See Qt for the Symbian platform Requirements to see what tools are required to use Qt for the Symbian platform.
Follow the instructions found in Installing Qt for the Symbian platform to learn how to install Qt using using source package and how to build and run the Qt demos.
If you are new to Qt development, have a look at How to Learn Qt. In general, the difference between developing a Qt application on the Symbian platform compared to any of the other platforms supported by Qt is not that big.
Once you have created a .pro file for your project, generate the Symbian specific Bld.inf and .mmp files this way:
qmake
For more information on how to use qmake have a look at the qmake Tutorial. In particular, see the qmake Platform Notes for details of Symbian-specific build settings.
Now you can build the Qt for the Symbian platform application with standard build tools.
By default, running make will produce binaries for the emulator. However, the Symbian platform comes with several alternative build targets that can be used to create binaries for target hardware and deploy them on devices, as shown in the table below:
| debug-winscw | Build debug binaries for the emulator (default). It is currently not possible to build release binaries for the emulator. |
| debug-gcce | Build debug binaries for hardware using GCCE. |
| release-gcce | Build release binaries for hardware using GCCE. |
| debug-armv5 | Build debug binaries for hardware using RVCT. |
| release-armv5 | Build release binaries for hardware using RVCT. |
| run | Run the application on the emulator. |
| runonphone | Run the application on a device. |
| deploy | Deploys the project into a device. |
| sis | Create signed .sis file for project. |
| unsigned_sis | Create unsigned .sis file for project. |
| installer_sis | Create signed smart installer .sis file for project. Smart installer will attempt to download missing dependencies in addition to just installing the application. Note: The application .sis contained in smart installer .sis will be recreated and signed with same certificates as smart installer .sis. |
| ok_installer_sis | Otherwise similar to installer_sis target, except the application sis will not be recreated. This is useful when application .sis needs to be separately signed before including it into smart installer .sis. |
| unsigned_installer_sis | Create unsigned smart installer .sis file for project. Note: The application .sis contained in smart installer .sis will also be unsigned. |
| stub_sis | Create a stub sis to allow upgradability of projects that are deployed in ROM |
The following lines perform a debug build for the emulator and deploy all the needed files:
make debug-winscw
To work on your project in Carbide, simply import the .pro file by right clicking on the project explorer and executing "Import...".
The application can be launched on the emulator using make run command.
The application can be launched on a device using make runonphone command. When this command is invoked, a .sis file is first created as if make sis command was invoked (see above for details). Note: Running the application on a device using this command requires TRK application to be running on the device.
Additional environment variables that can be utilized with these commands are:
| QT_RUN_OPTIONS | Any command line parameters you wish to pass to your application. |
| QT_RUN_ON_PHONE_OPTIONS | Options for runonphone application. Execute runonphone from command line for more information about available options. make runonphone only. |
To install your own applications on hardware, you need a signed .sis file. (Refer to the Symbian Platform Security article for more informations about self-signing.) The signed .sis file can be created with make sis target. sis target is only supported for executables or projects with DEPLOYMENT statements. By default the sis target will create signed .sis file for last build target. For example, the following sequence will generate the needed makefiles, build the project for debug-winscw and release-armv5, and create self-signed .sis file for release-armv5 target:
qmake
make debug-winscw release-armv5
make sis
If you want to use different certificate information or override the default target for .sis file creation you can use the environment variables as shown in the table below:
| QT_SIS_OPTIONS | Options accepted by .sis creation. See Supported options below. By default no options are given. |
| QT_SIS_TARGET | Target for which .sis file is created. Accepted values are build targets listed in previous table. By default last build target. |
| QT_SIS_CERTIFICATE | The certificate file used for signing. By default self-signed certificate. |
| QT_SIS_KEY | The certificate's private key file. By default key is associated to self-signed certificate. |
| QT_SIS_PASSPHRASE | The certificate's private key file's passphrase. By default empty. |
The supported options for QT_SIS_OPTIONS:
| -i | Install the package right away using PC suite. |
| -p | Only preprocess the template .pkg file. |
| -c <file> | Read certificate information from a file. |
| -u | Preserves unsigned package. |
| -o | Creates only unsigned package. |
| -s | Generates stub sis for ROM. |
| -n <name> | Specifies the final sis name. |
| -g | Treat gcce platform as armv5. |
| -d | Skip automatic patching of the package when default certificate is used. |
Execute the createpackage.pl script without any parameters for detailed information about options. By default no options are given.
For example:
set QT_SIS_TARGET=debug-armv5
make sis
The environment variables for make can also be given as parameters:
make sis QT_SIS_TARGET=debug-armv5
If you want to install the program immediately after creating .sis file, make sure that the device is connected to the computer in "PC Suite" mode, and use deploy target instead of sis target:
make deploy
Although some Symbian devices may already have a version of Qt installed on them, there needs to be a way to ensure that an appropriate version of Qt is available for your application to use. Rather than deploy the required Qt libraries with your application, the preferred way to package Qt applications for deployment is to download and use the Smart Installer.
The Smart Installer makes sure that deployed applications have all the Qt dependencies they need to run on a device, performing the necessary updates when the user installs the application.
More information about deployment can be found in the Deploying an Application on the Symbian Platform document.