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How do I add Platform Builder components to my CE device?

  • Artigo

Let's say there's some cool feature you've just read about - say the CE File Server (i.e. SMB Server) - and you want to add it to your Windows CE device's ROM.  How you do this depends on who you are, what the device is, and what component you're looking to add.

I - You are an OEM
You're an OEM using Platform Builder (PB) to say build a WinCE based sewing machine.  In this case to add the SMB Server, you just select the SMB Server component from the PB IDE and drag and drop to your list of selected components.  You probably have figured this already on your own but I'm including this for completeness.

Selecting components from a higher version of the OS than you're using is not supported, however.  If you want say the SMB Server from CE 5.0 to run on a CE 4.0 device, this isn't going to work.  The CE 4.0 kernel won't load up a CE 5.0 binary for various reasons.  To get the SMB Server for CE 5.0, you'd need to upgrade your entire device to CE 5.0.

II - You're an ISV working with an OEM
Let's say you're developing some software that will run on a targeted device - like say some "learn how to sew" app for our sewing machine running CE 5.0.  If you want the SMB component, you cannot add it to the device yourself.  You must ask your OEM friends (hopefully you're friends!) you're working with to add it for you.

There is not a general mechanism for an ISV adding Platform Builder generated code from Microsoft onto a device themselves.  One of the big reasons has to do with the fact that WinCE is componentized.  Let's say that the sewing machine doesn't have a network stack (TCP/IP,...) included on it.  Well, SMB needs it.  So how would our ISV add SMB to the device when the underlying technology needed to make SMB work isn't there?  The answer is they can't.

III - You're an ISV working on a PocketPC who needs a limited set of apps
Developers writing to the PocketPC are just like the people in case II most of the time.  They can't bring in Platform Builder bits in the general case.  There are at least 2 cases where they can get PB specific bits.

If you need either the Web Server or MSMQ (both originally for Platform Builder) then these components are shipped in redistributable CAB files in the PocketPC SDK.  Microsoft determined that these components were popular enough on PocketPC that it was worth kitting them and testing them on this platform for ISVs.

There may of course be other bits that Microsoft ships like this.  Alas Microsoft is a big company and I'm not sure what those would be.

Finally -- I'm not making up the sewing machine running Windows CE.  See https://www.berninausa.com/.

[Author: John Spaith]

Comments

  • Anonymous
    May 20, 2005
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    June 20, 2005
    First off syncter I apologize for the very long reply on this. I thougth the blog was configured to send me a notice whenever someone created a comment, but apparently it's not.

    Unfortunately there's no way to add the Microsoft RTC stack to a PocketPC phone, so you're on your own here. Sorry.
  • Anonymous
    September 01, 2005
    A common error some Windows CE developers hit when using MSXML is that they call into some functionality...
  • Anonymous
    January 13, 2006
    Is there any way to add support for Windows Networking to a WM5.0 smartphone. I think I need redir.dll and netbios.dll.

    Is this possible? Real oversight if not, newer smartphones have in built wifi
  • Anonymous
    May 01, 2006
    Hi John,

    first of all thank you for your great overview on the Platform Builder.

    Please let me ask you a question: I have a BSP for an embedded device running WinCE 5.0. Now as i want to run C# applications on it i added the .NET Compact Framework 1.0 to my OS image which works quite fine.

    But how do I add the .NET Compact Framework 2.0 to the Platform Builder Catalog? I already installed the .NET Compact Framework 2.0 on my development PC but i can't get it into my available packages of the Platform Builder.

    Any help on how to get it working with the PB would be greatly appreciated.

    Yours sincerely

    Bernd Schoelzel
    [bernd.schoelzel at kuebrich-ing.net]
  • Anonymous
    May 10, 2006
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    September 29, 2006
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    November 14, 2006
    So you want to do something with XML on WinCE / Windows Mobile and want to see sample code to do it.
  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2009
    My .cab file is getting corrupted in the build. I tried including it in the Modules section of platform.bib, and it wouldn't build. It builds fine in the Files section, but a chunk of it does not get included. :{
  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2009
    This appears to be due to a PAGE. I moved the .cab files to the top of the list of files in the FILES section, and it appears to be building correctly.
  • Anonymous
    January 06, 2009
    ...well... at least on webpad |-{.
  • Anonymous
    January 18, 2009
    PingBack from http://www.keyongtech.com/3121940-configuring-a-web-server-on