Make all VIs in config.lvlib public

[Marc Blumentritt]

Hi,

in LV2009 a new set of VIs have been published for working with configuration VIs. They are now part of config.lvlib. But some VIs of config.lvlib are marked private, therefore I cannot use these VIs as Sub-VIs, if the calling VI is not part of config.lvlib. This is bad (at least for me), since I have written some tools to load a configuration directly from a string and not from a file. To do this in LV2009, I need these private VIs, which I cannot use without changing config.lvlib.

Therefore I suggest to make all VIs of config.lvlib public. In fact, is there a good reason, why these are private in the first place?

Regards,

Marc

[JackDunaway]

I stopped using LabVIEW's Config VI's a while ago for a few reasons: first, it just takes a lot of syntax to convert a large data structure into groups/keys, and second, in-memory operations were not supported (you had to close the reference to the config file before changes were flushed to file, if memory serves). Also, if memory serves, there was a problem with storing arrays or clusters as a data element.

Now, I store configurations as structures written out as a binary file. This is very robust in terms of being brutally simple, where the only hiccup is with versioning the config cluster datatype (the first four bytes are always an I32 version, which allows the fun interpret/unbundle/rebundle game for versioning). As a bonus, configurations are more secure through obscurity (this could be negative for you depending on your software distribution philosophy).

I'm holding out for NI implementing the 'X' in Unflatten from/Flatten to XML. Of all the options for configuration storage methods, I think this should be the best balance in terms of extensibility/compatibility and simple syntax.

I ask this question of someone with more foresight than I have: are Config Files headed down the "legacy code road" supplanted by XML?  

[AristosQueue (NI)]

Yes, there is a VERY good reason why those VIs are not public. You can read all the excitement here:

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=features&message.id=429#M429

[Marc Blumentritt]

OK, I have read the thread and I do understand now the reasons for the private VIs of config.lvlib.

I will post my wish to add new features to config.lvlib.

This idea can be closed.

[G-Money]

Linked thread in comments has reasons for why these VIs won't be public.