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Add Applications to the Catalog (Compact 2013)

  • Article

3/26/2014

After you create an application for an OS design, you can add the application to the catalog so that other OS designs created on the same development workstation can include the new application.

When you add a new application to the catalog, you no longer need to re-create the application, and it becomes easier to add it to an OS design.

You can also distribute custom catalog items, together with their corresponding source modules, to third-party developers. Then, third-party developers can view your features in the catalog and can use the Catalog Items View to include them in their custom OS designs.

To add an application to the catalog

  1. Open an existing OS design, or create and build an OS design.

  2. If you have not built the run-time image, build the run-time image so that the build configuration files can be processed by the catalog.

  3. Create and build an application, either by using a Platform Builder subproject or by using an SDK.

  4. Create a new catalog file that will represent your application in the Platform Builder catalog.

    Make sure that you save the new file in a Catalog folder in a directory for a feature. The following list shows the locations where you can save your catalog file:

    • %_WINCEROOT%\PUBLIC\<ANY_DIRECTORY>\CATALOG\*.pbcxml
    • %_WINCEROOT%\PUBLIC\<ANY_DIRECTORY>\CATALOG\<ANY_DIRECTORY>\*.pbcxml
    • %_WINCEROOT%\PLATFORM\<ANY_DIRECTORY>\CATALOG\*.pbcxml
    • %_WINCEROOT%\PLATFORM\<ANY_DIRECTORY>\CATALOG\<ANY_DIRECTORY>\*.pbcxml
    • %_WINCEROOT%\PLATFORM\COMMON\SRC\SOC\<ANY_DIRECTORY>\CATALOG\*.pbcxml
    • %_WINCEROOT%\PLATFORM\COMMON\SRC\SOC\<ANY_DIRECTORY>\CATALOG\<ANY_DIRECTORY>\*.pbcxml

  5. Customize the catalog file by setting property values by using the Catalog Editor.

    This provides Platform Builder with the information that is required to display your application in the catalog.

  6. Validate the catalog file.

    In Catalog Editor, click Validate to validate the changes against the XSD schema, and view the Error List window and verify that you have no errors or warnings.

  7. Edit the build-configuration files to include the Sysgen variable for your module.

  8. To import the .pbcxml file into the catalog:

    1. On the View menu, click Other Windows, and then click Catalog Items View.
    2. In Catalog Items View, click the Refresh catalog tree button.

    Note

    Catalog Items View is available only if an existing OS design is open in Platform Builder.

  9. In Catalog Items View, expand the Third Party node to verify that your application has been added to the catalog.

  10. Select the check box associated with the new catalog item to add it to the OS design currently open in Platform Builder.

    The next time that you build the OS design into a run-time image, the new catalog item should be included in the run-time image.

To create a catalog item that represents an application

  1. In Catalog Editor, click the Add arrow, and then click Catalog Item.

  2. Browse to the new catalog item and select it.

    The Properties window displays the property settings for the selected catalog item in the .pbcxml file.

  3. Click in the box next to Supported CPUs, select which CPUs will support your application, and then click OK. In this example, select x86.

  4. Click in the box next to Type, and then select the catalog item group to which you want to add your application. In this example, select General.

  5. In the box next to Title, type a name for the catalog item that you want to add to the catalog. In this example, type My Application.

  6. In the box next to Unique Id, type a unique ID for the catalog item that follows the expected format. For your application, use the format Item:VENDOR:SYSGEN, where Item is the name of the catalog item, VENDOR is the name of the Catalog item vendor, and SYSGEN is the Sysgen variable. In this example, type MyFeature:MyCompany:sysgen_my_app.

  7. Click in the box next to Modules, and type the full name of each file that represents a module that implements the functionality of your application (for example, if you built a subproject named MyApp, type MyApp.exe), and then click OK.

  8. In the box next to Sysgen variable, type a Sysgen variable for your selectable catalog item. In this example, type SYSGEN_MY_APP.

    Note

    The Sysgen variable must be the same as the Sysgen substring that you specified in Unique Id.

  9. Add any additional property values that you want for the catalog item.

  10. To add a link to application source code, add a source-code link to the catalog item. This source-code link is for display purposes only.

  11. On the File menu, click Save <MyCatalogFile>.pbcxml.

See Also

Concepts

Catalog Item Management