General Info

• Luigi Raiano
• Templates for app deployment and installer creation of SW developed using Qt

Dependencies

• Qt Creator
• Qt installer Framework (to be installed when installing Qt)

App deployment

The app deployment allows the user to launch the application executable without the need of compiling and running the code from Qt Creator.

Windows 10/11

1. From Start menu select and open Qt MinGW: Qt -> Qt ${version} (MinGW ${version} 64-bit)
2. Go to ExampleProject folder:

cd ${path_to_ExampleProject}

3. Create a new folder named deploy

mkdir deploy

4. Copy ${ExampleProject}.exe from build/release to deploy
5. Go to deploy folder:

cd deploy

6. Add all necessary libraries for launching ${ExampleProject}.exe without the need of compilying the code. To this aim, launch the following command from the MinGW shell:

windeployqt.exe --quick .

7. All necessary libraries will be added to deploy folder allowing to launch the the Orchestrator GUI directly from the executable file.

macOS

1. Go to ExampleProject folder:

cd ${path_to_ExampleProject}

2. Create a new folder named deploy

mkdir deploy

3. Copy the ${ExampleProject}.app to deploy

cp build/${ExampleProject}.app deploy/${ExampleProject}.app

4. Launch deployment:

/Applications/Qt/${Qt_Version}/clang_64/bin/macdeployqt ${ExampleProject}.app -dmg

5. After completion, a file entitled ${ExampleProject}.dmg will appear within deploy folder. Open this file and drag-and-drop ${ExampleProject}.app to your Applications system dir.

Creating the Installer

The SW installer allows the user to install all required libraries and components to launch the App without the need of receiving the source code.

Windows 10/11

1. Deploy the application using the App deployment on Windows guidelines.
2. Go to Desktop and create a new folder entitled ${ExampleProject}Installer.
3. Here, create two subfolders entitled config and packages.
4. Within config create a config.xml.
5. Within packages create a new subfolder, entitled: ${ExampleProject}. Here, create two further subfolders, data and meta.
6. data folder contains all files to be installed, e.g. the deploy folder, configuration files, logos, etc. Do not put here the source code if you do not want to provide it. As golden rule, add all data to be installed within a subfolder of data named win64.
7. meta folder contains scripts and files for generating the installer with its GUI. Add here also additional files, such as the license to be accepted.

All componetes are now ready and it is time to create the installer file. To this aim:

1. Open a terminal shell
2. Go to ${ExampleProject}Installer folder, i.e. where config and packages have been created:

cd ${path_to_${ExampleProject}Installer}

3. Launch QtInstallerFramework:

C:\Qt\Tools\QtInstallerFramework\${QtInstallerFramework_version}\bin\binarycreator.exe -c config\config.xml -p packages ${ExampleProject}Installer.exe

4. At the end of the project, ${ExampleProject}Installer.exe will appear in ${path_to_${ExampleProject}Installer}.

macOS

1. Deploy the application using the App deployment on macOS guidelines.
2. Go to Desktop and create a new folder entitled ${ExampleProject}Installer.
3. Here, create two subfolders entitled config and packages.
4. Within config create a config.xml.
5. Within packages create a new subfolder, entitled: ${ExampleProject}. Here, create two further subfolders, data and meta.
6. data folder contains all files to be installed, e.g. ${ExampleProject}.dmg or entirely the deploy folder, configuration files, logos, etc. Do not put here the source code if you do not want to provide it. As golden rule, add all data to be installed within a subfolder of data named macOS.
7. meta folder contains scripts and files for generating the installer with its GUI. Add here also additional files, such as the license to be accepted.

All componetes are now ready and it is time to create the installer file. To this aim:

1. Open a terminal shell
2. Go to ${ExampleProject}Installer folder, i.e. where config and packages have been created:

cd ${path_to_${ExampleProject}Installer}

3. Launch QtInstallerFramework:

~/Applications/Qt/Tools/QtInstallerFramework/${QtInstallerFramework_version}/clang_64/bin/binarycreator -c config/config.xml -p packages ${ExampleProject}Installer

4. At the end of the project, ${ExampleProject}Installer.exe will appear in ${path_to_${ExampleProject}Installer}.