Qt Creator API Reference

The core of Qt Creator is basically only a plugin loader. All functionality is implemented in plugins. The basis of Qt Creator is implemented in the Core plugin. The plugin manager provides simple means for plugin cooperation that allow plugins to provide hooks for other plugin's extensions.

Libraries

Core Libraries

There are a few core libraries used by many parts of Qt Creator.

Library NameDescription
AggregationAdds functionality for glueing QObjects of different types together, so you can cast between them.
ExtensionSystemImplements the plugin loader framework. Provides a base class for plugins and basic mechanisms for plugin interaction like an object pool.
TaskingA solution containing a TaskTree and other classes for writing declarative trees of asynchronous task flows.
UtilsUseful classes that are reused in a lot of places in Qt Creator code.

Plugins

As already mentioned, Qt Creator is basically only a plugin loader framework which gets its IDE functionality through plugins. The most important plugin is the Core plugin which provides all the basic functionality needed later to integrate e.g. editors or mode windows.

Plugin NameDescription
CoreThe core plugin. Provides the main window and managers for editors, actions, mode windows and files, just to mention the most important ones.

This plugin also contains classes necessary to hook into the Locator as well as support for searching text in arbitrary widgets.

Solutions

Qt Creator uses object libraries that are independent of any Qt Creator-specific code, and are threfore ready to be a part of Qt.

Solution NameDescription
SpinnerRenders a circular, endlessly animated progress indicator, which may be attached to any widget as an overlay.
TaskingEnables you to build extensible, declarative task tree structures that contain possibly asynchronous tasks.

Reference