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diff --git a/doc/src/porting/qt4-designer.qdoc b/doc/src/porting/qt4-designer.qdoc new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0bfe034 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/src/porting/qt4-designer.qdoc @@ -0,0 +1,298 @@ +/**************************************************************************** +** +** Copyright (C) 2009 Nokia Corporation and/or its subsidiary(-ies). +** Contact: Nokia Corporation (qt-info@nokia.com) +** +** This file is part of the documentation of the Qt Toolkit. +** +** $QT_BEGIN_LICENSE:LGPL$ +** No Commercial Usage +** This file contains pre-release code and may not be distributed. +** You may use this file in accordance with the terms and conditions +** contained in the either Technology Preview License Agreement or the +** Beta Release License Agreement. +** +** GNU Lesser General Public License Usage +** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU Lesser +** General Public License version 2.1 as published by the Free Software +** Foundation and appearing in the file LICENSE.LGPL included in the +** packaging of this file. Please review the following information to +** ensure the GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1 requirements +** will be met: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/lgpl-2.1.html. +** +** In addition, as a special exception, Nokia gives you certain +** additional rights. These rights are described in the Nokia Qt LGPL +** Exception version 1.0, included in the file LGPL_EXCEPTION.txt in this +** package. +** +** GNU General Public License Usage +** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU +** General Public License version 3.0 as published by the Free Software +** Foundation and appearing in the file LICENSE.GPL included in the +** packaging of this file. Please review the following information to +** ensure the GNU General Public License version 3.0 requirements will be +** met: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html. +** +** If you are unsure which license is appropriate for your use, please +** contact the sales department at http://qt.nokia.com/contact. +** $QT_END_LICENSE$ +** +****************************************************************************/ + +/*! + \page qt4-designer.html + + \title The New Qt Designer + + \contentspage {What's New in Qt 4}{Home} + \previouspage The Qt 4 Main Window Classes + \nextpage Cross-Platform Accessibility Support in Qt 4 + + \QD has been completely re-written based on our experience with + the previous versions of the product for Qt 3. One of the main new + ideas behind this new version is to release the application as a + collection of interchangeable components that include the property + editor, the widget box, and other useful tools for creating + graphical user interfaces with Qt. These components can either be + used together in the \QD application, or independently integrated + into other systems. As a result, certain features such as the + project editor and code editor have been removed from the version + included with this release. + + The current version of \QD is near feature complete and can be used for + many tasks. However, it is still under continuous development. This + document will explain what is already in place. + + See also the \l{Qt Designer Manual}. + + \tableofcontents + + \section1 The Current State of Qt Designer + + When used as a standalone application, \QD includes a number of + components that work together to provide a flexible GUI design + tool. Widgets and dialog windows can be composed using a + form-based interface that fully supports drag and drop, clipboard + operations, and an undo/redo stack. + + This version of \QD introduces a number of editing modes to make + different types of editing more natural. Each editing mode + displays the form in an appropriate way for that mode, and + provides a specialized user interface for manipulating its + contents. The current editing modes are Widget Editing, Signals + and Slots Editing, Buddy Editing, and Tab Order Editing. + + \section2 User Interface Features + + \table + \row \i \inlineimage designer-main-window.png + \i \bold{Widget Box} + + The Widget Box displays a categorized list of widgets and other + objects that can be placed on a form using drag and drop. + + When \QD is in multi-window mode, the window containing the Widget + Box also holds the main menu and the tool bar. When in workbench + mode, the Widget Box becomes an independent window within the \QD + workspace. + + The contents of the Widget Box are defined in an XML file that + holds a collection of .ui documents for standard Qt widgets. This + file can be extended, making it possible to add custom widgets to + the Widget Box. + \endtable + + \table + \row \i \bold{Property Editor} + + The Property Editor allows designers to edit most properties of + widgets and layout objects. The property names and values are + presented in an editable tree view that shows the properties of + the currently selected object. + + Certain resources, such as icons, can be configured in the + Property Editor. Resources can be taken from any currently + installed resource files, making it easier to design + self-contained components. + + \i \inlineimage designer-property-editor.png + \endtable + + \section2 Editing Features + + \QD allows form designers to work on different aspects of their forms by + switching between specialized editing modes. Tools for editing widget + properties, resources, and actions provide context-sensitive information + about the forms being edited. + + \table + \row \i \inlineimage designer-choosing-form.png + \i \bold{Form Templates} + + Form templates provide ready-to-use forms for various types of widgets, + such as QWidget, QDialog, and QMainWindow. Custom templates based on + these widgets can also be created. + + Templates can contain child widgets and layouts. Designers can + save time by creating templates for the most common user interface + features for repeated use. + \endtable + + \table + \row + \i \bold{Widget Editing Mode} + + The new \QD allows widgets to be dropped into existing layouts on + the form. Previously, it was necessary to break layouts in order + to add new widgets to them. + + \QD now supports more direct manipulation of widgets: + You can clone a widget by dragging it with the \key CTRL key held down, and + it is even possible to drag widgets between forms. + + In-place widget editors provide specialized editing facilities for + the most-used widget properties. + + \i \inlineimage designer-editing-mode.png + \endtable + + \table + \row + \i \inlineimage designer-connection-mode.png + \i \bold{Signals and Slots Editing Mode} + + \QD now employs a "wired" approach when representing and editing + connections between objects on a form. The Signal and Slots + Editing mode displays all the signal and slot connections on your + form as arrows. These arrows can be manipulated visually, and + provide the user with an overview of the form's connection logic. + + Connections can be made between objects on a form and the form itself. + This is particularly useful when designing dialogs. + \endtable + + \table + \row + \i \bold{Buddy Editing Mode} + + Widgets that cannot accept keyboard input are often given buddy + widgets that will take the keyboard focus on their behalf. + + In Buddy Editing mode, \QD provides a similar approach to that + used in the Signals and Slots Editing mode to show the + relationships between widgets and their buddies. + + \i \inlineimage designer-buddy-mode.png + \endtable + + \table + \row + \i \inlineimage designer-tab-order-mode.png + \i \bold{Tab Order Mode} + + In this mode, users can specify the order in which input widgets accept + the keyboard focus. + + The way that the tab order is defined follows the approach taken + in Qt 3's version of \QD; The default tab order is based on the + order in which widgets are constructed. + + \endtable + + \table + \row + \i \bold{The Resource Editor} + + The new \QD fully supports The Qt Resource System, and provide the + Resource Editor to help designers and developers manage the + resources that are needed by their applications. + + Using the Resource Editor, resources can be associated with a + given form, and also modified and extended throught the editor's + file browser style interface. + + The Resource Editor uses files that are processed by various + components of the \l{The Qt Resource System}{Qt Resource System} + to ensure that all required resources are embedded in the + application. + + \i \inlineimage designer-resources-editing.png + \endtable + + \table + \row + \i \inlineimage designer-action-editor.png + \i \bold{The Action Editor} + + With the release of Qt 4.1, \QD introduces the Action Editor + simplifying the management of actions when creating main window + applications. + + When creating a main window, you can add a menu bar and toolbars + using \QD's context menu. Once you have the menu bar or a toolbar + in place, you can create and add actions using the Action Editor. + + \endtable + + \section2 Plugin Support + + \table + \row + \i \inlineimage worldtimeclockplugin-example.png + \i \bold{Custom Widgets} + + Plugins can be used to add new custom widgets, special editors, and + support for widgets from the Qt 3 support library. + + Support for custom widget plugins allows user interface designers to + use application-specific widgets in their designs as early as possible + in the development process. + + \QD handles custom widgets in the same way as standard Qt widgets, + and allows custom signals and slots to be connected to other objects + from within Signals and Slots Editing mode. + \endtable + + \table + \row + \i \bold{The QtDesigner Module} + + The new modular \QD is designed to be integrated into other environments + and extended with custom components. + + The QtDesigner Module is a library that developers can use to + write extensions and plugins for \QD, and enables \QD components + to be embedded into Integrated Development Environments + (IDEs). + + With the release of Qt 4.1 the QtDesigner Module is fully + documented. The release also provides several new examples using + the QtDesigner API to create task menu extensions and custom + multi-page widgets (i.e. container extensions). + + \i \inlineimage designer-manual-taskmenuextension.png + \endtable + + \section1 Run-Time Support for Forms + + With the Qt 4.1 release, the new QtUiTools module is introduced to + provide classes handling forms created with \QD. + + Currently the module only contains the QUiLoader class. + + QUiLoader can be used by standalone applications to + dynamically create form-based user interfaces at run-time. This + library can be statically linked with applications and + redistributed under the same terms as Qt. + + \table + \row + \i \inlineimage calculatorbuilder-example.png + \i \bold{Dynamic Form Creation} + + The QtUiTools library lets developers dynamically construct user interfaces at + run-time using the same techniques as \QD. Since forms can contain custom + widget plugins, the loading mechanism can be customized to search for + third party or application-specific plugins. + \endtable +*/ |