Qt can't find my shared library - no really it cant

Question

I'm new to Qt and I'm trying to implement a simple shared library for use in another application. I've read the wiki and other docs, but even after carefully following the steps, the compiler will always throw an error saying it can't find my header files.

I'm using Qt MinGW on Windows 10. Here's what I did:

1. Created and compiled a shared library called libgx
2. In another project (hello), added the generated liblibgx.a file, using the "Add Library" wizard.
3. Pulled my hair over this error I get when I try to include the library's header into hello's main.cpp

The wiki is not helpful here at all. It tells me, "MinGW compiled linking libraries are in .a, but you will need to add it manually (as of Qt Creator 2.7). You could also try simply linking the .dll directly cause it would probably work." I'm like WHAT?

hello's .pro file

QT       += core gui

greaterThan(QT_MAJOR_VERSION, 4): QT += widgets

TARGET = hello
TEMPLATE = app


SOURCES += main.cpp\
        mainwindow.cpp\
        C:/Users/sagar.JARVISAIO/Documents/libgx/libgx.cpp


HEADERS  += mainwindow.h\
        C:/Users/sagar.JARVISAIO/Documents/libgx/libgx.h
FORMS    += mainwindow.ui

win32:CONFIG(release, debug|release): LIBS += -L$$PWD/../build-libgx-Desktop_Qt_5_5_0_MinGW_32bit-Release/release/ -llibgx
else:win32:CONFIG(debug, debug|release): LIBS += -L$$PWD/../build-libgx-Desktop_Qt_5_5_0_MinGW_32bit-Release/debug/ -llibgx
else:unix: LIBS += -L$$PWD/../build-libgx-Desktop_Qt_5_5_0_MinGW_32bit-Release/ -llibgx

INCLUDEPATH += $$PWD/../build-libgx-Desktop_Qt_5_5_0_MinGW_32bit-Release/release
DEPENDPATH += $$PWD/../build-libgx-Desktop_Qt_5_5_0_MinGW_32bit-Release/release

Answer 1

I manually added the headers and the library files in the .pro file using the procedure here . Never going to bother with that "wizard" again. It was unnecessarily adding a $$PWD variable in all my paths which I think was causing my problem.