3 Wireshark's user interface is showing its age. While GTK+ is wonderful on
4 Linux and BSD its low-tier status on Windows and even-lower-tier status on OS
5 X makes it hard to deliver a good product to users on those platforms.
7 The Qt port is an attempt at an updated UI which will better serve our users
8 and let us add features more easily.
11 1. Getting up and running
13 The Qt interface for Wireshark has been compiled and tested on Mac OS X 10.8
14 (XCode LLVM/clang), Windows 7 x86 (Visual C++ 2010), and Ubuntu 12.04 (gcc).
15 Compilation via Qt Creator and via the command line compilation using QMake and
16 make or nmake should work.
18 There are several ways of building qtshark:
20 1) Qt Creator + CMake:
22 Open the top-level CMakeLists.txt within Qt Creator. It should ask you to
23 choose a build location. Do so. It should then ask you to run CMake. Fill in
24 any desired build arguments (e.g. "-D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:STRING=Debug" or
25 "-D ENABLE_GTK3:BOOL=OFF") and click the "Run CMake" button. When that
26 completes select "Build → Open Build and Run Kit Selector..." and make
27 sure wireshark is selected.
31 Qt (BUILD_wireshark) is enabled by default. Use the "cmake" command to
32 configure a normal out-of-tree or in-tree build, e.g.
39 Note that CMake builds an application bundle (Wireshark.app) on Mac OS X
40 by default. Use the option "-DENABLE_APPLICATION_BUNDLE=OFF" to create a
41 traditional UNIX/POSIX build.
45 Qt (--with-qt) is enabled by default.
47 4) Qt Creator + QtShark.pro:
49 NOTE: The bulk of Wireshark isn't a qmake project and the ui/qt directory is
50 loosely coupled with the rest of the codebase. When the CMake environment
51 matures to a sufficient state QtShark.pro will probably be removed.
53 Work is in progress on this.)
57 Before compiling you need the Qt SDK and Qt Creator.
61 Download the latest Qt Library + Qt Creator (currently 5.3) from
62 http://qt-project.org/downloads/ and install it. For a more native
63 look and feel you should also install Qt Mac Extras:
65 git clone http://qt.gitorious.org/qt/qtmacextras.git
67 /path/to/qt5/qmake qtmacextras.pro
70 # Make sure install output looks sensible
73 This may or may not work for you; see
75 https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-32594
79 The default Qt SDK libraries are built using MinGW, which isn't supported for
80 Wireshark. Instead of downloading the Qt SDK all-in-one package, download the Qt
81 Libraries package from http://qt-project.org/downloads/ that matches your
82 compiler (VS 2010 or VS 2012) and Qt Creator for Windows.
84 Settings in config.nmake are passed to the Qt environment via
85 ui/qt/config.pri. This file should be created automatically when you
86 compile Wireshark in the top-level source directory. You can create it by
87 hand by running "nmake -f Makefile.nmake ui\qt\config.pri".
89 Qt Creator can be used to compile and run Wireshark. Alternatively qmake
90 and nmake at the cmd line can be used.
92 The Windows Qt version of Wireshark will be compiled and linked with
93 essentially the same options as that used when building the Gtk version of
98 Before compiling in Qt Creator select "Projects" in the left toolbar,
99 select "Build Settings" and do the following:
101 - In "Edit build configuration" make sure the "Release" build is selected.
102 (The "Debug" build won't work unless Wireshark is recompiled to link with a "debug"
103 the "debug" C runtime library (using /MDd). See ui\qt\QtShark.pro for details).
105 - Make sure "Qt version" matches your version of Visual Studio.
106 - Make sure "Tool chain" matches your Visual C++ version.
108 If you require plugin support select "Run Settings" and add
109 "WIRESHARK_RUN_FROM_BUILD_DIRECTORY=1" to the Run Environment.
111 XXX: (WMeier): I've not had too much satisfaction using the "native Windows debugger" (CDB ?)
112 accessed via Qt Creator. (In fact, a web search turns up some fairly negative comments
113 about the debugger. I've successfully (and pretty easily) been able to use the
114 Visual Studio debugger; See below under "Command Line".
115 ToDo: Investigate "Qt Visual Studio AddIn":
116 http://developer.qt.nokia.com/wiki/QtVSAddin#6112edd2e39a1695c242723d5c764aae
121 c:\qt\4.8.0\bin\qtvars.bat [vsvars] ;;; optional 'vsvars' to also setup VC env vars
123 - [Create and] Switch to a working dir to be used for .obj files, etc for Wireshark-qt compilation
125 - Use qmake to create Windows Makefile (based upon info in ui\qt\QtShark.pro and config.pri)
126 qmake -o Makefile.nmake ..\..\ui\qt\QtShark.pro
127 ;; (Only needs to be run once;
128 ;; nmake -f Makefile.nmake will redo qmake if any
129 ;; dependendencies (e.g., QtShark.pro) change.
132 nmake -f Makefile.nmake ;; qtshark.exe + all DLL's will be in <working-dir>\wireshark-qt-debug
134 <working-dir>\wireshark-qt-debug
136 - Debug (with Visual Studio debugger)
138 File ! Open ! Project/Solution ! .../<working-dir>/wireshark-qt-debug/qtshark.exe
139 (Using Solution Explorer ! Properties ! Environment to
140 add PATH=C:\Qt\4.8.0\bin;%PATH% will pobably be required).
141 ... Debug in the usual manner
146 Install the Qt libraries and Qt Creator via your package manager or from
147 http://qt-project.org/downloads/. On Debian and Ubuntu the "qt-sdk" (and qttools5-dev when use Qt5) meta-package
148 should provide everything you need. Build the top-level directory using CMake
149 (see section "Using cmake" above). As an alternative do an in-tree build without
150 QT and then inside ui/qt/ do "qtcreate QtShark.pro".
154 GammaRay lets you inspect the internals of a running Qt application
155 similar to Spy++ on Windows.
157 http://www.kdab.com/kdab-products/gammaray/
161 DO NOT simply port things over. Much of the GTK+ interface reflects historical
162 UI conventions and API restrictions which are either no longer relevant or have
163 been superseded. Every feature, window, and element should be re-thought. When
164 porting a feature, consider the following:
166 - Workflow. Excessive navigation and gratuitous dialogs should be avoided or
167 reduced. For example, the two GTK+ flow graph dialogs have been combined into
168 one in Qt. Many alert dialogs have been replaced with status bar messages.
170 - Feedback. Most of the Qt dialogs provide a "hint" area near the bottom which
171 shows useful information. For example, the "Follow Stream" dialog shows the
172 packet corresponding to the text under the mouse. The profile management
173 dialog shows a clickable path to the current profile.
175 2.1 Coding guidelines
177 2.1.1 Name conventions
179 Most of the code in the ui/qt directory uses three APIs: Qt (which uses
180 InterCapConvention), GLib (which uses underscore_convention), and the
181 Wireshark API (which also uses underscore_convention). As a general rule
182 Wireshark's Qt code uses InterCapConvention for class names,
183 interCapConvention for methods, and underscore_convention for variables,
184 with a trailing underscore for member variables.
188 Dialogs that work with capture file information shouldn't close just
189 because the capture file closes. I.e. they should receive the
190 setCaptureFile signal and react accordingly.
192 In most cases you should handle the changeEvent in order to catch
193 QEvent::LanguageChange.
197 If you're using GLib string functions or plain old C character array idioms in
198 Qt-only code you're probably doing something wrong. QStrings are generally
199 *much* safer and easier to use. They also make translations easier.
201 If you need to pass strings between Qt and GLib you can use qstring_strdup
202 gchar_free_to_qstring, which are defined in ui/qt/qt_ui_utils.h.
204 If you're calling a function that returns wmem-allocated memory it might make
205 more sense to add a wrapper function to qt_ui_utils than to call wmem_free in
208 2.1.4 Mixing C and C++
210 Sometimes we have to call C++ functions from one of Wireshark's C callbacks and
211 pass C++ objects to or from C. The C++ FAQ describes how to do this safely:
213 http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq/mixing-c-and-cpp.html
217 - The display filter entry has been significantly reworked.
219 - The welcome screen has been reworked. The interface list includes sparklines
221 - "Go to packet" pops up a text entry in the main window instead of a separate dialog.
223 - Preferences are complete, and are arguably more useful than the GTK+ version.
224 An "Advanced" preference pane exists, which lets you edit everything. They use
225 the proper menu placement and keyboard shortcut on OS X.
227 - Some dialogs (file sets, profiles, and UATs) provide a link to filesystem paths
230 3. Translations (i18n)
234 Qt makes translating the Wireshark UI into different languages easy.
236 - Add your translation (ui/qt/wireshark_XX.ts) in ui/qt/Wireshark.pro, ui/qt/i18n.qrc,
237 ui/qt/Makefile.common and ui/qt/CMakeLists.txt
238 - Please add flag (image) for your language in images/languages/XX.svg and image/languages/languages.qrc
239 - Run "lupdate ui/qt/Wireshark.pro" to generate/update your translation file.
240 or "lupdate ui/qt -ts ui/qt/wireshark_XX.ts" for specified translation
241 - Translate with Qt Linguist (in console: "linguist ui/qt/wireshark_XX.ts")
242 - Run "lrelease Wireshark.pro" or
243 "lrelease ui/qt/wireshark_XX.ts -qm ui/qt/wireshark_XX.qm" to create/update wireshark_XX.qm file.
244 - Push your translation to Gerrit for review ("git push").
246 Alternatively you can only put your QM and flag files in "languages" directory in
247 Wireshark user configuration directory (~/.wireshark/languages/ on unix)
249 More information about Qt Linguist
250 http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/linguist-manual.html
254 - Please avoid tr() in code, try add any strings in *.ui files; tr() on manually
255 created object (like QMenu) are not automatically retranslated, so you must
256 add a couple of code to manually translate them
257 NOTE: if your object life is short, so any time when your component needs to be shown
258 it is (re)created then it is ok to have tr() in code
259 - For creating submenu in context menu please follow solution from ui/qt/proto_tree.cpp
260 - Some new windows need also to override changeEvent() and do retranslateUi() like
261 summary_dialog.[ch] does