Procedure to install TinyXML2 on Windows

[alxbilger]

TinyXML2 is the library used to parse XML scenes. It is a dependency of SOFA. Here is the procedure to install it on Windows:

1. Clone the source code in the directory of your choice. Let's call this directory TINYXML2_SRC. For that, run the following command: git clone https://github.com/leethomason/tinyxml2.git --branch 10.0.0 --single-branch TINYXML2_SRC. 10.0.0 is the tag corresponding to the latest release at the time of writing.
2. Run cmake -S TINYXML2_SRC -B TINYXML2_BUILD -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=1. (TINYXML2_BUILD is the folder where you want to build the library)
3. Build the library with the following command: cmake --build TINYXML2_BUILD --config Release
4. Install the built library with the following command: cmake --install TINYXML2_BUILD. Without specifying the destination folder, it goes into C:/Program Files/tinyxml2, therefore it requires administrator privileges. If you want to change the destination folder, use the CMake prefix option.
5. Now that TinyXML2 is installed, you can define tinyxml2_DIR in the CMake configuration of SOFA, pointing to the location of the installed library.

[hugtalbot]

And for Linux, simply : sudo apt install libtinyxml2-dev !

Shall we mark this topic as solved @alxbilger ?

[fredroy]

Just a slight suggestion to make: tinyxml2 is compiled as a static library by default.
If one want to have the same behavior as for linux or macos, where tinyxml2 is used a dynamic library, -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=1 to the cmake configure process.
Actually I would say it is even more recommended to use dynamic library as you cannot use the static library built in Release mode if you are compiling SOFA in Debug mode. But you will need to have the tinyxml2.dll in your PATH somehow for runtime later on unfortunately.

Note that this cmake flag does not appear in the GUI version of cmake, so you will need to add the variable by yourself 🤔

[alxbilger]

If you do that, does the install script of SOFA copy the dll into the install dir?

[fredroy]

If you do that, does the install script of SOFA copy the dll into the install dir?

@bakpaul is on it apparently 😅 (for the v23.12 release)

[bakpaul]

It is already correctly distributed in the ubuntu binaries, so yes, I'll make it happend also for windows

[bakpaul]

FYI #4525

[alxbilger]

I updated the procedure according to your suggestion @fredroy

[fredroy]

And for Linux, simply : sudo apt install libtinyxml2-dev !

Shall we mark this topic as solved @alxbilger ?

@hugtalbot Should be pre-built tinyxml2 and include it in the "dependency pack for Windows" as we have already a set of prebuilt binaries for libpng, zlib, etc. ?

[bakpaul]

We could do so. I currently don't know where this project is currently hosted, but I'll take a look as soon as I have time

[bakpaul]

TinyXML2 is now included in the WinDepPack --> https://www.sofa-framework.org/download/WinDepPack/VS-2017/latest

[alxbilger]

With the addition of TinyXML2 in the WinDepPack, it is no longer necessary to compile and install it.