Labview .exe as portable

[Markus2012]

Hi all,

is it possible to run a compiled Labview program like a "portable" ?

Means all necessary components (LV runtime, VISA etc) will be linked into one (big) *.exe during the application build and the programm is then running directly without any additional runtime/VISA installation.

I do not mean to build an installer with all components inside the installer and I do not mean a silent LV runtime installation from an installer. I would love to have everything in one *.exe , ready to run whatever PC I`m using...

Is something like this possible?

best regards

MArkus

[RavensFan]

No.

[ErnieH]

Yes. It is possible. Unfortunately you will have to downgrade to LabVIEW 5.01 with the application builder.

[hecmar.arreola]

Maybe you could install a self-containted virtual machine on a USB stick that contains your LabVIEW executable install?  I can't think of a virtual machine that would run directly off of a USB stick and my Google-Foo fails me.  But something like that might work.

I think that the latest version of LabVIEW (and maybe even 2011) will prompt you to download and install the Runtime, but I'm pretty sure you need administrative access to the computer to get the runtime properly installed.

[hecmar.arreola]

I don't have time to try this all out, but I can give you some ideas.

There *might* be a way to copy the runtime onto a USB drive, and then tweak your .ini file for your LabVIEW executable build to point to the runtime.

http://labviewwiki.org/LabVIEW_configuration_file/Paths

But its a bit of a crapshoot since what you are asking is unsupported by NI.

[hecmar.arreola]

This application, called Cameyo (http://cameyo.com) claims to be able to to "capture" the installation of a software package and re-package it as a standalone executable that can used on a USB drive.

I'm going to give it a try tonight (it has actually become rather difficult to find a computer here at work that doesn't have the LabVIEW runtime installed...).  That might work if you make an installer for your program that includes the runtime.

[hecmar.arreola]

Cameyo works.  I just tested it at home, and I will try a few more computers at work tomorrow to see how well the compatibility goes.  Check it out.  It takes awhile to install.  Cameyo works by taking a "snapshot" of your system pre-installation, a "snapshot" of the system post-installation and then compiles the differences into a single executable program (called a Cameyo "app").

The instrucitons on the web site are easy enough to follow... but here is a list of things to keep in mind when using it to make stand-alone LabVIEW applicaitons:

* You need to make an installer that will install you LabVIEW program and the minimum amount of NI software (Runtime+whatever).

* You will probably be most successful if you capture the Cameyo app on a Windows PC that does not have any NI software previously installed.  To capture the installation properly, Cameyo needs to be able to track all of the changes that the installer makes.  In order to get a clean capture the runtime that needs to be included in the Cameyo app needs to be installed.

My test application (a simple LVM plotter program I use to process data), works and I haven't found any bugs while using it.  The initial launch was a Cameyo window that asked if I wanted to launch my .EXE or a National Instruments Bug Reporting executable that probably comes included with the runtime somewhere.  There was a checkbox to always run my .EXE.

My LVM plotter application listens for "OS Open File" events.  Once I associated the correct file type to the stand-alone .exe, funtionality works as expected: double-clicking on files opens them in my software.

Pretty awesome.  I really hadn't thought of this before.  My boss was just complaining about having to install the runtimes (especially since some of my applications spread across multiple versions of LabVIEW), and this may be a solution.  I think there might even be a way to edit a Cameyo app.  It may be that once a proper LabVIEW Runtime "wrapper" is created, switching out your own LabVIEW application executable is trivial.  I'll have to play with it some more.

[Markus2012]

Thanks Nickerbocker,

I will give this a try....sounds great. Never thoght about an external solution like this Cameyo stuff.  

"My boss was just complaining about having to install the runtimes (especially since some of my applications spread across multiple versions of LabVIEW)" That`s exactly my problem...

many thanks

Markus

[hecmar.arreola]

It looks like it has a "Package Editor".  Once you have a good app build, it should be trivial to switch out the LabVIEW build application with another one (so long as the requied NI software runtimes are the same).  Thank goodness, because the initial "build" took quite a long time and finding a machine around here w/o a runtime installed isn't trivial.

Kind of slow on initial launch on a machine as it "preloads" but after that it seems just as snappy as running the application with a properly installed runtime.

Of course, anything that requires hardware drivers to be installed may be a pipe dream.  IDK.  But for simple applications this should work well.

[Markus2012]

Hi Nickerbocker,

thanks for your help here...

unfortunately I need to use this for a LV program which visualizes data coming from a USB device (a small circuit with a µC and an USB-serial converter for digital sensor devices for an easy"plug &play " setup for our customers and sales people)

However beside the runtimes I need a seperate USB driver to get this running on standard Windows systems. Some customers, my bosses and some sales guys find it a bit annoying to do a complete installation of LV runtime,VISA runtime and USB driver before the measurement can start (even it`s fully automated with a complete installer from the application builder ).

So, you think this may not work for programs accessing external hardware like USB devices etc.?

best regards

Markus