Shortcut to VI into LLB

[Nudnik]

Hello,
I need to make a shortcut to a VI that is bundled in a LLB with other files that is associated with a project. The shortcut is placed in the START menu to be loaded and run with the computer startup.
MY PROBLEM IS: when the shortcut is operated, the LLB opens and lets me select the required VI.
I tried to make the VI as TOP LEVEL VI but then I lost the option to customize the window.
For the meantime, I made a copy of the required VI outside the LLB and the shortcut points to it, but it ain`t good enough.
Does anyone know how to do this?
Thanks.

[Labviewguru]

Nudnik,

I don't see how this can possibly be done. Windows, or whatever operating system, will only be able to point to the library. The contents of the Library, as far as I know, are ONLY held by LabVIEW. Your operating system cannot, therefore, point to a file inside of the library.

The ONLY possible way to do this is to create a "loader" program that would serve the exact same purpose as a shortcut. A shortcut points to a file, and the associations you create in the operating system point to executable to use to open the file being pointed to in the shortcut. So, to emulate this, and recreate the exact same feature, you would use VI Server to load the file from the library, open the panel, and run it. VI Server can do this.

If you want t
o point to more than one file, and use this as a 'llb' shortcut mechanism, then you will need to be creative, and have the executable make a copy of itself called "Shortcut to ____.exe" and have that copy made to point to the file you selected.

However; there is one more piece of advice I can offer: Don't use LLBs. They were created to allow longfilenames and unusual characters in filenames on the Mac, and are an obsolete legacy. I strongly recommend using folders instead. They are much easier to work with, and would obviously solve your problem very easily. Macs are now compliant to long filenames, and as far as I know, have incorporated the characterset useable across multiple platforms.

I will have to remember to include this is my programming standards. Thank you for the reminder.

Good luck.

[Greg_McKaskle2]

> However; there is one more piece of advice I can offer: Don't use
> LLBs. They were created to allow longfilenames and unusual characters
> in filenames on the Mac, and are an obsolete legacy. I strongly
> recommend using folders instead. They are much easier to work with,
> and would obviously solve your problem very easily. Macs are now
> compliant to long filenames, and as far as I know, have incorporated
> the characterset useable across multiple platforms.
>
> I will have to remember to include this is my programming standards.
> Thank you for the reminder.


Not to be picky, but Macs have had a 31 character limit and handled
spaces and other odd characters since 1984. LLBs were invented for
Windows 3 and the DOS name restriction of 8.3
imposed by the FAT
filesystem. VFAT and NTFS have pretty much gotten rid of the
restriction, though you will still see the occasional utility that makes
up a garbage name when it sees a long one. Happened to me the other day
in a mail attachment. The DOS legacy lives on.

Greg McKaskle

[Labviewguru]

Greg,

Thanks for correcting me. How could I have possibly thought windows was ever better than a mac? (I'm not ENTIRELY serious...)

Yes, I still, on Windows 2000, run into 8 character filename issues. Mostly with VSS and Quickbooks, if you can believe it.

Either way, llbs seem to be pretty obsolete. I actually got this from a presentation at NI Week last year. That makes it sound pretty official to me.

[AIR]

Hi,

Make a shortcut to LabVIEW.exe. Then give the shortcut an argument, to the
vi in the library. For me, it looks like this:


(I tried this in a shortcut on my desktop, put the string in the 'Target:"
control.)

"C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW 6\LabVIEW 6\LabVIEW.exe"
"D:\1400 Hard- & Software Construction and Testing\1420 Software
Production\1421 Reference Tools\modified config.llb\Open Config Data
Modified.vi"

Clicking the shortcut will open the vi, even if LabVIEW is already open.

Regards,

Wiebe.


"Nudnik" wrote in message
news:5065000000080000008E360000-1007855737000@exchange.ni.com...
> Hello,
> I need to make a shortcut to a VI that is bundled in a LLB with other
> files that is associated with a project. The shortcut is placed
in the
> START menu to be loaded and run with the computer startup.
> MY PROBLEM IS: when the shortcut is operated, the LLB opens and lets
> me select the required VI.
> I tried to make the VI as TOP LEVEL VI but then I lost the option to
> customize the window.
> For the meantime, I made a copy of the required VI outside the LLB and
> the shortcut points to it, but it ain`t good enough.
> Does anyone know how to do this?
> Thanks.

[Nudnik]

Thank you very very much.
It works beautiful and does exactly what I need.
Nudnik.

[markwysong]

I was able to do this by creating a batch file that was run upon Windows starting (putting in the Start->Programs->startup). In the batch, I put the full path of the labview executable, and then the full path of the file, including the file inside the library. The only hitch is that the filename inside the library (and all naming conventions in the batch) cannot be more than 8 characters. For example, you can call labview from c:\Progra~1\Nation~1\Labvie~1\labview.exe

Then you can put your file right after that command; the filename just HAS to be 8 characters or less inside the library.

Mark

[markwysong]

PS Your VI does NOT have to be a top level VI in the library to do this.

Mark