Create a link to PPL (Packed Project Library) in Application dynamically

[NikitaProrekhin]

Hi All,

I have an application that uses PPL (Packed project library). During the build process of my application LabVIEW copies the PPL to build/My App Folder/data. I can run the application afterwards. If the PPL is deleted or moved later from this ../data/ directory I no longer can run the app.

Is there a way to dynamically link and load PPL from another location?  I've tried using viSearchPath but unfortunately it doesn't work.

Thanks,

Nikita.

[Sam_Sharp]

Pretty sure the answer is no. Why are you deleting/moving it? It's a dependency of the application (since you are calling it statically within the application) so if you move/remove it, it won't work (as would happen in any other application...)

You can load PPLs dynamically - here are a few resources:
http://forums.ni.com/t5/CLUG-Cambridge-LabVIEW-User/Revealing-the-secrets-of-Packed-Project-Librarie...
https://forums.ni.com/t5/Phoenix-LabVIEW-User-Group-PLUG/Plug-in-Architecture-using-Classes-and-Pack...
http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Development-Best/Plug-in-Architecture-using-Packed-Project-Libraries...

[NikitaProrekhin]

Hi Sam_Sharp,

The idea was to have a set of user applications, and each app refers to only one set of (static) PPLs. I was wondering if I can get the same behavior with PPLs as with DLLs and if I can store all Shared PPLs in one place. 

By default each application build process copies all static PPLs to app/data folder. So you have many copies of the same PPLs spread across application folders.

There is a workaround though. You can configure all your build specifications in such a way that they build the app files to:

builds/My Program 1/..

builds/My Program 2/..

and during the build process each build job puts and links all dependent PPLs to

builds/Shared/

Now you have only one set of PPLs stored in Shared folder to where all your applications statically refer. 

[Yamaeda]

You can make a Hard link (mklink -d) of the Data folder and have it placed somewhere else, though it'll probably introduce some other issues.

/Y

[NikitaProrekhin]

Hi Yamaeda,

Yes, I came to the same solution at the end.  Just one correction to your message :

mklink -d creates a directory symbolic link, not the hardlink.

Nikita.