Managing Projects

One of the major advantages of Qt Creator is that it allows a team of developers to share a project across different development platforms with a common tool for development and debugging.

The recommended way to build a project is to use a version control system. Store and edit only project source files and the .pro and .pri files (for qmake) or CMakeLists.txt and *.cmake files (for CMake). Do not store files generated by the build system or Qt Creator, such as makefiles, .pro.user, and object files. Other approaches are possible, but we recommend that you do not use network resources, for example.

Qt Creator allows you to specify separate build settings for each development platform. By default, shadow builds are used to keep the build specific files separate from the source.

You can create separate versions of project files to keep platform-dependent code separate. You can use qmake scopes to select the file to process depending on which platform qmake is run on.

Items such as open files, breakpoints, and watches are stored in sessions. They are not considered to be part of the information shared across platforms.

Qt Creator is integrated with cross-platform systems for build automation: qmake and CMake. In addition, you can import generic projects that do not use qmake or CMake, and specify that Qt Creator ignores your build system.

• To use qmake to build applications, open a .pro file. For more information, see Setting Up a qmake Project.
• To use CMake to build applications you need to have CMake version 2.8.0 or later installed. For more information, see Setting Up a CMake Project.
• To use other build systems to build applications, specify which files belong to your project and which include directories or defines you want to pass to your compiler. For more information, see Setting Up a Generic Project.

Qt Creator provides support for building and running Qt applications for desktop environment and mobile devices. When you install the Nokia Qt SDK, the build and run settings for the Maemo and Symbian targets are set up automatically. However, you need to install and configure some additional software on the devices:

• Setting Up Development Environment for Maemo.
• Setting Up Development Environment for Symbian.

Note: The only supported build system for mobile applications in Qt Creator is qmake.

Once your mobile application is ready, you can test it in the Qt Simulator. You can also connect Maemo and Symbian devices to your development PC and debug applications on the devices. After you have tested the application, you can deploy it on mobile devices.

Developing applications for mobile devices is different from developing desktop applications. For more information, see Optimizing Applications for Mobile Devices.

To change the location of the project directory, and to make changes in the build and run settings, select Tools > Options... > Projects > General.