Table of Contents

Building and Running Your Connector

This guide explains how to build, run, and debug your simulator connector, including understanding entry points and using VS Code configuration.

Prerequisites

You should have completed:

Understanding the Entry Point

Program.cs: The Application Entry Point

Your connector is a console application with a simple entry point in Program.cs:

What Gets Built

When you run dotnet build, the compiler compiles all .cs files, resolves NuGet dependencies, and produces an executable with a .dll (your code) and .exe (launcher) in bin/Debug/<target-framework>/ or bin/Release/<target-framework>/.

Building & Running Your Connector

dotnet build                                      # Debug build
dotnet build -c Release -r win-x64                # Release build (add -r for specific platform)
dotnet run                                        # Build and run

Debugging with VS Code

Prerequisites

Install VS Code extensions:

  1. C# Dev Kit - Microsoft's C# language support
  2. C# - IntelliSense, debugging, and code navigation

VS Code Configuration Files

The Sample.BasicComConnector includes debug configuration for VS Code in .vscode/launch.json and .vscode/tasks.json.

Deployment

Self-Contained Deployment

Create a deployment package with all dependencies:

dotnet publish -r win-x64 -c Release \
  --self-contained true \
  /p:PublishSingleFile=true \
  /p:IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract=true \
  /p:PublishTrimmed=false \
  /p:EnableCompressionInSingleFile=true

This produces a single file binary with everything needed to run in the bin/Release/<target-framework>/win-x64/publish/

Running as a Windows Service

Use sc.exe to install as a Windows Service:

sc create "MySimulatorConnector" binPath= "C:\path\to\YourConnector.exe"
sc start "MySimulatorConnector"

Next: Continue to Testing Your Connector to learn testing strategies and best practices.

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