Make "Save As" behavior consistent when working with templates

[CRoebuck]

Currently when working with vit (template) files the Save As behavior changes depending on where / how the template file was opened.

As adoption of the LabVIEW project has grown (and for many people has become the norm) the behavior of "Save As" when applied to template files still remains at odds with that exhibited when using windows explorer or New Sub VI from template (within LabVIEW).

If you double click (to open) a .vit in explorer and then select File > Save As you are greeted with the standard save as dialog box where the file type pattern has been pre-selected as .vi (this is the most obvious use case, you're most likely to be creating a vi from the template)

the same behavior is demonstrated if you select File > New from within LabVIEW, you're greeted by the New (something) windows where you can navigate to Sub vi from template. This opens the template and then when selecting save as you get the same behavior as above with the type pre-selected as .vi

Double clicking (to open) a .vit in the project windows produces different behavior with the home grown LabVIEW Save As Window being displayed (and the default selection being Save Copy as) this results in being prompted to save the file with a .vit extension. I would have expected fewer people to be creating new templates from templates than creating sub vi's from templates.

I would suggest that the default file pattern when performing a Save As on a .vit be .vi as I would suggest this is the most common use case irrespective of where the file was opened from.

If a user wants to make changes and re-save as a .vit then this behavior could be accessed through the File > Open menu item.

[Christina_R]

The fundamental difference here is not how we present Save As but when we instantiate VIs from templates.

When you double-click a .vit in File Explorer, LabVIEW instantiates a new, untitled VI. (Although it appears to have a name, it has no path on disk). This also happens when you create a new VI from a template using the New dialog.

Whenever you have an untitled VI (i.e. a VI with no path on disk), Save As equates to Save, so you get a file dialog instead of a Save As dialog.

However, when you open a VIT as a template document (i.e from File>>Open or by double-clicking to open from a project), you have a document that DOES have a path on disk. Therefore Save As is a defined operation, and you have to make the choice about whether you want to rename the VIT or make a copy with the old one, the new one or both in memory afterwards.

It sounds like you want to make double-clicking a VIT in the project explorer instantiate a VI from the template, and I don't think that's a good change. If anything, the behavior of instantiating a VI when opening a VIT from the File Explorer seems like the one that is inconsistent.

[CRoebuck]

Christina,

OK, that makes sense to me although I still feel there's an inconsistency between the project and file explorer behavior the reason for which is not obvious, to me anyway 😉

Thanks for the explanation.

Chris

[Christina_R]

I agree those are inconsistent, but I think it's the behavior when opening from file explorer that doesn't make sense. However, I'm afraid to change it just for the sake of consistency, because I imagine there are long-time LabVIEW users who prefer the current behavior.

[Darren]

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