Use LV to read data from a file that is already open in another program.

[PaulG.]

My operators use an office application where they pull up PDF and Word data sheets for various components that we test.

The URL looks like this:

http://team/Service/Motor%20Data%20Sheets/Forms/AllItems.aspx

I have no idea how to get to this from LV.

What I need: when an operator selects a document (PDF or Word) from this list I want LV to know what document was selected and have LV read the data from it.

[Knoxberry]

Hey Paul,

Are you trying to read text from pdfs and text files? Or are you trying to pull up the file into a window on the front panel of a VI?

[PaulG.]

I mistyped. It's not an office application but a Windows application that stores documents on our company intranet. The user clicks on a hyperlink of a document that can be either in Word or PDF format and it opens the document. I want LV to "see" this somehow so I can get the text data from the document. I realize this is more Microsoft/.net/magic than LV but was just wondering if anyone else has done something like this.

[TylerDurden]

Hi Paul,

You're right. There's a component in the .NET Framework which can solve this issue. You can use the FileSystemWatcher class to monitor access to files and folders. I think there's also a pretty good example for using this in LabVIEW.

http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/How-to-trigger-an-event-when-a-file-is-created/m-p/2544613

Hope this helps.

Tyler.