EcereSDK 0.44.09.0 Portable with OpenSSL (shared and static)

Finally have time to play with EcereSDK. In my own opinion, it is more convenience than Qt.

• Size is small
• Easier to build than Qt
• The SDK is more portable 

There already have portable versions around, the EcereSDKPortable by Ryoanji. However, it is based on 0.44 SDK two years ago without any new updates. So, I decided to build my own portable version for the latest 0.44.09.9 as of my writing. Instead of using Mingw-w64, I have chosen TDM-GCC.

Thanks to Ecere Teams' efforts, building the SDK on Windows platform is very easy and fast, no quirks needed. Just download the sdk source, the toolchains and upx. Open a command prompt with administrator right and set up the corresponding path. Finally run "mingw32-make" will do the job. As I am building a portable sdk, I did not run "mingw32-make install".

This only takes me around half an hour to build the sdk with a fully functional ide. And it only that me another half hour to build the static libraries as well. That's a big contrast with Qt.You may argue that Qt may be much more powerful, e.g. they have include QML, WebKit, JavaScript engine, ... and others. But the size and time to take for building Qt just not my cup of tea as I just want a simple tools to create cross-platform applications.

After building the SDK, it is time for me to really play with the eC language.

If you are interested to my build, you can find the final products and the corresponding tools at EcereSDK Portable.

• EcereSDKPortable-0.44.09.9_tdmgcc-4.7.1-3_openssl-1.0.0e.7z: Just extract the file (preserve folder structure) to any folder you want. After unzip, run "<FolderForExtraction>\EcereSDKPortable\ide.bat" to start using the tools.
• EcereSDKPortable-0.44.09.9_tdmgcc-4.7.1-3_openssl-1.0.0e_build_script.7z: This contains the Windows batch script, tools (7z.exe and wget.exe) and some supporting files. The batch file is handcrafted by myself and may contains errors not trapped. What the script doing is using wget to grab the files required to build the SDK from their original site (you can find the location inside the batch file with variable urlXXX. If you cannot find the files in the original web site, a copy of them can be found in the same folder as well. The script just build the x32 and x64 shared version of the SDK. Static libs and SQLCipher drivers (shared and static) required to use the IDE to build as I cannot find ways to just using command line to build all the stuff. If anyone has any idea on how to do all the stuff with Windows command line, please share with me so that I can perform some fully automated build testing stuff.

The batch file has only been tested on Windows 7 64 bit and Windows Server 2008 R2 64 bit platform as these are the only Windows boxes that is available to me. Building on 32 bit platform may not worked as the batch file assume default architecture is 64 bit. Tweaking with the batch file may help but not guaranteed. Running the batch inside VirtualBox will certainly failed, which may be due to the DirectX support is missing or incompatible.

2014/04/01
NOTE:  Due to unknown reason, in order to debug your project, you need to copy the gdb.exe as x86_64-w64-mingw32-gdb.exe under EcereSDKPortable\tdm\bin. It seems the ide cannot recognize the existence of gdb.exe (in version 0.44.08, I did not need to do this steps).

2014/04/02
NOTE: You will also need to download the gdb for x32 to debug the x32 version of your project. Save the gdb.exe as i686-w64-mingw32-gdb.exe under EcereSDKPortable\tdm\bin. This gdb.exe require libexpat-1.dll in the same folder, and jit-reader.h under EcereSDKPortable\tdm\include\gdb. 

Qt - I love you, hate you.

Compile Qt 5.2.0 with ICU

Finally find a way to compile Qt 5.2.0 with ICU. It seems the PATH, LIBS and INCLUDE environment variable somehow being reset/ignore during the build process. So, in order to help the compiler and/or linker to find ICU libraries, I've copied all the ICU development files to Qt source tree and the compiler and/or linker now recognized the existence of ICU libraries and build Qt 5.2.0 shared version successfully with WebKit support.

Compile QT 5.2.0

Instructions to build Qt

This is my own experimented instructions for building Qt 5.2.0 shared (debug and release) and static (release only) libraries which can be used to compile programs using dll and run on Windows XP SP3.

Why build Qt by myself

The reason why I need to compile Qt by myself is that:

• Qt 5.2.0 official version cannot compile programs using dll that can be run on Windows XP SP3 as the tool chains not import some code from msvcrt.dll and causing exception when deployed on Windows XP SP3 (at least for my own program and dll)
• Qt Creator 3.0.0 official version requires installation of Microsoft VC Runtime, as it seems to be built by Microsoft Visual C++, I need a portable version, preferred not to install anything before used

Require files to be downloaded:

In order to build Qt by yourself, you need to download the followings:

• Qt5.2.0 (http://download.qt-project.org/official_releases/qt/5.2/5.2.0/single/qt-everywhere-opensource-src-5.2.0.zip)
• OpenSSL runtime (http://download.qt-project.org/development_releases/prebuilt/mingw_32/openssl-mingw-builds-runtime.7z)
• Python v2.7x or above (http://download.qt-project.org/development_releases/prebuilt/gdb/build-prerequisites/python.zip)
• MinGW (http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw-w64/files/Toolchains%20targetting%20Win32/Personal%20Builds/mingw-builds/4.8.2/threads-posix/sjlj/i686-4.8.2-release-posix-sjlj-rt_v3-rev1.7z/download)
• Perl(v5.14 or above) (http://www.activestate.com/activeperl/downloads/thank-you?dl=http://downloads.activestate.com/ActivePerl/releases/5.16.3.1603/ActivePerl-5.16.3.1603-MSWin32-x86-296746.msi)

Building Environment

The environment that I used to build are as follow:

• Windows 7 Ultimate version
• UAC disabled (Otherwise, compilation may failed due to file access)
• Set Anti Virsus program to exclude the build directory and its sub-directory to speed up compilation (Also, some of the examples compiled will be identified as suspected malwares by say Symantec. If you are reluctant with this, add "-nomake examples" to the configure options).

Build directory structure

The directory structure that I used is as follow (originally want to have webkit built):
z:\QtBuild
    ├─5.2.0
    │    ├─mingw32
    │    └─mingw32-s
    ├─bin
    │    ├─mingw32
    │    └─QtCreator
    └─work
         ├─build
         │    ├─mingw32
         │    └─mingw32-s
         └─tools
                ├─mingw32
                ├─perl
                └─python

Preparation

• unzip MinGW (i686-4.8.2-release-posix-sjlj-rt_v3-rev1.7z) to z:\QtBuild\work\tools
• unzip MinGW (i686-4.8.2-release-posix-sjlj-rt_v3-rev1.7z) to z:\QtBuild\bin
• unzip python (python.zip) to z:\QtBuild\work\tools 
• install perl (ActivePerl-5.16.3.1603-MSWin32-x86-296746.msi) to z:\QtBuild\work\tools
• unzip OpenSSL runtime (openssl-mingw-builds-runtime.7z) to z:\QtBuild\5.2.0\mingw32 and z:\QtBuild\5.2.0\mingw32-s
• unzip qt-everywhere-opensource-src-5.2.0.zip to z:\QtBuild\work\build then rename folder "qt-everywhere-opensource-src-5.2.0" to "mingw32"
• unzip again qt-everywhere-opensource-src-5.2.0.zip to z:\QtBuild\work\build then rename folder "qt-everywhere-opensource-src-5.2.0" to "mingw32-s" (if you want to build the static version)
• unzip qt-creator-opensource-src-3.0.0.zip to z:\QtBuild\work\build then rename folder "qt-creator-opensource-src-3.0.0" to "qtc-3.0.0"
• copy libgcc_s_sjlj-1.dll, libstdc++-6.dll and libwinpthread-1.dll from z:\QtBuild\work\tools\mingw32\bin to z:\QtBuild\5.2.0\mingw32

(too long directory name may cause compilation failure)

Patching files for static build

Skip this if you don't need static build.

Open z:\QtBuild\work\build\mingw32-s\qtbase\mkspecs\win32-g++\qmake.conf with a text editor (e.g. Notepad)
Modify line 69 from

QMAKE_LFLAGS =

to

QMAKE_LFLAGS = -Wl,-Bstatic -lwinpthread -static -static-libgcc -static-libstdc++

and line 76 from

QMAKE_LFLAGS_DLL = -shared

to

QMAKE_LFLAGS_DLL = -Wl,-Bstatic -lwinpthread -static -static-libgcc -static-libstdc++

then save it.

Open z:\QtBuild\work\build\mingw32-s\qtbase\qmake\Makefile.win32 with a text editor
Modify line 50 from

LFLAGS        =

to

LFLAGS        = -static -static-libgcc -static-libstdc++

then save it.

Building Qt (shared lib debug-and-release version)

This will build Qt shared libraries with sqlite, odbc, openssl, opengl desktop. For details of the configure options, please check with (http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-5/configure-options.html) or issue "configure.bat -platform win32-g++ --help" in Windows Command Prompt.
Start a Windows Command Prompt and issue the following commands:

• set PATH="z:\QtBuild\work\build\5.2.0\mingw32\bin;z:\QtBuild\work\build\5.2.0\mingw32\qtbase\bin;z:\QtBuild\work\build\5.2.0\mingw32\qtrepotools\bin;z:\QtBuild\work\build\5.2.0\mingw32\gnuwin32\bin;z:\QtBuild\work\tools\mingw32\bin;z:\QtBuild\work\tools\mingw32\opt\bin;z:\QtBuild\work\tools\perl\bin;z:\QtBuild\work\tools\python;%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem;"
• set "MAKE_COMMAND="
• set "QMAKESPEC="
• set "QTDIR=" set "DXSDK_DIR="
• cd /d z:\QtBuild\work\build\mingw32
• configure.bat -confirm-license -opensource -prefix "z:\QtBuild\5.2.0\mingw32" -shared -debug-and-release -platform win32-g++ -qt-sql-sqlite -qt-sql-odbc -D _CRT_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS -mp -no-vcproj -opengl desktop -no-angle -no-icu -skip webkit -openssl
• cd /d z:\QtBuild\work\build\mingw32
• mingw32-make

Building Qt (static lib release version)

This will build Qt shared libraries with sqlite, odbc, openssl, opengl desktop. For details of the configure options, please check with (http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-5/configure-options.html) or issue "configure.bat -platform win32-g++ --help" in Windows Command Prompt.
Start a Windows Command Prompt and issue the following commands:

• set PATH="z:\QtBuild\work\build\5.2.0\mingw32-s\bin;z:\QtBuild\work\build\5.2.0\mingw32-s\qtbase\bin;z:\QtBuild\work\build\5.2.0\mingw32-s\qtrepotools\bin;z:\QtBuild\work\build\5.2.0\mingw32-s\gnuwin32\bin;z:\QtBuild\work\tools\mingw32\bin;z:\QtBuild\work\tools\mingw32\opt\bin;z:\QtBuild\work\tools\perl\bin;z:\QtBuild\work\tools\python;%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem;"
• set "MAKE_COMMAND="
• set "QMAKESPEC="
• set "QTDIR=" set "DXSDK_DIR="
• cd /d z:\QtBuild\work\build\mingw32-s
• configure.bat -confirm-license -opensource -prefix "z:\QtBuild\5.2.0\mingw32-s" -static -release -platform win32-g++ -qt-sql-sqlite -qt-sql-odbc -D _CRT_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS -mp -no-vcproj -opengl desktop -no-angle -no-icu -skip webkit -openssl -nomake examples -nomake tests -qt-libpng -qt-libjpeg -qt-pcre -qt-freetype -qt-zlib -ltcg
• cd /d z:\QtBuild\work\build\mingw32-s
• mingw32-make

QtCreator 3.0.0

I've not built QtCreator 3.0.0 by myself as I always got a debug build instead of release one. So I used one of the prebuilt one (http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingwbuilds/files/external-binary-packages/x32-Qt-5.2.0%2BQtCreator-3.0.0-%28gcc-4.8.2-dwarf%29.7z/download) I can find instead. The download also contain the qtbinpatcher.exe which is very useful for you to make your Qt tools set portable.

• unzip x32-Qt-5.2.0+QtCreator-3.0.0-(gcc-4.8.2-dwarf).7z to z:\QtBuild\bin and then rename the folder "Qt-5.2.0-i686" to QtCreator.

Make it Portable

To deploy the Qt and QtCreator, you only need the 5.2.0 and bin folders. To make this portable, create a batch file say QtCreatorPortable.bat under z:\QtBuild with the following contents:

@echo off
cls
if exist "%~dp05.2.0\mingw32\bin\qmake.exe" "%~dp0bin\QtCreator\qtbinpatcher.exe" --verbose --qt-dir="%~dp05.2.0\mingw32" --nobackup > NUL
if exist "%~dp05.2.0\mingw32-s\bin\qmake.exe" "%~dp0bin\QtCreator\qtbinpatcher.exe" --verbose --qt-dir="%~dp05.2.0\mingw32-s" --nobackup > NUL
if exist "%~dp0tools\QtCreator\bin\qmake.exe" "%~dp0bin\QtCreator\qtbinpatcher.exe" --verbose --qt-dir="%~dp0tools\QtCreator" --nobackup > NUL
start /b "" "%~dp0bin\qtCreator\bin\qtCreator.exe" -settingspath "%~dp0\bin\data"

NOTE: 

After starting QtCreator, you need to go to "tools -> options -> Build and Run" to change the settings in order to reflect the tool chains location.

OR

You could download my QtCreatorPortable.exe (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4DEiRGyVMoTT2VaLUFhTDJpVUU/edit?usp=sharing) and the initial settings data (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4DEiRGyVMoTQ0ktSkxFaTBUVU0/edit?usp=sharing) to ease the job. Unzip data.7z to z:\QtBuild\bin and save QtCreatorPortable.exe to z:\QtBuild. Just double the QtCreatorPortable.exe and it will use the qtbinpatcher.exe to patch the Qt libraries, update the settings and then start QtCreator. The assumption are as follow:

• Qt libraries are resided in .\5.2.0\mingw32 and/or .\5.2.0\mingw32-s
• QtCreator is resided in .\bin\QtCreator
• qtbinpatcher.exe is resided in .\bin\QtCreator
• QtCreator setting files in .\bin\data

ENJOY QT

References:

http://qt-project.org/wiki/MinGW-64-bit
http://qt-project.org/wiki/How-to-build-a-static-Qt-for-Windows-MinGW

Qt 5.2.0 released

Qt 5.2.0 has been released and so I will try compiling Qt 5.2.0 instead. To be honest, I have switched on the first day 5.2.0 released.
The problem that I encountered so far is, I cannot compiled with icu. Linker complained that it cannot find the library.
However, when I checked with my settings, the location of the library has already been added to environment path and libs. Cannot find the cause (by the way I use the same script to compile 5.1.1 without such issue).
Cannot link with icu means no webkit. That's a shame.
By the way, I have managed to compile without icu and will release the package to my partner to test it. The package will be a portable tools set (thanks qtbinpatcher author to make it possible) with Qt 5.2.0 shared libraries (debug and release) and static (release only). This tools set can compile executable using dlls that can be run on Windows XP SP3.
As promise to  +Alex Au, I will post the steps to compile Qt shortly.

#build #Qt5.1.1 with #mingw on #Windows finally suceeded

Three weeks struggling with the compilation of Qt5.1.1, I finally managed to have one built without failure message during compilation.
The main reason for previous failures, in my own opinion, is mainly due to my ignorance of one crusial factor during shadow build.
You should have your source and build folders in the same level, best in same folder.
This information has been mentioned in an old document about Qt shadow build instructions posted in nokia site before but seems cannot find it now. The current documents/wiki on qt-project site do not mention this explicitly but the example has such implied.

[#solved] #Build #Qt5.1.1 #failed again (Makefile.Debug:7091: recipe for target '.obj/debug_shared/qwindowstheme.o' failed)

Find a patch for the file qtbase\src\plugins\platforms\windows\qwindowstheme.cpp.

Need to try again.

#Build #Qt5.1.1 #failed again (Makefile.Debug:7091: recipe for target '.obj/debug_shared/qwindowstheme.o' failed)

Follow the MinGW 64 bit wiki post, I try to build dependent libraries myself before building Qt5.1.1 again.

After applying the patch, I have run into another problem "Makefile.Debug:7091: recipe for target '.obj/debug_shared/qwindowstheme.o' failed".

[#Solved] #Building #Qt5.1.1 static failed (Makefile:350: recipe for target 'qfilesystemengine_win.o' failed)

Finally found a patch on web to solve the issue.

You can download the patch from here.

The file to be patched is <qt-5.1.1-Folder>/qtbase\src/corelib/io/qfilesystemengine_win.cpp

Hope this time the compile can get through.

Just successfully compile #QtRpt & #QtRptDesigner with #Qt5.1.1

#QtRpt is a #reportengine for #Qt application. I like its interface as it looks similar to #FastReport. However, it seems to be a startup project which lack of many features that I used with #FastReport, like nested data band, #master-child report, #barcode printing, #export to #Excel, #pdf, #crosstab report, ti name a few.

Though #QtRpt missing many features that I need, it is a good starting point for me to study.

As recently, I'm trying #Qt5.1.1 , I take it as my testing project. The report engine is written using #Qt4 initially(?), and the latest version of #QtRpt is able to be compiled with #Qt5 , it is not the case for its #QtRptDesigner.

Porting of #QtRptDesigner to #Qt5 is much easier than I think. It's just a few replacement/addition of #include clause and add the #Qt version checking in the #project file to add #Qt5 module will be done.

And now, I have a working suite of #QtRpt for testing. :)

#compile #xTuple #OpenRpt with #Qt5 and #QtCreator

xTuple's OpenRpt is a features rich, open source report engine that worth a try.
When compiling with QtCreator with default options, I've got numerous errors saying ui*.h are missing. Check through the project folder, I can found the files but still cannot get through.
Since files in project path, this must be path searching issue that need to be solved.

Remove the yellow ! from the kits of QtCreator's build and run environment for Qt Static build

When configuring QtCreator's Build & Run options with static Qt build, kits item will show a yellow exclamation mark due to x86-windows-unknown-pe-32bit. This seems not affecting the compilation with this static Qt build.
But if you really want to remove that yellow !, you can try to copy the Qt5Core.dll and Qt5Cored.dll from your shared build to the lib folder of your static build.
e.g.

c:\Qt\5.1.1\mingw48_32 (this is installation of the Qt SDK)
c:\Qt\5.1.1\mingw48_32s (the static version)

Then you can 

copy /y "c:\Qt\5.1.1\mingw48_32\lib\Qt5Core.dll" "c:\Qt\5.1.1\mingw48_32s\lib\Qt5Core.dll"
copy /y "c:\Qt\5.1.1\mingw48_32\lib\Qt5Cored.dll" "c:\Qt\5.1.1\mingw48_32s\lib\Qt5Cored.dll"

Source: Qt5使用静态版，在配置Build&amp;Run环境时，kits项中会出现黄色感叹号

Building Qt5.1.1 static failed (Makefile:350: recipe for target 'qfilesystemengine_win.o' failed)

Building Qt5.1.1 failed again. Stopped during creating qmake.

Makefile:350: recipe for target 'qfilesystemengine_win.o' failed
Building qmake failed, return code 2

Building platform:

• Windows Server 2008 R2
• DirectX SDK 2010 June
• MinGW-builds (gcc-4.8.1-dwarf-rev5)
• ActivePerl-5.16.3.1603-MSWin32-x86-296746
• python-3.3.2
• ruby-1.9.3-p448

Building environment:

• DXSDK_DIR=Z:\QtBuild\tools\msdxsdk
• INCLUDE=.;Z:\QtBuild\tools\3rdparty\libicu\include;Z:\QtBuild\tools\3rdparty\openssl\include;Z:\QtBuild\tools\3rdparty\libmysql\include;\include;Z:\QtBuild\tools\msdxsdk\include
• LIB=.;Z:\QtBuild\tools\3rdparty\libicu\lib;Z:\QtBuild\tools\3rdparty\openssl\lib;Z:\QtBuild\tools\3rdparty\libmysql\lib;\lib;Z:\QtBuild\tools\msdxsdk\Lib\x86
• PATH=;Z:\QtBuild\5.1.1\src\qtbase\bin;Z:\QtBuild\5.1.1\src\qtrepotools\bin;Z:\QtBuild\tools\gnuwin32\bin;Z:\QtBuild\tools\mingw-builds\mingw32\bin;Z:\QtBuild\tools\perl\bin;Z:\QtBuild\tools\ruby\bin;Z:\QtBuild\tools\python\bin;Z:\QtBuild\tools\cmake\bin;Z:\QtBuild\tools\utils;Z:\QtBuild\tools\msdxsdk\Utilities\bin\x86;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem

Modify Z:\QtBuild\5.1.1\src\qtbase\mkspecs\win32-g++\qmake.conf:

• from
• QMAKE_LFLAGS            =
• QMAKE_LFLAGS_DLL        = -shared
• to
• QMAKE_LFLAGS            = -static -static-libgcc
• QMAKE_LFLAGS_DLL        = -static -static-libgcc

Configure option:

• cd /d Z:\QtBuild\5.1.1\src\
• Z:\QtBuild\5.1.1\src\configure.bat -confirm-license -opensource -platform win32-g++ -release -static -ltcg -prefix Z:\Qt\5.1.1\mingw481_32s -qt-sql-sqlite -qt-sql-odbc -plugin-sql-sqlite -plugin-sql-odbc -qt-zlib -qt-libpng -qt-libjpeg -opengl desktop -qt-freetype -no-angle -no-qml-debug -nomake tests -nomake examples -skip qtwebkit -icu -openssl-linked -qt-sql-mysql -plugin-sql-mysql -no-vcproj

The error comes out after issuing the configure.bat command. Still searching the solution for this.

Qt configure failed

Using mingw-builds to compile Qt 5.1.1 failed with configure error in configure.bat file. 

./configure.bat: line 1: @echo: command not found
./configure.bat: line 2: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: command not found
./configure.bat: line 3: ::: command not found
./configure.bat: line 4: syntax error near unexpected token `('
./configure.bat: line 4: `:: Copyright (C) 2012 Digia Plc and/or its subsidiary(-ies).'

Really don't understand what's going wrong.
It's time to abolish mingw-builds and follow the official building procedures on Windows.

Solving mingw-builds script download error

Using #mingw-builds to build #Qt, if encounter download error from #http://sf.net , you can download the corresponding file manually and place it inside Qt-builds/work/src/, then create an empty file with <yourDownloadFilename>.marker inside Qt-builds/work/markers/. Re-run ./buildall <yourOptions> will continue the process.

Re-pickup Qt

Start re-pickup #Qt programming. First thing first, I need to compile #Qt with #MinGW #gcc, but it seems a nightmare if I need to have a full set of Qt being compiled with #MinGW.