Build LLB using Application Builder

[Alex Feldman]

It would be nice if the Application Builder could create redistributable LLBs in addition to EXEs and DLLs. I know OpenG has an app that will do that called DEAB, but it doesn't have a "Build Manager" like the the Application Builder that comes with Labview. I don't think it would be too hard for NI to add this feature to Labview.

By the way, if someone knows of a "build manager" written to work with DEAB, I'd love to know about it.

P.S. In case you're confused what I mean by "Build Manager", I mean an environment where paths can be defined, and different builds can be loaded/created/edited/saved. Dynamic VIs can be defined. Basically, the GUI portion of Application Builder.

[Jim_Kring]

Hey Alex,

If you are interested in discussing ways to make the Development Environment Application Builder (DEAB) better, I'd love to hear them (I'm the author of the DEAB, by the way). Please sign up for the OpenG Toolkit Developers mailing list and send an email with the specifics of your ideas for a DEAB Build Manager.

By the way, the latest version of the DEAB includes the ability to define all of the build parameters in an INI file. This might be pretty close to what you're looking for.

Regards,

-Jim Kring

[Alex Feldman]

Hi Jim,

I just recently downloaded the latest version of DEAB, and I know what you're talking about. I was talking about organizing many build INIs with a GUI interface, kind of like Application builder lets you save and retrieve many different build settings. Defining support files to be copied over is a very useful feature as well. I went over to your website, and the things you say you're planning to do next are exactly the things I'm talking about. Do you have any idea when this will be done?

I am having problems with creating accounts on the openg website, so I'll just post everything here.

I still don't understand why you have to create the LLB building utility, and not NI. They should be the ones doing this, and they should have do
ne this a long time ago.

Alex.

p.s. Jim, do you ever sleep? 🙂

[JeanPierre]

In fact with the Application builder you can build an application and instead of giving an .EXE extension to the application, give a LLB extension. An executable, renammed to a LLB, is just considered like a LLB when run from another built application.

[Jim_Kring]

Alex,

> I was talking about organizing many build INIs
> with a GUI interface.

Yeah, that would be really cool! I was waiting for the build file format and requirements to settle down, before investing the time in a GUI. GUIs are always the very last thing that code -- doing things this way eliminates a lot potentially bad code (out of respect, I won't give any counter examples ;-).

> Defining support files to be copied over is a
> very useful feature as well.

Yeah, that's one feature that I need badly, too. Expect to see it in the very near future.

> I am having problems with creating accounts on
> the openg website, so I'll just post everything
> here.

Please send me an email jkring{at}openg{dot}org with the specifics
so that I can fix this problem.

> I still don't understand why you have to create
> the LLB building utility, and not NI. They
> should be the ones doing this, and they should
> have done this a long time ago.

I have stopped asking such questions a long time ago. Instead, I just provide NI with feedback about what I want, participate in beta programs, and solve the problems that are directly in front of me. NI will add features and tools when it is in their business interests to do so. But, as a precondition they have to know that such a requirements exists. It is up to us to provide this feedback either explicitly, or by creating and demonstrating our own tools to NI.

Also, be careful of the catch 22 -- the tools you ask NI for, just might cost you $995 when they're released.

If you are interested in making the DEAB better, please help with the requirements and specification development. Once the specification is completed, the implementation can be coded in no tim
e at all.

> p.s. Jim, do you ever sleep? :-)"

Yes, but I dream about LabVIEW ;-))

-Jim

[Jim_Kring]

Yes, this will work. And, don't forget to preserve your diagrams (if you wish to do so).

[Alex Feldman]

Thanks a lot Jean-Pierre. That did the trick 🙂 and now I'm one happy camper. As a side bonus, I got the llb to be a lot smaller than before because it removes front panels which aren't needed on a runtime computer. The Save As Application Distribution option keeps front panels, and I don't think there's an option to remove them there anyway.

I'm really glad that you told me this. Now I created some build files that I needed desperately to create .llb distributions that I used to create manually. I select Executable, but change the extention in the filename and that's it :-).

I have 3 suggestions for the Application Builder:
1) Add an option to the pulldown menu to allow users to create LLB. Not everyone is going to read this forum.
2) T
here should be a option to "keep all Front Panels" instead of having to edit each file manually.
3)Create an option to "Build All Builds" so that if I have many builds that I would like to build at once I could do that. You'd also want to have a "overwrite all files" option so that the user wouldn't get prompted.

Thanks for your help guys.

Alex

[Alex Feldman]

Oh, and one more thing...

What about options such as "include vi.lib files" that was present in Save As menu? Application Builder says that I have to place files into the runtime directory. I actually put the LLBs in a custom subdirectory of the runtime directory. Even though the LLBs that I just created worked fine, I'm wondering if I just got lucky, and if some day I'll build an LLB that will be missing some files.

Thanks again.

Alex