What impact will there be in migrating Remote Panel apps to utilize .NET features (like SOAP)?

[med_user]

Realizing that National Instruments .NET support is not yet here, can someone estimate the impact to migrating existing applications to utilize .NET features/functionality such as SOAP? What plans does National have for this migration? Or will it be labor intensive to backfit existing applications with the new technology? Just trying to plan ahead for new application planning and development...

[rahulk]

Let's address your later question first.

"Will it be labor intensive to backfit existing applications with the new technology? What plans does NI have for this migration?"
In case you are referring to the LabVIEW based product line, it would be more of a case of adding more functionality to applications using web references/.NET controls. Existing controls within LabVIEW work great even with .NET loaded on the machine. So there wouldnt be a real "migration" from LabVIEW applications now, to those using .NET.

However, there is a difference between using Measurement Studio controls in Visual Studio.NET to that in Visual Studio 6. There have been a lot of changes made in VS.NET (for example, variant datatype is no longer used in VB.NET). There are also a bunch o
f features added in VS.NET. In order to use these, and to make Measurement Studio controls more efficient and user friendly, National Instruments is working to get all controls written specifically with .NET functionality in mind.

To address your question about using .NET features such as SOAP -
Using .NET features in NI products is very much possible even today. For example we could use MSSOAP tookit with LabVIEW to invoke .NET web services over the Internet.

National Instruments is conciously working towards making it easy to use the standards underlying .NET as part of our products.

Hope this answers your concerns.

Regards
Rahul Kulkarni
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[Kamran S.]

You can expect NI to continue to integrate new technologies in an easy-to-use manner and provide backward compatibility for NI software, including LabVIEW. This ensures your past development efforts can be leveraged as the technology landscape evolves. For users of Visual Studio programming in Visual Basic and Visual C++ the latest version of Measurement Studio (version 6.0) provides compatibility with Visual Studio .NET.

Regarding your question on using Remote Panels. There is a difference in the intent of Remote Panel technology from that of an XML web service. SOAP is a protocol built on XML for exchanging information in a decentralized or distributed environment. To some degree it can be thought of an evolution for COM or DCOM as the communication mechanism between distributed applications. For transactional applications, querying a database for the latest stock quote or placing an order online, this communication mechanism is sufficient.

Remote panels provide distributed control or monitoring of an application or application interface. A monitoring application can be realized by sending raw data to a monitoring application. This can be done with DataSocket or by converting data into an XML file (conforming to a defined schema) and transferring the data using a number of protocols (including SOAP). With NI software products you have the ability to use the approach most suitable to your needs.

For measurement and automation applications, transferring large data sets via an XML file can lead to unacceptable delays. This becomes more of an issue if the remote monitoring station is also supposed to control the application providing the data. The communication protocol used in remote panels focuses on providing a secure and reliable high performance mechanism for controlling and monitoring a remote application.

Tools like LabVIEW and their features, including remote panels, incorporate the most appropriate technologies and protocols for the needs of measurement and automation applications; focusing on using the right technology to address the needs of measurement and automation applications. In the case of SOAP and XML, which is currently a viable solution for data exchange, NI continues to integrate these technologies where they provide the greatest benefit to measurement and automation application developers, as NI has in the past with technologies including new operating systems, ActiveX, and DataSocket.. As we do this, a major focus will continue to be ensuring backwards compatibility and migration tools to enable you to leverage new technologies as they emerge and your existing development investment.

If you have more specific questions or comments on XML, Visual Studio .NET tools, Web Services and the use of supporting technologies from NI, Microsoft, or Sun please feel free continue posting to NI Developer Exchange or to contact me directly.

Regards,
Kamran - NI
kamran.shah@ni.com

Here are links to some .NET references:
National Instruments XP, XML, and .NET Seminar
.NET FAQ and Resource Links
LabVIEW 6.1 Remote Panels
Measurement Studio and the FREE Visual C++ .NET native Update