Refresh LabVIEW Menus Programmatically (without restarting LabVIEW) after installing an add-on

[Jim_Kring]

[Cross-posted here on the JKI blog]

One LabVIEW feature that (if it existed) would make a big difference for VIPM users is the ability to refresh the menus (e.g., the File, Tools, and Help menus) programmatically after installing packages that add menu-launch VIs.  Maybe we could do this if LabVIEW added a new VI server method called Application:Refresh Menus.

Note: this would be similar to how we can refresh the palette menus programmatically by invoking theApplication:Refresh Palettes method (shown below).

I bring this up, because one feature that I’d love to see added to VIPM (some day) is an easier way to build menu-launch tools into VI Packages, and I’m sure more people would be asking us why their add-on doesn’t show up in LabVIEW after it’s installed.

Hopefully, we can help NI get this feature onto the LabVIEW roadmap by convincing them that it’s worthwhile.

[Darren]

Implemented in LabVIEW 2013 as the "Refresh Menus" method on the Application class in VI Server

[Jim_Kring]

Thank you, NI LabVIEW team! 🙂