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R
R0b_Evans
Known Participant
March 29, 2018
Answered

Can Plug-Ins be Created With Visual Studio 2017?

  • March 29, 2018
  • 4 replies
  • 4495 views

Is there any problem with using Visual Studio Professional 2017 to develop C++ plug-ins for Adobe Acrobat?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Test Screen Name

Each release of the SDK has a specific release of Visual Studio/Xcode, to match the version used to compile Acrobat. Your plugin becomes part of Acrobat so you must play nice.

An experienced plugin develop can often get things to work with other releases, but if you’re new you may face endless frustration with no way to know if your issues are version incompatibility.

4 replies

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Thermitus30821062peu3
Participant
July 1, 2023

Boa noite

 

Dan_Korn
Dan_Korn
Inspiring
April 5, 2018

Yes.  Most of the Acrobat SDK is a fairly lightweight "C" interface, where you load host function pointers ("tables," or HFTs) from Acrobat itself, with only a single source file (PIMain.c) that you compile into your plug-in.  There's no C++ interface like in other plug-in SDKs (such as the InDesign SDK), so you don't really have any binary compatibility issues using a different compiler.  We are able to build Acrobat plug-ins using a wide range of compilers, on both Windows and Mac (though the compiler version is not tied as closely to the IDE version in Xcode as it is in Visual Studio).  Currently we use VS2015 and Xcode 4 (with Apple LLVM 4.2), but I know firsthand that VS2005 through VS2015 and Xcode 4 through Xcode 7 work with the Acrobat DC SDK, and I don't see why newer ones wouldn't also work.

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R0b_EvansAuthor
Known Participant
April 5, 2018

Thanks for replying even after I had already marked a correct answer for this post.  With this new information, I will go boldly ahead with my VS2017 with confidence that it will work.

M
markm6767785
Participating Frequently
July 28, 2018

I would be interested to learn of your experience with trying VS2017 Rob.  Would really appreciate your guidance as we evaluate this. 

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Test Screen Name
Legend
March 30, 2018

Microsoft make old versions of Visual Studio available. You might consider using a VM to keep each release separate.

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R0b_EvansAuthor
Known Participant
March 30, 2018

Thanks for the advice.  I am building a new development machine with lots of storage, memory and fast graphics.  A VM would work well on that.

T
Test Screen NameCorrect answer
Legend
March 30, 2018

Each release of the SDK has a specific release of Visual Studio/Xcode, to match the version used to compile Acrobat. Your plugin becomes part of Acrobat so you must play nice.

An experienced plugin develop can often get things to work with other releases, but if you’re new you may face endless frustration with no way to know if your issues are version incompatibility.

R
R0b_EvansAuthor
Known Participant
March 30, 2018

The SDK Version I have is for VS 2013.  I only have access to VS 2017, and I am a C++ noob.  So it appears that my project is screwed and I am screwed.  This is a very big disappointment. 

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