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NI Package Management Idea Exchange

Post your ideas that are related to NI package management. This includes NI Package Manager, NI Package Builder, creating NI packages (.nipkg), distributing NI packages (.nipkg), managing feeds, and more.

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42 Kudos
CL_eisenwr

NIPM: Add flexibility to selecting version of packages

Status: New Submitted by Active Participant on 03-02-2020 05:56 PM 1 Comment

As I have come to using NI Package Manager (NIPM) more, I have come across a few user experience issues that need to be improved for NIPM. This is mostly centered around downgrading package version. Most of these are currently available in VI Package Manager

 

  1. For installed packages, you cannot downgrade/change versions of the package. To do this, you must first uninstall the package so you can select the version you want from the Packages screen. (Installed packages are removed from the Packages screen's listing.) There should be at least an option to show the installed packages on the Packages screen so a new version can be selected. It would not hurt to have the ability to select version(s) on the Installed and Updates as well.
  2. On the Updates screen, we should be able to select the available versions if there multiple upgrades available.
  3. If you install a package that requires a downgrade in a dependency, currently NIPM does not let you install that package. It can be down via the NIPKG command line interface (CLI). There should be at least an option/prompt to allow the downgrade. This capability seems to be able to be added by NI as I was prompted to Allow Downgrade/Removal when I updated InstrumentStudio last year. Our packages should be able to do this prompting as well. At least there could be an option added to NIPM that would allow downgrades/uninstalls so that this could be done via the GUI. Also the dialog could give more information about what specifically the issue is.

Too generic message without any recourseToo generic message without any recourse

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70 Kudos
adambro

Reduce need for elevated privileges for NI Package Manager

Status: Development Started Submitted by Member on 01-02-2018 05:44 AM 11 Comment

It would appear that NI Package Manager requires elevated privileges via User Account Control to even run.

Whilst clearly for some actions this will be required for some install/uninstall actions and e.g. changing registry entries, it isn't clear why this is needed simply to open Package Manager to view what is installed and for other actions which may only make JKI VI Package Manager type changes to VIs within vi.lib etc.

 

If the medium/long term plan is for NI Package Manager to replace JKI VI Package Manager then it needs to support the ability for developers to easily add/remove VI packages without requiring IT administrator assistance each time.

It would be much better if the application was structured such that elevation is only required when this is absolutely necessary for the actions being undertaken at that moment and/or the user is able to explicitly run the application with elevated privileges where these will be required.

I did try to post this in Additional NI Software Idea Exchange and that wasn't possible but please move this should there be somewhere more appropriate.

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32 Kudos
JKSH

Add ability to reclaim space taken by cached packages

Status: Looking for Maintainer(s) Submitted by Active Participant on 03-15-2020 07:06 PM 8 Comment

C:\ProgramData\National Instruments\NI Package Manager\packages is a black hole. Files enter but never leave -- my PC has collected so many old (and now-useless) packages over the years, e.g.

 

  • ni-package-manager_17.5.0.49152-0+f0_windows_x64.nipkg
  • ni-package-manager_18.0.1.49152-0+f0_windows_x64.nipkg
  • ni-package-manager_18.0.2.49152-0+f0_windows_x64.nipkg
  • ni-package-manager_18.5.1.49152-0+f0_windows_x64.nipkg
  • ni-package-manager_19.0.0.49152-0+f0_windows_all.nipkg
  • ni-package-manager_19.6.0.49152-0+f0_windows_all.nipkg

 

It is safe to delete these. If NIPM needs to re-install the package, it simply re-downloads them.

 

Please add a way on the NIPM GUI for users to easily clear the package cache. Bonus points if there's an option to retain the versions that are currently installed (I believe NI Package Builder grabs the packages from this folder?)

24 Kudos
CL_eisenwr

Give option to Repair only the selected package

Status: Looking for Maintainer(s) Submitted by Active Participant on 07-15-2020 01:05 PM 1 Comment

It would be very helpful to be able have an option to only repair the selected package. Typically the issue I have been seeing is with a single package that failed a post-install/post-install all action. Repair will go all they way back the hierarchy, which is unneeded in this case and take much longer leading to additional down time. They should be able to just repair the single package; the default being the current full hierarchy repair is fine, but there must be an option. The workaround of uninstalling and reinstalling the package is also problematic as mentioned in several other issues, since you are forced to uninstall all packages that depend on this package. 

8 Kudos
CL_eisenwr

NIPM: Add Refresh Button

Status: Development Started Submitted by Active Participant on 09-04-2019 10:33 AM 1 Comment

There should be a refresh button added to the NI Package Manager GUI. There is the ability to refresh the listings by pressing the F5 key, but that is not discover-able by the user other than blindly trying the defacto key.

8 Kudos
CL_eisenwr

Show Homepage and Maintainer's Email

Status: Development Started Submitted by Active Participant on 08-23-2019 05:48 PM 1 Comment

NI Packages have attributes for Homepage and Maintainer's Email as listed in the control file. It would be nice to at least have an option to display the information in NI Package Manager.

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4 Kudos
CL_eisenwr

Support Default Windows Keyboard Shortcuts

Status: Looking for Maintainer(s) Submitted by Active Participant on 05-25-2021 09:52 AM 1 Comment

Why is NI Package Manager's GUI the only Windows program I have seen that does not support Alt+F4 as a close application keyboard shortcut? It would be nice if there was at least some keyboard shortcut to close the GUI. It is a bit annoying since every other NI application supports this.

6 Kudos
D*

Use NI Package Builder to create a fully customized NI Software install

Status: Development Started Submitted by Member on 08-29-2019 08:03 AM 2 Comment

When adding a Package Installer, NI Package Builder is currently limited to only configuring the options on the top level, first page of a suited installer (i.e. "NI-IMAQdx", etc.), but not configuration of the second page "Additional items you may want to install:", where it lists "recommended" items.  This means one cannot create a fully customized NI Software suited installation (like was possible in the past with the .spec file).

 

NIPB needs to analyze the installer configuration and expose a list of recommends/suggests for each top-level package or for the whole installer itself, just like Install.exe does.

1 Kudos
Phil.Lundeen

Provide meaningful error messages on package installation failure

Status: Declined Submitted by Member on 02-28-2023 06:45 PM 1 Comment

If a package fails to install, there is never anything helpful presented to try to diagnose the problem. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

image (8).png

 

This is hot garbage.

 

I end up having to run nipkg.exe from command line to get some modicum of feedback, but even then it's usually still insufficient.

 

My latest use case is that I have created a pre-install.bat file (configured to run as a pre-install custom execute, per my package build spec), and that bat file is intended to throw an error (set nonzero return code and route message to stderr) if some required dependencies do not exist. I went to the trouble of doing these sanity checks and building meaningful errors, but they don't actually get exposed when I run the installer, so I'm left guessing as to what went wrong.

5 Kudos
cy...

NIPM to be able to manage installations without internet connection

Status: Development Started Submitted by Active Participant on 08-30-2019 03:22 AM 1 Comment

the package manager seemed like cannot even populate nor remove installed packages without internet connection. is it a bug? as mentioned from the other ideas posted previously, not all operation computers are granted internet access. please look into it. thanks

 

just a suggestion, installer packages should be given the option to able to be installed/removed by itself, with the PM being a complementing tool, especially for inter-version compatibility during this transition period.

3 Kudos
Romain.P

Expose "conflicts" and "replaces" relationships in NI Package Builder UI

Status: New Submitted by Member on 09-21-2020 09:00 AM 2 Comment

Hello,

 

I used to distribute a software with non-package installer. Then, we switched to a package installer. It is built using NI Package Builder.
Unfortunately, NI Package builder doesn't uninstall previous versions as it doesn't know the relationship.

 

Please, could you implement in the UI the possibility to specify "conflicts" and "replaces" relationships as described in this document?
http://www.ni.com/documentation/en/ni-package-manager/latest/manual/control-file-attributes/ 

 

Also discussed on the forum: https://forums.ni.com/t5/NI-Package-Manager-NIPM/Nothing-but-confusion-about-building-and-using-packages/m-p/3938499/highlight/true?profile.language=fr#M91 

 

Romain

4 Kudos
cy...

Display package size in feed list

Status: Development Started Submitted by Active Participant on 10-09-2019 10:29 PM 1 Comment

displaying the package size in the feed list can give user an idea when to schedule installations/updates based on their network traffic trends, like in Update Service

2 Kudos
jyoung8711

NI Package Builder - Allow absolute paths for build locations

Status: In Development Submitted by Member on 03-05-2021 06:05 PM 6 Comment

It would be nice to define "absolute paths" for packages, installer, and feed builds.

I applaud the relative path detection used (better than that used in LabVIEW builder!), but sometimes, I just need to define an absolute (In my case that path is actually defined directly off of a root drive (E:\Builds\...), so that all of my build artifacts are in a well defined location...

jyoung8711_0-1614989033788.png

 

3 Kudos
CL_eisenwr

Programmatically change NIPM Settings

Status: Development Started Submitted by Active Participant on 11-20-2019 12:59 PM 1 Comment

As discussed in this thread, it would be helpful to be able to programmatically change the NI Package Manager settings. I personally am interested in changing the highlighted defaults. Maybe this could be done via the NIPM command line interface. Or a setting file, so it could be deployed as a NI Package.

Settings of InterestSettings of Interest

3 Kudos
CL_eisenwr

NI Package Builder: Adding Duplicate functionality

Status: Development Started Submitted by Active Participant on 08-26-2019 02:37 PM 1 Comment

It would be helpful to have the ability to duplicated portions of a Solution, such as package. This would speed up the creation of similar items using an existing as a starting point. I was looking for a button and/or right-click entry to duplicate a Package. However, the ability to duplicate would helpful throughout the NIPM GUI.

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2 Kudos
cbutcher

When removing packages requires additional removals, indicate which package is causing the change

Status: New Submitted by Trusted Enthusiast Trusted Enthusiast on 05-31-2020 07:44 PM Comment

Please allow a user to see which package(s) that were manually selected lead to the automatic removal of each package in the "will be automatically removed" list.

 

If you select some packages to remove, sometimes the uninstall dialog lists a collection of packages that depend on something you've selected.

These must also be removed if you want to remove whatever you selected (so as not to leave them broken).

 

However, if I select a collection of packages to remove, and see something in this list I want to retain, it can be difficult to see which package I should remove from my selection (after pressing cancel) in order to not trigger the removal of the package I want to retain.

Labels:
2 Kudos
cy...

NIPM: removal of License Manager to remove LM and license only, not the installed software

Status: New Submitted by Active Participant on 08-29-2019 02:07 AM Comment

recent installation of SPB2019 from an offline installer package (due to poor connection) in my new machine has included a malfunctioned LM (constantly fail to connect server), and solution provided was to remove and reinstall the LM. Upon the initiation of the removal, NIPM removed all installed license-able (but yet to be activated software) software from my machine... with no possible way to stop the process... the HORROR on my face is no less than this guy here => Smiley Surprised

 

can I suggest LM removal to remove the LM and activated licenses only; rather than all the other un-selected, but license-able software?

1 Kudos
Mathieu_R.

NI Package Builder - Improve MRU file name display (first underscore is missing)

Status: New Submitted by Active Participant on 03-25-2021 04:23 PM 2 Comment

Cosmetic / Minor issue

 

I have a solution with one underscore character in its file name. It is properly displayed in the window title bar, but undescore is missing in most recently used files, under File menu.

 

NIPB_DisplayIssueInFileMenu.png

 

I made some complementary tests, with dummy solution files named Undescore_One.pbs, Undescore_One_Two.pbs and Undescore_One_Two_Three.pbs. Only the first underscore in the file name is missing in menu display:

 

NIPB_DisplayIssueInFileMenu.png

 

I am using NI Package Builder 20.6.0.1227.

 

Regards, 

1 Kudos
Mr._Jim

NIPM Should Store Volume License Server Name Persistently

Status: New Submitted by Active Participant on 03-05-2021 10:33 AM 1 Comment

Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but every time I get a software activation prompt from NIPM, it has no recollection of which volume license server I connected to the last time. Shouldn't this be stored persistently so we don't have to enter the information repeatedly? I rarely remember the volume license server name off the top of my head because I don't activate things often enough.

 

Thanks,

 

Mr. Jim

 

VolumeLicense.png

1 Kudos
cbutcher

Install multiple .nipkg files together via GUI

Status: New Submitted by Trusted Enthusiast Trusted Enthusiast on 06-17-2020 09:35 PM 1 Comment

I'd like to be able to select a collection of nipkg files in e.g. Windows Explorer and use NIPM to install them in the correct order based on their interdependencies.

 

If I create a local feed and add that, then NIPM will allow this via selection in the Packages tab.

 

However, there doesn't seem to be a method to select multiple files that are not in a feed using a GUI (Windows Explorer or NIPM etc).

VIPM has an "Open Package File(s)" menu item that fills this role.

 

I think (although I didn't test, because I didn't consider this when I was running into this issue) that using "nipkg.exe install A.nipkg B.nipkg C.nipkg" would work for this, so there is a workaround. I just didn't consider it earlier...