SVN and instr.lib & user.lib

[amaglio]

I have just recently starting using SVN and have already been appreciating the benefits of it. When I am working on a particular project and there are many VIs that are only applicable to that project it is clear that these VIs can be put under SVN in an area that is specific to the particular project. One issue that I am struggling with is how to incorporate instr.lib and user.lib into the whole subversion process.

For example lets say that I am working on a project called "Application A." Application A has many subVIs which are specific to this application. So I store these VIs on my SVN server, and when I want to work on the project I check it out locally somewhere. When I have come to a point of an official release I copy the trunk to a release folder. If I ever need to go back to a release, no problem I just check the release folder.

But now what if I am using VIs from user.lib and instr.lib.... How do I make sure that when I check out a specific release that I am using all the right versions of the VIs that I grabbed from instr.lib and user.lib? Should I use externals? Is there a common practice for this?

I know the Professional VI Package Manager can help with this but it will be tough to get my boss to pay for that... I mean there must be some common practice method that was used prior to VI Package Manager and even now by many..

Thanks for any input 

Anthony

[Jim_Kring]

Hey Anthony,

I've written some articles about code reuse techniques in LabVIEW and why they are pretty hard.  VIPM was created (by me and others) to address these issues, because a good solution didn't exist.  I recommend that you contact JKI to see if they can help figure out a way to show your boss the value of VIPM to your organization.  At a minimum we'd love to learn more about your specific needs and code reuse challenges.

Regards,

-Jim Kring, Founder JKI

[F._Schubert]

The solution I found for this is to use packages/VIPM. In short, the packages are in my project folder (under SCC using hg). If I need to go to an ancient version, I can apply the packages using VIPM (installing them in user.lib).

Packages are created with OpenG Package builder. You also can create packages using the Community edition of VIPM.

Felix

[amaglio]

Thanks Jim, I appreciate your feedback. Once I get some free time I will definitely contact you guys at JKI. I would like to learn more about the benefits of the Package Manager.

-Anthony