Deploying Executables to Systems with Existing NI Software

[Gregory]

Hi all,

Sometimes it gets tricky to install different versions of LabVIEW stuff on computers that already have LabVIEW installed. I haven't had to worry about it too much, because the computer has always been in-house and I can usually resolve the issues by upgrading or backsaving one of my applications. However, now I am sending stuff to customers and some of them already have LabVIEW and drivers installed in other versions. So, I wanted to see how other people handle these situations.

For this, let's assume I have built an application in LV 2016 that uses the NI-VISA 16.0 driver as well.

1. Existing PC has LV 2014 and NI-VISA 14.0 drivers. If we upgrade NI-VISA to 16.0, will it break the LV 2014 code or executables?
2. Existing PC has LV 2017 and NI-VISA 17.0 drivers. If we install the 2016 RTE but see that the NI-VISA drivers already have a more recent version, will the 2016 executable run?

I am a fan of virtual machines for my own software development as well, but I'm afraid demanding that our customers buy an extra windows license for $100 just to run our software will not be a good option.

Edit: based on this compatibility matrix it looks like upgrading NI-VISA 14.0 to 16.0 will still be fine with LV 2014, but it would break anything in LV 2012 or earlier. Is that correct? And if so, is a virtual machine my only workaround? 

[Blokk]

Hello!

You bring up very good questions, and I would be also very interested to hear more about this topic from someone who knows more. Your question was specifically regarding to VISA drivers with LV compatibility. Reading your post something came to my mind, which I read about the new features of LV version 2017 and above.

Read this link (i know it is not directly addressing your question, but might be relevant in a few years - but i have no idea whether this applies to (VISA) drivers too or not??? 😞

http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/371361P-01/lvupgrade/labview_features/

"

Application Builder Enhancements

LabVIEW 2017 includes the following enhancements to the LabVIEW Application Builder and build specifications:

Backward Compatibility of the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine

In previous versions of LabVIEW, you cannot load and run binaries and VIs built in older versions of LabVIEW without recompilation. Starting from 2017, LabVIEW supports backward compatibility for the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine. For example, versions of LabVIEW later than 2017 can load binaries and VIs built with LabVIEW 2017 without recompiling. This improvement applies to stand-alone applications (EXEs), shared libraries (DLLs), and packed project libraries."

[crossrulz]

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gregoryj wrote:

Edit: based on this compatibility matrix it looks like upgrading NI-VISA 14.0 to 16.0 will still be fine with LV 2014, but it would break anything in LV 2012 or earlier. Is that correct? And if so, is a virtual machine my only workaround?

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Or another computer.  I tend to have one machine for each project.  But we are starting to experiment with having a loose laptop for quick applications.  The current plan is to keep with the same version of LabVIEW for all of the applications, but that will change over the years.

If you are dealing with hardware, VMs add a level of complexity you probably do not want to fight.

[Gregory]

Blokk: That will probably come in handy when dealing with executables in different versions!

Crossrulz: Usually people who use our product will have stages or DAQ hardware that they need to use at the same time. Maybe I could use a switch like this so they only need one set of peripherals, but it seems to be a nuisance to add clutter to a lab bench with an extra machine...

[Gregory]

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