QNetworkProxyFactory::systemProxyForQuery() is not reflecting changes to system proxy settings - qt

In Qt, I'm trying to use the system proxy settings. This seems to work well, as long as I do not change them while the application is open.
Once I change the system proxy settings, I've got to close and re-open my application to pick up the new proxy settings.
This is documented in this bug here: https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-3470
Is there any known work-around for this issue? Is this solved in newer versions of Qt (the listed bug was filed against Qt 4.5)?

You could peek at the System Registry values for the system proxy. This is quite straightforward (from what I understand) as Qt has the QSettings api which will give you quick access to the registry.
Check this link out for some info on the registry values.
Check this link out for some info/examples of QSettings.

From How do I get the system proxy using Qt?
QNetworkProxyQuery npq(QUrl("http://www.google.com"));
QList<QNetworkProxy> listOfProxies = QNetworkProxyFactory::systemProxyForQuery(npq);

Related

How to see what web server is running on my mac?

I'm trying to learn how to create a custom WordPress theme. I've been following a tutorial, and I was trying to install DesktopServer onto my MacBook Pro (to create a local environment.)
But I'm not able to install it because it's stating that
"It appears that you have another web server already running. DesktopServer cannot be installed. Check that you do not have Web Sharing turned on from your System Preference -> Sharing control panel or turn off and remove your other web server."
I've checked my Sharing settings, and nothing is enabled (including internet sharing.) So that must mean I have a web server already running. But I don't know what that would be.
Is there a way for me to find out what web server my mac is running?
And after that, is there a way for me to disable that so I could possibly use DesktopServer instead.
I've really good with writing HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc., but I'm pretty new to the server and hosting and stuff. I honestly don't understand everything yet.
I had the same problem, and the solution that worked for me was here:
https://zachgoll.github.io/blog/2018/serverpress-error/
By default, Mac OSX has an Apache server running in the background
which conflicts with Serverpress by default.
To turn it off, run sudo apachectl stop.

Qt application running with `-platform offscreen` argument cannot establish websocket connection

I have a GUI application which contains a websocket server QWebSocketServer. I also have a python script which sends messages and the application processes them. Everything works well. During testing I wanted to run the application in headless mode using -platform offscreen command line argument added to the app executable name (I changed nothing else). But the problem is that when the application runs off-screen, the client script cannot establish connection with the web socket server. I tested this on localhost only. I do not understand how this two things, visibility of GUI and websockets, can interfere. Any ideas what could go wrong?
Note: I am using Qt 5.11.1 64-bit with VS 2017 on Windows 10 Pro.
A platform plugin is a bit more than merely "GUI". The -platform option selects a family of platform-specific plugins. Perhaps some plugins that make networking work are absent on that platform spec. That's very likely, since the offscreen platform is only a proof-of-concept: it's to show how you'd write a platform plugin. It's example code, and it does the bare minimum needed. It's nothing that you should be using for production without fully understanding what's there and how it works - it wasn't not meant for it, at least not the last time I looked at it. It shouldn't be hard to make it work, but you'd need to clone the source and start hacking on it.

Qt application - uses TLS1.0

UPDATE
Problem persists in some PC's with Windows 7 and 10. Wireshark states that the requests are getting done with Tlsv1.0.
I read that there is a workaround adding registry keys, but though I tried it and none of them work (disabling Tls1.0 and enabling Tls1.1 and 1.2), I don't want my clients to do such a procedure. I want to tell my app to use 1.2 only.
EOU
I wrote an app using Qt, which performs standard get requests to my website in https://www.myprefix.mydomain.com.
Now, the deployed app on Windows works on computers with TLS version 1.2, but the request gets blocked if the computer has TLS 1.0 enabled. To conclude this I wrote a minimal app (hello world, are u there server?) and checked the Wireshark entries in both computers and that appears to be the only difference. According to Wireshark, if TLS1.0 is available, then my app uses TLS1.0 (regardless of the presence of 1.2) and gets blocked.
I know that 1.0 is no longer considered secure, so I want to tell my Qt app to use only TLS1.+.
I would rather not use http (later I'll get sensitive information) and not tell my clients to disable TLS1.0. Can this be hardcoded into the Qt app?
I have tried with this:
QSslConfiguration config = QSslConfiguration::defaultConfiguration();
config.setProtocol(QSsl::TlsV1_2);
QSslConfiguration::setDefaultConfiguration(config);
But the app still uses TLS1.0 when available, and the server blocks the request (rightly so).
The pre-built packages of Qt supports OpenSSL (on Windows and Linux, macOS uses the SecureTransport framework by default) but they don't provide it as there are specific restrictions in some countries regarding software with cryptographic capabilities.
Therefore, if you have your application working and didn't specifically install OpenSSL on your Windows machine, it means that there's a copy of it laying around in your system. You should find it and if possible remove the containing folder from your PATH environment variable.
Next, you should grab a recent version of OpenSSL. Then you can either copy the dlls in your application folder to ensure they get picked modify the PATH environment variable in Qt Creator (the Run part of the Project panel) so your application can find it.
Note that you currently have to use OpenSSL 1.0.X. If you want 1.1 support you can get it starting with Qt 5.10 but you would have to re-build Qt yourself.

Machine Key generation feature not exist in latest IIS Version

Answering one of the recent question on SO, i encountered this anomaly.
This msdn blog suggests using IIS to generate machine key, which looks more secure to me as Microsoft tool being used. However, it seems this feature is only supported until IIS 7 or less.
I don't find it on my box IIS 8.5. I checked on IIS 7.5 and its not present there either. However, I found it in IIS 6.1 on a coworker box.
I am wondering whether:
It still exist in IIS latest versions, if yes, how to use it?
If it is removed from latest version of IIS, what's suggested approach from Microsoft to generate a secure enough machine key?
Is it safe to use these custom generators?
a. Machine Key Generator (online)
b. ASP.NET machineKey Generator (tool you can modify)
See https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2915218#AppendixA for information on how to generate a <machineKey> element. There's a script there that you can copy & paste into a Powershell window.
Reminder: only use keys that you generated yourself on your own machine. Never use an online generator.
As for mentioned by #ryanulit, you can just copy the script directly to your PowerShell window
Steps :
Open powershell window (anywhere is fine)
Copy the script from the microsoft link and paste in your powershell window and press enter
Type Generate-MachineKey -validationAlgorithm SHA1
That's it. Your machine key description will show up in the window.
PowerShell image sample from my PC
Script Link from Microsoft http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2915218#AppendixA
I know I came to very late to provide this answer. Hope this helps for any others.
I'm using the latest IIS 10(which is the latest)
By default, the Machine Key feature is not installed when enabling the Internet Information Service in the windows features.
You need to install ASP.NET XX from the World Wide Web Service
After installing this, you can generate your keys from the Machine Key Option.
Make a copy of the administration.config file in C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\config. Then, in the <moduleProviders> node under <!-- ASP.NET Modules--> remove the MachineKey node. Then run iisreset. Re-open IIS and see if the ASP.NET area is present. If it is, put the MachineKey node back in the administration.config file (or just re-instate the original config file) and run iisreset again.

How can I enable auto-updates in a Qt cross-platform application?

I love applications that are able to update themselves without any effort from the user (think: Sparkle framework for Mac). Is there any code/library I can leverage to do this in a Qt application, without having to worry about the OS details?
At least for Windows, Mac and user-owned Linux binaries.
I could integrate Sparkle on the Mac version, code something for the Linux case (only for a standalone, user-owned binary; I won't mess with distribution packaging, if my program is ever packaged), and find someone to help me on the Windows side, but that's horribly painful.
It is not a complete solution, but a cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux) tool for creating packages for auto-updates and installing them is available at https://github.com/mendeley/Update-Installer. This tool does not deal with publishing updates or downloading them.
This was written for use with a Qt-based application but to make the update installer small, standalone and easy to build, the installer uses only standard system libraries (C++ runtime, pthreads/libz/libbz2 on Linux/Mac, Win32 API on Windows, Cocoa on Mac, GTK with fallback on Linux). This simplifies delivering updates which include new versions of Qt and other non-system libraries that your application may depend on.
Before considering this though, I would suggest:
If you are only building for two platforms, consider using standard and well-tested auto-update frameworks for those platforms - eg. Sparkle on Mac, Google's Omaha on Windows or auto-update systems built into popular install frameworks (eg. InstallShield). I haven't tried BitRock.
On Mac, the Mac App Store may be a good option. See https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-16549 though.
On Linux, consider creating a .deb package and a simple repository to host it. Once users have a repository set up, the system-wide software update tools will take care of checking for and installing new releases. The steps for setting up a new repository however are too complex for many new Ubuntu/Debian users. What we did, and also what Dropbox and Google have done, is to create a .deb package which sets up the repository as part of the package installation.
A few other notes on creating an updater:
On Windows Vista/7, if the application is installed system-wide (eg. in C:\Program Files\$APPNAME) your users will see a scary UAC prompt when the updater tries to obtain permissions to write to the install directory. This can be avoided either by installing to a user-writable directory (I gather that this is what Google Chrome does) or by obtaining an Authenticode certificate and using it to sign the updater binary.
On Windows Vista/7, an application .exe or DLL cannot be deleted if in use, but the updater can move the existing .exe/DLL out of the way into a temporary directory and schedule it for deletion on the next reboot.
On Ubuntu, 3rd-party repositories are disabled after distribution updates. Google works around this by creating a cron-job to re-add the repository if necessary.
Shameless plug: Fervor, a simple multiplatform (Qt-based) application autoupdater inspired by Sparkle.
Shameless plug: this a relatively old question, but I thought that it may be useful to mention a library that I created recently, which I named "QSimpleUpdater". Aside from notifying you if there's a newer version, it allows you to download the change log in any format (such as HTML or RTF) and download the updates directly from your application using a dialog.
As you may expect from a Qt project, it works on any platform supported by Qt (tested on Windows, Mac & Linux).
Links:
Website
GitHub repository
Screenshot:
Though it works a bit differently than Sparkle, BitRock InstallBuilder contains an autoupdater written in Qt that can be used independently (disclaimer, I am the original BitRock developer). It is a commercial app, but we have free licenses for open source projects.
I've developed an auto-updater library which works beautifully on Mac OS X, Linux and pretty much every Unix that allows you to unlink a file while the file is still open. The reason being that I simply extracted the downloaded package on top of the existing application. Unfortunately, because I relied on this functionality, I ran into problems on Windows as Windows does not let you unlink an open file.
The only alternative I could find is to use MoveFileEx with the replace on reboot flag, but that is awful.
However, renaming the working directory of the application works on Windows 7 and Windows XP. I haven't tried Windows Vista yet.
I have found WebUpdate to be quite useful, though it's written with the wxWidgets. But don't worry, it's a separate app which handles your updates. The steps to integrate it are pretty simple - just write two XML files and run the updater. And yes, it's cross-platform.
The advantage of it is it will automatically download and unzip/install all you required and not just provide a popup with a notification about a new version and a link to download it. Another thing you can do with it is customizable actions.
Project's main page is here, you can read the docs or take a look at the official tutorial.
The blog post Mixing Cocoa and Qt may solve the problem for the Mac platform.
You can use UpdateNode which gives you all the possibilities to update your software. It's using a cross platform Qt client and is free for Open Source!
UPDATE
Just did some further analysis on that and really like this solution:
Pros:
Free for Open Source!!! Even the client is Open Source: https://github.com/updatenode/unclient
The client is already localized in several languages
Very flexible in terms of updates. You can even update single non-binaries.
Provides additionally a way to display messages though the client.
Ready to use binaries & installer for all common Linux distributions, single Windows binary, as well as installer and a solution for Mac (which I have not tried, as I don't have a Mac)
Easy to use web service, nice statistics and update check is integrated within few minutes
Cons:
I am missing a multi-user management in the online service. Maybe they will do it in future - I will definitely suggest that in their feedback portal
The client is a GUI client only - so, you will need to shrink it down to run without a GUI frontend (maybe only necessary for people like me ;-) )
So, bottom line, as this solution is quite new, I think there is lot of potential here. I will definitely use it in my project and I am looking forward for more from them! Thumbs up!
This is an old question but there is not Squirrel in answers which is BEST SOLUTION , here is what I'm doing in qt 5.12.4 with qt quick "my qml app" you can do this in any other language
I'm doing this in windows there is mac version of squirrel too, I don't know about Linux
download nuget package explorer release
https://github.com/NuGetPackageExplorer/NuGetPackageExplorer/releases
open nuget package explorer and add this directory 'lib/net45' it doesn't matter you have a .net app or not, I did this for my qt application otherwise it won't work.
add all files into this folder specify your version in the metadata
save nupkg file
download squirrel release https://github.com/Squirrel/Squirrel.Windows/releases
add squirrel to windows environment path
open cmd and cd to directory of nupkg file
squirrel --releasify file_name.nupkg -> now inide releases folder, there should be setup.exe file which will install app and other files.
to create new version do 2,3,4,7,8 again if its an update it will create delta file which is only needed file to update, put this files into your service directory for example in updates folder of your website which you need to disable directory browsing in IIS , and to auto-update application you need to call Update.exe which is in parent folder of application root directory appdir/../update.exe --update http://yourserver.com/upates/ after application restart app should start with new version
you can find documentation for squirrel in https://github.com/Squirrel/Squirrel.Windows/blob/develop/docs/getting-started/0-overview.md and nuget package explorer here https://github.com/NuGetPackageExplorer/NuGetPackageExplorer and you can use only nuget.exe too if you don't want to use nuget package explorer which can be used for dynamic generation of versions, which can be download from https://www.nuget.org/downloads
That easy. Now you have auto-update app which will download updates from the server and auto-update app. For more info you can read documentations.
note: for iis uses https://github.com/Squirrel/OldSquirrelForWindows/issues/205
I suggest you read on plugin and how to create and use them. If your application architecture is modular and be split into different plugins. Take a look at Google Auto Update utility http://code.google.com/p/omaha/. We use this.
Thibault Cuvelier is writing a tutorial (in French) to develop an updater. I know the explanations are in French (and everyone is not understanding French), but I think this can be readable with a web translator like Google Translate. With this you will have a cross-platform updater, but you need to write it by yourself.
For what I know, the only part of the updater that is explained in the tutorial, is the file downloading part. In the case this can help you, refer to the tutorial, Un updater avec Qt.
I hope that helps.
OK, so I guess I take it as a "no (cross-platform) way". It's too bad!
I have found a solution that can be automated with built-in self-extracting patches and updates. for windows. I have started using their sdk. take a look at the massive documentation here, https://agersoftware.com/docs/ the sdk is called securesdk and comes with their app, SecureDelta sdk. does a great job on any kind of files, better results than lzma-included delta updaters

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