Installing Qt on Symbian

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Reviewer Approved

This article is based in the preview-version of Qt for Symbian for the version called tower and may change by the time of final release

The Qt teams have created a video showing the process described on this page.

Development Environment

You will need a Microsoft Windows PC running either Windows XP or Windows Vista. Check that your PC meets the PC environment requirements.

Install an IDE

You must have one of the following IDE installed on machine to develop Qt for Symbian applications.

Install latest Qt for Symbian see: Qt for Symbian - Installation packages

Go through this article: Getting started with Qt for Symbian

1) Carbide.c++ v2.0.0 or later

You need Carbide.c++ v2.0.0 or later for Qt for Symbian development. Qt support has been integrated with Carbide.c++ so you can read .pro files and develop UIs with the built-in Qt Designer functionality. The Carbide.c++ distribution also includes the compiler for building C++ applications that will run on the S60 emulator on your PC. The compiler for applications that run on your phone is included in the SDK.

2) Qt Creator IDE

You can download Qt creator from here.

Install an SDK

The following SDKs must be installed on your PC.

1) S60 3rd Edition SDK for Symbian OS supporting Feature Pack 1 or later

You need an S60 SDK that matches the phone you want to develop for. Each SDK includes documentation, headers, and libraries for the S60 platform as well as the tool chain for building C++ based S60 applications. An S60 device emulator that lets you test applications on the PC before deploying them to a device is also included.

2) Open C/C++

Open C is required for all Qt-based S60 development. Install this to all S60 SDKs you plan to use Qt with. This will install the development libraries and headers.

Download the Qt for Symbian SDK

Install latest current pre-view package Qt for Symbian see Qt for Symbian - Installation packages

Installing Qt on S60

The Qt distribution comes in Windows installer package and in a .zip file. You can use anyone of them to install Qt on your machine. Here described both the methods to install Qt.

Install Qt on S60 using binary package

The Qt for Symbian distribution is now delivered as a standard Qt for Symbian - Installation packages. So once the package has been downloaded it can be run to install Qt for Symbian. The installation wizard requites you to accept the obligatory license agreements before asking about which SDKs to install Qt for Symbian into, as shown in Figure 1. which refer to an earlier version of Qt for Symbian

Figure 1: Selecting the SDKs into which Qt for Symbian will be installed.

You can also select multiple SDKs to install Qt for each SDK, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Selecting multiple SDKs in which Qt for Symbian will be installed.

You are then given the option to override the default installation folder, see Figure 3. see install instructions for the latest version.

Figure 3: Specifying the installation folder for Qt for Symbian.

If you decide to choose your own folder, note that:

The install drive for Qt must be the same as that for the S60 SDKs.
The install path must not contain any spaces.
Previous versions have had problems changing locations

Configure Environment variables

In addition, you must configure the environment for use with the S60 emulator. This is done by locating the Carbide.C++ submenu on the Start menu, and choosing "Configure environment for WINSCW command line".

Installation is now complete and you can start developing Qt for Symbian applications in Carbide.C++ 2.0 for your selected SDKs.

Install Qt on S60 using Qt distribution .zip files

Unzip Qt SDK

Qt for Symbian - Installation packages into the directory you want Qt installed, e.g. C:\Qt\4.6-beta.

Note 1: The install drive for Qt must be the same drive as the where the S60 Platform SDK is installed.

Note 2: The install path must not contain any spaces.

Configure Environment variables

Set the environment variable for Qt. This is done by adding C:\Qt\4.6-beta\bin to the PATH variable, assuming your bin directory is at location C:\Qt\4.6-beta\. On Windows the PATH can be extended by navigating to "Control Panel->System->Advanced->Environment variables".

In addition, you must configure the environment for use with the S60 emulator. This is done by locating the Carbide.c++ submenu on the Start menu, and choosing "Configure environment for WINSCW command line".

Configure Qt for Symbian

To configure Qt for Symbian, do: Go to directory ..\Qt\4.6-beta, and then run following command.

C:\Qt\4.6-beta>configure -platform win32-mwc -xplatform symbian-abld

For other options, type configure -help to get a list of all available options.

Note: When you run the configure and build commands, the build is for the default SDK. If you have more than one S60 SDK installed you need to build the emulator version of Qt for each SDK separately. To get a list of installed SDKs run the devices command. The default SDK is marked with "default." To change the default SDK, run the command devices -setdefault @<full_sdk_id> where full_sdk_id is the full name of the SDK as listed when you ran the devices command the first time.

Build Qt for Symbian

To build Qt for the device, type:

make release-gcce

To build Qt for the emulator, type:

make debug-winscw

To create sis file for device.

createpackage myproject_gcce_urel.pkg <certificate file> <certificate key file>

Running Qt applications on a S60 device

Before running Qt application on your device, you must install the Qt DLLs. These are supplied with the Qt for Symbian SDK in a signed Symbian Installation System (SIS) file called qt_libs.sis. You will find the sis file in the root folder of the Qt for Symbian installation, e.g. C:\Qt\4.6-beta.

Running Qt on real device also requires the following packages to be installed on your device. The packages can be found in the S60 SDK where you installed Open C/C++:

nokia_plugin\openc\s60opencsis\pips_s60_<version>.sis
nokia_plugin\openc\s60opencsis\openc_ssl_s60_<version>.sis
nokia_plugin\opencpp\s60opencppsis\stdcpp_s60_<version>.sis

There are several ways in which you can install this file onto your device. Using Nokia PC Suite, connect your device and use the software installation feature. Alternatively send the file to your device over a Bluetooth connection and open the file in the Messaging application or copy it onto a memory card and open the file using File Manager.

Tutorials and useful links

This information is taken from following useful sites.

Installing the S60 platform SDK

Should you wish to, you can find the description of how to install Qt for Symbian from scratch on the Qt for Symbian - Installation packages

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