I Want to know the Function Panel (*.fp) Format

[play]

I know that many VXI instrument drivers have a *.fp file.Labwindows/CVI can load the *.fp file and show users the function tree.

Now I am developing a project with Visual C++.I must parse the *.fp files in my project in order to get the functions and all other information in the *.fp files.

So I want to know the Function Panel (*.fp) Format.Are there any documents that describ the *.fp file's format.Or it has other defined structions for me to parse the *.fp files.

[Chris Matthews]

You can find documentation on the FP format at the VXIPNP web site at http://www.vxipnp.org/. It's under specification VPP-3.3. This is going to be quite a bit of work to try and parse this binary file yourself though. The CVI Automation server may be a better solution. You can automate CVI through ActiveX and use it to open and read FP files. See the instrument driver \cvi\samples\activex\cvi\cvisrvr.fp to see a list of the functions to Automate CVI. In the next version of CVI, we are adding the ability to generate and load in XML files that represent the FP file so that will help a lot in the future.

Best Regards,

Chris Matthews
National Instruments

[Rupert Bear]

Forgive me for hijacking this topic, but will the next version of CVI
have functions for the general handling of XML files? I'm struggling
at present to use MSXML4 from CVI. It's not an NI problem, just
getting my head round the MSXML functions! I just want a basic set of
functions for generating and parsing fairly simple XML files,
something like the INI file tools, perhaps.

Hopefully,

Rupert

On Tue, 17 Dec 2002 12:44:07 -0600 (CST), Chris Matthews
wrote:

>You can find documentation on the FP format at the VXIPNP web site at
>http://www.vxipnp.org/. It's under specification VPP-3.3. This is
>going to be quite a bit of work to try and parse this binary file
>yourself though. The CVI Automation server may be a better solution.
>You can au
tomate CVI through ActiveX and use it to open and read FP
>files. See the instrument driver \cvi\samples\activex\cvi\cvisrvr.fp
>to see a list of the functions to Automate CVI. In the next version
>of CVI, we are adding the ability to generate and load in XML files
>that represent the FP file so that will help a lot in the future.
>
>Best Regards,
>
>Chris Matthews
>National Instruments

[Chris Matthews]

We are in beta now, some time in the middle of next year.

Chris