Alright, I am trying to Link this into my program and I never linked anything before so I need help with not only linking it (Because I have the directory in the linker -> additional directories but I need to link against the libmysql.lib/dll. I am not sure how to do that.
If you could give me a basic understanding that would be great! Just don't make it too complex ;)
I am trying to follow the steps on the website and it says to do this: (I have looked up and people said something about a MakeFile and I honestly don't know anything how that works)
The Connector/C++ static library file is mysqlcppconn-static.lib. You link this library statically with your application. Also link against the files libmysql.dll and libmysql.lib. At runtime, the application will require access to libmysql.dll.
Here's what you need to do to install an library to your c++ project.
Add it to additional depencies in the linker.
Project->Properties->Linker->Input
Click the dropdown, click edit. On the list on the top, add just the names for every .lib file included in the library. For example, If installing SDL, one would add:
SDL2.lib
SDL2main.lib
These files can probably be found under the lib folder of the library you downloaded (look around a bit).
Tell VS where the header files are.
Project->Properties->VC++ Directories->Include Directories
Click the dropdown, click edit. add the location of all of the header files of the library. You can put them wherever you want, but it is suggested you put them in their own folder in your project folder somewhere. Wherever you put them, put the directory here; the containing folder, not the files themselves.
Tell VS where the lib files are.
Project->Properties->VC++Directories->Library Directories
Click the dropdown, edit. Same thing as step 2, but you instead are putting the location of all the .lib files. Yep, the same ones you defined in step 1.
Provide the .dll files to your executable.
When the executable runs, it needs .dll in the same directory or it will not run (CORRECTION = It will run, but will give you an error upon open). So find your executable and put any .dll files in the same directory. How to find where it is by default:
Solution Explorer->Right Click Solution->Open in explorer->Debug
You should see the .exe there. Put the libraries dll files in that same directory.
If you have any questions please ask.
Related
I am working on a project that involves making a dynamic link library, so I want to test it in a console app in Visual Studio.
The DLL is also made in Visual Studio, it doesn't have much, just a few functions in it. I'm not sure if I'm just supposed to include the librarys header in the include directories panel in Properties, or do something else
A lot of people say I'm supposed to add its corresponding .lib file in the Library or Reference directory, but I'm not sure that VS generates a .lib file alongside the DLL. I'm using VS 2015.
I don't have VS in front of me this very moment, but these should be the general steps to set it up:
Properties->Linker->Input: your.lib
Properties->Linker->Additional Library Directories: ../your/bin
Properties->General->Compiler->Additional Include Directories: ../your/include
To build your app, the DLL's API headers must be in the include for the compile-time, it's LIB files in the bin for the link-time. Once you have your app EXE, all you need is the DLL to be in the same folder as your EXE when it executes.
You might also want to add the dll project and the app project into a common solution in VS and add (right click) Project Dependency from the app to the dll. This ensures correct order of building, assuming you are going to build the dll at all.
You can also do what I did.
You can create a Libs directory inside of your Solution directory.
You can then place your .DLL files inside of the Libs directory or some sub-directory inside of Libs
In my case, I added the entire SFML-2.3.2 directory in there, which included the source-code, .lib files, and .dll files.
I did link up what I could in the project properties, but I used Visual Studio's macros to fill in the path name to the Solution directory. Just in case I wanted to put this in version control and work on it from multiple machines.
Then I opened up the Project's Property Page.
Within the property page, I went to Build Events -> Post-Build Event -> Command Line
Within the Command Line, you can add a copy command that will copy any needed files into the same directory as the executable that will need them.
In my case I used: copy "$(SolutionDir)Libs\SFML-2.3.2\bin\*" "$(TargetDir)"
I could have written multiple commands to copy just the individual files that I needed, but I had spent a good three hours trying to get SFML to work without actually installing it.
I am trying to learn more about Multiplayer Modifications so i've downloaded the source code of San Andreas Multiplayer.
My problem is that the client project creates a .dll and a .lib files. I've searched on many sites how to implement them into a new project but i just did not find a clear answer.
So i am creating a new Visual C++ project where i need to implement the libraries resulted from SAMP Client compilation. Any help would be great :).
If you want you can join me in this project.
I don't know how SAMP dlls are but in general, this is how it works:
Linker need *.lib files. So you should copy lib files to your default lib directories or create a new directory under libraries of your project and copy them in it.
If the project you want to link have include files too, do what you did for lib files for include files too. Copy them to include directory.
Put DLLs in a directory that your application can reach. This can be your Debug folder or even it can be Windows or System32 directory. Choose where to put them on your own (it depends on many parameters. Pick one that fits you).
This link tells you how to put them in project directories.
That's it. You can call functions of the project you want to use. Tell me if you got problem.
I implemented the SFML library nightly build to my Visual Studio 2013, because the original one is not compatibile with this VS version. I done everything what is needed (added directory to include folder in both Debug and Release, added directory to .dll files), but it can't find the files in program. What else should be done to make this library work? Or should i consider changing Visual Studio to 2010?
You haven't given really to much information so I am just really guessing as to what the problem is.
added directory to .dll files
But that sounds like your problem right there. You don't add the directory that the .dll files are in to your project. The only directories you need to add to the project are the include directory and the library directory.
But anyways I am assuming you are using dynamic linking since otherwise you wouldn't be dealing with .dlls. Now different IDE's require that you place the .dlls in different spots but since you are dealing with VS2013 you need to copy whatever .dlls that you are using into the same folder where your program's compiled executable is (The .exe file).
Another option is to link statically instead of dynamically which I generally prefer to do on small projects but it is really up to the developer which he prefers.
When you link statically you don't need to include any .dlls. What you will need to do is recompile SFML's sources and make sure to build the library so it produces the static library files (They should be named something like sfml-graphics-s-d.lib for debug and sfml-graphics-s-d.lib for release).
Add that library directory which contains the static library files to your project and then link to them .lib files in VS's input window (Remember that -d is for the debug build).
Next you will need to add SFML_STATIC to your preprocessor options on both the release and debug build.
After that you are good to go and don't need to include the .dll files with your project. And again whether you choose to link dynamically or statically is really up to you and the project you are working on but for small projects I would suggest linking statically.
I know many have asked this question, but following the things suggested hasn't seemed to work for me. So I thought I'd ask for help, as I'm obviously missing something.
I've spent the past couple days writing some code that uses the boost library that allows me to open text files, translate the text into a usable data format, and save the data as a text file when I'm done with it. I built it specifically to be extendable to deal with different datatypes (specifically any object or class I make down the line) so that I could link to it as a library in my project as I do other libraries.
However, even after compiling it into a lib and adding the directory of the lib to the "Additional Include Directories", I get an unresolved external error whenever I try to include one of the header files in the library. I've also tried putting the direct path to it under Additional Dependencies (as well as just the library name with the path to the directory set in Additional Include Directories and Additional Library Directories. I also tried it with only one of those on at a time and it still failed).
Is there something I'm missing? How can I compile this code I'd like to reuse and link to it in new projects without copying the cpp and h files into my solution every time? Would a DLL work better/easier? If so, how would I go about compiling it as a dll and linking to it?
Thanks for reading this wall of text. Any help you could provide would be great.
Ok. While it's not the exact solution I was going for, I managed to figure this out. For anyone running into this problem, there's a wonderful tutorial that explains how to make DLL files and make use of them (at least on windows, don't have any computers using an alternate OS set up yet to test the DLL on). You can find it here.
http://programmingexamples.wikidot.com/blog:1
The gist of the problem is you need to also keep a copy of the .h file handy to include in your project. (what I did is created a directory on my C drive that holds the libraries I'm making, and in that I have a folder for the .lib files and a folder for the .h files.) Either import the .h file directly into your project directory or add it to your project properties (C++ -> General -> Additional Include Directories ). Make sure for that, you're linking to the directory, not the file itself. In the linker, you need to add your .lib file to the Additional Dependencies section (Linker -> Input -> Additional Dependencies). You can put the whole path here, or you can just put the file name, then tell the program where to find the directory it's in (add the path to the directory to Linker -> General -> Additional Library Directories)
Hope this helps anyone else who managed to miss something that everyone else seems to understand instinctually :P
I have had C++ experience but not MSVC.
What I am trying to do is incorporate a .dll from an open source project into my project. The code is available and I have built it. I have the .dll as well as the .lib which as I understand it is required for C++ projects.
Now unfortunately there is no simple "Add Reference", drop my .dll into an include directory and add that to my solution. I have edited the project property pages, the C/C++ Additional Include Directories option as well as adding the .lib as an additional linker dependency. I have created an include directory for the dll and lib inside my solution tree.
My problem is when I try to include the header files from the documentation, VS output spits out error messages. Now I realize that I am using the dll/lib combo and that the .h files are not present in my solution so how do I add the proper includes? I am using QT toolkit also which is working but how I add the other header / dll from the open source library eludes me.
Can someone please point me in the right direction.
You need to do a couple of things to use the library:
Make sure that you have both the *.lib and the *.dll from the library you want to use. If you don't have the *.lib, skip #2
Put a reference to the *.lib in the project. Right click the project name in the Solution Explorer and then select Configuration Properties->Linker->Input and put the name of the lib in the Additional Dependencies property.
You have to make sure that VS can find the lib you just added so you have to go to the Tools menu and select Options... Then under Projects and Solutions select VC++ Directories,edit Library Directory option. From within here you can set the directory that contains your new lib by selecting the 'Library Files' in the 'Show Directories For:' drop down box. Just add the path to your lib file in the list of directories. If you dont have a lib you can omit this, but while your here you will also need to set the directory which contains your header files as well under the 'Include Files'. Do it the same way you added the lib.
After doing this you should be good to go and can use your library. If you dont have a lib file you can still use the dll by importing it yourself. During your applications startup you can explicitly load the dll by calling LoadLibrary (see: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms684175(VS.85).aspx for more info)
Cheers!
EDIT
Remember to use #include < Foo.h > as opposed to #include "foo.h". The former searches the include path. The latter uses the local project files.
The additional include directories are relative to the project dir. This is normally the dir where your project file, *.vcproj, is located. I guess that in your case you have to add just "include" to your include and library directories.
If you want to be sure what your project dir is, you can check the value of the $(ProjectDir) macro. To do that go to "C/C++ -> Additional Include Directories", press the "..." button and in the pop-up dialog press "Macros>>".
You mention adding the additional include directory (C/C++|General) and additional lib dependency (Linker|Input), but have you also added the additional library directory (Linker|General)?
Including a sample error message might also help people answer the question since it's not even clear if the error is during compilation or linking.