Catalog Feature Files

Article
06/30/2006

A Catalog feature file (.cec) describes metadata about features and their relationships. Before you can use your feature from the Catalog, you must first create a .cec file and then import the file into the Catalog.

A .cec file consists of blocks and sub blocks. The following table shows the blocks contained in a .cec file and the order they appear in a .cec file.

Block name	Content
CECInfo	Basic information about the .cec file, such as the name, description, vendor and version of the .cec file.
ComponentType	Feature Groups or a generalized feature that may have many different implementations.
Implementation	Definition of an implementation for a component type.
BuildMethod	Information needed for the build system to build and deploy this feature to an operating system (OS) image.
BIBInfo	Information that describes the Project.bib file entries for an implementation.

When you create a .cec file and want to add an existing implementation or ComponentType from another .cec file, use the ComponentType or implementation's Globally unique identifier (GUID) rather than creating a new GUID.

Note If you want to add to an existing implementation, use the same Implementation version number as the one you want to append.

When the data for a field contains a space, the data must be enclosed by quotes. Tokens are separated by spaces and lines are ignored. If you enter a comment line, you need to include a space after // in order to avoid a syntax error. For examples of the grammar used in .cec files, examine the default .cec files that are installed with Platform Builder. The .cec files are installed in the <Platform Builder installation path>\Cepb\Cec directory of your Platform Builder installation.

The Platform Builder import parser adheres to the following rules when importing a .cec file:

Globally unique identifiers (GUID) are automatically generated for any structure that does not supply one, including component types, implementations and build methods.

Note It is strongly recommended that you supply your own GUIDs for your features to ensure consistency. You can use the GUIDGEN tool to create a new GUID. GUIDGEN.exe is located in the %_WINCEROOT%\SDK\BIN\i386 directory.
GUIDs should be specified in the following standard format:

{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}
A .cec file can reference other structures by name instead of GUID only if they are defined in the same .cec file.
If the information for a field requires more than one value, such as Children(), quotes are not needed. But if your value has a space in the string, such as "My Feature", include double quotes around the string.
Modifications to .cec files will not be incorporated if another .cec file references the same feature group. To incorporate the changes to features, all .cec files containing references to the specified feature group must be removed from the Catalog and imported again.

A CEC Editor utility is included with Platform Builder to assist you in creating and modifying .cec files. This utility is accessed from the Tools menu.

BSP .cec files contain data describing your device drivers and your OEM adaptation layer (OAL). The following GUID identifies BSP .cec files as OALs in the Catalog.

ComponentType (
    Name( BSPs )
    GUID( {3CABD6DA-B577-4a87-9490-9432E80DC2F1} )
    Description( "Board Support Packages" )
    Implementations(
        Implementation(

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Catalog Feature Files

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