danvratil / vscode-qtdoc

VSCode Extension to display Qt documentation inline

VS Code Qt Documentation Extension

This extension shows documentation for Qt methods and types when you hover over them.

vscode-extension.mp4

Setup & Configuration

After installing the extension, it may be necessary to configure paths to where the Qt documentation is installed on your system.

Linux

The extension will automatically search for Qt documentation files (.qch) in /usr/share/doc/qt5/ and /usr/share/doc/qt6/. Those paths (and files in them) are usually provided by distribution packages. If you have your Qt documentation installed in other location, you can specify the path in the extension settings.

MacOS & Windows

On MacOS and Windows it is necessary to configure the paths to Qt documentation manually. After installation, the extension will inform you that there are no search paths configured and ask you to set them up.

Extension Settings

This extension contributes the following settings:

• qtdoc.paths: Paths to search for QCH files.

Known Issues

• Constructors don't show documentation (issue #1)
• QML not supported (issue #2)
• Documentation for overloaded methods is not resolved correctly (issue #3)

Contributing

You are more than welcome to contribute to this project, be it code, documentation, localization or whatever else. Thank you!

To get started, simply fork our repository on GitHub, create a new branch for your changes, and submit a pull request when you're ready.

FAQ

Where to Get Qt Documentation?

On Linux, it's usually available through distribution packages (usually called qt6-doc in most distros). Other way how to obtain the documentation, which applies to any platform is through the official Qt Installer. Finally, it's also possible to build the Qt documentation yourself directly from Qt sources, either standalone or as part of compiling Qt yourself.

Why a Special Extension for Qt?

Unlike most C++ projects, Qt keeps its API documentation in the .cpp files. Therefore whe developing against Qt, the C++ Intellisense cannot see it, since it only has access to Qt header files.

Qt instead compiles its documentation into a properietary QCH (Qt Compressed Help) format (which really is just an SQLite database). This extension extracts all documented symbols from the database and their documentation, so when you hover over a Qt type or it's method, the extension can quickly look up the documentation for it and provide it to VS Code.

License

This project is published under the MIT license.