Welcome to KDE Necessitas project

What is it?

Necessitas is a KDE community project aimed to provide an easy way to develop Qt apps on Android platform.

The Qt framework is a great Development Framework! It's multi-platform, complete, mature and bleeding-edge at the same time. With Qt you can write great applications for the desktop (Linux, Mac and Windows) and for the mobile world (tablets, phones... Symbian, MeeGo, Maemo, Android, BlackBerry, IOS, WebOS...) and also in the embedded world. Qt is a C++ framework, which is a plus if you don't like Java that much.

Android... well, it does not need introductions. The Google powered mobile system, based on Linux, it's both the most widespread and more open mobile environment available today. Necessitas comes from the need of exploting the power and the multi-platform capabilities of the Qt framework on the Android world. It was born as a concept work which demonstrates the flexibility of Qt and, today, strives to become a fully working development solution for Android.

So, what?

Necessitas is the work of a few. Everybody is invited to join our efforts and contribute.

The current status of the project is, albeit still in alpha, already encouraging. A few fully working apps have been released on the Google Play by various developers including some complex applications... Check them out... Both QML and QWidget based UIs are supported!

Not everything works, or at least not as expected, but a steady and committed work is done to improve every new release.

The main Qt framework works. QML works, QWidget (with the limitations of QWidget in the mobile world) works... QtWebkit works too... and QtMobility is partially working. QtLocation and QtSensors mostly works, while QtMultimedia and QSound is, at the moment, still work in progress.

Ok, i am interested... Get Involved!

Do you already have a Qt application written for Symbian, Windows, Linux or any other Qt-supported platform? Great! Grab Necessitas SDK and start porting it to Android too! You will find that's almost as easy as recompiling (ok, maybe not so easy, but...).

Do you want to develop a new application for Android but you don't like Java? Well, enjoy the leverage of C++ with the Qt framework! Or maybe you want to write a new app and ensure it will work on almost any mobile environment out there? You will find Android with Necessitas the best solution besides the Nokia-supported platforms.

Mmmm, I need Help! Get it here...

Some details...

Necessitas uses the Android NDK. Basically, your Qt application is compiled as a dynamic library and a Java application wrapper is added to interface it with the Android enviroment. You don't have to worry, because everything is managed automatically by the Necessitas SDK. You just fire up Necessitas' own QtCreator, write your code, hit the deploy button and the magic will do itself.

So, what are you waiting for? Go check the How to install Necessitas SDK page! Or, if you are more into hacking and thinkering, you can also be brave and Compile Qt framework and of course also Compile QtCreator!

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