Emulating VNC?

[rcard53762]

Is there a way in labview to emulate VNC?

I dont want to run labview in a VNC window which is what I see being posted.

We use VNC to control a piece of equipment over our network.

I was wondering if labview could do the same thing?

[TiTou]

You mean you want to develop a VNC-like application under LabVIEW ?

There are many things that can be done with LabVIEW... so not to get lost, could you describe more accurately what you are thinking of ?
You have the possibility to publish on the web the front panel of a LV application, you have the possibility to transfert data between to LV applications over a network, in fact I don't even know all the possibilities that exists...

Maybe using VNC will make you save time...

[rcard53762]

We use VNC to control an Exciter over our network.

We get a screen in the VNC window that is the same as the Exciters screen.

by clicking on the buttons with the mouse you can control the Exciter, start, stop load files, etc.

I want to be able to automate certain processes, and tests.

I thought if I could emulate VNC in Labview this would make automation possible.

I have attached a copy of the VNC setup window and a copy of the VNC window while running.

Does this make it any clearer?

Thanks for any help you can give.

[Dennis_Knutson]

Unless you need access to things other than just the LabVEIW program, there is no need to try to emulate VNC. All that you have to do is use the built-in web publishing tool. You can publish the VI as html and then the VI can be viewed and controlled in a web browser. There is information in the on-line help on web publishing. This capability has been included with LabVIEW since version 6.0. The only requirement is that the client pc has to have the LabVIEW run-time engine installed.

VNC gives you entire access to the remote pc. It's just like you are logged in locally so if you need the capability to remotely run other programs, file access, view the entire desktop, etc., then implementing this in LabVIEW will take quite a bit of work.

[rcard53762]

Running the VI remotely is not what I want to do. I can do that now with VNC.

I want to automate the whole process.

I want to start a program and walk away. And have the program do what it needs by itself.

Unaided by man or beast.

I thought if Labview could emulate VNC you could program Labview to press a buttom (or emulate pressing a button in the VNC window) go off and take measurements.

Return when those measurement are finished. Press another button ( or emulate pressing another button in the VNC window) and then go off and perfome whatever measurements are needed.

 When you press a button in a VNC window something happens. A snippet of code tells something to happen over the network and it happens. I want to emulate that process in Labview. 

[Dennis_Knutson]

That's a completely different problem. VNC doesn't click a button. A user does and VNC sends that mouse click to the remote pc. You want to automate 'you'.

What you are asking for is possible. The easiest thing to do of coures, is to modify the existing application so that it doesn't require so much user intervention. You haven't said much about the main application and why it doesn't do what you want now. It's possible to design a program that doesn't require any user intervention beyond clicking a start button. This is a very common task.

If you don't want to modify the existing program, then you can write another LabVIEW program that will control the main app. You can use VI Server to set control values including button presses and to read controls. For example, the attached image shows how you would open a VI, run it, and then pass a true to a front panel Boolean called 'Start'. Indicators can be read and based on what is returned, other actions taken. The VI server app could be running on the remote pc or on the client.

Message Edited by Dennis Knutson on 11-22-2006 08:49 AM

[rcard53762]

I guess we are not communicating.

One more try.

Start Fresh.

I want to Labview to control over a TCP/IP connection an Exciter (the box I am trying to control).

We use Real VNC to do this manually.

So to get Labview to do this I was asking could it emulate Real VNC. 

When you click a button in the Real VNC window it communicates this over the TCP/IP connection to the Exciter.

Thats what I dont know how to do.

I know Labview has TCP/IP capabilities but doesnt Real VNC use some kind of a Java protocol to read back information over a network?

Does that make it any clearer?

If someone had a Labview VI that could emulate Real VNC that would probably do it.

[Matt_W1]

There's probably an easier way, but here's the protocol realvnc uses
http://www.realvnc.com/docs/rfbproto.pdf

[Dennis_Knutson]

I understand that you are using VNC right now but whether you emulate it or not, that doesn't really address the automation at your end of sending the button presses - which buttons to click, where on the screen, etc. You can look at LabVNC but you will still have to write some sort of script or whatever to perform the local button presses, etc. VI Server is one way to do this. A local program can connect to a remote pc and using the methods I showed, fully automate it.