Control over an RT application from browser

[AndyJD]

Hi,
I have a working RT application that has been built to automatically start when the RT target (standard PC runing ETS) boots.
I would like to be able to start and stop this VI from a non-LabVIEW machine remotely.
So far, my attempts to do this have failed...no access to the front panel, although this currently only has a stop button.

I have read everything in the help for doing this and have created a .html file using the Web publishing tool (this I ftp'ed into ftp://xx.xxx.xxx.xx/NI-RT/SYSTEM/WWW/).

Do I have to have to create a VI reference or is there something else I am missing.

Any links to examples would be much appreciated.

thanks,
Andy

[SachaE]

Hi Andy,
from LabVIEW, whilst targetted to the RT setup, have you gone into the Options->RT Options, and configured the web server?

Thanks

Sacha Emery
National Instruments (UK)

[AndyJD]

Hi,
Yes, I've enabled the web server, and currently have access set to *, to allow any 'client' to connect

[preston_johnson]

Thanks for your post on regarding LabVIEW RT and remote control. Check out this dev zone document. It basically describes a effecient TCP/IP xml style comm architecture that can work with anything on the other end (non LabVIEW included).

http://zone.ni.com/devzone/conceptd.nsf/webmain/0986799C984500F886256F170079411E

Hope this helps,

Preston Johnson
Business Development Manager
Industrial Measurements and Control
National Instruments

[JackLF]

When you say "no access to the front panel" what do you mean? When you browse to the RT box, do you get the page your created, just with no VI in it? or is it unresponsive like the webserver is still not working? (does browsing the root web page work?)

If you get your page, just the VI is missing then it may be that the startup application has already closed. If an RT startup app stops running then it will leave memory on your target, making it unreachable by Remote Panel.

One thing you can do to avoid this is to create a "wrapper" top-level VI that can be connected to by Remote Panel that never actually stops running -- instead, it is used to start and stop the "real" application using VI Server calls or even to just control a simple state machine inside your app.

If you need to see data on the Remote Panel from your "real" application (not just control starting and stopping it) then you may have to do a little more work to communicate that information to the controlling (wrapper) VI, but definitely doable.

[AndyJD]

Thanks very much for the replies.

In the end I used a sub vi which had a timed loop checking for UDP characters to switch things off and on (and used a global variable)...

Cheers,
Andy

[AndyJD]

When I meant 'no access' I mean the front panel is displayed with controls on etc. but these were not activex controls, just pictures of the controls.

[Kjell-E]

did you right-click in that web-page and request control? If you dont, you will not be able to push buttons or anything else on the vi...

Of course, you probably did try that, this is just my two cents worth...

[SachaE]

Hi, can you post the html file on this thread? Did you build an embedded page, or just the image? Thanks Sacha Emery National Instruments (UK)