Blog post about 2.3.0 release

content/blog/release-2.3.0.md

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+---
+title: Qbs 2.3.0 released
+date: '2024-04-08'
+author: Ivan Komissarov
+---
+
+The [Qbs build tool](http://qbs.io) version 2.3.0 is available.
+
+## What's new
+
+As [hinted](https://qbs.io/blog/release-2.2.1/) at last time, the main
+feature in this release is the use of the new Language Protocol Server for "go to definition" in
+certain contexts and auto-completion.
+
+<!--more-->
+
+### Language Protocol Server
+
+We have added a Language Protocol Server to Qbs which provides IDE-agnostic tooling
+(https://microsoft.github.io/language-server-protocol). On top of it, we added the "go to
+definition" feature to QtCreator - it is now possible to open source files from *.qbs files by
+simply pressing F2. We have also added support for autocompletion of the module properties:
+
+![autocompletion](../../img/blog/release-2.3.0.image.1.png)
+
+### General
+We have added a possibility to export products to CMake via the new Exporter.cmake module. This
+allows to use libraries built with Qbs directly with CMake projects without the need to use an
+intermediate representation in form of the Exporter.pkgconfig.
+
+We deprecated the "fallback" module
+[provider](https://doc.qt.io/qbs/module-providers.html#how-qbs-uses-module-providers) in favor of
+the [qbspkgconfig](https://doc.qt.io/qbs/qml-qbsmoduleproviders-qbspkgconfig.html) provider.
+In Qbs, module providers generate missing modules during the project configuration ("resolve")
+stage. Historically, we had only Qt and "fallback" module providers and there was no way to control
+which providers are run until we introduced "named" module providers in
+[Qbs 1.21](https://qbs.io/blog/release-1.21/). At the same time, we've added the
+`qbspkgconfig` provider that reads .pc files directly, avoiding expensive invocations of the
+`pkg-config` tool. Since then, we had two almost identical providers that work on top of .pc files.
+However, the problem with the "fallback" provider is that it works differently from other
+providers as well as suffers performance issues and has the same bugs as the `pkg-config` tool.
+Thus, we decided to deprecate the "fallback" provider in Qbs 2.3.0 and remove it in Qbs 2.4.0.
+For details on how to use the `qbspkgconfig` provider, see the
+[provider page](https://qbs.io//docs/qml-qbsmoduleproviders-qbspkgconfig/) in the documentation.
+Also, please report any bugs in the `qbspkgconfig` to the
+[bug tracker](https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QBS/).
+
+We have added a new [Tutorial](https://qbs.io//docs/tutorial/) section in the documentaion to make
+it easier to grasp core concepts and make users familiar with best practices. Also, we added a
+new [example](https://github.com/qbs/qbs/blob/master/examples/exporters/qbs/imports/MyLibrary.qbs)
+on how to use Exporter modules.
+
+If a project needs to be re-resolved, we now print the reason. Also, we rewrote the wildards
+handling to track changes more accurately.
+
+### C/C++ Support
+We fixed an issue with complex project structure that lead to a non-linear algorithm during
+traversing of the dependencies. Now, private dependencies (dependencies of static libraries) of
+products are not traversed more than once anymore
+([QBS-1714](https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QBS-1714)).
+
+### Language
+* Module properties are now accessible for groups in modules
+  ([QBS-1770](https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QBS-1770)).
+* The qbspkgconfig.mergeDependencies property was removed. This feature only existed because of
+  performance limitations which were fixed in [Qbs 2.1.0](https://qbs.io/blog/release-2.1.0/).
+* ModuleProviders now support the
+  [allowedValues](https://qbs.io//docs/qml-qbslanguageitems-propertyoptions/#allowedValues-prop)
+  property of the PropertyOptions item ([QBS-1748](https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QBS-1748)).
+
+## Try it
+
+Qbs is available for download on the
+[download page](https://download.qt.io/official_releases/qbs/2.3.0/).
+
+Please report issues in our [bug tracker](https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QBS/).
+
+Join our [Discord server](https://discord.gg/zhMHvC5GNa) for live discussions.
+
+You can use our [mailing list](https://lists.qt-project.org/mailman/listinfo/qbs) for questions
+and discussions.
+
+The [documentation](https://qbs.io/docs/index.html)
+and [wiki](https://wiki.qt.io/Qbs) are also good places to get started.
+
+Qbs is also available from a number of package repositories
+([Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org/packages/qbs),
+[MacPorts](https://www.macports.org/ports.php?by=name&substr=qbs),
+[Homebrew](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/qbs)) and is updated on each
+release by the Qbs development team. It can also be installed through
+the native package management system on a number of Linux distributions.
+Please find a complete overview on
+[repology.org](https://repology.org/project/qbs/versions).
+
+Qbs 2.3.0 is also included in Qt Creator 13.0.0.
+
+### Contribute
+If You are a happy user of Qbs, please tell others about it. But maybe you would
+like to contribute something. Everything that makes Qbs better is highly
+appreciated. Contributions may consist of reporting bugs or fixing them right
+away. But also new features are very welcome. Your patches will be automatically
+sanity-checked, built and verified on Linux, macOS and Windows by our CI bot.
+Get started with instructions in the [Qbs Wiki](https://wiki.qt.io/Qbs).
+
+Thanks to everybody who made the 2.3 release happen:
+
+* Christian Kandeler
+* Dmitrii Meshkov
+* Ivan Komissarov
+* Raphael Cotty
+* Richard Weickelt

content/blog/release-2.3.0.md.license

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+SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2024 Ivan Komissarov <[email protected]>
+
+SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-only

static/img/blog/release-2.3.0.image.1.png.license

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+SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2024 Ivan Komissarov <[email protected]>
+
+SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-only