Darren's Weekly Nugget 04/05/2010

[Darren]

Did you know there is a documented, relatively easy way to add your own Help > About... dialog box to a LabVIEW built executable?  Check out the help topic entitled Creating an About Dialog Box for a Stand-Alone Application for detailed instructions.  The basic procedure is to add a VI called About.vi to your project, and include it in your executable build.  You can then add customized company, version, or software information on the front panel of About.vi, and this is what users will see when they choose Help > About... while running your executable.

Note:  There is a bug in LabVIEW 2009 (CAR# 202662) that requires you to either (1) place About.vi in the same project folder as your top-level application VI, or (2) select the "Use LabVIEW 8.x file layout" build option (last bullet on this page), in order to get the Help > About... functionality to work correctly.  The bug doesn't occur in LabVIEW 8.6 and previous, and it is slated to be fixed in LabVIEW 2010.

[smercurio_fc]

Additional comment: what a lot of people miss is this little tidbit for an About box:

Note  The front panel window must include a National Instruments copyright notice. Refer to the National Instruments Software License Agreement located on the LabVIEW DVD or CD for more information about the requirements for any About dialog box you create for a LabVIEW application.

I know I always forget it, but at least the apps I create are used internally only so even though I technically violate the license agreement, I don't think the FBI is going to come barging into my place anytime soon.

I hope. 

[altenbach]

I ususally don't bother creating a custom about box. I assume the stock satisfies all legal requirements. 😄

There is also the "patents..." menu item next to the about entry. I assume we are not allowed to remove this?

I can always add a second about entry (About my app ... ) and Rename the existing to "about LabVIEW", same as in the development environment..

Looking at the  Stock dialog I would actually prefer a third option. Maybe I'll make it in an idea after thinking a bit more:

There should be a way to use the existing about box, but transform it with some customization. We have at least 3 empty areas (A, B, C, see picture)). What if LabVIEW would ship with an "about" editor that would allow us to add a company icon, company name, links, and contact information to the existing about box while leaving the existing NI information in place? Would that be useful?

 

Message Edited by altenbach on 04-05-2010 03:37 PM

[hecmar.arreola]

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smercurio_fc wrote:

Additional comment: what a lot of people miss is this little tidbit for an About box:

Note  The front panel window must include a National Instruments copyright notice. Refer to the National Instruments Software License Agreement located on the LabVIEW DVD or CD for more information about the requirements for any About dialog box you create for a LabVIEW application.

I know I always forget it, but at least the apps I create are used internally only so even though I technically violate the license agreement, I don't think the FBI is going to come barging into my place anytime soon.

I hope. 

---

 

Wait...what?  I probably need to go back and re-read what my license said.  I thought that if I truly wanted to I could remove all references to "LabVIEW" and "National Instruments" from my application...?  All of my applications are internal only, so it isn't that big of a deal.  But, I thought having a developer's license to LabVIEW was the same as any other programming language.  I don't have to give grace to Sun when I write a Java applet.  I don't need to give credit to Adobe when I make some piece of artwork in Photoshop.

Don't mean to derail the conversation.

Thanks for the nugget, Darren!  I'll be taking advantage of this...

[battler.]

Thanks Darren.

Can someone please post some images of an example implementation of the About screen.  I have no idea what you or the NI docs mean.

My application runs a custom run-time menu.  I have added my own Help-->About menu item.  Selecting the About menu item opens a standard dialog box with Ok button.

How will this method fit in with my custom run-time menu??

[battler.]

Another question I have is regarding Help files.

Has anyone managed or know how to create Windows Vista and 7 compatible help (.hlp) files?

[ceties]

hlp files are obsolete. Use Chm or Htm Help instead. Good but not free tool is Help & Manual.

[battler.]

Yeah I realise that .hlp files are obselete post XP, I just didn't know what the new formats are.  It doesn't really matter what they are.  We still need help files.

I wanted to know about experiences people had with the implementation of help documentation.  Does NI provide any tools for doing it?  I thought I had read something that they had..

I believe the new format is compiled html or xml, which I know nothing about..  MS Word should be able to create them, can it?

EDIT: Oh Help and Manual, thanks for the tip.

EDIT 2: Only Free to trial 😞

Message Edited by battler. on 04-06-2010 04:01 AM

Message Edited by battler. on 04-06-2010 04:02 AM

[battler.]

My application runs a custom run-time menu.  I have added my own Help-->About menu item.  Selecting the About menu item opens a standard dialog box with Ok button.

How will this method fit in with my custom run-time menu??

[dan_u]

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battler. wrote:

Yeah I realise that .hlp files are obselete post XP, I just didn't know what the new formats are.  It doesn't really matter what they are.  We still need help files.

I wanted to know about experiences people had with the implementation of help documentation.  Does NI provide any tools for doing it?  I thought I had read something that they had..

I believe the new format is compiled html or xml, which I know nothing about..  MS Word should be able to create them, can it?

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We're a bit off-topic here... Probably this should be discussed in a separate thread.

Microsoft offers HTML Help Workshop. This creates compiled html help (.chm) files. They look like the LabVIEW help. And just like LV help you can jump directly to a page within the help file.

Of course the HTML Help Workshop needs .htm(l) files as input. You might need a separate tool to create the html pages.