How to get data from executable

[YuChuanHuang]

Hello everyone,

I'm a beginner of LabVIEW, and recently have some problem about "get data from .exe". Now I have an .exe of random number generator, and is it possible to get the number by .vi ? (The attachment is  rng.exe). Hope someone can help me, and don't be hesitated to ask more detail.

Thanks a lot

Albert

[GerdW]

Hi Albert,

I don't think I will start any EXE from a public forum without being able to see it's code…

have some problem about "get data from .exe".

You can use several options:

- save data to a file

- publish data over network communication (UDP, TCP, SharedVariables, NetworkStreams, many more…)

- use a screen scraper with image analysis to get the displayed numbers…

[Yamaeda]

---

@GerdW wrote:

Hi Albert,

I don't think I will start any EXE from a public forum without being able to see it's code…

have some problem about "get data from .exe".

You can use several options:

- save data to a file

- publish data over network communication (UDP, TCP, SharedVariables, NetworkStreams, many more…)

- use a screen scraper with image analysis to get the displayed numbers…

---

Oh, I like the last one! Create a .jpg as output from the program and then read it with OCR! 😄

/Y

[YuChuanHuang]

Sorry for that, let me update the rng code.

[GerdW]

Hi Albert,

use any of the previously mentioned options…

Btw. not everybody here uses 7zip, so you should use plain ZIP when compressing files/folders. For simple (and small) VIs you don't even need to compress them…

[YuChuanHuang]

Using invoke node allow me to easily read data from this vi (rng.vi). However, when I convert rng.vi to rng.exe, the invoke node seems to be disable...

[GerdW · Accepted solution]

Hi Albert,

when I convert rng.vi to rng.exe, the invoke node seems to be disable...

Yes.

That's a system protection in most modern OS: you don't want one executable being able to manipulate data in another executable! In a modern multitasking OS each executable uses it's own memory scheme! When you want to communicate between executable you should use network functions…

When you just need a RNG you should implement that function in a DLL. Then call that DLL function using the CLFN from your other executable!

[YuChuanHuang]

Thanks for your kind reply and providing me some way to study.