On Windows you will need to distribute different files depending on whether you link statically or dynamically.

Shared Libraries

When deploying your application using shared libraries, the correct CopperSpice libraries must be distributed along with your application. In addition, any plugin must be included and installed on the target system in the correct folders.

Linking your Application with Shared Libraries

Refer to our sample project files for details about how to compile and link your application.

CopperSpice Project Files

Additional Libraries

Compiler specific libraries must be redistributed along with your application. You can check which libraries your application is linking against by using a Dependency Walker tool.

Creating the Application Package

To deploy your application include all the files in your 'deploy' folder. This folder was created during the 'make install' process. If your application depends on compiler specific libraries these must also be distributed with your application.

A CopperSpice application may also need to load plugin libraries which must be distributed with your application. Some of the plugins are created when building CopperSpice and others may be ones you developed. If a required plugin is not installed your application will build however it may not load or run properly.

These additional plugin libraries must be located in directories with a specific name in a specific path as defined in CopperSpice. By default the path is your application executable. You can change both the path and the directory name by using a cs.conf file.

The path can be changed using QApplication::addLibraryPath()or QApplication::setLibraryPaths().

qApp->addLibraryPath("/some/other/path");

As an example, the platform plugin for Windows must be located in myApplication/platforms, unless this is changed by cs.conf or one of the methods mentioned above.

Default path is myapplication

Default directory is platforms

For a complete list of the default directory names refer to the CopperSpice API. From the API main page look under the category of "Concepts" for the topic named "Plugins". Alternatively, use the following link.

Plugin Documentation

Plugins

Your application may also depend on one or more plugins, such as the JPEG image format plugin or a SQL driver plugin. Be sure to distribute any plugins which are required for your application. Each type of plugin should be located within a specific subdirectory (such as imageformats or sqldrivers) within your distribution directory.

For more information about creating and deploying a plugin refer to the CopperSpice API. From the API main page look under the category of "Concepts" for the topic named "Plugins". Alternatively, use the following link.

Plugin Documentation