Application Connectivity

Platform Manager supports application connectivity. Application connectivity is a communications framework that allows you to establish a connection between an application running on a development workstation and a target device. Remote Tools and eMbedded Visual C++ use the application connectivity support in Platform Manager to connect to a target device. For information about connecting a remote tool to a target device, see Connecting to a Target Device with a Remote Tool.

In the IDE, a device represents the information that is required by Platform Manager to establish application connectivity with a platform on a target device. With an application on a development workstation, you can only successfully connect to a target device if you correctly configure a device for the platform. A device includes the selection of a startup server and a transport. A transport allows the target device and desktop-side part of Platform Manager to communicate over the communications hardware. A startup server initiates the connection by downloading the device-side part of Platform Manager to the target device and starting the device-side part of Platform Manager on the target device. For more information about startup servers and transports, see Startup Server Selection and Transport Selection.

For information about how a device, startup server, and transport fit into the object model for Platform Manager, see Platform Manager Object Model.

The application connectivity provided by Platform Manager is similar is some ways to Microsoft ActiveSync®, which is another application connectivity service. In fact, some Platform Manager startup servers and transports require an ActiveSync connection to provide application connectivity. However, Platform Manager is designed to support development tools, while ActiveSync is mostly a data-synchronization protocol.

To connect an application to a target device, you must first configure your communications hardware. The following table shows whether your choice of transport and startup server requires you to establish a serial connection to the target device and an ActiveSync connection from the Repllog.exe process on the target device.

See Also

Platform Manager and the SDK | Kernel Connectivity

 Last updated on Friday, October 08, 2004

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