LabWindows/CVI Idea Exchange

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I noticed that LabVIEW has two ways to download instrument drivers: direct downloads from IDNET and through the NI Instrument Driver Finder.

[NI Instrument Driver Finder Menu Option Image]

[Alternative NI Instrument Driver Finder Menu Option Image]

When downloading drivers directly from IDNET, the file must first be unzipped and then placed in the <National Instruments>/labview xxxx/instr.lib folder.

The easier option when working with LabVIEW, the NI Instrument Driver Finder, downloads the files, unzips them, and instantly gives you access to example code or palette of VIs for communicating with said instrument.

If possible, could we add a similar tool to LabWindows CVI? It would be nice to have a menu option which would open a CVI Instrument Driver Finder.

The interface could then allow users to easily find a driver, download it to their Instruments Folder, see example code and start work.

Since probably 30% of all LabVIEW adoption comes from driver downloads and driver development, maybe this is an investment of resources worth looking into?

[Image of NI Instrument Driver Finder]

[Image of Instrument Driver Finder example code, project access, and palette access]

Cheers,

Shawn Shaw

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Regarding NI Spy and its sequel NI I/O Trace,

Can we have a configuration option to set the length of exported strings?

Example: Current output of NI I/O Trace as shipped with NI VISA 5.1.2:

(.txt export)

149. viWrite (USB0::0x1234::0x1234::12... (0x073F41D0), "STATUS:QUESTIONABLE:E...", 26, 26)
(I've omitted thread/proc ID and timing information)

00000000: 53 54 41 54 55 53 3A 51 55 45 53 54 49 4F 4E 41 STATUS:QUESTIONA
00000010: 42 4C 45 3A 45 56 45 4E 54 3F BLE:EVENT?

(.csv export)

"viWrite (USB0::0x1234::0x1234::12... (0x073F41D0), ""STATUS:QUESTIONABLE:E..."", 26, 26)",Prozess-ID: 0x00001734 Thread-ID: 0x00001468,Startzeitpunkt: 16:59:33.749 Aufrufdauer 00:00:00.000,Status: 0 (VI_SUCCESS),

It would be extremely useful - especially for CSV export - to have a configuration option to let me configure how many characters to print before the string is truncated, so that I get this...

desired output in .csv or .txt file (untruncated string):

"viWrite (USB0::0x1234::0x1234::12345678::INSTR, ""STATUS:QUESTIONABLE:EVENT?"", 26, 26),process ID: 0x00001734 thread ID: 0x00001468,start time 16:59:33.749 duration of call 00:00:00.000,Status: 0 (VI_SUCCESS),"

Thanks for considering this.

Is NI road map going to allow applications that are developed with CVI for Windows to run also on the Apple MAC OS as well as run on IPhone and Android Devices? The current alternative to develop the applications for the Apple MAC OS is on X-Code IDE where the code with Objective C (and Objective C++). The code that is developed with CVI cannot be ported over to the MAC OS because Objective C is not based on the ANSI C Standard. X-Code IDE is a powerful but also a clumsy IDE and can be unforgiving. NI also provides the drivers for most its hardware for the MAC. In my opinion the CVI IDE has a much better IDE than X-Code and CVI is more intuitive to use from a development perspective. Since there is open source CLang Compiler for the MAC why can't NI import the CLang Compiler to work with the MAC and IPhone? Both Windows and MAC use the same Intel Microprocessor. Intel also has a compiler for the MAC OS that is separate from the X-Code IDE.

To develop the applications for Android devices requires the Eclipse IDE. Can CVI be adapted to develop software with the Eclipse IDE like an add-on?

Here in my company we use SVN as versioning tool for CVI projects.

It is working fine enough. However, when users add files to the project, the .prj file is strongly modified.

Even if the lots of changes are quite useless, it may be more usefull if the changes would be minimal.

The worst case is when 2 users are comitting changes to the project file at the "same time", it finally ends with some conflicts.

So, please consider minimal changes to the project file for simple changes in the project (my secret wish is to, at least, keep the .prj file as text...)

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I utilize arrays of function pointers (recipe in a state machine) in a couple of projects. I have the same general definitions for each of the functions (return type, parameter, a few calls inside that are used in each function, commenting, etc...) inside the array. I have written an application that can scan all of my header files in the project folder, create a list of unique functions, I can then drag functions into the array or type names for new functions. Currently when I accept my input all I can really do is copy the new generated code to the clip board.

What I would like to do is:

1) have it insert any new function declarations into a specific header file (which may be open in the ide with pending changes that haven't been saved)

2) Insert the array of function pointers into the current cursor location inside the current source file in the ide

3) Insert any new function definitions in appropriate files.

In my current app I am afraid to open and change files, not know if there are any pending changes in CVI not saved yet. Would hate to loose all that hard effort if I forget to press CTRL+S.

I think it would be wonder full if when typing a statement like "if " the ide would automagically replace it with "if () {} else {}" with the cursor inside the ()...if the else isn't populated it drops. Same thing for a for loop. This is only because I hate typing, but I hate using a mouse more, perhaps soon we can have "thought to code". Also, you have to know that I am the type of person that if they need to a task a second time, a program is written.

So, to ease my fears I would like to be able to run a tool that when it is ready to write to a file I can manipulate the code directly through a CVI api or something. If this already exists please point me in the right direction. I looked at the function panels, there is an insert button for those, but what I want is more complicated than a single function.

I'm not sure if this is a LabWindows suggestion so much, but it would be convienent if there was a library function to rename a TDM/TDMS file RenameFile() won't work here, as the .tdx file has the .tdm file's name embedded in it, so a simple rename breaks the files. The only options right now are to edit the .tdx file to fix the file path, or to manually recreate the TDM file under the new name by reading then writing all the channel groups, channels, properties, etc which is tedious. Thanks.

I realize that there may be open source solutions for this but I would love a robust easy to use email function on completion. Essentially, I am gearing up to run some larger batched analysis routines on a remote workstation for our user group. The analysis time and queue length will vary from minutes to hours (hopefully not days yet). I would love the option to email the user on completion, failure, or email me if something really goes crazy.

The problem with the current simple email solution (unless authentication was really recently implemented) is that almost every SMTP server requires additional authentication to combat spammers I suppose.

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Snippet manager

We hear all the time that should write code that is reuseable. It is difficult to plan so far ahead, so I listen to the preachers but seldom follow them.

However, it is clearely easier to use snippets, code fragments, that I put together for something, even tested them and I remember that I have done that once, but finding it again is too much hassle, it is just 3 lines, 5 lines of code. It owuld be nice to be able to manage such snippets, copy them, tag them,or even share them; I recon, there are snippet libraries out there;,out of sight, out of reach; but it would be really nice when the need arises, - you know that nagging dejavue feeling- than I could find them, bag them an use them... With time, even nice and practical libraries could grow out of them snippets... 🙂

/Layosh

Preview in NIReport

A feature that is still missing in NIReport is the ability to show a preview on screen of the generated report.

This feature could help very much the developer in designing the report without the immense wasting of paper that its lack implies. Moreover, customers are more and more requiring this feature to check reports before actual printing them, especially in applications where reports can be tailored some way to adapt to customers requirements.

Both reasons prevent me at present to use NIReport,

Currently, it is only possible to load XML for parsing from an xml file. In order to load xml data from a string, it is necessary to either write to a temporary file, or use the MSXML library directly. It would be fairly simple to modify the CVIXMLLoadDocument() Function (or create a new function) which uses the MSXML IXMLDOMDocumentloadXML() function, which allows loading XML directly from a string.

Adding this code to the current function after the IXMLDOMDocumentload() function would improve the CVIXMLLoadDocument() function so that it tries opening the input string as direct XML if it is not a path (Replaces line 167):

__caErrChk(MSXML_IXMLDOMDocumentload(xmlHdl, NULL, variantPath, &success));
	 
	if(!success) //if loading as a path fails, try reading as direct XML code
    {
        __caErrChk(MSXML_IXMLDOMDocumentloadXML(xmlHdl, NULL, fullPath, &success));    
    }

LabWindows/CVI Idea Exchange

Realtek NIC Support for CVI and LabView Real-Time

Please Allow CVI the Ability to Automatically Add Drivers from IDNET to the Instruments Folder - CVI Instrument Driver Finder

Test Driven Development Environment (TDD) using CVI

NI Spy, NI I/O Trace: CSV/.txt export with arbitrary/configurable string length

CVI Applications running on the MAC OS, IPad, IPhone and Android Devices

Enhance tolerance towards versioning tools

copy entire folder with all files and sub-folders

IPV6 and asynchronous socket communication support

The CVI to FPGA API still requires LabVIEW

CVI IDE Enhancement - Custom addins/Programmatically control IDE

Make sure that all functions in the Vision Module can be accessed from CVI as well as LabView

Add the option to search a ListType by descending order.

Add a library function to rename TDM/TDMS files.

Email with user authentication

Snippet manager

Preview in NIReport

User Interface Localizer with command parameters / remote control

lines of code, ...

Modify CVI XML Library To Allow XML To Be Loaded From a String