Exclude plugins

sushisan · 18 Sept 2021, 21:43

I've downloaded qt designer and compiled without problems with qt-creator.
I need to exclude all KF5 to be loaded and shown in widgets box.
How can I do that?

eyllanesc · wrote on 18 Sept 2021, 21:43

@sushisan Please don't ask the same question in multiple posts: https://forum.qt.io/topic/130404/exclude-plugins

mrjj · 18 Sept 2021, 21:53

Hi
What is KF5 ?

eyllanesc · 18 Sept 2021, 21:59

@mrjj KF5 == KDE

mrjj · wrote on 18 Sept 2021, 21:59

@eyllanesc

Ok. but Im still not sure what KDE plugins we talk about.
So besides the normal Qt widgets, it will also show other KDE widgets on
Linux / distor with KDE ?

Im asking as I not used the stand alone designer but only the integrated one.

sushisan · wrote on 18 Sept 2021, 22:23

thanks for answering

I mean all widgets that look like (KF5).
In the Designer included in Fedora they are not shown, for example, so I suppose there must be some compilation directive to prevent them from loading automatically

Ewan Green · 18 Sept 2021, 22:33

KF5 is the collection of frameworks that KDE uses for their software on top of Qt. Things like Kate's Syntax Highlighting engine (KSyntaxHighlighting) and their multithreading approach (ThreadWeaver) are parts of it -- it's usually convenience libraries that provide further abstractions or helpful features.
I think this is what OP is talking about.

Anyway, I wasn't aware that there was a standalone Qt Designer for Qt5/6 -- I've only ever seen the one for Qt 4. That's most likely the reason the KF5 widgets don't appear there. As far as I know, the designer will make any known widgets shown up -- these are usually in the forms of Qt modules and stuff. You can more or less just ignore them because they will not be linked unless you specify the module/package in your project configuration. I have a ton of them.

mrjj · wrote on 18 Sept 2021, 22:33

@Ewan-Green
Ahh. I been using solely xfce so I was not aware that KDE enabled distroes
would show extra widgets.

Ewan Green · wrote on 18 Sept 2021, 22:34

I also use XFCE (I love it, despite my Qt patriotism). The thing is, these additions are usually not installed as a part of Plasma (as far as I know), they need to have been deliberately installed OR with something like Kate/KWrite/Okteta as a runtime dependency.

Ewan Green · wrote on 18 Sept 2021, 22:36

Anyway, I think the only way to inhibit the display of these widgets is to uninstall them. It sounds stupid, but Qt Creator assumes you've installed them on purpose, so from their point of view it would make way less sense to have them not appear by default.

sushisan · wrote on 18 Sept 2021, 22:58

It's true!
I had not seen that the Fedora QT Designer is v4
So it is not possible in any way to specify which plugins you install and which you don't?
QT Creator has the option to disable plugins in About Plugins but QT Designers only shows the ones it has found

Ewan Green · wrote on 18 Sept 2021, 22:59

That's where my mind first went too, but they aren't actually plugins for Qt Creator, just modules installed for Qt with their own respective packaging. There very well may be a setting to prevent their appearance that I don't know about, but removing them altogether is the only solution I know about.

sushisan · wrote on 19 Sept 2021, 00:44

Anyway I suppose there must be a way to prevent all the plugins available in an application from loading.
It makes no sense if it is decided that they are not going to be used

ChrisW67 · 20 Sept 2021, 00:43

Are you using your own Qt libraries or relying on the distribution's bundle?

The secret to not seeing the KDE plugins is not to use a Qt library set that includes them. This does not require removing them from the system location (which may break your desktop), but rather selecting a different Qt bundle.

The distro will probably have a qt.conf file that points to the system location for plugins. In that location you will find the KDE installed plugins that both implement the widgets and the glue that makes them visible in Designer. For example, my Ubuntu has /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/qt.conf which points to /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/plugins. If I launch the system Qt Designer (/usr/bin/designer), it loads the system Qt libraries and qt.conf and sees the system's plugins location with all the KDE plugins for Designer.

If I launch the Qt Designer from an independent Qt library set (/home/chrisw/Qt/5.15.0/gcc_64/bin/designer from the official binary installer) then it loads Qt libraries from that bundle, along with a qt.conf that does not see the system plugins and therefore does not see the KDE plugins.

You may also be able to achieve this with some qt.conf magic of your own, but I have not put the effort in to work that one out.

Christian Ehrlicher · 20 Sept 2021, 01:20

@sushisan said in Exclude plugins:

I need to exclude all KF5 to be loaded and shown in widgets box.

Why? Simply don't use them...

sushisan · wrote on 20 Sept 2021, 00:43

@ChrisW67 said in Exclude plugins:

Are you using your own Qt libraries or relying on the distribution's bundle?

The secret to not seeing the KDE plugins is not to use a Qt library set that includes them. This does not require removing them from the system location (which may break your desktop), but rather selecting a different Qt bundle.

The distro will probably have a qt.conf file that points to the system location for plugins. In that location you will find the KDE installed plugins that both implement the widgets and the glue that makes them visible in Designer. For example, my Ubuntu has /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/qt.conf which points to /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/qt5/plugins. If I launch the system Qt Designer (/usr/bin/designer), it loads the system Qt libraries and qt.conf and sees the system's plugins location with all the KDE plugins for Designer.

If I launch the Qt Designer from an independent Qt library set (/home/chrisw/Qt/5.15.0/gcc_64/bin/designer from the official binary installer) then it loads Qt libraries from that bundle, along with a qt.conf that does not see the system plugins and therefore does not see the KDE plugins.

You may also be able to achieve this with some qt.conf magic of your own, but I have not put the effort in to work that one out.

As I have been watching other programs do the same (for example Eagle for electronic design)
I will try that alternative

sushisan · wrote on 20 Sept 2021, 01:20

@Christian-Ehrlicher said in Exclude plugins:

@sushisan said in Exclude plugins:

I need to exclude all KF5 to be loaded and shown in widgets box.

Why? Simply don't use them...

My intention is to use the QT designer for LVGL

sushisan · wrote on 20 Sept 2021, 01:39

Putting an empty qt.conf file looks for the plugins in the local directory.
Having plugins/platforms/libqxcb.so is enough to start designer without any additional elements

Thanks to all!