Tips on Managing Many Lab Computers

[mbaudot]

This is a good question Mark 😉

BLT stands for Building, Licensing and Tracking (not for Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato).

The version currently available is not up-to-date and the latest version of BLT has been totally rewritten for better user experience. This latest version will be available on the tools network few weeks.

Feel free to let me know if someone is interested in a live demonstration and we can definitely arrange this.

In the meantime, below is a description of the product so you can better understand what it does.

BLT for LabVIEW is a tool (certified for LabVIEW by National Instruments) for managing your LabVIEW applications and their deployment.

BLT for LabVIEW consists in an executable and is able to import your existing LabVIEW application source code and add many features to your application, almost without requiring you to write any code. BLT saves all your application settings on a server. The code added to your program is entitled to remotely connect the server and apply what you defined.

With BLT for LabVIEW, you never lose the control of your products, and can remotely manage them.

The features available are (non-exhaustive list):

• LICENSING: Protect your application with an advanced licensing system.

• A license is assigned to a user and allows him to run one or multiple applications defined by you.

• The license can be limited to a defined number of physical computers, for a defined period of time or number of launches (can be unlimited).

• ERROR TRACKING: Based on the license settings, your application can report usage sessions, custom logs and error tracking.

• Each time your program is started, it will register a session on the server, keeping track of the beginning and ending usage time. The physical machine name and application version are also reported with the session.

• During the session, any error occurring in your application can also be reported to the server as well as custom logs. Use the provided LabVIEW API to define where to track errors and report logs.

• AUTOMATIC UPDATES: When you make changes to your LabVIEW program, BLT can automatically build and push the updated application to your customers or testing machines.

• Keep track of your work with the Product Changes log

• 1-Click Build and Deploy feature allows you to:

• Build your executable

• Compress your program

• Upload the updated program on the server

• Notify your end-users for an available new version

• Generate a release description for your end-users, based on your product changes log

• Include a custom LabVIEW VI to run on the end-user computer after product update installation

• BLT also allows you to generate an installer for your product so you can easily distribute your app to the fist-time users.

• LOCK CODE PORTIONS: Use BLT to define features for a particular product. Then, use the provided LabVIEW API to retrieve the end-user license state and disable certain portions of your code.

• Allows you to distribute multiple versions of an application (e.g. Base, Full, Pro) with the same source code for all versions.

• Use BLT to lively define which licenses are entitled for use a particular product feature.

• CUSTOMIZED COLOR SCHEME: You can use BLT to define your own color scheme for a particular product.

• Your company colors will be displayed on every window popup displayed by BLT to your end-user (Type Activation Key, Product update available, License expired, etc…).

• Use BLT to design your own product splash screen. This splash screen will be displayed to your end-user at startup while the product checks the server for license state and available product updates.

• STATISTICS (coming soon): BLT for LabVIEW can make calculations on your data and generate statistics and metrics to better analyse how your applications are used by your end-users.

[Hooovahh]

Sorry I'm late to the party.  VIPM is awesome.  So VIPM can install VIs to your user.lib, this is the function most people use it for.  But you can also use it to add quick drop items, configure your LabVIEW.ini, add glyphs to your LabVIEW install, add items to the tools menu, install things into vi.lib, or inst.lib among other functions.  It is basically a way to install files, or run VIs that can perform other functions.

On top of that you can make a package that contains multiple packages.  So lets say you make a package with all your settings in it for Quick Drop, and your LabVIEW.ini and adds your inst.lib files.  You can then make a package configuration which contains your package, and all the OpenG toolkits.  All of these packages can be contained into a single vipc file that has all those files in it and can be installed offline.  No need for the internet.

This is generally how I setup new test machines that will have LabVIEW temporarily.  Deploy the whole reuse library, along with other things I want, like OpenG or other packages, and then they can be installed by copying a single vipc file to that machine.  Now that VIPM comes with LabVIEW 2012 and 2013 installers you can get VIPM offline too.  It's not perfect and might not be right for you but I love it.

Then if you really want to drink the kool-aid you can install the VIPM enterprise solution where you have a repository of packages hosted on a server, and you connect the VIPM install to that server.  It can then prompt users when new packages are available for packages already installed that you make.

The making of VIPC files is restricted to a professional license, but installing VIPCs can be done on the free version.  Also the enterprise stuff with servers is not for the free version.

[Lukin]

That is pretty much what I have come to.   It is much more powerful than I had ever relized.  That being said I have yet to figure out how to make a configuration or package that will contain my inst.lib folder for some reason.  I think I just need to play with it a bit more. I do however think I need the Pro version to do what I need.  I guess its now time to try and convince the boss its worth the $500.

[Hooovahh]

Packages them selves can be made without the profession, but packages of packages (VIPC) can't.  So the inst.lib stuff should be no problem.  Check out JKI's forums if you need help with the specifics.

The professional version also allows to run pre-install, post-install, pre-uninstall, and post-uninstall VIs.  So you can run a VI that can do what ever custom stuff you want before it gets installed and then reverse it after uninstall.  This is again useful for things like LabVIEW.ini config, custom palette editing, or messing with the registry.