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Building application creates multiple unwanted folders

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Hi, I'm trying to build an application using Report and Excel toolkits.  It all works fine reading and writing to Excel files inside my programming environment, but not in my built application.  I found a NI page that explained to add the NI_Excel.lvclass file to my Project and add to the "Always Included" section of the build Source Files, but this did not help.  After doing this, when I run my built application, it then asks for even more files to be found.  How do I get all of these report/excel files to be built into my single application?  thank you

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I think you need to attach your project or at the very least some screenshoots if want anybody to able to help you.

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I agree that we need to see enough code (and it has to be code, i.e. VIs, we need to be able to actually run and/or build it ourselves).  Since you are building, you probably are using LabVIEW Project, and you probably have all the files, including the Project file, in a folder.  So right-click the Folder, choose "Send To", Compressed folder, and when it makes a .ZIP file for you, attach that.  Now we'll be able to help you ...

 

Bob Schor

 

P.S. -- I've built numerous .EXEs that use the Report Generation Toolkit over the years without any problems.

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Hi Jesse,

I ran into this issue quite a while ago on a LabVIEW 2010 program. The Report Generator functions are called dynamically so LabVIEW does not know to include the needed files.

 

My brute force solution (there are probably better ways) was to include the NIReport.llb

in the Always Included section along with the LVClass folder. I think it added 10MB or so to the application. Like I said - brute force, but at the time I didn't care, it worked.

 

steve

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Of course the other thing we learn when someone attaches code is which version of LabVIEW they are using.  If they are using a really old version, we won't suggest the RGT, and, conversely, if they are using LabVIEW 2015 or 2016, we might ask "Do you have the full version with the RGT?".

 

Bob Schor

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Hi All,

Thanks for input so far. I'll try to add more info.  I'm on Windows 10, using LabView 2016.  Screenshot 2.jpg shows the only 4 Excel/Report VIs that I'm using from the Report generation toolkit that installs with LV2016.  Screenshot 4.jpg then shows the 3 folders that are automatically created when I build my executable.  In over 10 years of using lots of different toolkits in LabView, I've never seen it create extra folders.  Why aren't these folders/files being built inside of my application like everything else is?

thanks,

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Hi stevern181,

When I first created this thread asking for help, I had already included "NIReport.llb" into my project and set it to "Always Included" in the project properties.  When I do that and build my app, it now creates about 40 extra folders and my App is STILL asking to find all those same files that were inside of "NIReport.llb" and now asking for even MORE files.  

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Hi Jesse,

Is the location of the "NIReport.llb" files set up in the Destinations section?

Also verify the Source File Settings for the llb.

 

The Preview tool is handy for cross checking these things (this note is for

others finding this thread - I bet you know this).

 

I agree that it is a ton of stuff, but if they are in their own folder, does it matter

that much? (I would still like to see a more elegant solution.)

steve

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This is totally weird, and completely unlike anything I've ever seen when building Applications in LabVIEW.

 

I think we need to see what you are really doing, and try to deduce where the process is going awry (possibly, dare I say it, because you are asking it to "do the wrong thing").  The easiest way to do this, short of your flying one of us to your site, is for you to find the folder that holds the Project and Project Files, compress the folder (using right-click Send To and choosing Compressed File), and attaching the resulting .ZIP file.

 

The first thing I would examine is the Build command, including what you've listed in the Source Files section.  [On almost all of my builds, the only thing on the right side is the top-level VI, listed under "Start-up VIs" -- in particular, the RGT files are definitely not specified, but come along for the ride].

 

Bob Schor

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Hello Jesse_Larsen,

 

Sorry to hear you having difficulties building an executable for your application. I would try building an executable from some of the RGT examples. That will at least give you some idea of whether this problem is specific to your application.

 

For example - I am running LabVIEW 2016 32-bit, LabVIEW Report Generation Toolkit 2016 32-bit, and Microsoft Office 2016 32-bit. I tested the Word and Excel examples in the development environment. I then created a build specification, setting the example VI as the startup VI. I made no other changes to the build specification and the resulting executable worked fine.

 

If the examples run fine as executables, then I recommend posting your LabVIEW project and contents as Bob_Schor has suggested. This will allow us to test and observe the behavior ourselves.

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