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I am a 15 year veteran of Java making my first entry in to C++ applications. I have a specific need to develop a desktop application that produces graphics type output as well as displaying embedded maps. It looks like Qt and QGIS API are exactly what I need to get this going.

I have been playing around with Qt Creator and generated several of the tutorials without too much problems. Now I am trying my first Qt project that incorporates the QGIS API. I am really stuck. I can't figure out where the libraries are that contains the QGIS modules. I think I have an idea how to configure the Qt project if I could find QGIS. I found all the .h files but some of what I need just aren't there.

There are some good examples of code that shows how to code with QGIS classes. But I can't find anything that explains how to set the project up. Could someone please help guide me through setting up a project in Qt Creator that will allow me to incorporate the QGIS modules? I have been searching everywhere. Google can be a strange beast. Sometimes you find what you need on the first search. Other times it just never happens.

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Check Tim's blog: Using QtCreator with QGIS and in QGIS' source you'll find src/plugins/plugin_builder.py

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  • I tried Tim's blog. The instructions he provides are for Linux. They don't work for Windows.
    – user1078284
    Commented Jul 15, 2012 at 12:33
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    What doesn't work there? I'd except that the generated cmake stuff for a new plugin works just like the rest of the (core) plugins. Did you build QGIS with QtCreator on Windows? Because the usual C++ QGIS libraries don't work with MinGW and require MSVC 2008.
    – jef
    Commented Jul 16, 2012 at 0:30
  • I have successfully built QGis on windows using VS 2010 Express. The generated QGis application itself works great. Now I am trying to integrate the QGis API in a Qt Creator project. I got the libraries in and get a good compile. But when I try to run the test ap it fails because it can't find any of the objects in the DLLs. It appears I need a "xxx.a" file to add to the project so it knows what DLLs to include. I don't have one in my QGis installation. How do I create this file?
    – user1078284
    Commented Jul 19, 2012 at 15:49
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    AFAIK MinGW and VS C++ ABI are incompatible. You can't use C++ stuff from VS with MinGW. So either use VS for your plugin or build QGIS with MinGW.
    – jef
    Commented Jul 19, 2012 at 21:38
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    Either use MSVC 9/2008 with the stuff from osgeo4w (Qt, Python...; See qgis.org/api/INSTALL.html#toc14). That works even without building QGIS yourself.But anything else is mostly unknown territory, that you need to explore yourself.
    – jef
    Commented Sep 28, 2012 at 7:25

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