What does it do?

SplitUI is a tool which extends the functionality of Qt's uic. It splits the compiled ui file (the header file) into a header file and a cpp file, which can save a lot of time, especially under Windows with MinGW. I decided to write a tool like this because I was experiencing an extremely long compile time. My uic-generated header file is 3000 lines long. If I make any change to one of the files which #includes the header, recompiling takes around 10 - 15 minutes. However, with a separate cpp and header file, the compiler only needs to recompile the UI when I make a change to it. As you can see, this tool is intended primarily for developers, people who compile downloaded source packages won't benefit from it.

Compiling & Installing

To compile, open the terminal ("Qt 4.x.y Command Prompt" under Windows) and type:
qmake -config release
make
Under Mac OS X, you can use the generated Xcode project to compile instead of make.

In order to install SplitUI, do the following:
Under Windows, copy the executable (splitui.exe located in the
release directory) to the Qt bin directory, for example
C:\Qt\4.3.0\bin
Under Linux, copy the binary file (splitui) to /usr/bin. This will require root privileges.
Under Mac OS X, copy the binary file (splitui) from inside the bundle (Contents/MacOS) to /usr/bin. This will require root privileges.

Usage

To enable SplitUI, change directory to that of your source code and type:
splitui -pro ProjectName.pro
or
splitui -pro ProjectName.pro -src SourceFolder
if you store the source and ui files in a different folder.
Please note that it is safe to distribute project files like this, because SplitUI will only be used if it is found in the specified locations.

Manual setup (optional)

Alternatively, you can enable the use of SplitUI manually. This is useful if you don't want SplitUI to modify your project file.

Imagine you have 2 ui files in your project:
main_window.ui and about.ui
To enable the use of SplitUI, add the following into your project file:

win32 {
    exists($(QTDIR)/bin/splitui.exe) {
        QMAKE_UIC = splitui.exe
        SOURCES += ui_main_window.cpp \
                   ui_about.cpp
    }
}
unix {
    exists(/usr/bin/splitui) {
        QMAKE_UIC = splitui
        SOURCES += ui_main_window.cpp \
                   ui_about.cpp
    }
}

You should now delete any uic-generated headers, in this case ui_main_window.h and ui_about.h, run qmake and recompile.
Please note that it is safe to distribute project files like this, because SplitUI will only be used if it is found in the specified locations.

Licence

This program is released under the terms of the GPL v2. For more information, see the official site.