Add support for Absolute Paths to LabVIEW Projects

[NIExpert]

It would be great if one could mark certain files as having an absolute path so that it is easier to move projects that use a common resource around in a multi developer/station environment.    

A project might for example require a shared library or file that is installed by another application into c:\XXXX

Currently, all developers must place their project at the same relative folder depth to the shared resource to avoid linking issues.  e.g If Developer A uses c:\Users\Dev A\Project\  then Developer B would need to use  c:\Users\Dev B\Project\..   The project would complain about not finding the shared resource if Dev B was to use  c:\Users\Dev B\Repos\Project instead for example.

Marking the shared files as having an absolute path would resolve this

[fefepeto_kb]

Absolute paths would definitely not solve the problem as you presented. Absolute path means that there is no symbolic content, or any other resolvable component. With your example:

If  Developer A fixes the path to c:\Users\Dev A\Project\, then LabVIEW would have to search for this exact path even on the computer on Developer B's machine.

I know it's not perfect, and indeed we moved away from this solution to use relative paths everywhere, even though it meant restructuring our code, but VI Search path configuration can help with your use-case. Each developer could configure a list with priorities where to search for the files not inside the project: Adding a Directory to VI Search Path - NI.