If you want to make stand-alone apps on your development machine, you need vendor-specific development tools installed in addition to AppStudio for ArcGIS.
Note:
The installation of development tools is not required for all AppStudio users. Most users can create app installation files using cloud Make. Creating app installation files with local Make (and hence the need to install development tools) is only required under the following circumstances:
- Organizational requirements prohibit you from using the ArcGIS Cloud Make service.
- You want to customize the installer that is created for your app.
- You want to add custom C++ modules to your app.
The following matrix describes which platforms can be targeted from each development platform.
| Target platform | Buildable on Windows | Buildable on macOS | Buildable on Linux |
|---|---|---|---|
Windows | Yes | No | No |
Universal Windows Platform (UWP) | Yes | No | No |
iOS | No | Yes | No |
macOS | No | Yes | No |
Android | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Linux | No | No | Yes |
Beta:
Support for targeting UWP as a platform is currently in beta. Functionality may undergo minor changes.
First install the development tools for your target platform listed below; then install AppStudio. After installing AppStudio, you must configure it with your installed Qt kits.
The development tools required for each target platform are listed below. All platform versions of the required Qt components should be downloaded from the Qt website.
Note:
- If you are creating apps for iOS or Android only (in any language), you do not need the Qt Installer Framework.
- If you are creating apps for Windows, Mac, or Linux, you need to download the Qt Installer Framework from the Qt website.
Windows
The following development tools for Windows are required:
- Visual Studio 2017
Note:
When you install Visual Studio, be sure to select the Microsoft Foundation Classes for C++. This is the only required feature for AppStudio.
- Qt 5.13.1 for Windows (VS 2017)
Note:
Install to the default location.
- Qt IFW 3.0.6
macOS
The following development tools for macOS are required:
- Xcode 10.1
Note:
Xcode 10.1 requires macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra or later. Earlier versions of macOS can be targeted for builds.
- Xcode Command Line Tools
- Qt 5.13.1 for Mac, Android, and iOS
Note:
Be sure to select all components on the Select Components page of the installer.
- Qt IFW 3.0.6
Linux
The following development tools for Linux are required.
- Qt 5.13.1 for Linux 64 bit
- Qt IFW 3.0.6
iOS
The following development tools for iOS are required:
- Xcode 10.1
Note:
Xcode 10.1 requires macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra or later.
- Xcode Command Line Tools
- Qt 5.13.1 for Mac, Android, and iOS
Note:
Be sure to select all components on the Select Components page of the installer.
- In Xcode, click Xcode > Preferences.
- On the Downloads tab, click Component and download the iOS simulator.
- Configure your Xcode for distribution by following the App Distribution Guide on the Apple website.
Android
The process is the same as for Windows, Mac, or Linux depending on your chosen development platform, plus the following:
- Android SDK (Platform Tools 28.0.3 and SDK 28)
- You can install these build tools in Android Studio. Go to Tools > Android > SDK Manager. On the SDK Platforms tab, select and install the Android platform on which you want to create your app, for example, Android 4.4 (KitKat). On the SDK Tools tab, select and install the Android SDK Tools for the Android platform you installed.
- Android Native Development Kit (NDK) version 18b
- Java Development Kit (JDK)
- Gradle for building application packages for Android devices (APK). Gradle
is bundled with Qt 5.9 and later. Because Gradle scripts are no longer bundled with Android SDK Tools since version 26.0.0, they're bundled with Qt 5.9 and 5.6.3. No additional installation is
required.
Note:
Using Apache Ant to build APKs is no longer supported as of AppStudio 3.1. In addition, Qt Creator no longer provides a UI for setting a path for Ant builds as of the version bundled with AppStudio 3.0, meaning that while this version of AppStudio supports Ant, it cannot be set through Qt Creator. As a workaround, a path can be provided by browsing to %appdata%/QtProject (on Windows) or ~/.config/QtProject (on Linux/macOS), opening the QtCreator.ini file, and entering AntLocation as shown below.
[AndroidConfigurations] AntLocation=D:/Android/apache-ant-1.9.3/bin/ant.bat - Qt 5.13.1 for Android (Mac, Linux, or Windows) installed to the default location.
Note:
AppStudio 1.2 requires Qt 5.6.0. AppStudio 1.3 requires Qt 5.6.2. AppStudio 1.4 and 2.0 require Qt 5.8.0. AppStudio 2.1 requires Qt 5.9.1.
Qt 5.6.0 requires GCC 4.8, which is included in NDK revisions 9 to 10e.
Qt 5.6.2 requires GCC 4.9, which is included in NDK revisions 10e and later.
Once all of these have been installed, you need to fill in the paths in Qt Creator.
- Open Qt Creator.
- Click Tools, click Options, and select Devices from the Options table of contents. On macOS, this is instead located in Qt Creator > Preferences > Devices.
- On the Android tab, browse to and provide paths to the various kits, and click OK to complete the configuration.
AppStudio advanced configuration tool
To use the AppStudio local Make tool, you need to run the AppStudio advanced configuration tool once after you have installed the required developer tools for your system. For information on using this tool, see Configure with Qt Kits.
Note:
The advanced configuration tool must be run every time a new version of AppStudio is installed to update the development environment.