Deploy application and Installer
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I am currently working on a legacy application. I'm using Qt Creator 4.7.1. My problem is I do not understand the procedure described in the Qt documentation. I have the application source code. I build the release version. I can run windeployqt.exe in the release application directory. That does not create the installer. The Qt Installer Framework seems to be what creates the installer; but how do I link the source code to the installer. Does anyone have a clear understanding of the procedure to create the installer?
http://doc.qt.io/qtinstallerframework/ifw-creating-installers.html
The link above goes through some steps that I have followed but I can't find where the application is actually linked to the installer. I ran the tutorial but the installer output did not do anything.
Perhaps I'm missing something. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
ndijkhoffz
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@ndijkhoffz said in Deploy application and Installer:
Perhaps I'm missing something. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
Yes. There is no magical link between your application and the installer. They are 2 completely separate things. You don't have to use either of them.
Here's, in short, how it works:
- when you compile your app, you get an executable
- that executable does not have any libraries around it, it's just a bare EXE. It won't run on other PCs by itself
- if you want to get something that will work on another PC, you need the dependencies. That's what
windeployqt.exedoes for you - it automatically copies all necessary DLLs to the same directory that your EXE resides in - now you have something that will work on other PCs - you just need to copy the whole directory (exe + dlls)
- if you want an installer, then first you need to choose installer technology: Qt has Qt Installer Framework, sure, but you can also use others (InstallShield, Bitrock, Nullsoft installer, and many, many others)
- if you choose QtIFW like you seem to have done, you need to follow the IFW manual. So, put your whole directory into a package dir, add some meta information, and then you're ready to go
If you have any specific questions, post them on this forum and we'll help you :-) I know it can be a bit overwhelming at first, but once you learn a bit more how it works, it is not particularly hard.
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@ndijkhoffz said in Deploy application and Installer:
Perhaps I'm missing something. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
Yes. There is no magical link between your application and the installer. They are 2 completely separate things. You don't have to use either of them.
Here's, in short, how it works:
- when you compile your app, you get an executable
- that executable does not have any libraries around it, it's just a bare EXE. It won't run on other PCs by itself
- if you want to get something that will work on another PC, you need the dependencies. That's what
windeployqt.exedoes for you - it automatically copies all necessary DLLs to the same directory that your EXE resides in - now you have something that will work on other PCs - you just need to copy the whole directory (exe + dlls)
- if you want an installer, then first you need to choose installer technology: Qt has Qt Installer Framework, sure, but you can also use others (InstallShield, Bitrock, Nullsoft installer, and many, many others)
- if you choose QtIFW like you seem to have done, you need to follow the IFW manual. So, put your whole directory into a package dir, add some meta information, and then you're ready to go
If you have any specific questions, post them on this forum and we'll help you :-) I know it can be a bit overwhelming at first, but once you learn a bit more how it works, it is not particularly hard.
@sierdzio I was able to deploy with the windeployqt.exe --compiler-runtime. This did the trick. Thanks.
