Changes not documented

[Ljubo]

Hi!

"The Actor Framework now ships as part of LabVIEW ...". You can read this on the left side of the screen (Group overview). I expect that all changes are documented here or somewher else.

The picture below shows a part of Actor.vi block diagram, before and after. Also, a new error code (1634) has been added to the list of errors.

I believe there is a reason for these changes and it would be very nice if someone of you (developers) would explain all these changes and post a simple example how to show and close Actor Core.vi panel correctly when built with app. builder and run in executable file. I did not study all the details inside Actor Framework library, I just use it and I don't want to implement new bugs in my code.

Thanks in advance.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

Any features that didn't get added to the upgrade notes are my fault. I'm sorry about that. I spent a lot of time obsessing over the tidbits of functionality and not enough time on the documentation.

That input was always documented to not run in the runtime engine. It was always intended only as a debug tool. You can see the magic that I used to implement this feature -- I have two calls to the subVI, one with "show panel when called" turned on and one with it turned off. The problem is that if I compile into the code the one with the option turned on, then App Builder decides that all the Actor Core VIs need to retain their front panels or, when trying to deploy to RT sometimes it won't deploy to a target that doesn't support panels. I had thought that this was only a runtime error and as long as no one tried to use the setting in deployed code, no harm done. Turned out that it actually can create deployment issues, so it needed to be removed entirely.

If you want to have an actor core open its own front panel, you need to add code into its diagram to do so. If you want to conditionally control that, the easiest way is to add a Boolean to the private data cluster and expose an accessor method for enabling that Boolean prior to calling Launch Actor.vi.

For the record, this change was discussed in the AF forums. It just didn't make it to the LabVIEW docs.

[Ljubo]

AristosQueue,

thank you for your prompt response.

In my application there is only one front panel which is visible: Actor Core.vi front panel of User Interface class which is descendant of Actor class. I didn't add any code to Actor Core to open and close the FP. I launched the UI actor with option "Open Actor Core front panel?" set to FALSE and I set the two VI properties to TRUE: Window Appearance - "Show front panel when called" and "Close afterwards if originally closed". It works in development environment and in deployed code. I hope this is will not cause any unexpected crashes.

I've already noticed before that two or more visible Actor Core front panels create troubles in deployed code so I use this option only for debugging purposes during development process.

Best regards.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

That should work completely.

Ljubo wrote:

I've already noticed before that two or more visible Actor Core front panels create troubles in deployed code so I use this option only for debugging purposes during development process.

That shouldn't be a problem. I've seen several apps that work showing multiple actor core front panels -- for different actors and for multiple copies of the same actor. What kind of troubles were you seeing?

[Ljubo]

Hi!

I have clarified this problem with two or more Actor Core visible panels. It occurred in an older project after  closing the application. It seems I didn’t send or handle the Stop message correctly and one or more panels didn’t close. The behaviour of deployed application slightly differed from the behaviour in development environment.

Now everything works just fine.  I can open and close (run and stop) various  Actor Core Vis without any problem.

Thank you for your time,

Ljubo.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

*phew* 🙂