WBToolbox not building in robotology-superbuild on Windows

[RAR1989]

I tried to build the robotology-superbuild on Windows starting from a clean build, however it always failed. I got the error below:

 Build files have been written to: C:/Users/rromeo/devel/robotology-superbuild/build/robotology/WBToolbox
8>Performing build step for 'WBToolbox'
8>Microsoft (R) Build Engine version 16.1.76+g14b0a930a7 for .NET Framework
8>Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
8>
8>  ClockRpc.vcxproj -> C:\Users\rromeo\devel\robotology-superbuild\build\robotology\WBToolbox\lib\Release\ClockRpc.lib
8>  WBToolboxBase.vcxproj -> C:\Users\rromeo\devel\robotology-superbuild\build\robotology\WBToolbox\lib\Release\WBToolboxBase.lib
8>  Auto build dll exports
8>     Creating library C:/Users/rromeo/devel/robotology-superbuild/build/robotology/WBToolbox/lib/Release/WBToolbox.lib and object C:/Users/rromeo/devel/robotology-superbuild/build/robotology/WBToolbox/lib/Release/WBToolbox.exp
8>SimulatorSynchronizer.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol "class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> > const blockfactory::core::BlockOptionPrioritizeOrder" (?BlockOptionPrioritizeOrder@core@blockfactory@@3V?$basic_string@DU?$char_traits@D@std@@V?$allocator@D@2@@std@@B) referenced in function "public: virtual class std::vector<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> >,class std::allocator<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> > > > __cdecl wbt::block::SimulatorSynchronizer::additionalBlockOptions(void)" (?additionalBlockOptions@SimulatorSynchronizer@block@wbt@@UEAA?AV?$vector@V?$basic_string@DU?$char_traits@D@std@@V?$allocator@D@2@@std@@V?$allocator@V?$basic_string@DU?$char_traits@D@std@@V?$allocator@D@2@@std@@@2@@std@@XZ) [C:\Users\rromeo\devel\robotology-superbuild\build\robotology\WBToolbox\toolbox\library\WBToolbox.vcxproj]
8>C:\Users\rromeo\devel\robotology-superbuild\build\robotology\WBToolbox\bin\Release\WBToolbox.dll : fatal error LNK1120: 1 unresolved externals [C:\Users\rromeo\devel\robotology-superbuild\build\robotology\WBToolbox\toolbox\library\WBToolbox.vcxproj]
8>Done building project "WBToolbox.vcxproj" -- FAILED.

cc @traversaro @diegoferigo @nunoguedelha @isorrentino

[diegoferigo]

It is a problem about global variables in Windows using VS compiler. We already encountered it in the past I think with @bemilio robotology/blockfactory#44. The fix however still didn't go upstream.

[isorrentino]

@diegoferigo, @RAR1989 and I tried the solutions suggested in the issue you linked but they did not work.

cc @drdanz

[diegoferigo]

If @bemilio has still access to the PC where we fixed it, maybe you can check what we did. I don't remember exactly the patch I applied.

[bemilio]

I remember we finally managed to complete the installation. The only thing not working was the WBToolbox-MATLAB integration.

I am not sure what we should check on the monster. Maybe the global variables? I remember that in solving this issue I didn't understand much of what was going on and that in the end Diego and silvio managed to solve it. But I have no idea what the steps were.

The PC was the monster and it is still available, just as far as I understand @isorrentino proceeded in cleaning the build, so I don't know the status of the PC anymore

[drdanz]

We managed to build the superbuild with @RAR1989, and we found a few issues in several projects.

1. blockfactory is built with the CMAKE_WINDOWS_EXPORT_ALL_SYMBOLS that as explained in the WINDOWS_EXPORT_ALL_SYMBOLS property documentation requires to use __declspec(dllimport) in order to import global symbols from the dll (in this case the symbol is blockfactory::core::BlockOptionPrioritizeOrder). We fixed this by changing in blockfactory/sources/Core/include/BlockFactory/Core/BlockInformation.h (this is obviously not a good fix because it won't work on linux)

+extern const std::string BlockOptionPrioritizeOrder;
-extern __declspec(dllimport) const std::string BlockOptionPrioritizeOrder;

2. qpOases and blockfactory have a broken FindMatlab.cmake file, applying the fix proposed in the upstream issue on all the files worked.

3. the yarp-matlab-bindings has 2 files Vocab.m and VOCAB.m in the same directory. As a consequence the update step fails. In order to fix this we disabled the update step by enabling the DEVEL_MODE for the project. I cannot guarantee that this will not cause other issues.

[diegoferigo]

Thanks @drdanz for taking care of that. I'll take care of blockfactory as soon as I'll be back to IIT and have access to a Windows machine.

[traversaro]

the yarp-matlab-bindings has 2 files Vocab.m and VOCAB.m in the same directory. As a consequence the update step fails. In order to fix this we disabled the update step by enabling the DEVEL_MODE for the project. I cannot guarantee that this will not cause other issues.

This was fixed in robotology/yarp-matlab-bindings#43 .

[traversaro]

1. `blockfactory` is built with the [`CMAKE_WINDOWS_EXPORT_ALL_SYMBOLS`](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/variable/CMAKE_WINDOWS_EXPORT_ALL_SYMBOLS.html) that as explained in the [`WINDOWS_EXPORT_ALL_SYMBOLS`](https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/prop_tgt/WINDOWS_EXPORT_ALL_SYMBOLS.html) property documentation requires to use `__declspec(dllimport)` in order to import global symbols from the dll (in this case the symbol is `blockfactory::core::BlockOptionPrioritizeOrder`). We fixed this by changing in `blockfactory/sources/Core/include/BlockFactory/Core/BlockInformation.h` (this is obviously not a good fix because it won't work on linux)

+extern const std::string BlockOptionPrioritizeOrder;
-extern __declspec(dllimport) const std::string BlockOptionPrioritizeOrder;

This was fixed by robotology/blockfactory#54 .