VI server method

[RichardVaughn]

Wizards,

First time posting, hope I'm asking in the right location.

Have a NI computer running an application.

There was a screen capture function running as a batch file that broke.

The producer of the application says to use the VI Server Method, and I am looking for examples.

I have spent quite a bit of time poking around in the LabVIEW environment to get a bit more familiar with the application environment.

I will do my best to provide enough info that you all can point me in the correct direction.

LabVIEW v17 sp1.

Windows 7 PXIe-8821 machine.

3rd party application (have port and tcp settings provided by 3rd party application dev)

flexRIO Card in NI machine.

From what I have been able to not get to work, I believe that I have all the required software to perform the recommended task.

I don't believe I need to worry about the RIO card at all, as the 3rd party application is doing that already.

What I believe I need to do is to, correct me if im wrong, import the application into the VI Server environment and manipulate the application with the VI Server.

And this is where I start to fall apart.

I can follow examples and directions well, if anyone can point me to an example of something similar, I believe I can fumble through the rest of it.

Any advice is appreciated,

Richard

[billko]

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@RichardVaughn wrote:

Wizards,

First time posting, hope I'm asking in the right location.

Have a NI computer running an application.

There was a screen capture function running as a batch file that broke.

The producer of the application says to use the VI Server Method, and I am looking for examples.

I have spent quite a bit of time poking around in the LabVIEW environment to get a bit more familiar with the application environment.

I will do my best to provide enough info that you all can point me in the correct direction.

LabVIEW v17 sp1.

Windows 7 PXIe-8821 machine.

3rd party application (have port and tcp settings provided by 3rd party application dev)

flexRIO Card in NI machine.

From what I have been able to not get to work, I believe that I have all the required software to perform the recommended task.

I don't believe I need to worry about the RIO card at all, as the 3rd party application is doing that already.

What I believe I need to do is to, correct me if im wrong, import the application into the VI Server environment and manipulate the application with the VI Server.

And this is where I start to fall apart.

I can follow examples and directions well, if anyone can point me to an example of something similar, I believe I can fumble through the rest of it.

Any advice is appreciated,

Richard

---

I have to ask, if the code wasn't changed but now it's not working, how can it be the code's fault?  Why would this app developer tell you to fix the code when it seems something else seems to have broken?

I think we need more info.

[altenbach]

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@RichardVaughn wrote:

Have a NI computer running an application.

There was a screen capture function running as a batch file that broke.

---

If I understand this right, the "screen capture batch program" was not a LabVIEW application and was doing the screen captures out of band from the application. Now you want to implement that same functionality directly into the LabVIEW code.

Is this correct? If not, please clarify!

Do you know LabVIEW, have the development system, and have access to the source code of the built application?

[RichardVaughn]

There was an issue with the boot sector of the hard drive and it would take 2 hours to boot up.

Once the system was booted up it worked great, just don't restart it during production.

She limped along for 3 days like this, but we had no issues with this capture feature, aka custom script.

On the 4th day, final day of production, the capture feature stopped working correctly, we documented the issue, contacted support... all the red tape.

Support dug through the machine, tried some things and agreed their script stopped working.

I declined further software support until we replaced the drive and they agreed.

Hardware fixed, fresh software loads, nothing recycled from old drive.

Capture feature still doesn't work.

We reached out to the OEM for the application that wasn't capturing correctly and they stated to use the capture feature within their program.

Documentation that came with the fresh software load I acquired from the OEM states to use the vi server method, and gives information on their setup side.

I presume this falls into one of those programming issues that "If your idea works, good for you but we don't support that way and it might break, so good luck".

I have full labview on this machine, so rather than paying to "fix it", I am interested in correcting it myself, and using the OEM recommended process.

Between posts, I have learned that labVIEW is quite a bit more than just some driver package, and I am excited to learn more about it.

First things first, save the day and get this thing working.

[santo_13]

Yeah, this is like your car, you know something does not work, go to the service centre, they say you fitted after market parts and they don't support. Now, you're sitting there trying to learn all the parts of the car and fix it yourself.

The problem is VI server is just a technique, without knowing what to look for and where it is of no use. It is like just pointing you to look up on google, just that you don't know what to search for and where.

All this "OEM" software you're talking of, can you provide more information?

Also, can you share what "exactly" that OEM told you about VI server?

Edit:

The issue is that the car you've is something none of us knows (not like the common stuff that has many users) and it could be a one-time custom-built car that only you know of and would like us to make guesses and help you fix it.

[RichardVaughn]

Thank you for the assistance, had to wait 24 hours to reply.

I did not realize the scope of what LabVIEW was when I posted the first time, my apologies for upsetting you all.

Although LabVIEW does way more than I will ever fully explore, I have started to correct the current issue with this machine.

As I have never messed with this environment, until yesterday, it will take me a bit to get all the finer details hammered out, thankfully there are tons of examples out in the world for me to guide myself through the fog.

In the event I get stuck with something that I am able to explain in great detail, I may reach back out, otherwise sorry to inconvenience you all.

[billko]

No one here is upset, just frustrated that we haven't been able to figure out a way to get the important information yet.  We're definitely not going to discourage you from wanting to learn more about it.  It's just that right now, we're still not quite sure what it is that you actually want to do.

[wiebe@CARYA]

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@RichardVaughn wrote:

Between posts, I have learned that labVIEW is quite a bit more than just some driver package,

LabVIEW isn't a driver package at all.

LabVIEW is a programming language.

LabVIEW does use NI drivers, that are often used and (therefor) often installed with LabVIEW.

You can use LabVIEW without any drivers.

@RichardVaughn wrote:

 I am excited to learn more about it.

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We're here to help. 👍

[RichardVaughn]

Thank you for your kind offers to assist.

This is what the 3rd party application developer said:

"There is a feature to snap a screenshot of the viewer in this version, which you can control via the VI server method. User guide is attached"

User guide contains the following settings to be set in the INI file for the application.

Server.tcp.enable=True

server.tcp.port=3365

In another email, that I cant find atm, they stated to use the VI Server Method to gain access to the application GUI.

Not entirely sure, yet, if I need to build the server and client or if the application serves as one of those services and I just need to build the other one. Work in progress.

Desired outcome is:

File would be saved as a JPG, on a networked drive.

JPG will replace a file that has already been created.

Looping this to be performed every 2 sec.

Im a visual, hands on learner. If you can point to an example that I can learn from, that would be appreciated. Building this myself, with a bit of hand holding, would allow me to take ownership of the process and not be bound to the mercy of another developer. Using the examples finder I have become quite familiar with navigating the programing environment and have become comfortable with it.

Richard.

[billko]

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@RichardVaughn wrote:

Thank you for your kind offers to assist.

This is what the 3rd party application developer said:

"There is a feature to snap a screenshot of the viewer in this version, which you can control via the VI server method. User guide is attached"

User guide contains the following settings to be set in the INI file for the application.

Server.tcp.enable=True

server.tcp.port=3365

In another email, that I cant find atm, they stated to use the VI Server Method to gain access to the application GUI.

Not entirely sure, yet, if I need to build the server and client or if the application serves as one of those services and I just need to build the other one. Work in progress.

Desired outcome is:

File would be saved as a JPG, on a networked drive.

JPG will replace a file that has already been created.

Looping this to be performed every 2 sec.

Im a visual, hands on learner. If you can point to an example that I can learn from, that would be appreciated. Building this myself, with a bit of hand holding, would allow me to take ownership of the process and not be bound to the mercy of another developer. Using the examples finder I have become quite familiar with navigating the programing environment and have become comfortable with it.

Richard.

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Thank you for more detail.  I know it's hard to explain something that you're not quite sure about yourself.  Something doesn't quite add up here.  I still can't determine the cause of the issue from your explanation, so I am not sure how to attack this problem.  Is it the application that failed?  I think that if the application failed, it's not really the application at all.  Code just doesn't randomly break; some condition must have changed to cause it to break.  In other words, that's the symptom, not the problem.  If this is the case, it doesn't matter if you replicate the functionality of that application because it won't work, either.  I think more troubleshooting is in order.

Here's an example of what I mean:

Symptom: The application is no longer saving screen shots.  Maybe it's because someone/something changed permissions to the folder it is writing to so it can't save files any more.  The code didn't break; it's something outside of it that makes it not work any more.