IOS - which parts of Qt are supported on iOS devices (especially QWebView)?
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Hi,
there are already demos working Qt-QML on iOS (iPhone or iPad) (using lighthouse)
These videos show simple QML games.I know, QtGui is not supported by the Qt-port for iOS.
Is there a description about what is working on iOS and what don't work?
It would be very interesting to know, if QWebView (within or without QML) is working?
Are some database-plugins or imageformats working?Is there somewhere a list of supported parts of Qt on iOS?
Is there a description, which parts are planned to port to iOS?Ciao
P.S.: the "qt-iphone"-project seems to be dead or not officially supported by Qt...
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I don't remember any official announcements about iOS support. Yes, there were some experiments that were posted in Labs, but it is not an announcement, just a showcase of Lighthouse usage.
Btw, there were some threads about unofficial port to iOS at this forum, search for them -
I think you can find it on Labs blogpost about it
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There is general work being done in Qt 4.8 to ensure that it is iOS-compatible when it is released. There are two plugins being developed for Qt on iOS, but only one of them is currently open source. The open source plugin (aka. proof-of-concept UIKit plugin) was developed at Nokia, is (currently) part of Qt 4.8 and was discussed in a QtLabs blog post (in February?). That plugin however is only able to run simple QML apps and does not support more advanced features like auto-rotation, multi-touch, OpenGL, retina displays & widgets.
The other plugin (aka. Qt iOS plugin) is currently closed source, supports full Qt GUI with widgets, multi-touch, multi-threaded OpenGL, shader effects, Qt3D, Qt Scenegraph & parts of Qt Mobility. This is the plugin that was used to make some YouTube demo videos (in Oct/Nov last year) & was shown on the iPad at QtCS.
The Qt iOS plugin is currently being used to produce a trial-run application for submission to the Apple App Store, and more information etc. about that plugin will be made available once it has passed the App Store trial-run and can be considered for commercial application development.
PS. The qt-iphone project is unrelated to these efforts and will most likely never be able to be used to run QML on iOS (if it is in fact still being developed). The purpose of that project is to be able to use Qt to write native UIKit applications. The purpose of Lighthouse (and the iOS plugins for it) is to be able to build and run standard Qt applications on iOS.
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Unfortunately, this Apple App Store rule gets in the way of using QtWebKit on iOS:
"2.17 Apps that browse the web must use the iOS WebKit framework and WebKit Javascript"
Making a custom version of QtWebkit that uses Apple's underlying WebKit framework was considered, but according to QtWebKit developers, this is not going to be technically feasible.
At this point, it is looking like a custom QML item would need to be made that used iOS WebKit to render to a surface, which could then be used in QML...
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@SumWon : Do you have any idee when you will able to have more information about your ios plugins : I suspect that a lot of people will be very interested : Do you plan to release a commercial version or an lgpl version ? will nokia allow to use the lgpl Qt licence to build Qt ios apps without buying a commercial version ?
I have a lot of interest in porting my apps to ios, and don't know if I only have to wait for Qt ios :), or forget this and start objective C :(I we have Qt for Meego, Android (Necessitas), and IOS, it can be a very good new start for Qt ... forgetting 11 februar
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There is no official investment on iOS & Android porting.
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@ qtnext: I'm currently working on an app to put through the App Store approval process (even though I'll have to yank it as soon as it gets approved due to Qt 4.8 still being under a Technology Preview license) - because really, the biggest and most important unknown with this project is whether it is possible to get App Store approval for a Qt/QML based app. The aim is to get all of this (and the work on the plugin - including Mobility) done by the time Qt 4.8 is officially released.
In terms of licensing, no decisions have been made as yet. I have significant development costs to recoup, and so will need to get some commercial licensees (or some other form of remuneration) before I would be prepared to make the work publicly available under an LGPL or similar license. I have been contributing iOS-specific changes to both Qt (4.8) and the UIKit (proof-of-concept) plugin, and that work is under the standard Qt license (and part of the current 4.8 master).
I have been developing the Qt iOS plugin with a commercial Qt license, and so obviously for myself and other Qt licensees there is no issue with the static linking of Qt. Whether or not it is possible to adhere to LGPL when using statically linked code is a legal grey area. Nokia has assured me that they would like Qt to be "Everywhere" and would not wish to test this aspect of LGPL in court - as long as the other terms of the license were adhered to and source code or linkable object code (for your application) was provided.
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Now, I made a little StarWars game for iOS (with the open-source UIKit plugin) with images, animations and dynamically loaded (java)scripts.
See:
http://privet.bplaced.com/v/qt_ios_starwars.swf
(the movie is 8 MB large)
(a pure QML game)
So, the basics are working!!! -
Have managed to embed Apple's iOS WebKit into a QWidget, so there is a way forward for web content on Qt/iOS... :) Going to try to match the QWebView API as much as possible (for QUIWebView), but unfortunately it can't be a 100% drop-in replacement (due to there not being an equivalent of QWebPage and QWebFrame on iOS)...
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@SumWon That's great news. Thanks for sharing this. Any news on the app store approval test?
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@thomasbonte: Got a bit side-tracked, as I am working with a customer to get their Qt (widget) app onto iOS. I'm going to have to get back on the case soon though... Will post here when there's any news on that... :)
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Three ports? Hm, you mean one in 4.8, old iOS port without Lighthouse (which evan don't have good QtGui support) and closed-source one? For me it looks like we have only one port - which is mentioned in Labs blog post.