Recientemente the guys from Qt announced the release del a new element, which is store catalog called "Qt Marketplace" in the wedgethrough it various plugins, modules, libraries were launched, widgets and tools for developers, aiming to use Qt to expand the functionality of this framework, to promote new ideas in design and improve the development process.
Qt Marketplace was created as part of the initiative to divide the Qt framework into smaller components and downsizing of the base product, development tools and specialized components can be supplied as add-ons.
There are no strict licensing requirements and the choice of license is left to the author, but Qt developers recommend choosing copyleft-compatible licenses like GPL and MIT for free plugins. For companies offering paid content, the use of EULA is allowed. Hidden license models are not allowed, the license must be explicitly reflected in the package description.
At first, paid plugins will be accepted in the catalog only from registered companies officially, but after adjusting the publishing automation tools and financial processes to the appropriate form, this restriction will be removed and the paid plugins will be available to individual developers.
The income distribution model for the sale of plugins paid through the Qt Marketplace implies a transfer of 75% of the amount to the author in the first year and 70% in subsequent years. Payments are made once a month. Calculations are in US dollars.
“Qt's thriving global community has always been a great strength. Today's software decision makers prefer to avoid monocultural environments, as the risk of sudden discontinuation of a valuable tool is too high in that case, "said Kalle Dalheimer, CEO of KDAB.
“Qt Marketplace will provide a platform for KDAB and others to make our popular open source add-on components, tools and contributions available to the Qt community in one easy-to-access place. We look forward to the rich diversity of the Qt ecosystem joining the market. "
There are currently four main sections in the catalog store (in the future, the number of sections will be expanded):
Libraries for Qt
The section contains 83 libraries that extend the functionality of Qt, of which 71 are provided by the KDE community and isolated from the KDE Frameworks suite.
The libraries are used in the KDE environment, but do not require additional dependencies other than Qt.
Tools for developers using Qt
The section offers 10 packages, half of which are provided by the KDE project: ECM (Additional CMake modules), KApiDox, KDED (KDE Daemon), KDesignerPlugin (generating widgets for Qt Designer / Creator) and KDocTools (creating documentation in DocBook format).
Of the third-party packages, Felgo stands out (a set of utilities, more than 200 additional APIs, components for reloading and testing active code on continuous integration systems), Incredibuild (organizing builds of Qt Creator on other hosts on the network for a 10x faster build) , Squish Coco and Squish GUI Automation Tool (commercial tools for testing and analyzing code, priced at $ 3600 and $ 2880), Kuesa 3D Runtime (commercial 3D engine and environment for creating 3D content, priced at $ 2000).
Accessories for Qt Creator development environment
In her plugins are included to support Ruby and ASN languages, a database viewer (with the ability to run SQL queries), and a Doxygen document generator. The ability to install plugins directly from the store will be integrated into Qt Creator 4.12.
Qt related services
It includes extended support plans, portability services to new platforms and advice for developers.
Of the categories that are planned to be added in the future, modules for Qt Design Studio are mentioned (for example, a module for creating interface designs in GIMP), board support packages (BSP, board support packages), extensions for Boot 2 Qt (for example, support for OTA updates), resources for 3D visualization and shading effects.