Using a remote device (tablet, phone, etc) to provide a user-interface for LabVIEW

[kManaa]

Hi msna and vitoi,

I read all your discussion regarding LabVIEw web service and application.

Related discussion says that ,

by using LabVIEW web service

"Client can be a standard web browser without any plug ins?" Ans is YES.

Can you please provide the link related to this. which will provide related documents and steps to design such application.

My project includes a test bench installed with LabVIEW 2011 , 32 bit Windows OS.

And my customer wants to monitor and control test bench front panel over Internet (not on LAN) through any web enabled device(such as android smartphone , ipad ,  any desktop computer , i.e.the device having Internet connection and standard browser).

Because I gone through NI LabVIEW web service documents

"http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/371361H-01/lvhowto/build_web_service/"

this documents says that you need MicrosoftSilverlight and LabVIEW RunTimeEngine  at client side , which my customer dont want.

I found some tools like LabSocket , Webpager that satisfies  all my requirements but I need to purchase it.

From msna's post , there is LabVIEW web service hosted by NI web service  which satisfy this requirement .

msna's  , can you please provide related link how to accomplish this , and required steps,or documentation.

Please suggest .

[Sam_Sharp]

This is an interesting thread and I'm surprised I hadn't seen it before - there's a similar amount of discussion about this topic over on the NI Community for Web Development.

To throw another option into the pot - I created a free WebSockets library that allows you to communicate between LabVIEW and a browser (but you need to do the html/javascript yourself).

Library: https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-40572

Giant Tetris Example: https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-35435

WebSockets Chat Example / CLA Presentation: https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-41778

[kManaa]

Hello Sam_Sharp ,

Thank you so much for reply and related work is really appreciable.

I have downloaded all documents.

Right now i am using LabVIEW 2011 so unable to open it. (searching for conversion. Can you please provide the link for conversion).

Networking and all this internet connections are  new for me . I will go through it.

Even to use websocket library i need to study html and javascript.

But I read all conversation and here are some queries,

1.could i able to all types of indicators or controls on webpage (e.g.muliticolumn listbox including scrolls, jpg image).  Because many services

have defined their suported indicators and controls.

2.How many number of maximum connection can be possible without using intermediate server.

3.To get connected to my test bench from any device over internet (Not LAN) , i think i need one Domain name to register by paying some amount , am I  right?

[msna]

Hi kManaa

"Client can be a standard web browser without any plug ins?" Ans is YES.

Can you please provide the link related to this. which will provide related documents and steps to design such application.

unfortunately i don't have a link or documentation. maybe NI has a tutorial on this. but here is the road map:

1) you need to develop you user interface web interface. this can be done with html5/java script to prevent requiring any additional plugins. or you can use flash or other applets which will of course require a plugin. so from the development point f view this is similar to any other website. it is at you discretion whether to use plugins or not.

2) you will be using labview's web services as your host and server side program. That is similar to using say Apache as a php server. NI web services will send host the page you created in step one and also allow you to respond to server requests with labview VIs. this takes you to step 3.

3) hosting a static webpage is straightforward - that is a webpage that doesn't include any interactions with the server. A dynamic part will require some further development. you will need to create VIs to process your requests. for example, say you have created a calculator which sends the information to the server and displays the result. you want to send "1+1" to the server and the server should respond with 2. you will need to create a vi that takes "1+1" as an input and then outputs "2". then you will have to include this VI in you web service build and call it. you can specify how this vi is called - it is the settings in the build - and how it sends the data back. my personal preferred method is requesting with AJAX responding in JSon format. The final step is to have you local webage process the server responds. that is to display the "2" to your user. this part is standard html coding.

PS) keep in mind that when a VI is called within the webpage, it is a stand alone VI not a project. this means it only has access to whatever data is included in that VI. for example it doesnt have access to global variables that you have in your project. However, there is way to get around this. say you have a separate labview project that is running on you server and you want to share some data between that project and you server side VIs. in this case you will have to use "network shared variables". when you have a network shared variable all of the labview VIs on the network will have access to it. that includes all of the VIs that are running on the same machine - the server -too. so this way you can bridge between you stand alone project and you website

i hope this was helpful.

cheers,

[buckidge]

What's the 2020 answer to this thread? I'm guessing a lot has changed and I'm not sure where to look.

I too am looking for a web-browser/tablet based UI.