Deploying 3rdparty Qt Quick plugins on macOS

Ilya Bizyaev

Hello,

I am trying to build a macOS application which uses KDE's Kirigami framework for its UI. On Linux I am able to install Kirigami to a standard location so that Qt could automatically locate it. On macOS I use macdeployqt, but it only copies Qt's own Qt Quick libs (e.g. QQC2), so I have to script cp/ln/install_name_tool.

Is it possible to make macdeployqt add Kirigami automatically? Or, alternatively, can I use CMake or some macOS tools to do the job?

Ilya Bizyaev

Starting from Qt 5.13, there will be a -qmlimport macdeployqt option to specify additional QML module search directories.

AndyS

Hi @Ilya-Bizyaev,

Provided that your QML imports it and you have your QML2_IMPORT_PATH environment variable set to include the location of the import then macdeployqt should take care of this for you and pick it up as a result. This way macdeployqt can see that it requires it and will deploy it with the other plugins.

Ilya Bizyaev

Thank you for your reply!

Unfortunately, macdeployqt does not seem to take QML2_IMPORT_PATH into account. I managed to make it find Kirigami by symlinking from inside Qt's qml folder to the library's location, but it feels hacky.

SGaist

Hi,

There's the -qmldir option of macdeployqt that you can use but AFAIK, it only takes one path currently.

Ilya Bizyaev

Thanks for the reply :)

According to the macdeployqt manual:
-qmldir=<path> : Scan for QML imports in the given path.

This argument is used to specify the application's qml source directory to be scanned for import * statements. It can accept multiple paths, but these are not used as library search paths.

To specify a library search path, macdeployqt would need to pass it as an -importPath argument to qmlimportscanner, but it only passes Qt's default library location: http://code.qt.io/cgit/qt/qttools.git/tree/src/macdeployqt/shared/shared.cpp#n1236

As a hack one can create a link to the custom location from inside the Qt installation, and that's what I use for now, but I think there has to be a better way.

SGaist

A feature to add to macdeployqt: an option to give additional import paths.

Ilya Bizyaev

Should I open a feature request?

SGaist

If you don't find any yet, yes. If you can provide a minimal buildable sample application that shows that behaviour it would be great.

Out of curiosity, how did you got Kirigami for macOS ?

Ilya Bizyaev

@SGaist I reported the issue as https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-70977 and opened a revision at https://codereview.qt-project.org/#/c/242083/

Ilya Bizyaev

Kirigami works just right on macOS, here are some screenshots:

The app is on its early stages, though.

SGaist

Thanks for the submission !

One small fix to the commit message to do :)

Ilya Bizyaev

Starting from Qt 5.13, there will be a -qmlimport macdeployqt option to specify additional QML module search directories.

SGaist

If needed earlier, macdeployqt can be manually built from the dev branch.