Can we create a virtual folder in Project?

[TiTou]

Hi,

I'm trying to make a utility VI to create a virtual folder in a LabVIEW project and then add in it all project items that meet a set of conditions (tokken in name, VI is re-entrant, VI has no documentation, etc...)

Sort of a "smart folder" as proposed here.

First thing, I need to be able to create a virtual folder.. haven't find how to yet, anyone can help?

Other issues I will have to concider :

- what to do with item which are in an "auto-populated folder", I think of turning of the auto-population and maybe notifying the user, any better idea?

- shall I also include dependencies item.. that could be an option.

Thanks for any help

[TCPlomp]

I don't think we can create virtual folders in a native LabVIEW project, since a project doesn't allow multiple items witht the same name.

However you could write your own project manager (will be a lot of work) that bypasses this problem.

Ton

[TiTou]

Hmmm well... writing an OpenSource project manager would be a very exiting project

but of course I'm nowhere close to concidering doing that...

Still, I'm not giving up... first thing we can use hyperlink, that what I did : http://screencast.com/t/VIgQ4Z9w and then, can we not create an item with a display name different from the original item but that links to the same file, would it be silly? Just throwing ideas...

EDIT: of course... we can't have 2 VI items refering to the same VI file

so far I can't think of something better than hyperlinks.

[TCPlomp]

hi Antoine,

here is the actual string for standard hyperlink:

        <Item Name="New Hyperlink" Type="Hyperlink">
            <Property Name="NI.Address" Type="Str">http://www.ni.com</Property>
        </Item>

Which don't show the name of the URL, how does your string look like?

Ton

[TiTou]

HI Ton,

I do see the URL next to the name in the project window.. I looked for an option to hide it but couldn't find it.

[TiTou]

What I might do is ignore file which are already referenced in the project and therefore only go through dependencies to look for file to put in the smart folder.

EDIT:

yeah, I'm happy with that... here is what I do :

- if the item is under "dependencies" then it's moved to the newly created "Smart Folder"

- if the item is alreay referenced in the project (I mean in another folder than "dependencies"), then I just create an hyperlink to it

- there is an option to take only re-entrant VIs

- there is an option to take only VIs with no callers (VIs that are either called dynamically or no longer used in the project)

[TiTou]

the short answer is no, but there are some work-arounds.