Insert an "exe" inside of a VI

[Gabrielo]

Good morning everyone,

I would like to know if there is any way to launch an exe (created with labview too) to execute within a * vi in a particular zone, not to open independently but in a particular area of the main front panel.

Thanks for your help.

[jwscs]

i don't know about the .exe, others may have that information, although i suspect this will not work.

do you have access to the original VI for the exe?

then you could have it in a SubPanel.

[Minions]

You could try using the System Exec VI or you could use the Open Vi Reference and feed/receive the data that you want connected using the properties or methods from the executable.

[crossrulz]

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@Gabrielo wrote:

I would like to know if there is any way to launch an exe (created with labview too) to execute within a * vi in a particular zone, not to open independently but in a particular area of the main front panel.

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This sound more like you should be using a Packed Project Library (PPL) for your "exe" and then have your main code dynamically call the VI in the PPL and load the front panel into a subpanel.

[Gabrielo]

The idea is to work directly on an exe or dll and not on a "vi" because I would like that EXE to function as an external plugging.

I have tried using the System Exec vi and it opens the EXE but I would like this exe to embed it in a part of the main program.

thanks to all.

[Hooovahh]

Sure you can do this.  Here is an example where I embedd 7-zip into a VI as a string constant.  Then on running the VI it is saved to a temp location and ran.

https://lavag.org/topic/16513-can-we-prevent-zlib-compress-dir-from-replacing-accented-characters/?d...

Similar things could be done to encapsulate other binaries like DLLs too.

[crossrulz]

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@Gabrielo wrote:

The idea is to work directly on an exe or dll and not on a "vi" because I would like that EXE to function as an external plugging.

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That is exactly the use case for a PPL.  A PPL is a compiled library.  So it is equivalent to a DLL, but you have the public VIs to interface with however you need to.  If you need to update your plugin, you just update the PPL.  Need a different functionality, just point to a different PPL.

[Gabrielo]

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crossrulz escribió:

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@Gabrielo wrote:

The idea is to work directly on an exe or dll and not on a "vi" because I would like that EXE to function as an external plugging.

---

That is exactly the use case for a PPL.  A PPL is a compiled library.  So it is equivalent to a DLL, but you have the public VIs to interface with however you need to.  If you need to update your plugin, you just update the PPL.  Need a different functionality, just point to a different PPL.

Thanks Crossrulz for your response. I have never used a PPL library, it could guide me in how to generate it and how to make a call from it in the main program so that I select within a VI zone to run this PPL.

Thanks in advance.

[crossrulz · Accepted solution]

For a PPL, you just make a project specifically for the plugin.  You have to use a library (lvlib) for your plugin code.  Then you just create a Packed Project Library build specification.

To use in your main project, you can just put the built PPL in your project and use the public VIs, either called directly (just like a normal subVI) or dynamically with the VI's path.  If using dynamically called VIs, I recommend using the Get Exported File Path to get the real path of the VI you want to call that is inside of the PPL.