The basic development process includes a number of steps. If you have access to the internet, we would recommend watching the short introductory video before reading this.
Creating a Blueprint Library Project
This section describes the steps required to create a Blueprint project.
Creating Definitions
The first stage of most projects is the creation of circuitry. This can usually be achieved without the need to consider the details of the application's data structure or even the processing that is to be performed on the data. Typically, developers produce 'stimulator' circuitry that allows the whole infrastructure's event flow to be tested and validated before introducing the actual processing. This means that concurrency issues such as race conditions and deadlocks can be addressed at the start of the project, without the added complexity of the algorithmic code.
Creating the Main Application
All CLIP processes have a 'main' thread that handles particular events that are generated by the user application threads. These include diagnostics, shutdown requests and other similar events, but more importantly, and if required, the main thread hosts the application's GUI. CLIP provides a generic GUI interface that can be used with MFC, Windows QT etc. This section explains the steps required to create an MFC application.
Translating Circuitry
Before inserting user code, it is necessary to translate circuitry in order to generate the necessary 'placeholders'.
Browsing and Inserting User Code
This topic (and its sub-topics) explain how to use the Blueprint editor to add user code to generated code. Once the generated 'placeholder' is updated with user code, the translator will not overwrite the user entered code. If the translated code changes in a way that requires the generated stubs to update, it will automatically merge the newly generated code, with the hand generated user code.
Reusing Components
This topic describes how to create re-usable definitions and re-use them within your projects.