New Feature: Developing a LabVIEW Project in an Older Save Version File Format

[Craig_S.]

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wiebe@CARYA wrote:

But the other project is a pain. It doesn't help that the project has 32 bit ppls, and I have 64 bit LV24Q1... I don't expect that to work, but how LV handles it is just silly. For each VI from a ppl, there's a pop up, and 'OK' has to be pressed apparently for each used VI (~30 times for my project). Setting the project version to LV21 crashes LabVIEW.

Could you please elaborate on this or provide specific steps to reproduce the issue you are seeing?  It's not clear what dialog you are repeatedly seeing, or what operation you are performing on the project when these dialogs appear.  If you can help me reproduce it, I'll try to make sure it's fixed for the 24Q3 release.  Also, if you have a project that reproducibly crashes when setting the version to 21, can you please post that here or send it to me directly?

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So I installed 32 bit LV24Q1... Sadly no project files have separate compiled code on. I know this is required, but shouldn't there be a way to fix this in LV24? Is there a way to change this in LV24?

One way would be to use the "VI Properties Editor" VIPM package to enable source-only on an entire project or library.  We definitely should make this easier to do (without 3rd party packages or writing your own scripting code being required). 

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Maybe there's another problem (the VIs are in libraries and\or classes), but the entire project is converted to LV24, except 1 VI that's not in a library or class.

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This is improved in the 24Q3 beta.  Libraries who do not specify a save version directly will correctly inherit it from a parent project.

[Petru_Tarabuta]

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One way would be to use the "VI Properties Editor" VIPM package to enable source-only on an entire project or library.

Could you please add a link to the VI Properties Editor VIPM package? I couldn't find it after a quick search.

We definitely should make this easier to do (without 3rd party packages or writing your own scripting code being required).

Fully agree.

[wiebe@CARYA]

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@Craig_S. wrote:

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wiebe@CARYA wrote:

But the other project is a pain. It doesn't help that the project has 32 bit ppls, and I have 64 bit LV24Q1... I don't expect that to work, but how LV handles it is just silly. For each VI from a ppl, there's a pop up, and 'OK' has to be pressed apparently for each used VI (~30 times for my project). Setting the project version to LV21 crashes LabVIEW.

Could you please elaborate on this or provide specific steps to reproduce the issue you are seeing?  It's not clear what dialog you are repeatedly seeing, or what operation you are performing on the project when these dialogs appear.  If you can help me reproduce it, I'll try to make sure it's fixed for the 24Q3 release.  Also, if you have a project that reproducibly crashes when setting the version to 21, can you please post that here or send it to me directly?

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This isn't really related to the version feature.

Open any project with 32 bit ppls in 64 bit LV, you get this dialog:

Same with 64 bit ppls in 32 bit LV.

It seems you get a popup for each VI in a ppl used, not each instance of a subVI. Still, ~30 popups with waits between them.

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@Craig_S. wrote:
Also, if you have a project that reproducibly crashes when setting the version to 21, can you please post that here or send it to me directly?

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I think I'll try the new version first, because things probably changed and things might be better.

[Darren]

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@Craig_S. wrote: We definitely should make this easier to do (without 3rd party packages or writing your own scripting code being required). 

If I'm understanding the request correctly, you can change the Source Only setting for all the files in a project by right-clicking the top-level .lvproj item in the Project Explorer and selecting Properties, going to the Project page, and clicking the Mark Existing Items... button:

This brings up a dialog that lets you mark project items as Source Only or non-Source Only. By default all the project items are selected, so it should be as simple as clicking the Mark Selected Items button:

Make sure to do a Save All in the project after doing this.

[ShockHouse]

In the 2024 Q3 Beta, it seems like this feature is forced on automatically. I opened a LabVIEW 2023 project (that I had never used with 2024) and the project settings automatically set the Save version to "23" when opened in 2024 Q3. I did the same for a LabVIEW 2019 project and it too default set it to 19.

Is that the intended behavior going forward? This is forced on unless someone chooses to set it back to Editor?

When using this feature with PPLs that are Version Independent, I get the following in the Error List:

[Craig_S.]

Yes, this is intentional, but it is a bug that it reports compatibility issues for PPL members not being source only. 
Nevertheless, those spurious errors shouldn't prevent anything from working correctly; please let us know if there are issues. 

You can turn off the behavior by setting 

Editor.SaveVersion.Project.KeepOriginal=False

in your .ini file, and then projects loaded into 24Q3 will use the editor version instead. 

We'd like input on whether this default is reasonable and what concerns you might have.  We will consider leaving it off by default or promoting it to a Tools->Options setting depending on feedback. 

[crossrulz]

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@Craig_S. wrote:

We'd like input on whether this default is reasonable and what concerns you might have.  We will consider leaving it off by default or promoting it to a Tools->Options setting depending on feedback.

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I think you already got the right feedback here: Request for Feedback: New Projects Created with “Use Editor Version” 😛

[Craig_S.]

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@crossrulz wrote:

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@Craig_S. wrote:

We'd like input on whether this default is reasonable and what concerns you might have.  We will consider leaving it off by default or promoting it to a Tools->Options setting depending on feedback.

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I think you already got the right feedback here: Request for Feedback: New Projects Created with “Use Editor Version” 😛

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Yes, and that's what we went with for the beta. 
This is a chance to try that out in the real world and see if the consensus holds. 

[Jim_Kring]

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@Darren wrote:

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@Craig_S. wrote: We definitely should make this easier to do (without 3rd party packages or writing your own scripting code being required). 

If I'm understanding the request correctly, you can change the Source Only setting for all the files in a project by right-clicking the top-level .lvproj item in the Project Explorer and selecting Properties, going to the Project page, and clicking the Mark Existing Items... button:

This brings up a dialog that lets you mark project items as Source Only or non-Source Only. By default all the project items are selected, so it should be as simple as clicking the Mark Selected Items button:

Make sure to do a Save All in the project after doing this.

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This dialog is helpful but it has couple of big usability gaps:

- 99% of the time I want to simply set all VIs to separate compiled code. Give me a single button that can do this for me. Feel free to show a confirmation dialog with the list of VIs to be marked. Or better, give me a checkbox that always sets every VI to separate compiled code and records it as a modification to the VI.

- I nearly always want to do this operation on my entire project folder on disk, not just my .lvproj file contents.

[Petru_Tarabuta]

1. I think that the current setting default value (Editor.SaveVersion.Project.KeepOriginal=True) is the right choice.

2. The "Mark Project Items to Separate Compiled Code" window is useful. When replying "Fully agree." to Craig's comment above I meant that it would be nice to have a tool, or tools, to facilitate the bulk editing of various VI properties of a group of VIs and CTLs. The VI group could be a lvclass, lvlib, perhaps even a virtual folder in a project, or a folder on disk. The tool could be a project provider that adds a right-click option named "Edit VI Properties..." or similar when right-clicking on the supported groups (lvclass, lvlib, virtual folder in the Items View, and on a folder in the Files view). The tool would open a window that enables, for example, changing the reentrancy setting of all VIs in the group from Non-reentrant to Preallocated clone reentrant. Or enabling/disabling automatic error handling in bulk. Or changing the "Control Style for Create Control/Indicator" in bulk. The tool should support the bulk editing of all VI properties for which it makes sense to have a bulk edit option.

3. Is there a "VI Properties Editor" VIPM package?