Qt and Windows Phone Toolchain Overview
This article demonstrates how to start with Windows Phone 7 development from Symbain Qt.
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Introduction
In this article we will see how to start with Windows Phone 7 development tools, but this article is more helpful to those who are from Symbian Qt background. First we will compare both the tools and SDK of WP7 and Symbian Qt needed for development. This will give a clear picture how to start WP7 development from Symbian Qt. Later we will see how to deploy apps on WP device and usability of designing tools. We can say this article is a collection of information to start from Qt to WP7.
Windows Phone and Symbian Qt Development Tools
Qt Creator is the IDE for Symbian Qt application development. The latest release of Qt SDK 1.1.3 includes
- Qt and Qt Mobility APIs for Symbian, MeeGo, desktop, and simulator targets
- Qt Quick with the Qt Quick Components and Qt Creator to provide a complete solution for UI development.
- Qt Creator, Qt Simulator for easy and fast development. And many more
In WP7 Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone is the IDE that has the feature of designing, developing and debugging of Windows Phone applications. We can download the complete set of tools and SDK from here, which inclulds Expression BlendXNA Game StudioWindows Phone EmulatorSilverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit Both Symbian Qt and WP7 tools provides a similar kind of functionality in respective of development. The table below shows the common functionality handled differently by the tools.
Features Symbian Qt Windows Phone 7 Developing Language Qt C++/ QML C#/ XAML IDE Qt Creator Visual Studio 2010 Express Emulation Qt Simulator Windows Phone Emulator UI design Qt Quick Designer, Qt Designer Expression Blend
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Windows Phone UI Design Tools
The UI design tools includes Visual Studio UI DesignerExpression Blend WP uses a specific XML markup language called XAML for the UI representation. Visual Studio UI Designer for WP has a similar features compared to the Qt Quick Designer. Expression Blend for WP is a visual UI design tool that is suitable for designers. Qt Quick Designer and Qt Designer are equivalents to Expression Blend.
Windows Phone Emulator
The WP Emulator provides a virtualized environment in which we can deploy, debug and test applications.
Deploying applications to Windows Phone device
We need to register the windows phone device before we can deploy app on it using Developer Registration Tool. For that we need a Windows Live ID and a valid App Hub developer account as a prerequisite. And make sure that Zune is installed and running in the host computer where we have connected the device. We can use Visual Studio for application deployment, but the device must be registered. To deploy application, just select target Windows Phone Device in Visual Studio Standard toolbar and then press F5 to start deployment.
Like Qt Assistant in Symbian Qt WP7 has MSDN for API documentation.
Related Topic on Qt to WP7
Source Code
The full source code of the example is available here: File:StreamingVidoe.zip
