Qt for Python & Briefcase

Briefcase is a packaging tool that lets you create a standalone package for a Python application. It supports the following installer formats:

• .app application bundle for macOS

• MSI installer for Windows

• AppImage for Linux

For more details, see the official documentation.

Preparation

Install Briefcase using the following pip command:

pip install briefcase

You also need : docker on linux, WixToolset on windows,

If you’re using a virtual environment, remember to activate it before installing Briefcase.

After installation, the briefcase binary is located in your virtual environment’s bin/ directory, or where your Python executable is located.

You can either create a brand new project using the briefcase assistant or setup your own.

Use Briefcase Assistant

Run the following command and answer the questions to get started:

briefcase new

Ensure that PySide2 is chosen as the GUI toolkit choice. Your PySide2 application is now configured. You can jump to Build the package.

Set up your project

Create a pyproject.toml

At the root level of your project, create a pyproject.toml file:

[tool.briefcase]
project_name = "MyPySideApp"
bundle = "com.example"
version = "0.0.1"
url = "https://somwhere/on/the/net"
license = "GNU General Public License v3 (GPLv3)"
author = 'MyName Firstname'
author_email = "cool@mailexample.com"

[tool.briefcase.app.mypysideapp]
formal_name = "A Cool App"
description = "The coolest app ever"
icon = "src/mypysideapp/resources/appicon" # Briecase will choose the right extension depending the os (png,ico,...)
sources = ['src/mypysideapp']
requires = ['pyside2==5.15.0',
            'pony>=0.7.11,<0.8',
            'dickens==1.0.1',
            'Pillow==7.1.2',
            'mako==1.1.2',
            'beautifulsoup4']


[tool.briefcase.app.mypysideapp.macOS]
requires = []

[tool.briefcase.app.mypysideapp.linux]
requires = []
system_requires = []

[tool.briefcase.app.mypysideapp.windows]
requires = []

Write some code

Let’s say your project tree is like this:

pyproject.toml
setup.cfg
pytest.ini
src/

    mypysideapp/
        resources/
            appicon.png
            appicon.ico
        __init__.py
        __main__.py
        app.py

Content of __main__.py:

import sys
from PySide2.QtWidgets import QApplication
from mypysideapp.app import MyWidget

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app = QApplication(sys.argv)

    widget = MyWidget()
    widget.resize(800, 600)
    widget.show()

    sys.exit(app.exec_())

Content of app.py:

import random
from PySide2.QtWidgets import (QLabel, QPushButton,
                               QVBoxLayout, QWidget)
from PySide2.QtCore import Slot, Qt

class MyWidget(QWidget):
    def __init__(self):
        QWidget.__init__(self)

        self.hello = ["Hallo Welt", "你好，世界", "Hei maailma",
            "Hola Mundo", "Привет мир"]

        self.button = QPushButton("Click me!")
        self.text = QLabel("Hello World")
        self.text.setAlignment(Qt.AlignCenter)

        self.layout = QVBoxLayout()
        self.layout.addWidget(self.text)
        self.layout.addWidget(self.button)
        self.setLayout(self.layout)

        # Connecting the signal
        self.button.clicked.connect(self.magic)

    @Slot()
    def magic(self):
        self.text.setText(random.choice(self.hello))

Build the package

Initialize the package

Just run:

briefcase create

Run the following command to initialize the building the packages for Windows, Linux, and macOS. It creates a subdirectory each for the different platforms. This step takes longer as it adds the packages listed in requires sections in the pyproject.toml file.

Build the application

briefcase build

You’ll get:

macOS/A Cool App/A Cool App.app
or
linux/A Cool App-x86_64-0.0.1.AppImage
or
windows\A Cool App

Run the application

briefcase run

Note

You can run your project in dev mode (your source code not packaged) with briefcase dev

Build the installer (only Windows and macOS)

macOS:

briefcase package --no-sign

It’s possible to sign, see the documentation. You get macOS/A Cool App-0.0.1.dmg

Windows:

briefcase package

You get windowsA_Cool_App-0.0.1.msi