Using multiple resource files in MFC project - c++

I'm working in MFC (C++11)in VS2015 and I have a set of standalone GUIs that i'd like to use across multiple projects. I know this is possible by creating a .rc file that can be included in the main .rc file of each project based on this:
Using Multiple Resource Files
While conceptually I understand what it is describing, i can't find any example of creating the standalone .rc file and second resource file. I created a test resource header file that lives globally in my solution and tried to include it using Resource Includes, but it can't find it, even with the path. Can anyone point me to links or examples on how to set this up?

I have either .rci files, that are never used with the resource editor. They are used with #include freely.
Or I have special .rc files that contain standard symbols and messages, that are used over a larger set of projects.
I just simply add the second rc file to the project. This resource file is simply #include'ed into the main .rc file of the project.
To prevent errors in the project. This second .rc file is excluded from the build. In the solution explorer right click on the item. And set Exclude from Build to YES.
Take care about collisions of IDs.

Here is how I do it. If you drop the resource you would like to include on the resource folder in the solution explorer, it will show up as a separate and editable resource in your project
You will have to include the headers in your project that go along with them, of course. So watch out for collisions of your IDs. You may have to go to the new resource and use IDs that have been set aside by adjusting _APS_NEXT_XXX_VALUE. I've never used the 'Resources Includes..'. as described in TN035. I just checked and relative paths to bitmaps seems to work fine. Hope that helps.

I know two approaches of doing it. I will demonstrate it assuming you want it for the need of managing the fact your application supports several languages.
The first one is already described by user #xMRi, and depending on your configuration/platform you will include only the .rc in question. For example you have configurations:
en_GB
fr_FR
pt_PT
de_DE
and files
Project_en_GB.rc
Project_fr_FR.rc
Project_pt_PT.rc
Project_de_DE.rc
For getting this right, you will need to do Exclude from build on them all, except on the Configuration you have selected at the moment on the VS Toolbar combo. If you have fr_FR selected, do Exclude from build of all other .rc except Project_fr_FR.rc files and apply the same logic on every configuration.
The other is to have a VS project (vcproj) for each language, where each project contains the .rc file brlonging to it.
The projects
Project_en_GB
Project_fr_FR
Project_pt_PT
Project_de_DE
contain respectively
Project_en_GB.rc
Project_fr_FR.rc
Project_pt_PT.rc
Project_de_DE.rc
Here at work we use both (I never heard of .rci files before; we use the first with normal .rc files), depending on the project.

Related

How to add an include directory based on environment variable in RHIDE without expansion?

The REDHAWK IDE insists on expanding environment variables when creating the Makefile.am.ide file. For example, assume that $SRC_ROOT is /srcpath and I add an include path in the Path and Symbols window of the C/C++ section of my project as below:
${env_var:SRC_ROOT}/include
the generated Makefile.am.ide file contains:
rehawk_INCLUDES_auto = -I/srcpath/include
when what I really want is:
rehawk_INCLUDES_auto = -I$(SRC_ROOT)/include
This is important because this file is used by other team members that have different values for $SRC_ROOT. Currently we have to put the include path in Makefile.am, but then the IDE doesn't see the header files in the directory and sees errors for the code referred to in the missing headers.
Is there anyway to get RHIDE, to not expand the environment variables when it generates Makefile.am.ide?
Not exactly what you are looking for but you can always disable the auto-updates of the Makefile.am.ide by disabling the REDHAWK C++ auto-inclusion builder. This is in the projects properties in the Builders section.
This will allow you to add to Eclipse's Paths and Symbols section without the auto-inclusion builder picking it up and adding it to your Makefile.am.ide.
If you do choose to disable this builder you will then need to manage the addition of new source files on your own.
Youssef's answer is not a bad one, but I've come up with a different way to work around the problem. In Makefile.am, override the redhawk_INCLUDES_auto value to be what I what it to be:
include $(srcdir)/Makefile.am.ide
#Override the value from Makefile.am.ide that may be wrong!
override redhawk_INCLUDES_auto = -I$(SRC_ROOT)/include
This requires one to update any custom include directories in both the IDE and the Makefile.am file, but managing the source files is still automatic.
It still has the issue that the Makefile.am.ide file's contents will be different for other developers which complicates version control. So I don't consider this be a complete answer to the problem.

Xcode folders and groups confusion

I'm using Xcode (with C++) and my project layout (in the file system, not in Xcode) looks like this:
SubfolderA
-file_A_1, file_A_2
SubfolderB
-file_B_1, file_B_2
Right now I've set up this structure in Xcode via groups. And so, when I want to include file_A_2 in file_B_1, I write #include "file_A_2" in file_B_1.
Is there some way to make an inclusion look like #include "/SubfolderA/file_A_2", so that I can easily see to what directory/subfolder an included file belongs?
One way to see what's going on is to look at the Build Log and expand the line for compiling sourcefile.m. Look at the -I options being passed to the compiler.
If it's not to your liking you can add the source tree in the Build Settings > Header Search Paths to include $(ProjectDir)/srcroot and make it recursive, which saves you from adding each sub-folder individually.
In my experience this has never been necessary, however, as far as I can remember.
As far as the Xcode folders are concerned, if the top-level source folder is added then all sub-folders are automatically added when you add them to the filesystem, saving the hassle of keeping them in sync. You might need to add the top-level folder under the Source Files group for this to work, however.
Surprisingly, in Xcode's Build Settings I've added to User Header Search Paths non-recursive path to my project. This solved my problem.
I ended up here when I was having an issue with XCode while trying to include a header in a group by doing
#include "MyGroup/MyHeader.h"
Turns out the project structure and the file system weren't in sync, so I just had to remove my group from the project, put it in the correct place in Finder, then drag and drop it back into the project in the correct place and it worked for me.
I'm not sure if this is necessary or not, but I also have already set up my app's working directory because I am doing some game programming and need to be able to load in .png and make textures.

Changing output directory in VS2010 project doesn't work

I have combined several projects into one solution. I created empty solution and added these projects and here is a blue print of how it looks like:
Root:
Project1 - directory
Project2 - directory
Debug - directory
Main.sln - file
Now I want to direct the executable and dll from both projects to \debug folder shown up of the solution file. I go into project properites >> Configuration Properities >> General >> 'Output Directory' and change the output directory to $(SolutionDir)$(Configuration)\ which is default for a new project.
The problem is that it has no effect on where the output file is created, it is still created in the old destination. The old path for `Output Directory' was .\Debug\ not that it matters.
Could this be because the SolutionDir & Configuration may not be defined? Where can I see their definition or values? I also want to create a new configuration which would be 'Release with Debug' how can I create that using environment variable? Thanks!
My project is MFC/Visual C++.
Add-on:
Where are these identifiers like SolutionDir defined in the scrip? I look up for in .vcxproj file but there is mention of it. I create a new dummy VS2010 project just to look at it's .vcxproj file but these project settings identified are not defined in any place that I can see!
This is most likely caused by specific settings overriding global settings, namely Linker's "output" setting. This happens often as a result of conversion from earlier Visual Studio.
What you need is to go through every setting, paying attention to those whose values are written in bold, and reset to default (select it from dropdown) every setting with 'debug' or 'release', and others as necessary.
There could also be specific settings on files. I usually resolve this by opening project in notepad and removing any excessive settings. Just be careful. Using multiline replace in Notepad++ or any other capable editor helps.
I think I had a similar problem.
What I ended up doing was editing the vcxproj file directly. Find this section and edit it like this for each of your configurations:
<PropertyGroup>
<OutDir Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='Release|Win32'">$(SolutionDir)$(Configuration)\</OutDir>
<OutDir Condition="'$(Configuration)|$(Platform)'=='Debug|Win32'">$(SolutionDir)$(Configuration)\</OutDir>
</PropertyGroup>
I had a similar problem with the Intermediate Directory setting in one of my VS2010 projects. No matter what I set it to, it would always use the default value of $(SolutionDir)$Configuration. Oddly, other projects in the same solution with the same settings worked just fine.
After playing around, I stumbled upon a solution.
Click on the setting in the propery page dialog.
Click on the down arrow button in the right-hand side of the edit box.
Select "inherit from parent or project defaults".
Click "Apply".
Click on the setting and change it to your desired value.
I don't know why this works, but it does. It seems like the macros were not being properly evaluated for whatever reason. Then, after you apply the inherited values, it seems to reset itself and start evaluating the macros properly.

Method to store a configuration file inside executable in C++

I need to store a configuration file that can be changed once the executable has been compiled inside of an executable using C++. I assume the configuration file would need to be stored as a resource for it to be editable once the executable has been compiled.
I have no idea how I can go about storing it as a resource and how to then include it in the main section of my project while still leaving it in the resource section.
Any help will be much appreciated.
Windows "*.ini" files is one way.
But, I suggest use XML files for configuration. Most compilers have 2 or 3 libraries to load & store data from XML files.
Besides, they allow to store information in a hierarchical way, and easy to add or remove configuration options.
EDIT:
Another way are JSON files.

How to delete dlldata.c during clean build in Visual Studio?

I will be creating a series of projects set up to build COM objects. I attempting to create a property sheet (.vsprops file) which will set up the builds for each project. One of the things I am doing with the properties file is customizing the location and names of the files created by the MIDL compiler. Here's the code I use for this:
<Tool
Name="VCMIDLTool"
TypeLibraryName="$(InputName).tlb"
OutputDirectory="$(RPCDIR)"
HeaderFileName="$(InputName).h"
DLLDataFileName="$(InputName)_dlldata.c"
InterfaceIdentifierFileName="$(InputName)_i.c"
ProxyFileName="$(InputName)_p.c"
/>
RPCDIR is a macro defined before this section of the property file. This works great for compiling the code. When I build my project, these five files are created with the correct names in the location I specified in the RPCDIR macro. My problem is when I try to clean the build. The clean successfully deletes four of the files, but the DLL Data File does not get deleted. I'm especially confused that some are deleted and one is not - I would have thought that either they would all be deleted or none be deleted rather than a split like this.
Does anyone know how I can customize the clean build to correctly delete these files? Optimally any changes I need to make would be in the property sheet so that I can share it with other projects, but if that's not possible then I'd like to at least be able to do it in the project file. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!
Not your problem, it is a bug in the build system. The dlldata.c file doesn't get deleted using a regular build either. There aren't enough diagnostics available in the msbuild .log files to see what target fumbles this. I'm guessing it has something to do with the <FilePatternsToDelete> item in the Microsoft.CppClean.targets file.
I recommend you report this problem at connect.microsoft.com