Use VB to see list of VIs in an LLB ?

[josborne]

Hi.

I'm trying to get Visual Basic to see inside an LLB.

I'd like to be able to read information about VIs inside LLBs. The
information doesn't have to be so detailed... even if I could just get a list
of the filenames, date, top-level status, etc. Ideally, I'd even like to be
able to perform file operations on the VIs inside the LLB (move, copy,
delete).

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas how to go about this. I have a few
options, I think:

1. Create a DLL in LabVIEW and then call the DLL from VB. This sounds kind
of annoying because I have not found it so easy to create DLLs in LV and the
end-user would have to install the LV Run-Time Engine.

2. Call LabVIEW directly from VB vi
a Active-X somehow. Sounds like it'd
perform pretty slowly and clumsily (if its even possible).

3. Measurement Studio? At NIWeek I got a brochure that says that
Measurement Studio provides "File I/O" in Visual Basic... but not much detail
on what they mean by "File I/O". Can the components be used to pull up a list
of VIs in an LLB?

I reckon I'll have to create an EXE or DLL in LabVIEW and then call it from
VB somehow.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

-John

[Lab Viewer]

A simple idea is to use folders instead of using libraries as long as the functionality is quite similar and with folders and files you can play much easier.

[codeman]

Hey John,

I had a similar application in C code, and ended up doing it with a LabVIEW DLL. Yeah its a hastle to have to include the LabVIEW runtime engine with your app, but if they have LabVIEW, they already have the runtime engine, and without the engine, llb's and vi's are pretty useless anyway. I'm pretty sure that the component works file i/o capabilities are not going to include the ability to access LabVIEW file types.