Hierarchy Find for Front Panel Object

[JackDunaway]

The current method for finding Block Diagram elements linked to a FP control or indicator is clunky.

Say, for instance, you want to find all the places an indicator's value is changed programmatically. Well, it can be written to the terminal, so let me search for that - and I guess I could have dropped a few "Write" locals, so I'll perform a search for those next. Oh yeah, and I need to look for  "Value" or "Value (Signaling)" property nodes. Oh, and I forget, did I drop a reference, and change the value through an unlinked PN, or pass it off to another VI that could change it....?? And finally, if I'm really in the zone, I realize I need to manually do a visual search for any static event registrations, because they provide a reference to the indicator, and I could have dropped a "Value" PN on one of those.....

If you are a thorough troubleshooter, the method is downright clunky. I propose a new hierarchal search results that instantly provides you the tools you need to get the job done. Rather than a plethora of Context Menu Find options, just have one option: "Find..."

 

This brings up a hierarchical window of Find Results:

 

Those results can be expanded and double-clicked to focus on the block diagram elements (notice, different glyph for reads/writes, and the caption of the PN appears as the tree tag): 

 

It's also the perfect solution for Right-Click on FP node, find event structure cases:

As a final note, since the results are hierarchical, scalability becomes trivial, and makes the tool even more powerful:

[JackDunaway]

One shortcoming I have not put thought into yet: Replace and Replace All functionality. Keep it like the current window, and just have a few more buttons on the Find Results? Ideas?

[AristosQueue (NI)]

Good suggestion. Kudos.

[James_W]

Love the idea.

[JackDunaway]

As this Idea slowly gains traction, I would like to add two more common uses for the Hierarchical Find:

1. Ever renamed a control/indicator to a longer name? Now it's a breeze to go through the BD and make sure labels on terminals/locals/refs/invoke/property nodes don't overlap any other code.

2. Makes it easier to Find All Callers, Find Missing Items, and Find Items with No Callers (second comment) by grouping the results and eliminating the confusion of having two separate types of Find windows.