About How to develop Xnode

[J.Alvin]

hello everyone:

     Recently, I found many things about XNODE in LabVIEW forum.And I find that XNODE is a very powerful thing and has great interest in it.

I would like to ask how to develop XNODE, any related posts or articles can recommend it?

     thanks Very Much.

[wiebe@CARYA]

You'd be much better of spending your time on malleable VIs.

XNodes are incredibly difficult to make, and even more difficult to make them do something useful. And then when you succeed, you'll run into the distribution problem. NI uses them, but they can distribute them with LabVIEW. We can't.

Lava has some templates to develop XNodes (search e.g. "XNode Editor").

To do it properly, you need a XNode License. Haven't heard about anyone actually getting that license, though.

NXG does not and will not ever support them...

Why do you think you need them? Or is it just to play? Figuring them out is 90% of the fun. After that it's all downhill...

[Hooovahh · Accepted solution]

wiebe basically said it all.  Crosspost to your other thread BTW.

XNodes are highly experimental, undocumented, and NI does not want you or anyone outside of NI creating them.  They are on your palette already and NI makes several which are super useful, but without proper testing and documentation you are likely going to spend alot of time going in circles.  Still I enjoy them and presented on them a couple times.

Architect Presentation

Newer NI Week Presentation (less examples but talks about VIMs)

I too would highly recommend you look into VIMs first.  They have type adaption and are officially supported.  While XNodes can do lots more than type adaption, that is probably the most common use for them.

[paul_cardinale]

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wiebe@CARYA wrote:

You'd be much better of spending your time on malleable VIs.

XNodes are incredibly difficult to make, and even more difficult to make them do something useful. And then when you succeed, you'll run into the distribution problem. NI uses them, but they can distribute them with LabVIEW. We can't.

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That's overstated in my opinion.  They are challenging, and fraught with pitfalls (Ctl-Alt-Del becomes your best friend).  But I make them, useful ones (why would I make one that's not useful?).  Also, there's no distribution issue.  (Note that XNodes are only present in source code, their components don't end up in compiled code.)

Just for fun I've attached one.  This one is a zero-risk xnode because it doesn't stay on your block diagram, it replaces itself with one of your subVIs.  The tricky part is getting it on your palette (Tools->Advanced->Edit Palette Set...).  In order to get that to work, you have to:

1. Edit the .xnode file with a text editor and comment out the "Help" item.
2. Edit the palette set: Right-click on an empty space and select Insert->VI(s)...
3. Change the browser pattern to All Files (*.*) and select the xnode.
4. Edit the .xnode file again, restoring the "Help" item.

Have fun.

[wiebe@CARYA]

Hmm. No distribution problem. Jet 5 lines with instructions on how to distribute it ... 

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@paul_cardinale wrote:
But I make them, useful ones (why would I make one that's not useful?). 

That doesn't make them not incredibly difficult to make. It probably means your very capable of making them.

I've made a few (including malleable VI functionality). It's hard to make them function properly, and it's hard to actually find a good use case that isn't easier to fix in other ways.

Just saying, just learning how they work is fun. But without a very good use case, I wouldn't invest time in it. Of course, knowing what a good use case is, requires some knowledge about them (still in the dark about OP's plans)...

[paul_cardinale]

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@Hooovahh wrote:

wiebe basically said it all.  Crosspost to your other thread BTW.

XNodes are highly experimental, undocumented, and NI does not want you or anyone outside of NI creating them.

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Hmm.  Are they still "highly experimental"?  They've been around for a decade.  Shouldn't the experiment be finished by now?

[paul_cardinale]

Maybe this will help.

[wiebe@CARYA]

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@paul_cardinale wrote:

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@Hooovahh wrote:

wiebe basically said it all.  Crosspost to your other thread BTW.

XNodes are highly experimental, undocumented, and NI does not want you or anyone outside of NI creating them.

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Hmm.  Are they still "highly experimental"?  They've been around for a decade.  Shouldn't the experiment be finished by now?

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It has ended: they pulled the plug. No more development (for a decade), no NXG XNode. If it was successful, it would have been open by now.

[paul_cardinale]

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wiebe@CARYA wrote:

Hmm. No distribution problem. Jet 5 lines with instructions on how to distribute it ... 

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@paul_cardinale

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What an odd thing to say.  I distributed one in the post you were responding to.

[wiebe@CARYA]

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@paul_cardinale wrote:

Maybe this will help.

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Like giving a razor to a child. (No offence.)

"If you were supposed to use it, it wouldn't be a hidden."