Qt 5.2 coming in December brings full iOS support with it, but obviously you don't want to just develop with Qt, you also want to use the best IDE available, and that clearly means using Qt Creator ;-).
Luckily, we've got you covered: we have developed an iOS plugin for Qt Creator 3.0.
With it, you can develop, build, run, and debug within Qt Creator.
As Apple provides toolchains, device developer images, and other things you need only for OS X, we support only OS X as a development and deployment platform.
The plugin is still experimental, which means that you have to explicitly enable it (select Qt Creator > About Plugins).
The final packages should enable the plugin for you if you install the iOS Qt (we know that good developers are lazy...).
Once you have the plugin enabled you need:
- Xcode with command line tools installed (Xcode > Preferences...> Downloads)
- Qt compiled for iOS
This is enough to use the simulator. To develop on a device you also need to:
- Acquire an Apple iOS developer certificate to be able to run on a device.
- Open the Organizer window in Xcode (Cmd-Shift-2) and check that everything is set up correctly for your device.
Then, once you have added your iOS Qt to Qt Creator (select Qt Creator > Preferences > Build & Run > Qt Versions), everything should just work...
...except when it doesn't. I said something about experimental, right?
For that we are counting on you: report the bugs you find!
Here are some dirty details that might be useful in the meantime if things are not fully plug and play:
- Use the latest Qt version possible. For example, in the original beta-1, debugging and building with a make step are broken. When using yesterday's package, you have to manually select the system LLDB in the kit, fix the compiler manually, and debug builds do not work (you can try to debug release builds).
- Standalone Creator is more up to date and currently has no reported bugs in the iOS plugin (you can try to change that :).
- Make sure to add an iOS Qt. In Qt Creator > Preferences > Build & Run > Qt Versions, you can select it and check that it is really recognized as Qt for iOS (the plugin must be enabled for this to work).
- There is an Xcode build step that can be used in place of the make step (replace it in the Projects tab). This does not work for recursive projects, but allows more control for the build process.
- Sometimes automatic recovery and setup fail. Removing everything and setting up again can help (but do report the problem).
- C++ debugging uses the LLDB debugger (new in Qt Creator). QML debugging does not work yet.
That's it... what are you still reading here? Go and try it out, and help us to have a rock solid release!
