Can the NI SessionManager handle IVI-COM sessions

[DWW]

I would like to use the NI Session Manager to initiate a session and get the handle (of type CAObjHandle) for an IVI - COM instrument. Is this possible and, if so, what do I need to configure in terms of the MAX/NISessionManager.ini/IVI.ini/IVI configuration file etc and what commands do I need in the Session Manager API - Has anyone got an example ?

Cheers
DWW

[Scott_Richardson]

DWW -
The NI Session Manager server currently only support IVI-C drivers. There are two features of the NI Session Manager that you could be wanting for your IVI-COM session:
1) The ability to automatically Initialize when first used and automatically Close when released.
2) The ability to store the reference under a shared name.

Which one of these are you interested in?
Also, what development environment wants to use the Session Manager session, TestStand, LabVIEW, CVI, MSVC etc.

[Sergei]

Hi Scott, Does NI planning to create a support of the IVI-COM instr.drivers (NI Session Manager, NI TestStand, etc.)? More vendors have provide ther instr. with IVI-COM tech. (Agilent, Rohde-Schwarz, tektronix, etc.). Txns in advance

[DWW]

Thanks Scott

I'm creating my own TestStand custom step for an IVI COM RF Signal Generator (no RFSigGen IVI Class Step unfortunately). I really want the abstraction that the session manager brings (ie Logical Names) and yes allowing the step to ignore the problem of initialising and releasing the driver would be one major benefit.

Regards
DWW

[Scott_Richardson]

Sergei -
LabVIEW, CVI, and TestStand as developement environments can already call IVI-COM drivers now, but the NI Session Manager does not support them yet. We have not had a request until now, so this may be something that we support in the future.

[Scott_Richardson]

DWW -
The current version of the session manager supports an instrument session categories of type "Custom::". You can share an custom session using a logical name, but the session manager has no knowledge of any hardware associated with the session.

You could then attach an IVI-COM reference to the custom session using InstrSession.AttachObject, so you could share the IVI-COM session. Of course you would still have to manually call init and close on the IVI_COM object, but at least you could share the object by name. When the first user adds the object you could manually call init. If you want to setup an automatic close of the object you could use the InstrSession.CloseFunction method to define a callback that gets called when the last ref is released to the custom session. Within the close function, you can access IVI-COM object that you added to the session and call close on it.