The code in ui/qt directory uses three APIs: Qt (which uses upper camel case), GLib (which uses snake_case), and the Wireshark API (which also uses snake_case).

As a general rule, for names, Wireshark’s Qt code:

Dialogs that work with capture file information shouldn’t close just because the capture file closes. Subclassing WiresharkDialog as described above can make it easier to persist across capture files.

When you create a window with a row of standard “OK” and “Close” buttons at the bottom using Qt Creator you will end up with a subclass of QDialog. This is fine for traditional modal dialogs, but many times the “dialog” needs to behave like a QWindow instead.

Modal dialogs should be constructed with QDialog(parent). Modeless dialogs (windows) should be constructed with QDialog(NULL, Qt::Window). Other combinations (particularly QDialog(parent, Qt::Window)) can lead to odd and inconsistent behavior. Again, subclassing WiresharkDialog will take care of this for you.

Most of the dialogs in ui/qt share many similarities, including method names, widget names, and behavior. Most dialogs should have the following, although it’s not strictly required:

Wireshark’s C code and GLib use UTF-8 encoded character arrays. Qt (specifically QString) uses UTF-16. You can convert a char * to a QString using simple assignment. You can convert a QString to a const char * using qUtf8Printable.

If you’re using GLib string functions or plain old C character array idioms in Qt-only code you’re probably doing something wrong, particularly if you’re manually allocating and releasing memory. QStrings are generally much safer and easier to use. They also make translations easier.

If you need to pass strings between Qt and GLib you can use a number of convenience routines which are defined in ui/qt/utils/qt_ui_utils.h.

If you’re calling a function that returns wmem-allocated memory it might make more sense to add a wrapper function to qt_ui_utils than to call wmem_free in your code.

Sometimes we have to call C++ functions from one of Wireshark’s C callbacks and pass C++ objects to or from C. Tap listeners are a common example. The C++ FAQ describes how to do this safely.

Tapping usually involves declaring static methods for callbacks, passing this as the tap data.

Qt provides a convenient method for translating text: Qobject::tr(), usually available as tr().

However, please avoid using tr() for static strings and define them in *.ui files instead. tr() on manually created objects like QMenu are not automatically retranslated and must instead be manually translated using changeEvent() and retranslateUi(). See ui/qt/wireshark_main_window.cpp for an example of this.

In most cases you should handle the changeEvent in order to catch QEvent::LanguageChange.

Qt makes translating the Wireshark UI into different languages easy. To add a new translation, do the following:

Alternatively you can put your QM and flag files in the languages directory in the Wireshark user configuration directory ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME/wireshark/languages/ or $HOME/.wireshark/languages/ on UNIX).

For more information about Qt Linguist see its manual.

You can also manage translations online with Transifex. Translation resources are organized by type of translation and development branch:

Each week translations are automatically synchronized with the source code through the following steps:

Qt provides a number of colors via the QPalette class. Use this class when you need a standard color provided by the underlying operating system.

Wireshark uses an extended version of the Tango Color Palette for many interface elements that require custom colors. This includes the I/O graphs, sequence diagrams, and RTP streams. Please use this palette (defined in tango_colors.h and the ColorUtils class) if QPalette doesn’t meet your needs.

Wireshark supports dark themes (aka “dark mode”) on some platforms. We leverage Qt’s dark theme support when possible, but have implemented our own support and workarounds in some cases. You can ensure that your code includes proper dark theme support by doing the following: