0. Abstract

Wireshark's user interface is showing its age. While GTK+ is wonderful on
Linux and BSD its low-tier status on Windows and even-lower-tier status on OS
X makes it hard to deliver a good product to users on those platforms.

The Qt port is an attempt at an updated UI which will better serve our users
and let us add features more easily.


1. Getting up and running

The Qt interface for Wireshark has been compiled and tested on Mac OS X 10.6
(XCode gcc), Windows 7 x86 (Visual C++ 2010), and Ubuntu 10.04 (gcc).
Compilation via Qt Creator has been tested but command-line compilation using
QMake and make or nmake should work.

There are several ways of building qtshark:

1) Using qtcreator:
   The ui/qt directory is loosely coupled with the rest of the codebase. The main
   Wireshark sources must be built beforehand using CMake on Linux and OS X and
   nmake on Windows. Autotools + QMake is a basket full of crazy that hasn't yet
   been sorted and folded.  (Autotools + Boring Old Make, without using
   QMake at all, might actually be simpler:

	http://www.mail-archive.com/automake@gnu.org/msg11149.html

2) Using cmake:
   set BUILD_qtshark to ON (default: OFF) in CmakeOptions.txt (may be set
   in parallel with BUILD_wireshark).
   Do the normal out-of-tree or in-tree build.
   This has only been tested on a current openSUSE Linux system with fairly
   current QT and cmake. It may be necessary to copy the FindQt4.cmake and
   supporting files from cmake to Wireshark's cmake/modules/
   If using cmake installing qtcreator is not required. Basically almost
   all stuff below can be ignored ;-)

Work is in progress on this.)

1.1 Prerequisites

Before compiling you need the Qt SDK and Qt Creator.

1.1.1 OS X

Download the latest Qt SDK (currently 1.1.4) and install it. Build the
top-level directory using CMake.

1.1.2 Windows

The default Qt SDK libraries are built using MinGW, which isn't supported for
Wireshark. Instead of downloading the Qt SDK all-in-one package, download the
Qt Libraries package that matches your compiler (VS 2008 or VS 2010) and Qt
Creator for Windows.

Settings in config.nmake are passed to the Qt environment via
ui/qt/config.pri. This file should be created automatically when you
compile Wireshark in the top-level source directory. You can create it
by hand by running "nmake -f Makefile.nmake ui\qt\config.pri".

Qt Creator can be used to compile and run Wireshark.
Alternatively qmake and nmake at the cmd line can be used.

The Windows Qt version of Wireshark will be compiled and linked with essentially
the same options as that used when building the Gtk version of Wireshark.

1.1.2.1 Qt Creator

Before compiling in Qt Creator select "Projects" in the left toolbar,
select "Build Settings" and do the following:

- In "Edit build configuration" make sure the "Release" build is selected.
  (The "Debug" build won't work unless Wireshark is recompiled to link with a "debug"
   the "debug" C runtime library (using /MDd). See ui\qt\QtShark.pro for details).

- Make sure "Qt version" matches your version of Visual Studio.
- Make sure "Tool chain" matches your Visual C++ version.

If you require plugin support select "Run Settings" and add
"WIRESHARK_RUN_FROM_BUILD_DIRECTORY=1" to the Run Environment.

XXX: (WMeier): I've not had too much satisfaction using the "native Windows debugger" (CDB ?)
     accessed via Qt Creator. (In fact, a web search turns up some fairly negative comments
     about the debugger. I've successfully (and pretty easily) been able to use the
     Visual Studio debugger; See below under "Command Line".
     ToDo: Investigate "Qt Visual Studio AddIn":
           http://developer.qt.nokia.com/wiki/QtVSAddin#6112edd2e39a1695c242723d5c764aae

1.1.2.2 Command Line

- Setup environment:
    c:\qt\4.8.0\bin\qtvars.bat [vsvars]     ;;; optional 'vsvars' to also setup VC env vars

- [Create and] Switch to a working dir to be used for .obj files, etc for Wireshark-qt compilation

- Use qmake to create Windows Makefile (based upon info in ui\qt\QtShark.pro and config.pri)
    qmake -o Makefile.nmake ...\ui\qt\QtShark.pro
                                  ;; (Only needs to be run once;
                                  ;; nmake -f Makefile.nmake  will redo qmake if any
                                  ;; dependendencies (e.g., QtShark.pro) change.

- Compile & Build
    nmake -f Makefile.nmake       ;; Wireshark.exe + all DLL's will be in <working-dir>\wireshark-qt
- Run:
    <working-dir>\wireshark

- Debug (with Visual Studio debugger)
    Start Visual Studio;
    File ! Open ! Project/Solution  ! .../<working-dir>/wireshark-qt/wireshark.exe
    (Using  Solution Explorer ! Properties ! Environment to
     add PATH=C:\Qt\4.8.0\bin;%PATH% will pobably be required).
    ... Debug in the usual manner


1.1.3 Linux

Install the Qt libraries and Qt Creator via your package manager or from
http://qt.nokia.com/downloads/. On Debian and Ubuntu the "qt-sdk" meta-package
should provide everything you need. Build the top-level directory using CMake
(no out of tree builds yet). Inside ui/qt/ do "qtcreate QtShark.pro".


2. Going forward

DO NOT simply port things over. Every feature, window, and element should be
re-thought. For example, should the user have to navigate two dialogs to get
HTTP request statistics?

3. Translations (i18n)
For make your own translation of QtShark ! it is easy !

- Add your translation (qtshark_XX.ts) in QtShark.pro and i18n.qrc
- Launch "lupdate QtShark.pro" to generate/update your translation file
- Translate with Qt Linguist
- Launch "lrelease QtShark.pro" to create/update qtshark_xx.qm file
- Attach your modification ("svn diff") in Wireshark Bug Tracker 

More information about Qt Linguist 
http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/linguist-manual.html