DQMH Consortium Toolkits Feature Requests

Hi,

In order to reduce the number of clicks to launch a DQMH scripter, that would be great to be able to launch them from the LabVIEW New... menu !

Indeed this window has several advantages :

1. The tree view keeps its layout from one excution to another. So if the last thing I did from that window was to launch the 'New Event...' scripter, next time I'll launch this window this item will be directly accessible
2. It allows inserting the created code into the project or not. So to create quick code without adding it to the currently open project, this is quite usefull
3. The tree view makes easier to choose the scripter to launch. With Tools menu, if the mouse pointer accidently leaves the menu and overs another menu entry, you've got to go back and re-do some of the menu selection process
4. A LV keyboard shortcut can be added to the New... action. In my case I redirected the CTRL+N shortcut to launch the 'New...' window instead of triggering the 'New VI' action. It would allow me to launch a scripter with 1 keyboard shortcut + 1 double click ! Quite fast !

I use the Show Diagram debugging request on DQMH modules all the time. But sometimes it's not quite enough, like if there is a bug in my module *initialization*. By the time I fire the Show Diagram request, there is no way for me to debug the initialization problem. And when I say "initialization", I'm not only referring to the Initialize message in the MHL, but also all the code on the left side of the diagram that executes before we even get to the EHL and MHL.

I propose the following:

1. Add a new data member to the Module Admin class: "Show Diagram on Init"

2. Add a new input to Start Module.vi that sets this flag on the Module Admin class that is passed to the Main VI. Default is FALSE.

3. In the Main VI, if this flag is true, then Init Module.vi will show the diagram of the main VI on initialization AND turn on Retain Wire Values.

With these changes, the block diagram of the Main VI will appear immediately on init, and we can probe any wires on the diagram that executed during initialization to see their values.

It would be nice if there were a validate+fixer for this, but given that it is a debugging feature (as opposed to a change in framework behavior), I'm fine if there is no validate+fixer.

For some reason I need to know the module name of the module that I start.

Module name constant is a private VI and therefore cannot be called in a cller VI diagram.

Having the Start Module VI returning this information could be useful (instead of specifically creating a R&R just for this purpose).

I feel like a DQMH module isn't "valid" if its Main VI or its Tester are broken. Right now a module with either of these VIs being broken can pass all validation tests. If something goes wrong after I've run some module "fixers" (or perhaps an external factor has caused my module to become broken without my knowledge), the DQMH Validate Module tool seems like a good place to let me know about it.

Note: I couldn't find any idea/discussion about it and it's surprising. If I missed something, please point it out to me and accept my apology.

The idea would be to access the most used scripting tool via Quick Drop.

My wish list:

• Create New DQMH Event...
• Add New DQMH Module...

I'd like to have a way to duplicate a module easily through DQMH module menu.

It would be great to have an API that provides functions to :

• list project DQMH modules (with /type/icon/ (responsibility description <-- see previous request  
   
    ) 
• list request and broadcast for a module (with as many useful information that could be interesting to put in a project documentation) 
• for a request, which DQMH module/"stand alone VI" is calling it
• for a broadcast, which DQMH modules/"stand alone VI" register it

For DQMH modules written prior to DQMH 7, helper loops will unlikely have the "DQMH_HELPER_LOOP_NAME" string constant wired to the error helper VI as shown below.

This idea is to propose a new test be added to DQMH Validate Module to check that all helper loops have this string constant present.

Original idea from @FabiolaDelaCueva 

Sometimes you could need to unregister broadcast events. To do this you want to use the Broadcast Events--cluster.ctl, but it's set to private scope (it's totally fine).

Having a public wrapper to this control just giving access to the type and not the current event like you can get with Obtain Broadcast Events For Registration function would be great.

Considering providing a fixer to add this wrapper to all other existing modules.

Prior to DQMH 5, I would sometimes see developers add a VI reference output from Start Module.vi to the cloneable Main VI instance that was running:

This was sometimes convenient for the calling code, like in cases where you needed to insert the cloneable main VI instance into a subpanel or something like that. Unfortunately, you cannot use the same approach with Start Asynchronous Call in DQMH 5.0 and later. The VI Reference output from Start Asynchronous Call cannot be used for similar purposes. So you can't output the VI reference that was used to start the async call and expect your code to work the same. Instead, you'll likely want to create a request to the module that will use the "This VI" constant within the main VI instance itself to perform whatever operation needs to be done on the main VI instance. 

I propose there be a new DQMH Validate Module test that detects cases where the VI Reference output of the Start Asynchronous Call function is wired:

At the moment, when we create a request and wait for reply event, the reply payload (correctly) includes an error cluster to report any error that occurred during the handling of the request. However, the error cluster label includes the request name, even though it is within a typedef'd cluster which already uses the request name.

Not only is this a pain as it can take up a lot of block diagram space - I thought duplicating names of structures with a structure was not great style - if its in the "Do something request and wait for reply (Reply payload)" cluster, it probably doesnt need to be called the "Do something request and wait for reply_error"

Could it be changed to just be called "Error"?!

Just a thought...

Paul

It can be hard to follow the flow of messages between DQMH module in a large project.

I find sequence diagrams great to document that, one tool that would rock is something that looks like a UML Sequence Diagram that is updated as messages are being sent. Columns generated the first time a module is started and then the lifelines of the modules are generated and terminated in their column.

Such a tool was created for the AF, so surely the same could be done for the DQMH.

I propose to let the script/scaffolding engine to make a folder with erros, I think it's cleaner

Today when creating adding a module template it is not possible to set a 'human readable' name for template.

The template name is the module's library name. Having a field to specify a more friendly name could be useful (could be set by default withe the module's library name though).

In many cases I launch the cloneable instance(s) and launch the API tester on demand. In this case the API tester doesnt show if any instances are already running, I need to press the refresh button which I forgot in most of the cases. Other developer not that familiar with DQMH forgot it all the time causing confusion.

I have fixed this in the template module we use for cloneables:

Reviewing somebody's DQMH code I noticed an error generated in the exit case where they had cleanup code (1) was not captured by the Tester. This is purely because the exit case causes the MHL to terminate (2), so the normal error handling strategy (3) doesn't work (enqueuing another job called Error). Can I propose, unless there's a better technique, that adding the "Error Report" broadcast at the end of the Exit case (4) is a simple way to ensure any errors generated here get reported.

Add Error Broadcast in MHL Exit Case

Hi, I would suggest adding a boolean called 'Include Dependencies' to the function on the scripting API to search for DQMH modules on the project, sometimes we have projects and we call DQMH Modules not listed on the project itself, but the developer should be aware we are calling those DQMH modules under dependencies, the Panther Dashboard for DQMH already is searching for DQMH modules under dependencies but it would be great if the native function does this functionality, also, I suggest adding a boolean array output to know if the resulting modules are located under dependencies or they are in the project.

This is how I visualize the connector pane of the 'Get DQMH Modules in Project.vi'

Thank you!.

As DQMH module templates become more widely used, it would be very nice if, when adding a new DQMH module that was added as a custom template, the overlay pre-populated with the overlay that the template uses.

So maybe thinking about this on a lower level, this feature request comes in two parts. When saving a DQMH module as a template, store the metadata that makes up the current overlay in a config file somewhere. Then, on the Add New DQMH Module window, whenever a custom Module Type is selected, pre-populate the overlay with that metadata.