How to configure CLion IDE for Qt Framework?

Question

How to configure CLion IDE for Qt Framework? Is this IDE compatible with Qt, or are there other IDEs compatible with Qt?

I just want to try to use something else than Qt Creator.

Answer 1

UPDATE

There is an now an official tutorial on the Jet Brain website:

https://www.jetbrains.com/help/clion/qt-tutorial.html

Original answer

This approach is one of the simplest way to be used for the newest Qt version.

Qt:    5.10.1 CLion: 2018.1.2 GDB:   8.1 

Project setup

In CLion:

1. Create a C++ Executable/Library project
2. Use this sample "CMakeLists.txt" for common console/gui projects that uses: QtCore, QtWidgets and QtQuick

CMakeLists.txt:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.10) project(PROJECT_NAME)  set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 14)  set(CMAKE_AUTOMOC ON) set(CMAKE_AUTOUIC ON) set(CMAKE_AUTORCC ON)  set(CMAKE_INCLUDE_CURRENT_DIR ON) set(CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH "PATH_TO_QT/QT_VERSION/QT_ARCH/lib/cmake")  find_package(Qt5Core REQUIRED) find_package(Qt5Widgets REQUIRED) find_package(Qt5Quick REQUIRED)  add_executable(PROJECT_NAME main.cpp MainWindow.cpp MainWindow.h qml.qrc)  target_link_libraries(PROJECT_NAME Qt5::Core) target_link_libraries(PROJECT_NAME Qt5::Widgets) target_link_libraries(PROJECT_NAME Qt5::Quick) 

• Resource files (.qrc) should be added to add_executable list, in order for moc to be able to run its procedure on the resource and the internal file like qmls, texts, ... be accessible.

• qml files should be included in a qrc file and load using QQmlApplicationEngine at runtime

Debuger:

In order to has a human-readable view in debug sessions from Qt types, A new GDB must be installed on the system and pretty printers must be available:

Pretty printers for Qt5:

1- Lekensteyn Qt5 Pretty Printers (Working):

Address: https://github.com/Lekensteyn/qt5printers

Setup: ~/.gdbinit

python import sys, os.path sys.path.insert(0, os.path.expanduser('~/.gdb')) import qt5printers qt5printers.register_printers(gdb.current_objfile()) end 

2- Official (not working!!!):

"PATH_TO_QT/QT_VERSION/QT_ARCH/Tools/QtCreator/share/qtcreator/debugger/" 

Setup: ~/.gdbinit

As stated in included readme file (but not working!):

python sys.path.insert(1, '<path/to/qtcreator>/share/qtcreator/debugger/') python from gdbbridge import * 

External tools

In "File -> Settings -> Tools -> External Tools", add 4 external tools:

Qt Creator:

Program:   "PATH_TO_QT/QT_VERSION/QT_ARCH/Tools/QtCreator/bin/qtcreator" Arguments: $FilePath$ 

UI Designer:

Program:   "PATH_TO_QT/QT_VERSION/QT_ARCH/lib/bin/designer") Arguments: $FilePath$ 

LUpdate:

Program:   "PATH_TO_QT/QT_VERSION/QT_ARCH/lib/bin/lupdate") Arguments: $FilePath$ -ts $FileNameWithoutExtension$.ts 

Linguist:

Program:   "PATH_TO_QT/QT_VERSION/QT_ARCH/lib/bin/linguist") Arguments: $FilePath$ 

Now you can right click these file types and under the external tool:

1. For .ui select Qt Creator/Designer and start UI designing
2. For .qml select Qt Creator and design UI in QML editor
3. For .qrc select Qt Creator and use resource editor
4. For .cpp/.ui select LUpdate to create its translation file
5. For .ts select Linguist and start the translating

Automatic Beautifier

If in Qt Creator you used a beautifier like "Uncrustify" to auto beautify the code on saving a source file, then:

1. Install the plugin "Save Actions"
2. Under the "File -> Settings -> Save Actions"
3. Check:
4. Active save actions on save
5. Reformat file
6. For best performance un-check:
7. Organize imports

Answer 2

I was as desperate as you, until I read this Quora discussion. It worked perfectly for me!

To summarize, there are 2 main steps:

Firstly, CLion uses CMake to compile your code. It is based on CMake configuration files (e.g "CMakeLists.txt"). You have to add Qt based CMake commands (the lines with 'find_package' and 'target_link_libraries'):

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.5) project(myqtproject)  set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -std=c++11")  set(SOURCE_FILES main.cpp) find_package(Qt5Widgets REQUIRED)                 <-- this line  add_executable(myqtproject ${SOURCE_FILES})  target_link_libraries(myqtproject Qt5::Widgets)   <-- this line 

Secondly, CLion has to use the cmake binary installed by Qt. For that, go to: 'Preferences' -> 'Build, Execution, Deployment' -> 'CMake' and in 'CMake options' append the CMake path that Qt uses, which should be in the directory where Qt is installed. For instance, on OSX:

-DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/Users/edouard/Qt/5.7/clang_64/lib/cmake 

You can test that everything is working fine, by doing a little test script in main.cpp:

#include <QApplication> #include <QDebug>  using namespace std;  int main() {     qDebug() << QT_VERSION_STR;     return 1; } 

Which should display something like:

/Users/edouard/Library/Caches/CLion2016.2/cmake/generated/myqtproject-89a4132/89a4132/Debug/untitled 5.7.0  Process finished with exit code 1 

UPDATE

I was stuck with the problem of adding Qt5 modules (for instance QSql). You can do this by adding in the CMakeLists.txt:

find_package(Qt5Sql REQUIRED) 

just after the other find_package, and adding in the last line:

target_link_libraries(myqtproject Qt5::Widgets Qt5::Sql) 

You can do this with all the other Qt5 modules.