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@@ -14,8 +14,7 @@ The Quotient project aims to produce a Qt5-based SDK to develop applications for [Matrix](https://matrix.org). libQuotient is a library that enables client applications. It is the backbone of [Quaternion](https://github.com/quotient-im/Quaternion), -[Spectral](https://matrix.org/docs/projects/client/spectral.html) and -other projects. +[NeoChat](https://matrix.org/docs/projects/client/neo-chat) and other projects. Versions 0.5.x and older use the previous name - libQMatrixClient. ## Contacts @@ -38,61 +37,62 @@ and bundle it with your application. ### Pre-requisites - A recent Linux, macOS or Windows system (desktop versions are known to work; mobile operating systems where Qt is available might work too) - - Recent enough Linux examples: Debian Buster; Fedora 28; openSUSE Leap 15; - Ubuntu Bionic Beaver. -- Qt 5 (either Open Source or Commercial), 5.9 or higher; - 5.12 is recommended, especially if you use qmake -- A build configuration tool (CMake is recommended, qmake is supported): - - CMake 3.10 or newer (from your package management system or - [the official website](https://cmake.org/download/)) - - or qmake (comes with Qt) -- A C++ toolchain with _reasonably complete_ C++17 support: - - GCC 7 (Windows, Linux, macOS), Clang 6 (Linux), Apple Clang 10 (macOS) - and Visual Studio 2017 (Windows) are the oldest officially supported. -- Any build system that works with CMake and/or qmake should be fine: - GNU Make, ninja (any platform), NMake, jom (Windows) are known to work. + - Recent enough Linux examples: Debian Bullseye; Fedora 33; openSUSE Leap 15.3; + Ubuntu Focal Fossa. +- Qt 5 (either Open Source or Commercial), 5.12 or higher +- CMake 3.16 or newer (from your package management system or + [the official website](https://cmake.org/download/)) +- A C++ toolchain with complete (as much as possible) C++17 and basic C++20: + - GCC 10 (Windows, Linux, macOS), Clang 11 (Linux), Apple Clang 12 (macOS) + and Visual Studio 2019 (Windows) are the oldest officially supported. +- Any build system that works with CMake should be fine: + GNU Make and ninja on any platform, NMake and jom on Windows are known to work. + Ninja is recommended. #### Linux -Just install things from the list above using your preferred package manager. If your Qt package base is fine-grained you might want to run cmake/qmake and look at error messages. The library is entirely offscreen (QtCore and QtNetwork are essential) but it also depends on QtGui in order to handle avatar thumbnails. +Just install things from the list above using your preferred package manager. +If your Qt package base is fine-grained you might want to run cmake and look +at error messages. The library is entirely offscreen but aside from QtCore and +QtNetwork it also depends on QtGui in order to handle avatar thumbnails. #### macOS -`brew install qt5` should get you a recent Qt5. If you plan to use CMake, you will need to tell it about the path to Qt by passing `-DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$(brew --prefix qt5)` +`brew install qt5` should get you a recent Qt5. You may need to pass +`-DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$(brew --prefix qt5)` to make it aware of the Qt location. #### Windows -Install Qt5, using their official installer; if you plan to build with CMake, -make sure to tick the CMake box in the list of installed components. - -The commands in further sections imply that cmake/qmake is in your PATH, -otherwise you have to prepend those commands with actual paths. As an option -it's a good idea to run a `qtenv2.bat` script that can be found in -`C:\Qt\<Qt version>\<toolchain>\bin` (assuming you installed Qt to `C:\Qt`); -the only thing it does is adding necessary paths to PATH. You might not want -to run that script on system startup but it's very handy to setup -the environment before building. For CMake you can alternatively point -`CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH` to your Qt installation and leave PATH unchanged; but -in that case you'll have to supply the full path to CMake when calling it. +Install Qt5 using their official installer; make sure to tick the CMake box +in the list of installed components unless you already have it installed. + +The commands in further sections imply that cmake is in your PATH, otherwise +you have to prepend those commands with actual paths. It's a good idea to run +a `qtenv2.bat` script that can be found in `C:\Qt\<Qt version>\<toolchain>\bin` +(assuming you installed Qt to `C:\Qt`) if you're building from the command line; +the script adds necessary paths to PATH. You might not want to run that script +on system startup but it's very handy to setup the environment before building. +Alternatively you can add the Qt path to `CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH` and leave PATH +unchanged. ### Using the library -If you use CMake, `find_package(Quotient)` sets up the client code to use -libQuotient, assuming the library development files are installed. There's no -documented procedure to use a preinstalled library with qmake; consider -introducing a submodule in your source tree and build it along with the rest -of the application for now. Note also that qmake is considered for phase-out -in Qt 6 so you should probably think of moving over to CMake eventually. +If you're just starting a project using libQuotient from scratch, you can copy +`quotest/CMakeLists.txt` to your project and change `quotest` to your +project name. If you already have an existing CMakeLists.txt, you need to insert +a `find_package(Quotient REQUIRED)` line to an appropriate place in it (use +`find_package(Quotient)` if libQuotient is not a hard dependency for you) and +then add `Quotient` to your `target_link_libraries()` line. Building with dynamic linkage is only tested on Linux at the moment and is a recommended way of linking your application with libQuotient on this platform. Static linkage is the default on Windows/macOS; feel free to experiment with dynamic linking and submit PRs if you get reusable results. -[Quotest](quotest), the test application that comes with libQuotient, includes -most common use cases such as sending messages, uploading files, -setting room state etc.; for more extensive usage check out the source code -of [Quaternion](https://github.com/quotient-im/Quaternion) -(the reference client of Quotient) or [Spectral](https://gitlab.com/b0/spectral). - -To ease the first step, `quotest/CMakeLists.txt` is a good starting point -for your own CMake-based project using libQuotient. +As for the actual API usage, a (very basic) overview can be found at +[the respective wiki page](https://github.com/quotient-im/libQuotient/wiki/libQuotient-overview). +Beyond that, looking at [Quotest](quotest) - the test application that comes +with libQuotient - may help you with most common use cases such as sending +messages, uploading files, setting room state etc. For more extensive usage +feel free to check out (and copy, with appropriate attribution) the source code +of [Quaternion](https://github.com/quotient-im/Quaternion) (the reference client +for libQuotient) or [NeoChat](https://invent.kde.org/network/neochat). ## Building the library [The source code is at GitHub](https://github.com/quotient-im/libQuotient). @@ -101,28 +101,29 @@ along with submodules is strongly recommended. If you want to hack on the library as a part of another project (e.g. you are working on Quaternion but need to do some changes to the library code), it makes sense to make a recursive check out of that project (in this case, Quaternion) -and update the library submodule (also recursively) to its master branch. +and update the library submodule (also recursively) within the appropriate +branch. Be mindful of API compatibility restrictions: e.g., Quaternion 0.0.95 +will not build with the master branch of libQuotient. Tags consisting of digits and periods represent released versions; tags ending with `-betaN` or `-rcN` mark pre-releases. If/when packaging pre-releases, it is advised to replace a dash with a tilde. -### CMake-based -In the root directory of the project sources: +The following commands issued in the root directory of the project sources: ```shell script mkdir build_dir cd build_dir cmake .. # [-D<cmake-variable>=<value>...], see below cmake --build . --target all ``` -This will get you the compiled library in `build_dir` inside your project -sources. Static builds are tested on all supported platforms, building -the library as a shared object (aka dynamic library) is supported on Linux -and macOS but is very likely to be broken on Windows. - -The first CMake invocation configures the build. You can pass CMake variables, -such as `-DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="path1;path2;..."` and -`-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=path` here if needed. +will get you a compiled library in `build_dir` inside your project sources. +Static builds are tested on all supported platforms, building the library as +a shared object (aka dynamic library) is supported on Linux and macOS but is +very likely to be broken on Windows. + +The first CMake invocation above configures the build. You can pass CMake +variables (such as `-DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="path1;path2;..."` and +`-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=path`) here if needed. [CMake documentation](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/index.html) (pick the CMake version at the top of the page that you use) describes the standard variables coming with CMake. On top of them, Quotient introduces: @@ -160,22 +161,6 @@ with the _installed_ library. Installation of the `quotest` binary along with the rest of the library can be skipped by setting `Quotient_INSTALL_TESTS` to `OFF`. -### qmake-based -The library provides a .pri file with an intention to be included from a bigger project's .pro file. As a starting point you can use `quotest.pro` that will build a minimal example of library usage for you. In the root directory of the project sources: -```shell script -qmake quotest.pro -make all -``` -This will get you `debug/quotest` and `release/quotest` -console executables that login to the Matrix server at matrix.org with -credentials of your choosing (pass the username and password as arguments), -run a sync long-polling loop and do some tests of the library API. Note that -qmake didn't really know about C++17 until Qt 5.12 so if your Qt is older -you may have quite a bit of warnings during the compilation process. - -Installing the standalone library with qmake is not implemented yet; PRs are -welcome though. - ## Troubleshooting #### Building fails |