wireshark/doc/README.qt

0. Abstract

Wireshark's user interface is showing its age. While GTK+ is wonderful on
Linux and BSD its low-tier status on Windows and even-lower-tier status on OS
X makes it hard to deliver a good product to users on those platforms.

The Qt port is an attempt at an updated UI which will better serve our users
and let us add features more easily.


1. Getting up and running

The Qt interface for Wireshark has been compiled and tested on Mac OS X 10.8
(XCode LLVM/clang), Windows 7 x86 (Visual C++ 2010), and Ubuntu 12.04 (gcc).
Compilation via Qt Creator and via the command line compilation using QMake and
make or nmake should work.

There are several ways of building qtshark:

1) Using qtcreator:

   The ui/qt directory is loosely coupled with the rest of the codebase.
   The main Wireshark sources must be built beforehand using CMake on Linux
   and OS X and nmake on Windows. Autotools + QMake is a basket full of
   crazy that hasn't yet been sorted and folded.  (Autotools + Boring Old
   Make, without using QMake at all, might actually be simpler:

    http://www.mail-archive.com/automake@gnu.org/msg11149.html

2) Using cmake:
   set BUILD_qtshark to ON (default: OFF) in CmakeOptions.txt (may be set
   in parallel with BUILD_wireshark) or add -DBUILD_qtshark=YES flag
   Do the normal out-of-tree or in-tree build.
   To build with Qt5 instead of Qt4, add the following option set ENABLE_QT5
   to ON. Note: Qt5 requires cmake 2.8.3 or newer.
   This has only been tested on a current openSUSE Linux system with fairly
   current QT and cmake. It may be necessary to copy the FindQt4.cmake and
   supporting files from cmake to Wireshark's cmake/modules/
   If using cmake installing qtcreator is not required. Basically almost
   all stuff below can be ignored ;-)

3) Using autotools:

   Pass --with-qt to the configure script and build.

Work is in progress on this.)

1.1 Prerequisites

Before compiling you need the Qt SDK and Qt Creator.

1.1.1 OS X

Download the latest Qt Library + Qt Creator (currently 5.1) from
http://qt-project.org/downloads/ and install it. For a more native
look and feel you should also install Qt Mac Extras:

    git clone http://qt.gitorious.org/qt/qtmacextras.git
    cd qtmacextras
    /path/to/qt5/qmake qtmacextras.pro
    make
    make -n install
    # Make sure install output looks sensible
    make install

This may or may not work for you; see

    https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-32594

1.1.2 Windows

The default Qt SDK libraries are built using MinGW, which isn't supported for
Wireshark. Instead of downloading the Qt SDK all-in-one package, download the Qt
Libraries package from http://qt-project.org/downloads/ that matches your
compiler (VS 2010 or VS 2012) and Qt Creator for Windows.

Settings in config.nmake are passed to the Qt environment via
ui/qt/config.pri. This file should be created automatically when you
compile Wireshark in the top-level source directory. You can create it by
hand by running "nmake -f Makefile.nmake ui\qt\config.pri".

Qt Creator can be used to compile and run Wireshark.  Alternatively qmake
and nmake at the cmd line can be used.

The Windows Qt version of Wireshark will be compiled and linked with
essentially the same options as that used when building the Gtk version of
Wireshark.

1.1.2.1 Qt Creator

Before compiling in Qt Creator select "Projects" in the left toolbar,
select "Build Settings" and do the following:

- In "Edit build configuration" make sure the "Release" build is selected.
  (The "Debug" build won't work unless Wireshark is recompiled to link with a "debug"
   the "debug" C runtime library (using /MDd). See ui\qt\QtShark.pro for details).

- Make sure "Qt version" matches your version of Visual Studio.
- Make sure "Tool chain" matches your Visual C++ version.

If you require plugin support select "Run Settings" and add
"WIRESHARK_RUN_FROM_BUILD_DIRECTORY=1" to the Run Environment.

XXX: (WMeier): I've not had too much satisfaction using the "native Windows debugger" (CDB ?)
     accessed via Qt Creator. (In fact, a web search turns up some fairly negative comments
     about the debugger. I've successfully (and pretty easily) been able to use the
     Visual Studio debugger; See below under "Command Line".
     ToDo: Investigate "Qt Visual Studio AddIn":
           http://developer.qt.nokia.com/wiki/QtVSAddin#6112edd2e39a1695c242723d5c764aae

1.1.2.2 Command Line

- Setup environment:
    c:\qt\4.8.0\bin\qtvars.bat [vsvars]     ;;; optional 'vsvars' to also setup VC env vars

- [Create and] Switch to a working dir to be used for .obj files, etc for Wireshark-qt compilation

- Use qmake to create Windows Makefile (based upon info in ui\qt\QtShark.pro and config.pri)
    qmake -o Makefile.nmake ..\..\ui\qt\QtShark.pro
                                  ;; (Only needs to be run once;
                                  ;; nmake -f Makefile.nmake  will redo qmake if any
                                  ;; dependendencies (e.g., QtShark.pro) change.

- Compile & Build
    nmake -f Makefile.nmake       ;; qtshark.exe + all DLL's will be in <working-dir>\wireshark-qt-debug
- Run:
    <working-dir>\wireshark-qt-debug

- Debug (with Visual Studio debugger)
    Start Visual Studio;
    File ! Open ! Project/Solution  ! .../<working-dir>/wireshark-qt-debug/qtshark.exe
    (Using  Solution Explorer ! Properties ! Environment to
     add PATH=C:\Qt\4.8.0\bin;%PATH% will pobably be required).
    ... Debug in the usual manner


1.1.3 Linux

Install the Qt libraries and Qt Creator via your package manager or from
http://qt-project.org/downloads/. On Debian and Ubuntu the "qt-sdk" meta-package
should provide everything you need. Build the top-level directory using CMake
(see section "Using cmake" above). As an alternative do an in-tree build without
QT and then inside ui/qt/ do "qtcreate QtShark.pro".


2. Going forward

DO NOT simply port things over. Every feature, window, and element should be
re-thought. For example, should the user have to navigate two dialogs to get
HTTP request statistics?

2.1 Coding guidelines

2.1.1 Name conventions

Most of the code in the ui/qt directory uses three APIs: Qt (which uses
InterCapConvention), GLib (which uses underscore_convention), and the Wireshark
API (which also uses underscore_convention). As a general rule Wireshark's Qt
code uses InterCapConvention for class names and methods and
underscore_convention for variables, with a trailing underscore for member
variables.

2.1.2 Mixing C and C++

Sometimes we have to call C++ functions from one of Wireshark's C callbacks and
pass C++ objects to or from C. The C++ FAQ describes how to do this safely:

http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq/mixing-c-and-cpp.html

2.2 Changes

- The display filter entry has been significantly reworked.

- The welcome screen has been reworked. The interface list includes sparklines

- "Go to packet" pops up a text entry in the main window instead of a separate dialog.

- Preferences are complete, and are arguably more useful than the GTK+ version.
  An "Advanced" preference pane exists, which lets you edit everything. They use
  the proper menu placement and keyboard shortcut on OS X.

- Some dialogs (file sets, profiles, and UATs) provide a link to filesystem paths
  where appropriate.

3. Translations (i18n)
For make your own translation of QtShark ! it is easy !

- Add your translation (qtshark_XX.ts) in QtShark.pro, i18n.qrc, ui/qt/Makefile.common
    and ui/qt/CMakeList.txt
- Add also in epan/prefs.c, in ui/qt/main.cpp add case in switch(prefs_p->gui_qt_language)
    and in main_windows_preferences_frame.ui (use qt-design) to add in prefs
- Launch "lupdate QtShark.pro" to generate/update your translation file
- Translate with Qt Linguist
- Launch "lrelease QtShark.pro" to create/update qtshark_xx.qm file
- Attach your modification ("svn diff") in Wireshark Bug Tracker

More information about Qt Linguist
http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/linguist-manual.html