How do I use the DCMTK libraries in my own application?

Here's an example for the Windows platform (MSVC):

1. Create DCMTK project files with CMake (for demonstration purposes switch all external libraries off).
2. Open the main project file "dcmtk.dsw" or "dcmtk.sln" in Visual Studio.
3. Select target ALL_BUILD and compile the complete DCMTK.
4. Select INSTALL in order to install the DCMTK files to the directory specified using CMake.
5. Create a new directory "testapp" somewhere on your harddisk with the following files.

Example program "testapp.cxx" from the dcmdata documentation:

Code:

#include "dcmtk/config/osconfig.h" #include "dcmtk/dcmdata/dctk.h" int main() {   DcmFileFormat fileformat;   OFCondition status = fileformat.loadFile("test.dcm");   if (status.good())   {     OFString patientsName;     if (fileformat.getDataset()->findAndGetOFString(DCM_PatientsName, patientsName).good())     {       cout << "Patient's Name: " << patientsName << endl;     } else       cerr << "Error: cannot access Patient's Name!" << endl;   } else     cerr << "Error: cannot read DICOM file (" << status.text() << ")" << endl;   return 0; }

Add minimum CMakeLists.txt file for MSVC6 and adjust path to installed DCMTK (if required):

Code:

PROJECT(testapp) SET(DCMTK_DIR /dicom/dcmtk-3.5.4-win32-i386) # settings for Microsoft Visual C++ 6 SET(CMAKE_C_FLAGS "/nologo /W3 /GX /Gy /YX") SET(CMAKE_C_FLAGS_DEBUG "/MTd /Z7 /Od") SET(CMAKE_C_FLAGS_RELEASE "/MT /O2") SET(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "/nologo /W3 /GX /Gy /YX") SET(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_DEBUG "/MTd /Z7 /Od") SET(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_RELEASE "/MT /O2") ADD_DEFINITIONS(-D_REENTRANT) INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES(${DCMTK_DIR}/include) LINK_DIRECTORIES(${DCMTK_DIR}/lib) ADD_EXECUTABLE(testapp testapp) TARGET_LINK_LIBRARIES(testapp netapi32 wsock32 ofstd dcmdata)

Finally, create the project files for the test application using CMake and compile it using MSVC.