How do I refresh the graphics of Web displayed vi front panel without refreshing the entire page

[Craig M]

I am running an executable VI with the web server enabled. I have no problem seeing the Vi across the network. What I'd like to know is how can I get just the graphics in the front panel to update without the whole front panel regenerating. I have tried viewing it with ?monitor through Netscape 4.08 on a Macintosh. I am Planning to install Netscape capabilities to my PC and view it from there. Will this help or is there another approach that doesn't utilize the internet tool kit? Thanks for your help

[Darren]

Hello,

To my knowledge there is no way to update only parts of a front panel when displaying it on the web through the LabVIEW Web Server. The entire page (meaning the entire panel) is always updated. I know you can use CGI tools to manipulate only parts of a panel through the web interface, but the CGI tools are part of the Internet Toolkit.

I suppose if anyone else knows of a way to refresh only part of the page displayed by the G Web Server, they should reply and tell me I'm wrong. 🙂

Good luck with your application, and have a pleasant day.

Sincerely,
Darren Nattinger
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[markwysong]

Darren,

Believe it or not, this is possible--not only without the CGI tools, but with a java archive and VIs from NI's Website!

Using the ImageUpdater VIs (search for them on the NI website-you'll find them), you can actually view and control a VI across the network from a web browser. You'll view the front panel of the VI just as it looks on th host machine.

The VIs start two servers, one sends the image of the front panel, the other retrieves mouse clicks and keyboard strokes from the remote machine and executes them on the host. The image updater server, however, is written so that only CHANGES to the image are sent to the browser, which makes the update very smooth, and you don't get that "blinking" effect from .monitor.

I've actually incor
porated some of the server functions into my VIs, which allows another VI's front panel to show up (let's say you open a configuration VI with its own front panel), the browser switches front panels as well without refreshing!

What's nice is any change made to the front panel is immediately reflected on the browser, which means any modification made to the VI doesn't need any other change to make it show up on the browser.

Let me know if you need more details on how to make this work.

Mark

mark.wysong@ae.ge.com