How do I redistribute the VISA drivers?

[scdavis]

I'm developing an application that makes use of the NI-VISA serial drivers. Works great on my PC. I used Application Builder to distribute it to other machines, but they need the NI-VISA driver installed for it to work. The only way I know of to install this driver is to run the LabView setup program and install just the VISA driver. Is this ok? Is there a better way to install this driver? I'd like to integrate that installation into the installation created by Application Builder. If I can't do that, I at least would like a simple setup program to install just the NI-VISA driver.

[Kim L]

There are several ways you can do it. The easiest way is to include all the visa installer files as support files in the app build. Another way is to have the application installer start the VISA installer when it has completed its installation. The following Knowledge Base discusses that method.
http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/3efedde4322fef19862567740067f3cc/e09ba0e2f31d304f86256a640070058e?OpenDocument

Good Luck
Kim L.
Applications Engineering
National Instruments

[scdavis]

Great, that's exactly what I want to do! I don't see the VISA installer files separated out anywhere on the LabView installation CD. Where do I find the files?

[Chris Doe]

I have been able to perform the above and found that the application now runs with access to the serial port selection control now working.

The problem I still have is the control does not display the Visa alias as when running under Labview Development 6.1. It displays the Visa resource name, eg. ASRL1::INSTR. The display of the Visa resource name is confusing the users of the distributed program.

Do I need to install / distribute any further libraries or support programs for the display of the Visa alias to occur?

Regards
Chris

[KristiH]

Please see the KnowledgeBase article linked below. It discusses the additional file you will need to add.

KnowledgeBase 19LFP1PL: Porting a VISA Alias with a LabVIEW Executable