Linking HDF5 library into Visual C++ DLL project: unresolved external symbol __imp__*

Question

I'm building a plug-in with MS Visual C++ 2010 Express, and I would like to include capabilities from the HDF5 library . I have tried both building HDF5 from source with CMake, and installing the precompiled library ( HDF5-1.8.7_CMake_x86_shared.zip for VC 2008). For either build directory/method, I've modified my project property:

• C/C++ > General > Additional Include Directories: add the include for HDF5
• Linker > General > Additional Library Directories: add the lib for HDF5

Here is a snippet of my DLL module:

#include "cpp/H5Cpp.h"

static IResult OnBeginDocument (IDocument pDoc)
{
  H5Fcreate("C:\\out.h5", H5F_ACC_EXCL, H5P_DEFAULT, H5P_DEFAULT);

  return True;
}

Note that VC++ correctly parses the .h files to, eg, visually show pop-up documentation for H5Fcreate when I hover my mouse over that snippet. My problem is that I cannot build the module that tries to use H5Fcreate . Here is the console output from my build attempts:

1>MyProject.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __imp__H5Fcreate referenced in function "int __cdecl OnBeginDocument(struct IModuleStruct *)" (?OnBeginDocument@@YAHPAUIModuleStruct@@@Z)
1>MyProject.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __imp__H5check_version referenced in function "int __cdecl OnBeginDocument(struct IModuleStruct *)" (?OnBeginDocument@@YAHPAUIModuleStruct@@@Z)
1>C:\MyProject\Release\MyProject.dll : fatal error LNK1120: 2 unresolved externals

Both methods of attempting to link in HDF5 (precompiled vs self-compiled, as described above) produce these exact same errors, so I'm not sure where I'm going wrong.

---

Many thanks to @HasanKhan and @StevieG, these were helpful tips for n00bs like me. Just to follow up clearly, I did indeed need to add lib filepaths in Linker > Input > Additional Dependencies:

hdf5dll.lib
hdf5_cppdll.lib

I may need to add other lib files if I require other HDF5 features. Also, it turned out that I needed to copy the HDF5 DLLs (from bin ) into my system directory (eg, C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\ ) for the plugin to operate correctly at runtime. All good now, thanks!

Answer 1

• Linker > General > Additional Library Directories: you should add the path to the directory containing the .lib file here

• Linker > General > Input: you should add the name of the .lib file here

Answer 2

Check this things:

1. Linker > Input > Additional Dependencies contains hdf5.lib
2. Linker > General > Additional Libraries Directories contains path to lib directory of your HDF5 installation
3. C/C++ > General > Additional Include Directories contains path to include directory of your HDF5 installation
4. You build configuration match to installed HDF5 version ( 32 or 64 bit )
5. You add to PATH variable bin directory of your HDF5 installation

I think it's enough.