A number of people have asked me for specifics of what was changed for scripting's public release in LabVIEW 2010. I'm reposting my comments from the LabVIEW 2010 beta forum here.
The following improvements were made to VI Scripting in LabVIEW 2010:
- VI Scripting is now activated by an entry in Tools->Options->VI Server->VI Scripting instead of by running a downloadable installer.
- The context help window can be instructed to show terminal index and connector pane pattern information for many block diagram objects. This behavior is activated by an entry in Tools->Options->VI Server->VI Scripting.
- The 'Move' method now accepts a 'duplicate?' parameter, allowing you to copy an object rather than move it. This allows you to place any VI objects you can obtain a reference to, even if it has not been saved to disk.
- VI Scripting now contains a 'Move Selection' method, allowing you to copy or move a group of objects without modifying the contents of the clipboard with the Cut, Copy and Paste methods.
- Property Nodes and Invoke Nodes can now have their property or method specified by an ID String, which is guaranteed to remain stable across localizations and revisions of LabVIEW. Previous editions of LabVIEW only accepted the string displayed to the user, which could change based on the users language and version of LabVIEW.
- The text in the 'New VI Object' style enum was changed to be less confusing.
- Growable Nodes can now be resized by segment count, eliminating the need to calculate the desired size in pixels.
- The 'Replace (No Attributes)' method now accepts correctly typed parameters.
- The connector pane of a newly created VI is now the default shape (usually 4x2x2x4) at the moment of creation. In previous versions of LabVIEW the connector pane of a newly created VI contained a single terminal until displayed in the editing environment.
- If the Open VI Object Reference is unable to find an item specified by an array of label names the resulting error message specifies the entry in the array which could not be found. Earlier editions of LabVIEW returned a non-detailed error message, making it difficult to know which array elements could and could not be found.
- The New VI Object function did not communicate that it accepted multiple ways to specify the location of the created object. Typedefs for each acceptable format have been added to the VI Scripting palette.
- Many VI Scripting methods and properties which could crash LabVIEW now work correctly or return a meaningful error.