(QDir , QFile !) How to change code source of My Qt Application frome another application ?

[J.Hilk]

@Alex42 sure let me google that for you:

https://git-scm.com
https://git-scm.com/docs/gitsubmodules

https://git-scm.com/videos
https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2

[SGaist]

If I may, before starting to wildly create submodules within your different projects, you really should take the time to think about the architecture of them.

You seem to have one main "project" that is composed of several applications i.e. "subprojects". If that's indeed the case, the architecture that would make most sense would be to use the SUBDIRS template since you are using qmake.

As already suggested, create one library subproject that will contain the widgets that you want to reuse in your different applications. Then you can have one subproject per application that will use that library of common components. Doing so you would have your code neatly in one single place.

[Alex42]

@SGaist good analysis, thank you,
So, if I understand correctly , the answer to my question , it is not possible to change the source code of my qt Application from another application using QDir and QFile ?

[JonB]

@Alex42 It is possible but totally inadvisable......

[Alex42]

@SGaist The problem here is not a library , I know I can do it with a library, but as you see, I do not know how much widget and what kind of widget that We will add to my principale application in the future ,
for this , i want every time a new widget developed , will be added to the principal application Automatically, (by updating the .h and .cpp of the principal application)

[Alex42]

@JonB what do you mean by "but totally inadvisable......"
according to you ? , I'm on the right track using qdir and qfile?

[SGaist]

@Alex42 said in (QDir , QFile !) How to change code source of My Qt Application frome another application ?:

@SGaist good analysis, thank you,
So, if I understand correctly , the answer to my question , it is not possible to change the source code of my qt Application from another application using QDir and QFile ?

You are mixing project management and application code.

You can create a dedicated application that will copy the files around, but that's just maintenance hell in the making and completely counter intuitive.

@Alex42 said in (QDir , QFile !) How to change code source of My Qt Application frome another application ?:

@SGaist The problem here is not a library , I know I can do it with a library, but as you see, I do not know how much widget and what kind of widget that We will add to my principale application in the future ,
for this , i want every time a new widget developed , will be added to the principal application Automatically, (by updating the .h and .cpp of the principal application)

I do not see a problem with not knowing what you are going to add to your application at some point in time.
Automating the addition of a new widget to your application code does not make much sense. It should be a conscious decision recorded through your version control system. You may automate some of that stuff through your IDE, but trying to automagically add stuff is a bad idea. For example: why would you need to include that new widget in any of your headers ? Forward declaration will likely be the best practice to follow. Your main and secondary applications may change structurally so what was valid for a version will not be for another.

Too much automation is wrong, especially when it comes to structuring your code.

[JonB]

@Alex42 said in (QDir , QFile !) How to change code source of My Qt Application frome another application ?:

@JonB what do you mean by "but totally inadvisable......"
according to you ? , I'm on the right track using qdir and qfile?

I mean it is physically possible, which is what you asked, but you should not be doing it under any circumstances. As I and everybody have said. That should be 100% clear.

[mpergand]

i want every time a new widget developed , will be added to the principal application

It seems very close to what I am doing here:
Custom Widgets

This widgets are defined in a dedicated .pri module,
excerpts from UIWidget_v1.2.pri:

SourcePath = $$PWD/UIWidget/v1.2

INCLUDEPATH +=  $$SourcePath

HEADERS  += $$SourcePath/UIWidgetDefs.h \
            $$SourcePath/Knob.h \
            $$SourcePath/UIWContainer.h \
            $$SourcePath/KnobGroup.h

SOURCES  += $$SourcePath/Knob.cpp \
            $$SourcePath/KnobGroup.cpp \
            $$SourcePath/UIWContainer.cpp

As you can see there's some kind of versioning.

Each app that use these widgets add the .pri to their .pro:

# UIWidget
include( ../Qt5.12_Sources/UIWidget_v1.2.pri )

Whenever a new widget is added to the UIWidget.pri, it is available to all apps that include that .pri.

[Alex42]

@mpergand thank you for your suggestion
finally i managed to do what I wanted with Qdir and Qfile (changing the source code ) but as discussed previously it's not practical
Your suggestion is not Bad, but as I mentioned it above My problem is different ,
I'll think about the team's proposals!
thanks anyways