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29 \group platform-specific
30 \title Platform-Specific Documentation
31 \brief Documents describing platform-specific features of Qt.
33 These documents describe platform-specific features provided by Qt, and
34 discuss issues related to particular platforms and environments.
36 \generatelist{related}
40 \page platform-notes.html
41 \ingroup platform-specific
42 \title Platform and Compiler Notes
43 \brief Information about the platforms on which Qt can be used.
45 This page contains information about the platforms Qt is currently known
46 to run on, with links to platform-specific notes, including any known bugs
49 Information about the combinations of platforms and compilers
50 supported by Qt can be found on the \l{Supported Platforms} page.
53 \o \l{Platform and Compiler Notes - Symbian}
54 \tableofcontents{1 Platform and Compiler Notes - Symbian}
60 \page platform-notes-symbian.html
61 \title Platform and Compiler Notes - Symbian
62 \contentspage Platform and Compiler Notes
63 \ingroup platform-specific
64 \brief Information about the state of support for the Symbian platform.
66 This page describes implementation details regarding the Qt for Symbian port. To get
67 started with application development for Symbian devices, read the \l
68 {http://doc.qt.nokia.com/qtcreator/creator-developing-symbian.html}
69 {Connecting Symbian Devices} document.
71 \section1 Source Compatibility
73 Qt for Symbian provides the same level of source compatibility guarantee as
74 given for other platforms. That is, a program which compiles against a given
75 version of Qt for Symbian will also compile against all future versions of the
78 \section1 Binary Compatibility
80 As with every supported platform, Qt strives to maintain application
81 behavior and binary compatibility throughout the lifetime of the Qt 4.x
82 major version and on the \l {Supported Devices}{Symbian devices that support Qt}.
83 Symbian support in Qt SDK and Ovi Store were introduced with Qt 4.6. Each Qt
84 release contains bug fixes that might change the API behavior and thereby
85 affect application compatibility.
87 In addition, Symbian devices have different input methods, such as different
88 keyboard styles or touch input, screen sizes, memory, and CPU and GPU
89 capabilities. Therefore, you must test applications on specific target
90 devices to ensure compatibility. In order to build applications that are
91 supported also on earlier devices, select the target in Qt SDK carefully.
92 Generally, an earlier target (such as S60 5th Edition) is supported on a
93 larger number of devices than a later target (such as Symbian Belle).
95 \target Supported Devices
96 \section1 Supported Devices
98 The \l {http://developer.qt.nokia.com/wiki/support_for_Symbian}{Support for Symbian} document
99 details the Qt support on different Symbian devices.
101 The \l {http://www.developer.nokia.com/Community/Wiki/Nokia_Smart_Installer_for_Symbian#Supported_Devices}
102 {Nokia Smart Installer for Symbian} document lists how Qt is supported on
103 different Symbian devices through Smart Installer.
105 Qt versions are supported by Symbian devices as follows:
107 \o Qt 4.6 is supported by S60 3rd Edition feature pack 1 and newer devices
108 through \l {http://www.developer.nokia.com/Community/Wiki/Nokia_Smart_Installer_for_Symbian}{Smart Installer}.
109 \o Qt 4.7.3 is supported by S60 5th Edition and newer devices
110 through \l {http://www.developer.nokia.com/Community/Wiki/Nokia_Smart_Installer_for_Symbian}{Smart Installer}.
113 Symbian devices have a pre-installed Qt support as follows:
115 \o Symbian Anna: Qt 4.7.3 in C: drive. Note that Qt 4.7.4 is supported in Symbian Anna
116 through \l {http://www.developer.nokia.com/Community/Wiki/Nokia_Smart_Installer_for_Symbian}{Smart Installer}.
117 \o Symbian Belle: Qt 4.7.4 in device firmware (ROM).
121 \section1 Functionality Support
123 The following technologies and classes are not supported:
127 \o \l {http://doc.qt.nokia.com/4.8/printing.html}{Printing support}
131 The following technologies have limited support:
138 \o The supported drivers are SQLite and QSYMSQL.
140 \o For support details see \l {Multimedia Support} section.
142 \o QtGui's widgets are deprecated (i.e. they are available but not
143 recommended to use) in the Symbian port. It is recommended to use \l
144 {http://doc.qt.nokia.com/qt-components-symbian-1.1/symbian-components-functional.html}
145 {Qt Quick Components for Symbian} instead, because they provide
146 better look and feel on Symbian devices.
148 Moreover, the following classes of QtGui \bold {should not
149 be used} in a Symbian application:
152 \o QFileDialog with the \c DontUseNativeDialog option
153 \o QColorDialog with the \c DontUseNativeDialog option
161 \o QPrintPreviewWidget
164 QScrollArea: The scrolling and focus handling of QScrollArea's all
165 scrollable widgets, for example QListView, differs from native Avkon
166 list widgets' one. Native Avkon scrollable components support
167 touch-gesture-based scrolling by dragging and flicking the UI
168 component but this functionality is not implemented in Qt widgets.
169 Scrolling by dragging and flicking works also in Qt Quick Components
170 that implements the \l
171 {http://www.developer.nokia.com/Resources/Library/Symbian_Design_Guidelines/}
172 {Symbian design guidelines}.
176 \section1 Compiler Notes
178 For the application development the necessary compiler toolchain is included in \l
179 {http://qt.nokia.com/downloads}{Qt SDK}. For instructions compiling Qt
181 {http://doc.qt.nokia.com/stable/install-symbian.html}
182 {Installing Qt for the Symbian platform} document.
184 \section1 Known Issues
186 Known issues can be found by visiting the
187 \l{http://qt.gitorious.org/qt/pages/QtKnownIssues}{wiki page} with an
188 up-to-date list of known issues, and the list of bugs can be found by
189 \l{http://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG/component/19171}{browsing} the
190 S60 component in Qt's public task tracker, located at
191 \l{http://bugreports.qt-project.org/}{http://bugreports.qt-project.org/}.
193 For information about mixing exceptions with Symbian leaves, see
194 \l{Exception Safety with Symbian}.
196 \section1 Required Capabilities
198 The Qt libraries are typically signed with \c{All -TCB} capabilites but
199 that does not mean your Qt application needs to be signed with the same
200 capabilities to function properly. The capabilities your application needs
201 to function properly depends on which parts of Qt you use.
202 In a Qt application Symbian capabilities are defined in the
203 \l {http://doc.qt.nokia.com/4.8/qmake-variable-reference.html#target-capability}
204 {TARGET.CAPABILITY} qmake variable in the project file.
205 Here is an overview for which capabilities may be needed when using different modules:
209 \o Required Symbian Capability
211 \o \c PowerMgmt if QProcess::kill(...) or QProcess::terminate(...) is called.
213 \o \c AllFiles when \l{http://wiki.forum.nokia.com/index.php/Capabilities_%28Symbian_Signed%29/AllFiles_Capability}{accessing specific areas.}
214 \row \o QtDeclarative
215 \o \c NetworkServices is automatically added for this module if no capabilities are explicitly specified.
217 \o \c NetworkServices is automatically added for this module if no capabilities are explicitly specified.
219 \o \c ReadUserData is required to include all the phone's SSL certificates in the system's default CA certificate list
220 (for example those added by the user or stored in the SIM card),
221 without this capability only the CA certs built into the phone are used.
223 \o \c UserEnvironment if QAudioInput is used.
225 \o \c NetworkServices is automatically added for this module if no capabilities are explicitly specified.
228 \note Some modules rely on other modules. E.g. QtWebkit and QtDeclarative
229 depend on QtNetwork and therefore any application that
230 depends on these modules is also likely to need \c NetworkServices capability.
232 For more information see the documentation of the individual Qt classes. If
233 a class does not mention Symbian capabilities, it requires none.
235 \target Multimedia Support
236 \section1 Multimedia Support
238 Qt Mobility provides a high-level API for multimedia functionality with
239 \l{http://doc.qt.nokia.com/qtmobility/multimedia.html}{QtMultimediaKit}.
240 In addition, Qt provides the low-level \l {QtMultimedia}{QtMultimedia}
241 module that is internally used by the QtMultimediaKit. For more information
242 on developing multimedia applications for Symbian devices, see
243 \l {http://www.developer.nokia.com/info/sw.nokia.com/id/4abf12e7-72d8-45ef-b1a2-46184abe18ba/Guide_for_Qt_Multimedia_Developers.html}
244 {Guide for Qt Multimedia Developers}.
246 Moreover, there is a third multimedia-related module called Phonon. Qt
247 provides two backends for the Phonon module in Symbian: \i MMF and \i Helix.
249 Note that Phonon is a legacy module and the QtMultimediaKit module is
250 replacing Phonon in Qt 5. Although Phonon is supported in Symbian for
251 backwards compatibility and there is no plan to remove Phonon from Symbian
252 any new applications should use QtMultimediaKit in Symbian using Qt 4.7
253 bundle. The QtMultimediaKit feature set is comparable to that in Phonon.
255 The following applies to Phonon:
257 \o MMF Phonon backend supports video and sound playback through Symbian's
258 Multimedia Framework, MMF. Phonon's video playback may show artifacts when
259 the video is moved or resized (for instance, during device orientation
260 changes from portrait to landscape and vice versa). This problem is present
261 on S60 5th Edition and earlier versions, as well as in Symbian Anna devices.
262 \o The audio and video formats that Phonon supports depends on what support
263 the platform provides for MMF. The emulator is known to have limited
265 \o In addition, there exists a backend for the Helix framework. However, since
266 it is not shipped with Qt, its availability depends on the Symbian platform
267 in use. If the MFF plugin fails to load, the Helix plugin, if present on the
268 device, will be loaded instead.
271 \section1 Hardware Accelerated Rendering
273 The default graphics system on Symbian Anna is OpenVG, which uses OpenVG
274 hardware to accelerate \l QPainter functions. There are a few exceptions,
275 where Qt will use software rendering fallback.
277 Devices like the N8 and C7 only have 32Mb of GPU memory and limited support
278 for EGL surface transparency. These devices can be identified by querying
279 the\c GL_RENDERER or \c VG_RENDERER string which evaluates to \c {VideoCore III}.
280 On these devices, Qt will use software rendering in cases listed below.
283 \o Translucent windows
288 \section1 OpenGL Support in Symbian
290 Qt 4.7 introduces the \l {QtOpenGL} module. QtOpenGL is
291 supported on devices which support OpenGL ES 2.0. Symbian platforms prior
292 to Symbian Anna (and Symbian^3) are not supported.
294 \l QGLWidget usage as a \l QGraphicsView viewport is not recommended on
295 Symbian. The OpenVG graphics system is not able to manage OpenGL graphics
296 resources. Also, a QGLWidget object is not able to release its GPU resources
297 when the application goes to the background. If OpenGL functionality is
298 needed, \l { http://doc.qt.nokia.com/4.7-snapshot/qapplication.html#setGraphicsSystem}
299 {OpenGL graphics system} usage is recommended. If an application
300 decides to use QGLWidget, then it is the application's responsibility to
301 destroy and release QGLWidget and related OpenGL resources when the
302 application goes to the background. Otherwise, the \l{Graphics Out Of Memory monitor}
303 may decide to kill the application as it consumes GPU resources while in the
306 \note \l QGLBuffer, \l QGLFramebufferObject, \l QGLPixelBuffer, \l
307 QGLShader, and \l QGLShaderProgram are direct GPU resources and it is the
308 application's responsibility to manage them.
310 \section1 UI Performance in S60 3rd and 5th Edition Devices
312 Qt uses the QPainter class to perform low-level painting on widgets and
313 other paint devices. QPainter provides functions to draw complex shapes,
314 aligned text and pixmaps. It can also do vector path clipping, coordinate
315 transformations and Porter-Duff composition. If the underlying graphics
316 architecture does not support all of these operations then Qt uses the
317 raster graphics system for rendering.
319 In Symbian Anna (and Symbian^3) Qt uses hardware accelerated graphics as explained above.
320 This is enabled by \l
321 {http://library.developer.nokia.com/index.jsp?topic=/GUID-E35887BB-7E58-438C-AA27-97B2CDE7E069/GUID-D93978BE-11A3-5CE3-B110-1DEAA5AD566C.html}
322 {ScreenPlay Graphics Architecture} in these devices.
324 Most of the Symbian S60 3rd and 5th Edition devices have a
325 graphics architecture that does not have native support for all functions
326 provided by QPainter. In these \l
327 {http://library.developer.nokia.com/index.jsp?topic=/GUID-E35887BB-7E58-438C-AA27-97B2CDE7E069/GUID-D93978BE-11A3-5CE3-B110-1DEAA5AD566C.html}
328 {non-ScreenPlay} devices Qt uses the raster
329 graphics system by default that has a performance penalty compared
330 to native Symbian rendering.
332 In order to be able to perform all functions provided by QPainter, the
333 raster graphics system needs to have pixel level framebuffer access. To
334 make this possible in non-ScreenPlay devices Qt has to create an
335 additional offscreen buffer that is the target for all Qt rendering
336 operations. Qt renders the widget tree to the offscreen buffer and the
337 offscreen buffer is blitted to the framebuffer via Symbian Window Server.
339 The following table shows the rendering stacks of native Symbian and Qt in
340 \l {http://library.developer.nokia.com/index.jsp?topic=/GUID-E35887BB-7E58-438C-AA27-97B2CDE7E069/GUID-D93978BE-11A3-5CE3-B110-1DEAA5AD566C.html}
341 {non-ScreenPlay devices}.
346 \row \o \image symbian-rendering-stack-non-screenplay.png
347 \o \image symbian-qt-rendering-stack-non-screenplay.png
350 The following diagrams show a simplified sequence of drawing a pixmap in
351 a non-ScreenPlay device.
355 \row \o \image symbian-draw-pixmap-sequence.png
360 \row \o \image symbian-qt-draw-pixmap-sequence.png
363 When compared to a native Symbian application, Qt does an additional blit
364 to the offscreen buffer before drawing to the framebuffer. That is the
365 performance penalty which needs to be paid to get all functionality
366 provided by QPainter in non-ScreenPlay architecture.