Can Plug-Ins be Created With Visual Studio 2017?

[R0b_Evans]

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

[Test Screen Name · Accepted solution]

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.

[R0b_Evans]

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. 

[Test Screen Name]

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

[R0b_Evans]

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.

[R0b_Evans]

Now I am even more confused.  While reading the SDK documentation again, I noticed that under the heading of "Supported Environments", Adobe says that only the Visual Studio 2010 compiler is acceptable.  However, the sample files are apparently compiled with VS 2013.

[lrosenth]

No, express will not work. You need the full version.

[R0b_Evans]

Now I am even more confused.  While reading the SDK documentation again, I noticed that under the heading of "Supported Environments", Adobe says that only the Visual Studio 2010 compiler is acceptable.  However, the sample files are apparently compiled with VS 2013.

[lrosenth]

Acrobat DC SDK is for VS 2013

[Dan_Korn]

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.

[R0b_Evans]

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.

[markm6767785]

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

[Thermitus30821062peu3]

Boa noite