Custom Categories

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

Hi,

Is there a way, official or otherwise, to create custom categories in TD?
I'm sure there's a way because its all pulled from the SQL database tables.

Motivation:
I have two versions of the same product that I need to support concurrently
in my XPe image. As the component names are the same for each section of the
product I created a Selector component for each version to help me organize
my work and make it easier for someone else to recreate the image.

However, it would be nice to create a custom <MyCompany> category with
<MyVersionX.X> sub categories.

Thanks,
Ed.
 
Read my blog post on this subject:, yes it's possible, just not documented
and not technically supported and it hasn't been thoroughly tested since it
was dropped around Beta1 of XPe Gold. Note that one thing you're trying to
do that i haven't tried is custom sub categories as well, let me know how it
goes. I'm going to ask for this to be exposed in the next release.
Here it is:
"How to create your own SW/HW categories in Component Designer"-
http://blogs.msdn.com/embedded/archive/2005/03/30/403929.aspx

-Andy
 
Excellent :) I'll give it a try and see what happens. I'd better make a
back up of my DB first though :)

Thanks,
Ed.
 
Cool! Works just the way I wanted :) Here's a little write up for those
brave people that want to create custom categories:

Custom categories
-----------------
Custom categories are not officially supported by XP Embedded but the
functionality is accessible by running "Component Designer" with the /C
command line option.

This will make the "Categories" folder visible.

Example:
CDesign.exe /C

See blog in previous post for all the details :)

Creating a Category Hierarchy
-----------------------------
It's possible to create sub categories by using the colon ":" character as a
path delimiter. For example if you have a category called "Company Name" you
can create a sub category by naming it "Company Name : Product A".

When viewed in Target designer it will appear as a parent and child folder.

Deleting custom categories
--------------------------
I do not know of an official way to remove these categories. Perhaps there
is a switch on the "Component Database manager" that exposes the installed
categories.

For now I just remove them from the SQL database table "Group Objects". As
a small save guard make sure to remember the import date of your custom
categories so that you don't delete the wrong entries.

NOTE: Here's a simple SQL query that will list all objects that were
imported around the date specified. replace the date with the date that you
imported the categories.

----------------------------------
SELECT *
FROM GroupObjects
WHERE (DATEDIFF([day], DateImported, '6/1/2005 12:58:13 PM') < 1)
-----------------------------------

I don't know what happens when you try to use a component when the category
has been deleted. It is probably wise to edit the component and re-import it.


Use this knowledge as-is with no warranty. Be very careful if you ever try
to delete you custom categories.

Thanks,
Ed.
 
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