SDK Overview (Compact 2013)
3/26/2014
The topics in this section contain information about the creation, configuration, installation, and contents of a Windows Embedded Compact 2013 software development kit (SDK) that you create from your OS design.
Create a Compact 2013 SDK
A Compact 2013 SDK is a collection of software utilities, libraries, or tools that a software developer links to, even without access to a Compact 2013 OS design. The SDK represents functionality of OS components, board support packages (BSPs), and subprojects of the OS design.
For more information about how to create an SDK for your OS design, see Create Software Development Kits.
For information about how to create a virtual device that can be used by application developers, see Create a Virtual Device for Use with an SDK.
For information about how to create an OS design and SDK that can be used by application developers on a virtual device, see Create an OS and SDK for the Sample Virtual Device.
SDK Application Debugging and Diagnostics Tools
When you create an SDK for your OS design, you can add support for debugging and diagnostics tools to assist developers who build applications for your OS.
To help developers debug applications, add the following catalog items to your OS design:
- Application Builder Debugging Support - enables developers who are using Application Builder to debug applications.
- Remote Tools Support - enables developers to use Remote Tools in Visual Studio.
These catalog items will add SYSGEN_APPDEBUG and SYSGEN_REMOTETOOLS to your OS design.
Note
Adding these catalog items will also add other dependencies such as SYSGEN_NETWORKING to your OS design.
For more information about how to use the debugging and diagnostics tools in your OS design, see Select an OS Design Template and Diagnostic and Debugging Tools Catalog Items and SYSGEN Variables.
SDK Configuration File
When you create an SDK for your OS design, the SDK build tool saves the SDK property settings that you selected in an .sdkcfg file. For example, if the name of the SDK for OSDesign1 is SDK1, the default location of the configuration file is C:\WINCE800\OSDesigns\OSDesign1\OSDesign1\SDKs\SDK1\SDK1.sdkcfg. In Solution Explorer, when you see your SDK appear under SDKs, right-click your SDK, and then click Explore to open the folder that contains the configuration file.
For more information about your SDK’s configuration file, see SDK Configuration File.
SDK Installation
The location of the SDK .msi file created during the SDK build is contained in the last line of the Platform Builder build.log file and is displayed in the Visual Studio Output window. For example, if the name of the SDK for OSDesign1 is SDK1, the default location of the SDK1.msi file is C:\WINCE800\OSDesigns\OSDesign1\OSDesign1\SDKs\SDK1\MSI\. You can change the name and location of the .msi file in the SDK Property Pages dialog box. For more information, see SDK Property Pages: Install.
To use the SDK that was created from your OS design, install it by double-clicking the SDK .msi file and following the instructions in the Setup wizard for the Compact 2013 SDK. The default location for SDK installation is C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows CE Tools\SDKs\. You can change the location in the Destination Folders page during SDK installation.
SDK Contents
The SDK that you create contains the application development files and Visual Studio project templates required by developers to build applications that are based on your OS design. For more information about the files and project templates that are contained in your SDK, see SDK Contents.
For information about how to build applications from an SDK, see Create Your Application Using an SDK for an OS Image.