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In LabVIEW you need to know the number of sub matches at edit time and cannot handle arbitrary regular expressions. It would be nice if there was a regex function that returned sub matches in an array which can be handled much more abstractly than a pre-sized xnode.

C++, the regex utilities return a container-like class https://www.cplusplus.com/reference/regex/match_results/

PHP an array of matches is returned https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.preg-match.php

JavaScript returns an array of matches https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/match

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With a case structure I can place the mouse cursor over the structure and Ctrl + scroll wheel to cycle through the cases without it being active. If I try doing this on arrays it doesn't work.

For front panel arrays the numeric indicator must have focus for this to work. Doesn't work when the array data is selected. I understand that multidimensional arrays would be a problem, but for 1D arrays it would be nice if it cycled through the elements.

For array constant block diagram elements, no scroll action works regardless of what is active. Again it should allow the user to cycle through elements for 1D arrays simply by hovering over the item and Ctrl + scroll wheel.

Not a duplicate of http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Array-scrollbar-quot-scrollable-quot-with-scroll-wheel/idi-p/1009220

[admin edit: Adding animation image at the request of the OP]

When programming with large applications, often times you'll have clusters carrying a lot of information. If you hover over the cluster wire and observe Context Help, you might see something like this:

This Context Help window above is rather large and doesn't necessarily make it any easier to see the structure or contents of the cluster. My proposed idea calls for the ability to expand or collapse the cluster contents within the Context Help window, such as this:

What do you think?

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(note: this idea is similar to this one, but different enough that I thought it warranted a new post)

LabVIEW 2019 will include a Clean Up Front Panel feature that repositions front panel objects to match their positions on the (already wired) connector pane. I think we should also consider implementing the opposite behavior, where you can arrange your front panel the way you want your connector pane, then assign that arrangement to the (currently empty) connector pane:

I envision the gesture used to employ this feature would be a Quick Drop Keyboard Shortcut, an entry in one of the drop-down menus, or a right-click on the Connector Pane.

Let's say I have a ring control filled with lots of of items, but I decide that it would be better for the user if he could see all the options without having to pull down the ring. I right-click on the ring control, choose replace and select a Listbox. Now I have an empty listbox though, and I have to recreate the list. Most of the times when I do this I want the items I had in the ring control to transfer to the new control, like this:

replace with content carried over.png

The transfer of items should work both ways, and apply to similar replacements, like a change from ring to enum e.g.

It would be nice to have a way to choose whether to keep the items or not of course (key control while doing the replacement or a dialog asking if you want to keep the items), instead of having to delete the items afterwards if you did not want them, but I am not sure it would be needed that often. I would be perfectly happy for the default to just keep the items.

PS. Writing a quick drop shortcut plugin is one existing way of getting this functionality without having to wait for NI to implement it in the IDE...Perhaps someone has already done that (?). This request is for it to become (or be a part of) the default behavior though.

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NI's response to the ideas thus far appears far too sporadic. For example if you check out the top LabVIEW ideas (http://forums.ni.com/t5/ideas/v2/ideaexchangepage/blog-id/labviewideas/tab/most-kudoed) 7 of the top 10 ideas are still listed as new! Adding insult to injury the average age of these ideas to date is 1,017 days! It is ok to decline ideas but please provide us some indication that this is something you take seriously. It would appear that NI is cherry picking the easiest half dozen or so items from the list so you have a marketing gimmick to list on the LabVIEW release notes. I propose that a threshold is set and made public so that if an idea reaches a certain amount of kudos, R&D must address it, even if that means declining it.

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Filter/Search for Parent Class Selection

On bigger projects, when creating a new class, I find it time-consuming to track down the parent class I'd like to inherit from.

It'd save me some pain if there was some kind of filter and/or search option for this on the New Class GUI:

Other thoughts on this:

- While the tree structure is useful, I usually know the name of the parent class I want to inherit from, but I don't necessarily know the full inheritance of it, meaning the tree structure isn't the most efficient way to find it. (Even alphabetical by class name would be faster in these cases).

- I'd find the tree structure here easier to follow if the lines were visible.

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Hello,

I'm telling my strudents how they should use the error cluster and how important it is. In subvis no error dialogs should be shown and so on (see topics of LabVIEW Core 1 / Core 2).

But many VIs written by NI have been programmed very sloppy.

Example: VI "Write into spreadsheet file". The error cluster is not wired to the inputs/outputs and if an error occures, an error dialog would pop up. Here is the block diagram of your V "Write into spreadsheet file"I:

Please check all of your VIs and do a revision that we can make well-coded applications where the error handling will work correctly.

Regards

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While writing/debugging applications that make heavy use of reentrancy it is not uncommon for a reentrant VI to be left open after the rest of the application has shut down. This leaves VIs, Classes, LVLIBs locked in the project and your only recourse is to hunt down the offending reentrant item or close the project and reopen it.

It would be valuable to be able to see the running clones in the list of reentrant items found by navigating to View>>Browse Relationships>>Reentrant Items, maybe denoted by a *, like this below:

Having that would easily allow me to open the running clones and close them out manually so I can continue debugging.

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LabVIEW could use a feature that's commonly used in C++, the "final" specifier for a class override method. This would allow a child class to override a method from a parent class (or interface) and then prevent child classes of itself from overriding. Currently, with large inheritance structures, it becomes difficult for developers to create child classes since so many of the methods can be inherited from. The final specifier would allow you to create intermediate classes that define certain override functionality that does not need to be further overwritten and only pass on the ability to override methods that are important to child classes.

FInal Override.png

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Color Picker Event On Mouse Movement

If I drop down a color picker control, I can get an event on it for when a new color is selected by using the value change event. But what if I want to know what color the user has their mouse over, before clicking on it? Many of NI's controls change color as you select a new color. The Graph plots for instance will update as you move the mouse around.

This idea is to allow color picking controls to have a new user event, which is Mouse Over Color which gets generated when the user mouses over a new color. This way we can make applications that change the color of some UI element before the user picks the new color like NI does.

This can be accomplished today by recreating the color picking functionality in a new VI. Here is one example posted that allows you to pick a color. Using this someone could generate a User Event, or post to a global as the new color selection is being made.

Align input and output of Select function

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Allow a general purpose "on Save" hook

and is a more general request.

Have the ability to run custom scripting code on a save event.

What problem does it solve?

For me personally, I am working on an autoformatter. It would be nice to run that everytime something is saved. Right now I have to monitor the source folder from outside LabVIEW (using Python) and then use G-CLI to run my formatted. I'm sure there are probably other ways to do it and an onSave hook seems like the best choice.

I'm sure there are plenty of other use cases. Perhaps some kind of linting or enforcing some sort of style guide. ie if you save a VI without a description, it won't let you unless you enter a description. Perhaps even every time you save a file, run some unit tests?

Ideal Solution

Ideally the scripting code would have access to the reference of the thing being saved. The easiest thing to envision is a VI, but why not also classes, libraries, the project itself? Maybe also some indication of what triggered the save. Was it a saveall, a save all this library, etc. Maybe if it is a saveall, you get a list of all the things being saved, before anything happens?

The IDE would then wait to continue until the scripting code completes, maybe even failing to save on an error or a boolean - not sure if that is the best behaviour as in a bug in your scripting code could cause you not to be able to save - so maybe some way to override the hook?

Maybe include a way to autogenerate a VI with the correct connector pane.

Maybe it makes sense to generalize this to add more hooks into LabVIEW? Perhaps a call to update the project provider to something more usable/less user-hostile?

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Problem Statement

Sometimes, you may want to delete files that are read-only. The Delete primitive outputs an error (Error 😎 when you try to delete a File that's set to read-only. One then has to change the file permissions to writable and retry deleting it. That's a pain. What's even more painful is when you try to delete a folder, recursively, with the Delete function -- passing it a folder path and setting Recursive to TRUE. In this case, if even a single file inside the folder is set to read-only, then the recursive delete will fail -- now, the developer has to do their own recursion to find the file that's read-only, mark it as writeable and then delete it. OK, convinced this is a pain? Here's the solution...

Proposed Solution

Add an input called "Ignore Read-Only" to the "Delete" function that will do all this form me.

Note

The OpenG Delete Recursive VI (in the OpenG File Library) has such a feature already. I was excited when LabVIEW implemented a recursive delete and I started using it all over the place (it's nice to write code that doesn't depend on external libraries, when possible) and then... I got bit by this limitation in some random corner cases where files had gotten marked as read-only.

This idea was posted years ago and declined for lack of interest (it got 6 out of 7 necessary, but I would have been the 7th!). I would like to bring it back, I would like my application to have access to it's own version number. In fact you can open the project programatically and see some build properties but not that one. I can then grab the version from the build properties and set the default values on my FPGA code before compiling.

I was trying to make a pre-build VI that would look at the build properties and copy the version data into a control. Can't be done. I find this very useful to make sure that my RT system and my FPGA code have the correct versions.

Same as with an about box, or version checking for compatibility.

The previous thread suggested a routine in the FileVersion.llb but that seems to only be available in a single platform. Not useful for RT linux or Mac. The version is not available until the executable is built which does not work for FPGA.

At the moment my only recourse is to hand copy the version from the build properties and then set those as a series of 4 integers on the FP. (Then select them all and set their values to default, hence the other suggestion about right click)

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LabVIEW Idea Exchange

Provide regex functions with match outputs as an array

Ctrl + mouse wheel: Scroll through array elements when hovered over

Expandable/Collapsible Clusters in Context Help

Make Connector Pane Match Front Panel Arrangement

Keep items when replacing ring (or enum) with listbox (and vice versa)

Provide a malleable "Traverse For G Objects" function

Require LabVIEW R&D response to any idea over N kudos

String control/indicator/constant with code formatter

Filter/Search for Parent Class Selection

Add licensing and activation tools for packed project libraries (PPLs)

Revision of many VIs written by NI (usage of the error cluster)

Show running clones while browsing relationships>Reentrant Items

Numerical Data Type Color Representation on selection pallette

Allow for "Final" specifier on Class Override

Color Picker Event On Mouse Movement

Align input and output of Select function

Allow a general purpose "on Save" hook

quick-activate-button for disable-structures

"Delete" (File) primitive should have an "Ignore Read-Only" input

Automatically updated version/build numbers: Exposing them programmatically for Help/About...menu item or Panel title