Verify Path Constants like Static VI References

[TurboPhil]

When you place a Static VI Reference on you block diagram, then LabVIEW is smart enough to check for that file every time you open the calling VI; if the referenced VI moves, then the LabVIEW development environment will prompt you to locate the file.

I would like to have the ability to do something similar for path constants--it would be great if you could configure a path constant such that LV would verify that it is there as soon as you open the VI. Granted, you can do that with "File or Folder Exists" function, but that requires you to run the VI and explicitly handle the false case. Also, there are obviously situations where you don't expect the file to exist before runtime (like programmatic file creation), so it should be optional:

Situations for which this would be useful include: shared variable library deployment, preferences file loading, etc.

[tst]

At first, this did seem to have some appeal, but then I tried thinking of situations where I actually use constant file paths, and they're almost non-existent. Doing edit-time checks would also not help you at run-time, where you still need to check that the file is there.

[SteveChandler]

I was thinking that it would do runtime checks. Maybe it could return NotAPath but then it wouldn't really be a constant. I am also starting to have second thoughts on the usefulness of this. The only "path constants" that I use are the string input of build path and the base path usually comes from something like application directory or a control.

Although I am thinking this is not as good of an idea as I initially thought I am going to leave my kudo here for now.

[Darren]

Any idea that has received less than 3 kudos within 3 years after posting will be automatically declined.