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Suggested LMX Evaluation Steps (Windows)

Below are some suggested steps for evaluating LMX under Windows.

We also have suggested steps for evaluating LMX under Linux.

1. Download and install the LMX evaluation.
2. Create a new directory in which you can start the evaluation.
3. Copy a simple XML schema file (or alternatively, an example of the XML you want to read or an Annotated XML Example), and a file containing an XML instance of the schema to the directory.

   These files will be referred to as myschema.xsd and myschema.xml below, but you can call them what you like. (We suggest using a simple, single-file schema to start with so that you can focus on the LMX aspects rather than the details of the schema. If you wish, you can use user-preferences.xsd schema and user-preferences.xml instance which are provided as part of the installation. They are typically installed in the C:\Program Files\LMX\examples directory.)

4. Start running WinLMX.
5. Drag the myschema.xsd file (using Windows Explorer) over the WinLMX application.
6. Select the 'Basic Options' tab in WinLMX.
7. Make sure the 'Generate Test Framework File (-tframework)' checkbox is checked (it is towards the top-right of the options). (This causes myschema-main.cpp to be generated - see below.)
8. Press the 'Compile...' button in WinLMX.
9. Assuming your schema has compiled correctly, this should have generated the following files: myschema.h, myschema.cpp, myschema-main.cpp and myschema.html. The main marshalling and unmarshalling code is contained in the myschema.h and myschema.cpp files. myschema-main.cpp includes a main() function and code to unmarshal an XML instance from a file into objects and then marshal the objects back into another file.
10. Run-up your development environment and create a new Win32 Console project for the evaluation.
11. Move the files myschema.h, myschema.cpp, myschema-main.cpp into the project.
12. Make sure the development environment is able to access the LMX files called lmxuser.h, lmxinternals.h, lmxparse.h, and lmxtypes.h (typically these can be found in the directory C:\Program Files\LMX\supporting-software\include). The simplest way to do this may be to copy these files to the evaluation directory.
13. Copy one of lmx-MLd-vc6.lib (for VC6), lmx-MLd-vc71.lib (for VS 2003), lmx-MTd-vc8.lib (for VS 2005), lmx-MTd-vc9.lib (for VS 2008) or lmx-MTd-vc10.lib (for VS 2010) to the evaluation directory. (Typically these can be found in the directory C:\Program Files\LMX\supporting-software\win32.)

    (If you want to use a DLL version of the LMX libraries, make sure you arrange for the #define LMX_WANT_DLL to be set to 1, either by modifying the code in lmxuser.h, including the statement #define LMX_WANT_DLL 1 in your code prior to including lmxparse.h, or by modifying the project's properties.)

14. Add the selected library to the project in the development environment.
15. Make sure the project will link to the correct version of the C runtime (e.g. make sure "Project"->"Properties"->"Configuration Properties"->"C/C++"->"Code Generation"->"Runtime Library" is set to MLd or MTd if you are using the non-DLL LMX libraries mentioned above).
16. Compile the project using the development environment.
17. This should create an executable called myschema.exe.
18. Modify the development environments settings so that when the program is run it is given the following arguments: myschema.xml myschema-out.xml (using "Project"->"Properties"->"Configuration Properties"->"Debugging"->"Command Arguments")
19. Run the program in the IDE.
20. You should see that myschema-out.xml contains an XML instance similar to myschema.xml.
21. You have now completed your first use of LMX. To evaluate further, modify the the code in myschema-main.cpp to interact with the generated classes, for example printing out specific values to the screen, or setting certain values before the data is marshalled to the myschema-out.xml file. Looking at myschema.html should help with this, as should looking at the example at http://www.codalogic.com/lmx/lmx-example.zip. You can also add more to the schema file, or try more complex schemas.
22. If you have questions, .

Thank you for evaluating LMX.

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