Define a Data Type
==================

.. highlight:: c

To distribute data using |rti_me|, you must first define a data type, and then
run the *rtiddsgen* utility to generate the type-specific support code that |me|
needs and calls to publish and subscribe that data type.

|me| accepts types definitions in Interface Definition Language (IDL) format.

::

    struct HelloWorld {
           string<128> msg;
    };

As an example, the HelloWorld examples provided with |me| use this simple
type defined in `HelloWorld.idl <../../api_c/HelloWorld_8idl_source.html>`_. It 
contains a string "msg" with max length of 128 chars.

For more details, see :doc:`../usersmanual/types` in the User's Manual.