There are two options to build Xerces-C++ with ICU on Windows. One is to use the MSDEV GUI environment, and the other is to invoke the compiler from the command line.

Using, the GUI environment, requires one to edit the project files. Here, we will describe only the second option. It involves using the perl script 'packageBinaries.pl'.

Prerequisites:

• Perl 5.004 or higher
• Cygwin tools or MKS Toolkit
• zip.exe

Extract Xerces-C++ source files from the .zip archive using WinZip, say in the root directory (an arbitrary drive x:). It should create a directory like 'x:\xerces-c-src2_6_0'.

Extract the ICU files, using WinZip, in root directory of the disk where you have installed Xerces-C++, sources. After extraction, there should be a new directory 'x:\icu' which contains all the ICU source files.

Start a command prompt to get a new shell window. Make sure you have perl, cygwin tools (uname, rm, cp, ...), and zip.exe somewhere in the path. Next setup the environment for MSVC using 'VCVARS32.BAT' or a similar file. Then at the prompt enter:

	set XERCESCROOT=x:\xerces-c-src2_6_0 set ICUROOT=x:\icu cd x:\xerces-c-src2_6_0\scripts

To build with ICU, either specify using ICU transcoding service,

	perl packageBinaries.pl -s x:\xerces-c-src2_6_0 -o x:\temp\xerces-c2_6_0-win32 -t icu

or specify using ICU message loader service

	perl packageBinaries.pl -s x:\xerces-c-src2_6_0 -o x:\temp\xerces-c2_6_0-win32 -m icu

(Match the source directory to your system; the target directory can be anything you want.)

If everything is setup right and works right, then you should see a binary drop created in the target directory specified above. This script will build both ICU and Xerces-C++, and copy the files (relevant to the binary drop) to the target directory.

If the parser is built with icu message loader (as mentioned above), or message catalog loader, you need an environment variable, XERCESC_NLS_HOME to point to the directory, $XERCESCROOT/msg, where the message files reside.

For a description of options available, you can enter:

	perl packageBinaries.pl

Extract Xerces-C++ source files into, say, the home directory ($HOME). It should create a directory like '$HOME/xerces-c-src2_6_0'.

Extract the ICU files into the same directory where you have installed Xerces-C++ sources. After extraction, there should be a new directory '$HOME/icu' which contains all the ICU source files.

Build the ICU according to the ICU Build instruction in ICU Readme. Then have its dll, libicuuc* and libicudt* available from your library search path.

Then build the Xerces-C++ with ICU. This is similar to building a standalone Xerces-C++ library as instructed in "Building Xerces-C++ on UNIX platforms"; except that you have to specify the transcoder option '-t icu' and/or the message loader option '-m icu'. For example:

	runConfigure -plinux -cgcc -xg++ -minmem -nsocket -ticu -rpthread

Or instead of building the ICU and Xerces-C++ manually in two steps, you can use the bundled perl script 'packageBinaries.pl' which will build both of them in one step. For example:

	export XERCESCROOT=$HOME/xerces-c-src2_6_0 export ICUROOT=$HOME/icu cd $HOME/xerces-c-src2_6_0/scripts

To build with ICU, either specify using ICU transcoding service,

	perl packageBinaries.pl -s $HOME/xerces-c-src2_6_0 -o $HOME/temp/xerces-c2_6_0-aix -t icu

or specify using ICU message loader service

	perl packageBinaries.pl -s $HOME/xerces-c-src2_6_0 -o $HOME/temp/xerces-c2_6_0-aix -m icu

If the parser is built with icu message loader (as mentioned above), or message catalog loader, you need an environment variable, XERCESC_NLS_HOME to point to the directory, $XERCESCROOT/msg, where the message files reside.

To build the COM project you will need to install the MS PlatformSDK. Some of the header files we use don't come with Visual C++ 6.0. You may download it from Microsoft's Website at http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/setuplauncher.htm or directly FTP it from ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/developr/PlatformSDK/April2000/Msi/WinNT/x86/InstMsi.exe.

The installation is huge, but you don't need most of it. So you may do a custom install by just selecting "Build Environment" and choosing the required components. First select the top level Platform SDK. Then click the down arrow and make all of the components unavailable. Next open the "Build Environment" branch and select only the following items:

• Win32 API
• Component Services
• Web Services - Internet Explorer

Important: When the installation is complete you need to update VC6's include path to include ..\platformsdk\include\atl30. You do this by choosing "Tools -> Options -> Directories". This path should be placed second after the normal PlatformSDK include. You change the order of the paths by clicking the up and down arrows.

The order in which the directories appear on your path is important. Your first include path should be ..\platformsdk\include. The second one should be ..\platformsdk\include\atl30.

Once you have set up your machine, build Xerces-C++ COM module by choosing the project named 'xml4com' inside the workspace. Then select your build mode to be xml4com - Win32 Release MinDependency. Finally build the project. This will produce a DLL named xerces-com.dll which needs to be present in your path (on local machine) before you can use it.

There are some sample test programs in the test/COMTest directory which show examples of navigating and searching an XML tree using DOM. You need to browse the HTML files in this directory using IE 5.0. Make sure that your build has worked properly, specially the registration of the ActiveX controls that happens in the final step.

You may also want to check out the NIST DOM test suite at http://xw2k.sdct.itl.nist.gov/BRADY/DOM/. You will have to modify the documents in the NIST suite to load the Xerces COM object instead of the MSIE COM object.