Session Recap: How To Build a LabVIEW Add-On With VI Package Manager

[bcwilson]

Thanks to Sumedha Ganjoo from the LabVIEW Partner Program for this recap!

Is there a solution out there that can help a company building cutting-edge toolkits share their tools with all LabVIEW users? Is there a way for LabVIEW users to get access to quality LabVIEW code and tools that they can use to build their solutions? If you were curious to know the answer to either of the above questions, this was the the hands-on session to be at. Stephen Roso from the LabVIEW Partner team addressed how add-on developers can leverage the VI Package Manager (VIPM) and the LabVIEW Tools Network to reach out to users and improve their development experience. JKI’s VI Package Manager is a free tool for creating, sharing, downloading, and managing add-ons. Starting in 2012, VI Package Manager ships with LabVIEW and can be installed by clicking on the “Find Addons..” link on the Getting Started Window.

For those new to VI Packages and add-ons, the session introduction covered what classifies as a LabVIEW add-on and what is a VI Package. The hands-on later focused on various exercises to familiarize users with different features available in VI Package Manager, like creating a package from scratch, adding examples, Help and Tools menu items in LabVIEW, adding licensing agreements to add-ons, and downloading add-ons. And yes, all of this can be done from one single place--VI Package Manager! My favorite part while running through all the exercises was that I didn’t have to leave the LabVIEW development environment, even when installing new add-ons. I could use the add-on VIs right away without anything impeding my coding mojo.

Attendees were curious about the LabVIEW Tools Network and its expansion plans and also asked Michael Aivaliotis from JKI about VIPM Pro features. You know a hands-on session is good when there are more people than machines to work on and when the blogger doesn’t even get a handout manual because there are too many people. (no complaints here, it was an excellent session!)