Web enabling a desktop app.

TenG

We have a drawing application which runs on various desktop/embedded platforms supported by Qt. We are finding it more and more difficult to maintain the IOS version - actually building and publishing is a constant pain.

So we would like to web enable this application and get rid of the iOS build altogether.

We are looking at a number of options, including re-writing it as a HTML5/Canvas (or similar) app.

But also we would like to investigate if it is possible to 'build' the app as a web app that could be run within a browser, without the need for (too many and onerous) plugins.

The application mainly has a view onto a 'page' object which is based on QGraphicScene. A 'document' is a collection of these pages. Individual items on the pages have the QGraphicsItem, QBrush, QPen, QPixMap base classes as appropriate.

QPainter is allow a key class being used.

SGaist

Hi,

Are you thinking of something like the wasm backend ?

TenG

@SGaist I'm actually pretty much a Qt novice, so the terminology trips me up. But on first/skim reading of that page it looks like a promising avenue. Thanks.

JonB

@TenG
Be aware that not all of Qt modules are supported in WASM. Before anything, check the list at https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/wasm.html#supported-qt-modules against what is in your app. For example, it doesn't do databases, you can't access the local file system, and so on. Also I noticed this time that it requires a Qt static build, but maybe you have to have that for iOS anyway, I don't know.

If it works for you it's a really simple solution compared to rewriting anything. Just check out the gotchas.