Creating an Installer using Qt Installer Framework

Introduction:

As we get a set of tools & utilities in the Qt Installer Framework, can use them to create installers and once it's created we can easily deploy them across all the supported desktop Qt platforms without rewriting the source code. It has native look & feels on the platforms where they are run like Linux, Windows & Mac. It generates a set of pages that guide the users during the installation, update, or uninstallation process.

However, we can also customize the installers by adding widgets to the predefined pages or by adding whole pages to provide users with additional options. The OS which supports this installer is Windows XP, Linux 11.10, OS X 10.7 and later. Also, it can be compiled with Microsoft Visual Studio 2013, GCC 4.7, Clang 3.1, and newer. The required Qt version is 5.9.x.

Also Read: Understanding The Concept of Functional Programming

Installing Process :

You just need to start the maintenance tool and then select "Add or Remove Components", then on the components page check “Qt Installer Framework 3.x” under Developer and Design Tools of Qt's installation process. Also, you can get it through this link: https://download.qt.io/official_releases/qt-installer-framework/.Following is the image I am sharing for reference:

Installer Process :

Following are the steps to create an installer :

Step 1: Create a package directory which will contain all the configuration related files and suitable packages.

Step 2: Create a Configuration file called config.xml inside the config folder which will contain the information about how to build the installer binaries.

Step 3: Create a package.xml file inside the package/component/meta folder which will contain information about the installation process and deployment settings.

Step 4: Create installer content (release of the project generated using windeployqt) and copy it to the package directory (package/component/data folder).

Step 5: Use the binarycreator tool to create the installer by using this command (binarycreator --offline-only -c config/config.xml -p packages installer).

The examples files are located in the C:\Qt\Tools\QtInstallerFramework\3.x directory where you can manually update or create the installer.

For more information, you can directly refer to this link: https://doc.qt.io/qtinstallerframework/ifw-tutorial.html

Also Read: React Native Tutorial Using Redux

You can provide end-users with an offline and online installer, or both depending on use cases. As both, the installers install a maintenance tool that can be used to add, update, and remove components. Offline installers contain all the installable components and don't require any network connections while Online installer only installs the maintenance tool that then downloads & installs components from an online repository through a web server. However, the size of an online installer is comparatively smaller than the offline installer.

Note: If any error message displayed you can directly check by statically built Qt. For more information see https://doc.qt.io/qtinstallerframework/ifw-getting-started.html#configuring-qt

Thank You For Reading.

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