global configuration file available on the internet?

[Monroe]

I have a data acquisition application that can run anywhere on the internet. I would like to create a file containing a list of valid data sources that can be read from anywhere on the internet. The application would read this file to create a list that the user can select from. I can create a web page, but I don't know how to read the contents of the web page in LabVIEW. I can use ActiveX to view the file, but I don't know how to get the text out of ActiveX.

[Evan]

There are a few ways to read a web page in LabVIEW. One is to use datasocket. If you use the web pages URL in a DataSocket read it will return the html string of the web page, which you can parse out.

You may also be able to use the XML VIs to get the information you need from the web page.

If you want to use ActiveX, which is much more complicated, I am sure the internet explorer object has a method to return the source code of a page, or to save the web page. You could then parse that string out. However I would suggest the other solutions.

Evan

[Monroe]

Evan,
Thanks! This ended up being so easy! It would be great if this feature of DataSocket were better publicized!

Thanks again!
Monroe

[Al_S]

Monroe:
Just FYI: in NI's rating system, 1 star is the lowest and 4 stars is the highest. It sounds like you were happy with Evan's answer, but somebody rated it 1 star. You can rate it again if you did it by mistake.
There's certainly a lot of debate here on the merits of the rating system, and Evan may not care, but I just wanted to make sure you knew what it meant if you want to use it.

[Monroe]

Oops! Thanks!