Arduino Custom Build Events and Hooks

by Visual Micro 20. March 2017 04:37

Arduino supports many different build events. Visual Micro supports the same events and more. If you can't find an event that meets your needs then please make a request to our forum. Build events are normally placed in the arduino platform.txt system which can be quite convoluted and difficult to test. Licensed users of Visual Micro can opt to use  local project board.txt instead of the usual Arduino locations. The advantage is easier development and testing along with events that are specific to a single project. When making changes to a local board.txt click the "Save" button pior to testing a new build.

The full Arduino build specification is listed here. Visual Micro also provides the following additionl events:-

  • Pre upload event
  • Error during upload event
  • Post upload event (only executes if no error was encountered)

Paste the following into a board.txt to see an attempt to run events. Obviously the example will produce an error because the .bat file will be missing but you will see how it works :)

# before upload event - example

recipe.hooks.deploy.preupload.pattern=cmd.exe /c "c:\hooks_test\test_pre.bat" "{build.path}"  "{build.project_name}" "{build.project_path}"

# upload failed event - example

recipe.hooks.deploy.errorupload.pattern=cmd.exe /c "c:\hooks_test\test_error.bat" "{build.path}"  "{build.project_name}" "{build.project_path}"

# upload complete event - example

recipe.hooks.deploy.postupload.pattern=cmd.exe /c "c:\hooks_test\test_post.bat" "{build.path}"  "{build.project_name}" "{build.project_path}"