Native Development

[Jaffa]

Last night I succeeded in getting the core of one of my QML apps ported from MeeGo & Symbian running on the BB10 Dev Alpha.

It's not hard, but I've written it up in case anyone else is looking to get started. Main points:

• Setting QT_QPA_FONTDIR in bar-descriptor.xml.
• Where the assets directory gets put relative to the CWD for QmlApplicationViewer.

[Jaffa]

Going one step further, I've now got a single source tree (for my app, Bedside) which I can use with Qt Creator (to target Symbian, Maemo & MeeGo) and the BlackBerry 10 Native SDK (to target the BB10 Dev Alpha).

I merged in files from a Cascades project:

• Eclipse files: .cproject & .project
• Packaging files: bar-descriptor.xml, device-assets.xml
• Building files: Bedside.pro and Makefile

Assets

Since I had an existing, Qt Creator-based, file structure I changed bar-descriptor.xml to match the existing 'images' and 'qml/Bedside' directories I wanted deployed. However, the BlackBerry Native SDK's structure is nicer out-of-the-box so I'd probably use it for future projects, and change the .pro file to match for Qt SDK.

Makefile

This was a straightforward copy, merging in the target I already had for generating Debian control file icons.

.pro file

Here was a bit more tricky, but I used the following to wrap up the BB10-specific bits:

device|simulator {

  ...

}

The names 'device' and 'simulator' are obviously a little generic, but it looks like these should be trivial to change in Makefile.

Qt Creator doesn't seem to like wildcards on SOURCES and HEADERS, so I had to continue to list them explicitly.

main.cpp

In my existing main.cpp I could use Q_OS_BLACKBERRY with #ifdef to bypass the missing Qt Mobility, set the appropriate BAR-relative path and configure other device-specific properties (e.g. is a close icon needed: it's not on swipe-based UIs like BB10 & N9).

[trollixx]

I would suggest adding BB10NDK to QtCreator as new gcc toolchain and Qt version (simply by pointing to qmake executable). After this you'll be a happy user of QtCreator which builds apps for the BB10 device

[Jaffa]

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trollixx wrote:

I would suggest adding BB10NDK to QtCreator as new gcc toolchain and Qt version (simply by pointing to qmake executable). After this you'll be a happy user of QtCreator which builds apps for the BB10 device

---

That wouldn't give any of the deployment & debugging options, would it?

[trollixx]

Currently yes. But I haven't tried qnx/blackberry plugin for QtCreator by KDAB yet, it should do the job.

[connyhald]

I'm using a QtSDK that has those plugins bundled (not sure where I've got it from) and it works fine. I can build, deploy and run from QtCreator just fine

[lildeimos]

I have cloned qnx-qt-creator from gitorious and installed BB10 NDK.

When I tell Qt Creator to add a new Qt Version pointing it to

/opt/bbndk-10.0.4-beta/host/linux/x86/usr/bin/qmake it tells "The default mkspec symlink is broken".

And what should I put in Toolchain under "Compiler path", "ABI", "debugger" and "mkspecs" ?

I am using Debian sid 64 bit

thanks for any hints

[connyhald]

Hi lildeimos,

I'm still using the Playbook SDK instead of the BB10 SDK. It basically does the same but more stable

Selecting qmake did work for me and I think the toolchain was automatically detected. There is however a problem with the default mkspec in BB10 SDK. I never fixed it properly because so far I've used the BB10 SDK only from command line and there appending "-spec unsupported/blackberry-armv7le-g++" to the qmake call was enough. If you find a way to set that mkspec as a default it should fix your problem.

I've created to screenshots that show my Qt Creator setup. Maybe it helps.

http://twitpic.com/a49a84/full

http://twitpic.com/a49acs/full

[helex]

Great example, Jaffa!

Works so far for my testing project. But I have a problem with the makefile.

You've edited it yourself?

My project compiles just great inside the BB10 native SDK using the makefile the SDK generated for the example. But as soon as I start QtCreator and compile my project there for the N9 the makefile gets modified and after this I'm unable to compile the project again in the BB10 SDK.

Have you got similar issues while testing or let your QtCreator the makefile untouched?

Has anyone a Idea how to use just both files with just different naming?

It would be the preferred soultion for me.

[Jaffa]

Have you got similar issues while testing or let your QtCreator the makefile untouched?

Qt Creator leaves my Makefile untouched. In fact, it never touched it as, before this, it just had a single target in it for updated debian/control.