source: trunk/doc/src/development/activeqt-dumpcpp.qdoc@ 564

/****************************************************************************
**
** Copyright (C) 2009 Nokia Corporation and/or its subsidiary(-ies).
** All rights reserved.
** Contact: Nokia Corporation ([email protected])
**
** This file is part of the documentation of the Qt Toolkit.
**
** $QT_BEGIN_LICENSE:LGPL$
** Commercial Usage
** Licensees holding valid Qt Commercial licenses may use this file in
** accordance with the Qt Commercial License Agreement provided with the
** Software or, alternatively, in accordance with the terms contained in
** a written agreement between you and Nokia.
**
** GNU Lesser General Public License Usage
** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU Lesser
** General Public License version 2.1 as published by the Free Software
** Foundation and appearing in the file LICENSE.LGPL included in the
** packaging of this file.  Please review the following information to
** ensure the GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1 requirements
** will be met: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/lgpl-2.1.html.
**
** In addition, as a special exception, Nokia gives you certain additional
** rights.  These rights are described in the Nokia Qt LGPL Exception
** version 1.1, included in the file LGPL_EXCEPTION.txt in this package.
**
** GNU General Public License Usage
** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU
** General Public License version 3.0 as published by the Free Software
** Foundation and appearing in the file LICENSE.GPL included in the
** packaging of this file.  Please review the following information to
** ensure the GNU General Public License version 3.0 requirements will be
** met: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html.
**
** If you have questions regarding the use of this file, please contact
** Nokia at [email protected].
** $QT_END_LICENSE$
**
****************************************************************************/

/*! 
    \page activeqt-dumpcpp.html
    \title The dumpcpp Tool (ActiveQt)

    \ingroup activeqt-tools

    \keyword dumpcpp

    The \c dumpcpp tool generates a C++ namespace for a type library.

    To generate a C++ namespace for a type library, call \c dumpcpp with the following 
    command line parameters:

    \table
    \header
    \i Option
    \i Result
    \row
    \i input
    \i Generate documentation for \e input. \e input can specify a type library file or a type 
    library ID, or a CLSID or ProgID for an object
    \row
    \i -o file
    \i Writes the class declaration to \e {file}.h and meta object infomation to \e {file}.cpp
    \row
    \i -n namespace
    \i Generate a C++ namespace \e namespace
    \row
    \i -nometaobject
    \i Do not generate a .cpp file with the meta object information. 
    The meta object is then generated in runtime.
    \row
    \i -getfile libid
    \i Print the filename for the typelibrary \e libid to stdout
    \row
    \i -compat
    \i Generate namespace with dynamicCall-compatible API
    \row
    \i -v
    \i Print version information
    \row
    \i -h
    \i Print help
    \endtable

    \c dumpcpp can be integrated into the \c qmake build system. In your .pro file, list the type 
    libraries you want to use in the TYPELIBS variable:

    \snippet examples/activeqt/qutlook/qutlook.pro 0

    The generated namespace will declare all enumerations, as well as one QAxObject subclass 
    for each \c coclass and \c interface declared in the type library. coclasses marked with 
    the \c control attribute will be wrapped by a QAxWidget subclass.

    Those classes that wrap creatable coclasses  (i.e. coclasses that are not marked 
    as \c noncreatable) have a default constructor; this is typically a single class 
    of type \c Application. 

    \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_activeqt-dumpcpp.qdoc 0

    All other classes can only be created by passing an IDispatch interface pointer 
    to the constructor; those classes should however not be created explicitly. 
    Instead, use the appropriate API of already created objects.

    \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_activeqt-dumpcpp.qdoc 1

    All coclass wrappers also have one constructors taking an interface wrapper class
    for each interface implemented.

    \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_activeqt-dumpcpp.qdoc 2

    You have to create coclasses to be able to connect to signals of the subobject.
    Note that the constructor deletes the interface object, so the following will
    cause a segmentation fault:

    \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_activeqt-dumpcpp.qdoc 3

    If the return type is of a coclass or interface type declared in another type 
    library you have to include the namespace header for that other type library 
    before including the header for the namespace you want to use (both header have 
    to be generated with this tool).

    By default, methods and property returning subobjects will use the type as in 
    the type library. The caller of the function is responsible for deleting or 
    reparenting the object returned. If the \c -compat switch is set, properties 
    and method returning a COM object have the return type \c IDispatch*, and 
    the namespace will not declare wrapper classes for interfaces. 

    In this case, create the correct wrapper class explicitly:

    \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_activeqt-dumpcpp.qdoc 4

    You can of course use the IDispatch* returned directly, in which case you have to 
    call \c Release() when finished with the interface.

    All classes in the namespace are tagged with a macro that allows you to export
    or import them from a DLL. To do that, declare the macro to expand to 
    \c __declspec(dllimport/export) before including the header file.

    To build the tool you must first build the QAxContainer library.
    Then run your make tool in \c tools/dumpcpp.
*/