QT application within a Rich Client Platform

[mid2]

Hello,

not sure if this is the right place for the question...

We are currently evaluating various frameworks to rewrite an MFC-based gui, and QT seems at the moment the most promising.
A real plus for us would be the possibility of integrating a QT application within a Rich Client Platform (e.g. Eclipse or Netbeans, by means of QT Jambi, or similar - or any other RCP, c++ too, if any) - sadly, surfing on the web we could not find any hint about that.
Is anybody aware of such a possibility?

Thanks in advance for any answer,

Paolo

[Guest]

why not write the whole app in Qt ? you have seen its amazing ux .. you can check out qml too

also you can read this "faq":http://developer.qt.nokia.com/faq/answer/moving_my_application_away_from_mfc_why_would_i_select_qt_as_the_toolkit_to

[mid2]

Hello,

we considered writing the whole application in Qt, but we think that we could have the best of both worlds if we could "embed" Qt within one of the mainstream RCP (ease of setup for the application, plug-in architecture, internet updates for modules, etc., would be already available).

We read the faq you highlight, and a lot of the features would definitely be useful for us, but still we are wondering if the integration we look for is possible - btw, we will have a look at qml.

Thanks a lot for your answer,

Paolo

[tobias.hunger]

I do not understand how MFC-based UI and Eclipse fit together. Doesn't Eclipse use its own java based toolkit or did that change in the meantime? I admit that I have not really followed Eclipse internals.

I would personally recommend leveraging the code provided by the Rich client platform of your choosing. This includes the widget set: Otherwise you will waste time on making sure your UI blends well with the UIs provided by other parts of the Rich Client Platform.

If you want to do your application with Qt then you made an excellent choice:-). You might want to look into Qt Creator: That uses a similar plugin concept as Eclipse but is build on the Qt library. Of course this may or may not make sense, depending on which plugins, etc. you want to reuse from the RCP.

[mid2]

[quote author="Tobias Hunger" date="1282568904"]I do not understand how MFC-based UI and Eclipse fit together[/quote]

Hello,

our application is currently MFC only; we are thinking that eclipse/netbeans + Qt could be a good solutions for its replacement.

[quote author="Tobias Hunger" date="1282568904"]I would personally recommend leveraging the code provided by the Rich client platform of your choosing. This includes the widget set: Otherwise you will waste time on making sure your UI blends well with the UIs provided by other parts of the Rich Client Platform.[/quote]

From what we can see, Qt seems much richer than Eclipse's SWT, and very well designed/supported too.

Our idea is to write all (or most of) the Gui in Qt (Jambi ?), and use other Eclipse's services as a container, but it seems that nobody else has tried this approach, so we are wondering whether it is possible at all.

Kind regards,

paolo

[tobias.hunger]

You are aware that "Qt Jambi is discontinued":http://qt.nokia.com/about/news/preview-of-final-qt-jambi-release-available/ by Nokia and now in community support? The Jambi community seems pretty active, so Qt Jambi is still a valid option (there even are some pages about Qt Jambi here on devnet:-). I just wanted to make sure you are aware of this fact when making your decision.

Unfortunately I can not comment on how difficult it would be to integrate Qt C++ or Qt Jambi code into Eclipse or Netbeans.

For me the background of the developers (Qt/Eclipse/MFC/C++/Java expertise) would be the most relevant issue when deciding on a project like the one you describe: If I had good Java programmers, I would go for a Java based Rich Client Platform (with or without Qt Jambi), if I had great C++ coders, then I would definitely give Qt a try (and stay away from Java-based RCPs;-). Feel free to ignore me (especially since I do not know your codebase nor the type of project), but please keep us informed about your decision and your experiences with Qt Jambi or Qt.

[mid2]

[quote author="Tobias Hunger" date="1282572337"]You are aware that "Qt Jambi is discontinued":http://qt.nokia.com/about/news/preview-of-final-qt-jambi-release-available/ by Nokia and now in community support? The Jambi community seems pretty active, so Qt Jambi is still a valid option (there even are some pages about Qt Jambi here on devnet:-). I just wanted to make sure you are aware of this fact when making your decision.[/quote]

Thanks for the note - we are aware of it, but it seems alive... :-)

[quote author="Tobias Hunger" date="1282572337"]For me the background of the developers (Qt/Eclipse/MFC/C++/Java expertise) would be the most relevant issue when deciding on a project like the one you describe[/quote]

Currently we have Java, C++ and mixed Java/C++ developers; the boss has a bias on Java, as it seems easier to hire new programmers, but he is aware that c++ could not be dropped anyway, so both options are open.
The only certain thing, at the moment, is that we do not want to mess with .Net...

[quote author="Tobias Hunger" date="1282572337"]but please keep us informed about your decision and your experiences with Qt Jambi or Qt.[/quote]

It won't be a fast and easy quest, but we'll post the result...

Kind regards,

Paolo

[tobias.hunger]

bq. It won’t be a fast and easy quest, but we’ll post the result…

Hardly any IT project is a fast and easy quest;-) That is part of the fun, isen't it?

[Guest]

You could launch a jambi application and have your cool looking and amazing UI/UX in the same. I had played around with this over a year ago.

But if you want to mix jambi with swt then you will run into a whole bunch of issues. You might have to grab jambi window and the image converted to swt image and rendered on a swt canvas. you could hit performance issues there. There was a jambi-awt/jambi-swt integration effort going on in the community, but i've not kept track.

One more issue you might come across is not all qt c++ api would be available via jambi, you might have to extend/write the jni interfaces for the same if you really badly need something.

But productivity, ease of use and features are amazing .. naturally of course as the underlying qt framework provides it all. List out some key features and try out a pilot first, you'll be amazed how easy it could be... :)

[mid2]

We decided to try and write a small test application in Qt; in the meanwhile I will have a look for the Jambi-swt integration you highlighted.

Thanks a lot,

Paolo

[Guest]

good luck with that and keep us posted how it goes :)