Solution Explorer (Windows Embedded CE 6.0)
1/6/2010
Solution Explorer provides you with an organized view of your projects and their files as well as ready access to the commands that pertain to them. In Windows Embedded CE 6.0, Solution Explorer shows the file hierarchy for your OS design and any subprojects that you might have loaded. It also provides a Favorites folder for frequently used files or directories.
For more information about Solution Explorer, see the Visual Studio documentation.
OS Tree Hierarchy
When the main Solution Explorer view is active, the only active option on the toolbar is Properties, which displays the properties for the selected directory or file.
This view displays the file tree hierarchy for the active OS design, as created by sources and dirs files. For more information about sources and dirs files, see Sources File and Dirs File.
The hierarchy begins with the global WINCEROOT, which is by default set to C:\WINCE600. The next level of the hierarchy is called a root directory, and each root directory contains a number of dependency trees.
For example, the root directory %_WINCEROOT%\Platform might contain the CEPC, COMMON, and DEVICEEMULATOR dependency trees.
A dependency tree is parent to one or more sources or dirs files in addition to the CESYSGEN folder. Each dirs file is parent to one or more sources subprojects, which in turn contain a number of subordinate files. For example, the %_WINCEROOT%\Public\Common dependency tree includes the Oak and SDK dirs files. The Oak dirs file is parent to several sources subprojects, while it is also parent to several dirs files at the same level as the sources subprojects.
Each sources subproject**includes the following types of files:
- Include files
- Resource files
- Source files
Another tool that you can use to navigate this view is Find in Files. For information about this, see Find in Files.
Favorites
You can choose to add frequently used files or directories to the Favorites node in Solution Explorer to assist in ease of navigation. This is accomplished by right-clicking on the selected file or directory and then choosing Show in Favorites if that option is available.
When you choose to add an item to Favorites, if there are subordinate files or directories, the entire branch is also added. This results in a visual reproduction of the branch under the Favorites node, which enables you to avoid the need to navigate back to the original branch each time that you want to perform a task.
Parameter Files
In CE 6.0, the user interface has changed so that parameter files are now displayed in the Solution Explorer in the Parameter Files node.
These files are sorted into categories based on the BSPs that you have included in your OS design. For example, if you included the Device Emulator BSP in your OS design, the Parameter Files node includes a subordinate node called Device Emulator: ARMV4I. Platform Builder for CE 6.0 displays the active BSP with an (Active) appended to the BSP name.
The files contained in these nodes typically include the following files.
- Project.bib
- Project.dat
- Project.db
- Project.reg
SDKs
If you have any software development kits (SDKs) based on the currently active OS design, Platform Builder for CE 6.0 displays these in alphabetical order under the SDKs node. You can view and modify the properties of a selected SDK by, from the context menu, selecting Properties.
For information about SDKs, see SDK Development.
Subprojects
If you have any subproject (.pbpxml) files that are loaded in the currently active OS design, Platform Builder displays these subprojects in alphabetical order under the Subprojects node. You can view the files that each subproject contains.
For more information about subprojects, see Subprojects.
See Also
Concepts
Class View
Resource View
Catalog Items View