta data:
Line 49: Line 125:
package.xml contains:
package.xml contains:


</code><br />&amp;lt;?xml version=&quot;1.0&amp;quot; encoding=&quot;UTF-8&amp;quot;?&amp;gt;<br />&lt;Package&amp;gt;<br /> &lt;DisplayName&amp;gt;Name of this Package&amp;lt;/DisplayName&amp;gt;<br /> &lt;Description&amp;gt;Short description&amp;lt;/Description&amp;gt;<br /> &lt;Version&amp;gt;1.0&amp;lt;/Version&amp;gt;<br /> &lt;ReleaseDate&amp;gt;2015-01-10&amp;lt;/ReleaseDate&amp;gt;<br /> &lt;Name&amp;gt;convert&amp;lt;/Name&amp;gt;<br /> &lt;Licenses&amp;gt;<br /> &lt;License name=&quot;GPL&amp;quot; file=&quot;license.txt&amp;quot; /&amp;gt;<br /> &lt;/Licenses&amp;gt;<br /> &lt;ForcedInstallation&amp;gt;true&amp;lt;/ForcedInstallation&amp;gt;<br /> [removed]installshortcut.qs[removed]<br />&lt;/Package&amp;gt;<br /><code>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Package>
  <DisplayName>Name of this Package</DisplayName>
  <Description>Short description</Description>
  <Version>1.0</Version>
  <ReleaseDate>2015-01-10</ReleaseDate>
  <Name>applicationname</Name>
  <Licenses>
  <License name="GPL" file="license.txt" />
  </Licenses>
  <ForcedInstallation>true</ForcedInstallation>
  <Script>installshortcut.qs</Script>
</Package>


The installshortcut.qs:
The installshortcut.qs:


</code><br />function Component() {<br />}
<code>
function Component() {
}


Component.prototype.createOperations = function() {<br /> component.createOperations();
Component.prototype.createOperations = function() {
  component.createOperations();


if ( installer.value(&quot;os&amp;quot;) === &quot;win&amp;quot; ) {<br /> component.addOperation(<br /> &quot;CreateShortcut&amp;quot;,<br /> &quot;<code>TargetDir<code>/my-executable.exe&amp;quot;,<br /> &quot;</code>StartMenuDir</code>/My Executable.lnk&amp;quot;<br /> );<br /> }<br />}<br /><code>
if ( installer.value("os") === "win" ) {
  component.addOperation(
  "CreateShortcut",
  "@TargetDir@/my-executable.exe",
  "@StartMenuDir@/My Executable.lnk"
  );
  }
}
</code>


And finally the main configuration file contained in config:
And finally the main configuration file contained in config:
Line 63: Line 162:
config.xml
config.xml


</code><br />&amp;lt;?xml version=&quot;1.0&amp;quot; encoding=&quot;UTF-8&amp;quot;?&amp;gt;<br />&lt;Installer&amp;gt;<br /> &lt;Name&amp;gt;My Executable&amp;lt;/Name&amp;gt;<br /> &lt;Version&amp;gt;1.0&amp;lt;/Version&amp;gt;<br /> &amp;lt;Title&amp;amp;gt;Description&amp;amp;lt;/Title&amp;amp;gt;<br /> &lt;Publisher&amp;gt;Simon Wilper&amp;lt;/Publisher&amp;gt;<br /> &lt;StartMenuDir&amp;gt;My Application&amp;lt;/StartMenuDir&amp;gt;<br /> &lt;TargetDir&amp;gt;<code>rootDir<code>my-application&amp;lt;/TargetDir&amp;gt;<br /> &lt;UninstallerName&amp;gt;Uninstall&amp;lt;/UninstallerName&amp;gt;<br />&lt;/Installer&amp;gt;<br /></code>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Installer>
  <Name>My Executable</Name>
  <Version>1.0</Version>
  <Title>Description</Title>
  <Publisher>Simon Wilper</Publisher>
  <StartMenuDir>My Application</StartMenuDir>
  <TargetDir>@rootDir@my-application</TargetDir>
  <UninstallerName>Uninstall</UninstallerName>
</Installer>


Now to create the installer run the binarycreator:
Now to create the installer run the binarycreator:


<code><br />c:.exe —offline-only -c config\config.xml -p packages setup.exe<br /></code>
c:\qtinstfw\bin\binarycreator.exe -v -offline-only -c config\config.xml -p packages setup.exe
 
<span style="font-size:.8em;">This article is maintained by [[User:Simow|Simon Wilper]]</span>

Latest revision as of 16:13, 23 November 2016

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What does that mean?

In most cases the Qt applications you create don't reside on your development machine just to please you. You want to distribute them and make them run without any further hazzle and dependency installations on any Windows machine: Copy, Double-Click and Run.

Normally Qt applications are compiled and linked against shared libraries (Windows: DLL=Dynamic Link Library, Unix: .so=Shared Object). When the compiled program is executed the code from the libraries needed is loaded at runtime. The point is now to know which libraries have to be shipped along with your application to make it run without having a full Qt installation on the target system.

List of Libraries needed

Besides your compiled .exe file you need some libraries contained in the same directory as the executable. All needed libraries are located in your Qt installation bin directory, e.g. C:\Qt\5.4\mingw491_32\bin. If you have installed more than one development kits you need to copy the libraries from the correct kit of course.

WARNING: Don't take the library files from the QtCreator directory which is compiled against MSVC libraries and has different entry points.

In either case you need the following non-Qt libraries. The list was created from a Qt 5.4 installation:

Library Name Size Remarks
icudt53.dll 21M Unicode Lib
icuin53.dll 3.6M Unicode Lib
icuuc53.dll 2.0M Unicode Lib
libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll 118K GCC Lib
libstdc+–6.dll 1003K Standard C+ Library
libwinpthread-1.dll 48K Pthreads for Windows

Some might argue that there might arise a small problem with shipping 27M ICU libraries. If you don't need ICU (http://site.icu-project.org/) you have to recompile Qt with ./configure -without-icu.

Next we need — depending on what your application needs — to copy the Qt DLLs. First have a look at your .pro file that has a line like:

QT += widgets

In this case you need to copy the following files:

Library Name Size Remarks
Qt5Core.dll 4.7M Qt Core classes — always needed!
Qt5Gui.dll 5.0M Graphical User Interface Classes
Qt5Widgets.dll 6.2M Widget Classes

So far for the core libraries to make the program run on other machines. But wait. Something important is missing:

Platform Plugins

Some vital functions for starting Windows applications are contained in qwindows.dll Located in C:\Qt\5.4\mingw491_32\plugins\platforms. Copying this file to the same directory to the other DLLs would not work. This file is expected in the platforms subdirectory:

.
├── Qt5Core.dll
├── Qt5Gui.dll
├── Qt5Sql.dll
├── Qt5Widgets.dll
├── icudt53.dll
├── icuin53.dll
├── icuuc53.dll
├── libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll
├── libstdc–6.dll
├── libwinpthread-1.dll
└── platforms
    └── qwindows.dll

Now your application is good to go and able to run on other machines not having a full blown Qt installation preinstalled. Unfortunately you still need to ship a total of approximately 45M (half without ICU).

Database Applications

When shipping applications that need to establish a database connection you need to ship the Qt5Sql.dll and the database driver library you use to connect to the database. In this example we make use of SQLite:

.
├── Qt5Core.dll
├── Qt5Gui.dll
├── Qt5Widgets.dll
├── Qt5Sql.dll
├── icudt53.dll
├── icuin53.dll
├── icuuc53.dll
├── libgcc_s_dw2-1.dll
├── libstdc+–6.dll
├── libwinpthread-1.dll
├── platforms
│   └── qwindows.dll
└── sqldrivers
    └── qsqlite.dll

You noticed that we created a sqldrivers directory holding the sqlite.dll copied from C:\Qt5.4\mingw491_32\plugins\sqldrivers

Building a Windows Installer

First head over to https://download.qt.io/official_releases/qt-installer-framework/ and download the package for your operating system.

After installation we need to create some files holding the installer meta data. I suggest creating a directory in your source root directory called installer with this structure:

.
├── config
│   └── config.xml
└── packages
    └── my-package
        ├── data
        │   ├── my-executable.exe
        │   ├── …
        │   .
        └── meta
            ├── installshortcut.qs
            ├── license.txt
            └── package.xml

The installer can be instructed to install one or more packages. They are all located in the packages subdirectory. In the above example we have one package called my-package. In the meta directory we store the license, an installation script for the Windows Shortcut and a package.xml containing the meta data:

package.xml contains:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Package>
  <DisplayName>Name of this Package</DisplayName>
  <Description>Short description</Description>
  <Version>1.0</Version>
  <ReleaseDate>2015-01-10</ReleaseDate>
  <Name>applicationname</Name>
  <Licenses>
  <License name="GPL" file="license.txt" />
  </Licenses>
  <ForcedInstallation>true</ForcedInstallation>
  <Script>installshortcut.qs</Script>
</Package>

The installshortcut.qs:

 function Component() {
 }

 Component.prototype.createOperations = function() {
  component.createOperations();

 if ( installer.value("os") === "win" ) {
  component.addOperation(
  "CreateShortcut",
  "@TargetDir@/my-executable.exe",
  "@StartMenuDir@/My Executable.lnk"
  );
  }
 }

And finally the main configuration file contained in config:

config.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Installer>
  <Name>My Executable</Name>
  <Version>1.0</Version>
  <Title>Description</Title>
  <Publisher>Simon Wilper</Publisher>
  <StartMenuDir>My Application</StartMenuDir>
  <TargetDir>@rootDir@my-application</TargetDir>
  <UninstallerName>Uninstall</UninstallerName>
</Installer>

Now to create the installer run the binarycreator:

c:\qtinstfw\bin\binarycreator.exe -v -offline-only -c config\config.xml -p packages setup.exe

This article is maintained by Simon Wilper