View files hierarchy without project

[altenbach]

Background

The LabVIEW project window has two tabs: (1) Items (2) Files. The "Files" view is very useful to me as a quick check to make sure all subVIs are loaded from expected locations.

I am not aware of an equivalent view into the current Vi hierarchy if we don't use a LabVIEW Project. Maybe I haven't found it yet. 😉

Idea

My Idea is to have an optional window that show the current VI hierarchy in a layout very similar to the "Files" view of the LabVIEW project, even if we currently don't use a project.

(Image for illustration stolen from this article)

[tst]

Personally, I don't need this at all, because all my applications are in projects.

Do you need this often enough that it's too much of a pain to create a new project and drop the top level VI into it?

[Darin.K]

Very good idea!  I had a similar one a while back and came up with this:

http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/VI-Hierarchy-File-View/m-p/1394434#U1394434

(Kind of assumed it would go over like a lead balloon with this crowd).

[AristosQueue (NI)]

Why would we do this? Just create a new project and then open your VI. You now have a Files view for all of those VIs. You don't have to save the project file.

[altenbach]

> Why would we do this? Just create a new project and then open your VI. You now have a Files view for all of those VIs. You don't have to save the project file.

Ok, maybe I was under the wrong impression than creating a temporary project would be significantly more overhead. I was reorganizing my HD and moving old (=pre-project) stuff around and wanted to double check where things are loading from.

I still think it would be a useful addition. I would use it. 🙂

[AristosQueue (NI)]

I create temporary projects all the time so that I can view a set of VIs and how it is laid out on disk -- I have to do this with some frequency when I get VIs attached to CARs from users, so I can learn how the pieces fit together to analyze the bug they're seeing. It works fairly well, and within the project tree, I have all the facilities for modifying the relationships, resolving load conflicts, renaming, etc. Creating a separate "view these paths" window would -- as I see it -- be just a crippled project window, and for most use cases, I would just be frustrated when I saw a problem but I couldn't do anything about it because I didn't have a real project. At least, that's how I think I'd see it.

[Darin.K]

I would see it as an alternative (and useful) way to view the VI hierarchy.  Vertical, horizontal, or by file.  It is not a separate window, per se, just an alternate layout of an existing window.  I don't see the need for any more functionality than you have with other hierarchy views, open, view callers, etc..  The temporary project is a viable workaround, but it is still a workaround.  This is a (small) hole that should be easily patchable since the code to create a listbox from a path list clearly exists (ie. in the Project Explorer).  

I doubt I am the only one whose file hierarchy bears a strong resemblance to VI hierarchy.  The file view is very effective at all levels, project level and VI level.  No real requirement to promote all VIs into projects to benefit from it.   

[MichaelAivaliotis]

The solution is to use a Project. I use projects for everything. Get used to it.

[TiTou]

I made small utility to do that.

See here on LAVA forum :

http://lavag.org/topic/13620-scripting-sandbox-plugin-to-show-a-vis-hierarchy/

[GuessWho]

Right.  It's a duplicate.  Except if you read the details, what I also was requesting was file data such as date, time, etc. (all file attributes); this could be extended to VI version, as well.

The original "near duplicate" post is still flagged as "new", so can we assume that if/when NI picks up the concept, they will review the duplicate posts for nuances?

Blair