Using libmongoc in a Microsoft Visual Studio project

Download and install libmongoc on your system, then open Visual Studio, select “File→New→Project…”, and create a new Win32 Console Application.

Remember to switch the platform from 32-bit to 64-bit:

Right-click on your console application in the Solution Explorer and select “Properties”. Choose to edit properties for “All Configurations”, expand the “C/C++” options and choose “General”. Add to the “Additional Include Directories” these paths:

C:\mongo-c-driver\include\libbson-1.0
C:\mongo-c-driver\include\libmongoc-1.0

(If you chose a different CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX when you ran CMake, your include paths will be different.)

Also in the Properties dialog, expand the “Linker” options and choose “Input”, and add to the “Additional Dependencies” these libraries:

C:\mongo-c-driver\lib\bson-1.0.lib
C:\mongo-c-driver\lib\mongoc-1.0.lib

Adding these libraries as dependencies provides linker symbols to build your application, but to actually run it, libbson’s and libmongoc’s DLLs must be in your executable path. Select “Debugging” in the Properties dialog, and set the “Environment” option to:

PATH=c:/mongo-c-driver/bin

Finally, include “mongoc/mongoc.h” in your project’s “stdafx.h”:

#include <mongoc/mongoc.h>

Static linking

Following the instructions above, you have dynamically linked your application to the libbson and libmongoc DLLs. This is usually the right choice. If you want to link statically instead, update your “Additional Dependencies” list by removing bson-1.0.lib and mongoc-1.0.lib and replacing them with these libraries:

C:\mongo-c-driver\lib\bson-static-1.0.lib
C:\mongo-c-driver\lib\mongoc-static-1.0.lib
ws2_32.lib
Secur32.lib
Crypt32.lib
BCrypt.lib

(To explain the purpose of each library: bson-static-1.0.lib and mongoc-static-1.0.lib are static archives of the driver code. The socket library ws2_32 is required by libbson, which uses the socket routine gethostname to help guarantee ObjectId uniqueness. The BCrypt library is used by libmongoc for SSL connections to MongoDB, and Secur32 and Crypt32 are required for enterprise authentication methods like Kerberos.)

Finally, define two preprocessor symbols before including mongoc/mongoc.h in your stdafx.h:

#define BSON_STATIC
#define MONGOC_STATIC
#include <mongoc/mongoc.h>

Making these changes to your project is only required for static linking; for most people, the dynamic-linking instructions above are preferred.

Next Steps

Now you can build and debug applications in Visual Studio that use libbson and libmongoc. Proceed to Making a Connection in the tutorial to learn how connect to MongoDB and perform operations.