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/****************************************************************************
**
** Copyright (C) 2011 Nokia Corporation and/or its subsidiary(-ies).
** All rights reserved.
** Contact: Nokia Corporation (qt-info@nokia.com)
**
** This file is part of the documentation of the Qt Toolkit.
**
** $QT_BEGIN_LICENSE:FDL$
** No Commercial Usage
** This file contains pre-release code and may not be distributed.
** You may use this file in accordance with the terms and conditions
** contained in the Technology Preview License Agreement accompanying
** this package.
**
** GNU Free Documentation License
** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU Free
** Documentation License version 1.3 as published by the Free Software
** Foundation and appearing in the file included in the packaging of this
** file.
**
** If you have questions regarding the use of this file, please contact
** Nokia at qt-info@nokia.com.
** $QT_END_LICENSE$
**
****************************************************************************/
/*!
\page appicon.html
\title Setting the Application Icon
\brief How to set your application's icon.
\ingroup best-practices
The application icon, typically displayed in the top-left corner of an
application's top-level windows, is set by calling the
QWidget::setWindowIcon() method on top-level widgets.
In order to change the icon of the executable application file
itself, as it is presented on the desktop (i.e., prior to
application execution), it is necessary to employ another,
platform-dependent technique.
\tableofcontents
\section1 Setting the Application Icon on Windows
First, create an ICO format bitmap file that contains the icon
image. This can be done with e.g. Microsoft Visual C++: Select
\menu{File|New}, then select the \menu{File} tab in the dialog
that appears, and choose \menu{Icon}. (Note that you do not need
to load your application into Visual C++; here we are only using
the icon editor.)
Store the ICO file in your application's source code directory,
for example, with the name \c myappico.ico. Then, create a text
file called, say, \c myapp.rc in which you put a single line of
text:
\snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_appicon.qdoc 0
Finally, assuming you are using \c qmake to generate your
makefiles, add this line to your \c myapp.pro file:
\snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_appicon.pro 1
Regenerate your makefile and your application. The \c .exe file
will now be represented with your icon in Explorer.
If you do not use \c qmake, the necessary steps are: first, run
the \c rc program on the \c .rc file, then link your application
with the resulting \c .res file.
\section1 Setting the Application Icon on Mac OS X
The application icon, typically displayed in the application dock
area, is set by calling QWidget::setWindowIcon() on a top-level
widget. It is possible that the program could appear in the
application dock area before the function call, in which case a
default icon will appear during the bouncing animation.
To ensure that the correct icon appears, both when the application is
being launched, and in the Finder, it is necessary to employ a
platform-dependent technique.
Although many programs can create icon files (\c .icns), the
recommended approach is to use the \e{Icon Composer} program
supplied by Apple (in the \c Developer/Application folder).
\e{Icon Composer} allows you to import several different sized
icons (for use in different contexts) as well as the masks that
go with them. Save the set of icons to a file in your project
directory.
If you are using qmake to generate your makefiles, you only need
to add a single line to your \c .pro project file. For example,
if the name of your icon file is \c{myapp.icns}, and your project
file is \c{myapp.pro}, add this line to \c{myapp.pro}:
\snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_appicon.pro 2
This will ensure that \c qmake puts your icons in the proper
place and creates an \c{Info.plist} entry for the icon.
If you do not use \c qmake, you must do the following manually:
\list 1
\i Create an \c Info.plist file for your application (using the
\c PropertyListEditor, found in \c Developer/Applications).
\i Associate your \c .icns record with the \c CFBundleIconFile record in the
\c Info.plist file (again, using the \c PropertyListEditor).
\i Copy the \c Info.plist file into your application bundle's \c Contents
directory.
\i Copy the \c .icns file into your application bundle's \c Contents/Resources
directory.
\endlist
\section1 Setting the Application Icon on Common Linux Desktops
In this section we briefly describe the issues involved in providing
icons for applications for two common Linux desktop environments:
\l{http://www.kde.org/}{KDE} and \l{http://www.gnome.org/}{GNOME}.
The core technology used to describe application icons
is the same for both desktops, and may also apply to others, but there
are details which are specific to each. The main source of information
on the standards used by these Linux desktops is
\l{http://www.freedesktop.org/}{freedesktop.org}. For information
on other Linux desktops please refer to the documentation for the
desktops you are interested in.
Often, users do not use executable files directly, but instead launch
applications by clicking icons on the desktop. These icons are
representations of "desktop entry files" that contain a description of
the application that includes information about its icon. Both desktop
environments are able to retrieve the information in these files, and
they use it to generate shortcuts to applications on the desktop, in
the start menu, and on the panel.
More information about desktop entry files can be found in the
\l{http://www.freedesktop.org/Standards/desktop-entry-spec}{Desktop Entry
Specification}.
Although desktop entry files can usefully encapsulate the application's details,
we still need to store the icons in the conventional location for each desktop
environment. A number of locations for icons are given in the
\l{http://www.freedesktop.org/Standards/icon-theme-spec}{Icon Theme
Specification}.
Although the path used to locate icons depends on the desktop in use,
and on its configuration, the directory structure beneath each of
these should follow the same pattern: subdirectories are arranged by
theme, icon size, and application type. Generally, application icons
are added to the hicolor theme, so a square application icon 32 pixels
in size would be stored in the \c hicolor/32x32/apps directory beneath
the icon path.
\section2 K Desktop Environment (KDE)
Application icons can be installed for use by all users, or on a per-user basis.
A user currently logged into their KDE desktop can discover these locations
by using \l{http://developer.kde.org/documentation/other/kde-config.html}{kde-config},
for example, by typing the following in a terminal window:
\snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_appicon.qdoc 3
Typically, the list of colon-separated paths printed to stdout includes the
user-specific icon path and the system-wide path. Beneath these
directories, it should be possible to locate and install icons according
to the conventions described in the
\l{http://www.freedesktop.org/Standards/icon-theme-spec}{Icon Theme Specification}.
If you are developing exclusively for KDE, you may wish to take
advantage of the \link
http://developer.kde.org/documentation/other/makefile_am_howto.html
KDE build system\endlink to configure your application. This ensures
that your icons are installed in the appropriate locations for KDE.
The KDE developer website is at \l{http://developer.kde.org/}.
\section2 GNOME
Application icons are stored within a standard system-wide
directory containing architecture-independent files. This
location can be determined by using \c gnome-config, for example
by typing the following in a terminal window:
\snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_appicon.qdoc 4
The path printed on stdout refers to a location that should contain a directory
called \c{pixmaps}; the directory structure within the \c pixmaps
directory is described in the \link
http://www.freedesktop.org/Standards/icon-theme-spec Icon Theme
Specification \endlink.
If you are developing exclusively for GNOME, you may wish to use
the standard set of \link
http://developer.gnome.org/tools/build.html GNU Build Tools\endlink,
also described in the relevant section of
the \link http://developer.gnome.org/doc/GGAD/ggad.html GTK+/Gnome
Application Development book\endlink. This ensures that your icons are
installed in the appropriate locations for GNOME.
The GNOME developer website is at \l{http://developer.gnome.org/}.
\section1 Setting the Application Icon on the Symbian platform
In order to set the application icon for Symbian platform applications, you need
an SVG-T icon. For information on how to create SVG-T compliant icons,
please refer to
\l{http://wiki.forum.nokia.com/index.php/How_to_create_application_icon(SVG)_in_S60_3rd_edition/}
Once the icon is available in the correct format and assuming you are
using \c qmake to generate your makefiles, you only need to add a single
line to your \c .pro project file. For example, if the name of your
icon file is \c{myapp.svg}, and your project file is \c{myapp.pro},
add this line to \c{myapp.pro}:
\snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_appicon.pro 5
*/
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