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Never having tried to look at the Project Provider Framework at all I can't really say for sure, but I would assume that in order to verify that a PPF is valid this check is done on every load, so is in the provided PPF base framework. With flarn having admitted to have broken password protection before it seems not so hard to guess how it all went. And yes, PPFs have the potential to wreck a LabVIEW installation completely and even worse modify code on the fly in a way that is very hard to detect. So this "signing" business is most likely much less about NI not wanting developers to be able to add plugins, but rather safeguarding those customers who have VERY stringent requirements about approved software running on their systems. They are out there and they have rules that even forbid to install OpenG VIs since they are not from an officially approved source.

The Project Provider Framework is an API provided by LabVIEW that has minimal support from NI. This API can be used to create new types of project items, add new menu items, and other stuff like that. They only share documentation about the API with those who apply to be partners, however, and there is a signature mechanism to enforce this. Well I've figured out how that signature is generated, so hopefully the LAVA community can do some cool stuff with this! I haven't really played around with it at all, but I plan to. Each plugin is defined by an INI file, located in resource\Framework\Providers\GProviders. Each INI file has a Signature key, which is required to be valid in order for LabVIEW to load the plugin. To generate this signature, first you need to concatenate all the values (not the keys) in the INI file. Only string values though, not numeric or Boolean ones. I'll use GOOP_MyComputer.ini from OpenGDS as an example: [Provider] SupportedType={CEFE1B10-1732-4678-A70A-299293455410} IsPrimary=0 ItemInterfaceVI=..\Open_GDS\GOOP_MyComputer_Item_Interface.vi CreateNewWizardInterfaceVI=..\Open_GDS\GOOP_MyComputer_CreateNewWizard_Interface.vi CreateNewWizardHost=Source LicenseName=None InterfaceVersion=1.0 Signature=KS5CBT93T9SSJK3SNWB239RLN95WTC9W Ignore the Signature line as well, of course. The concatenated string here will be "{CEFE1B10-1732-4678-A70A-299293455410}..\Open_GDS\GOOP_MyComputer_Item_Interface.vi..\Open_GDS\GOOP_MyComputer_CreateNewWizard_Interface.viSourceNone1.0". Take the MD5 hash of this string. In this case, the hash is "8423091770884C816AF971DB7A632067". The next step is to apply a simple substitution cipher to the MD5 hash: 0123456789ABCDEF T3C5K7W9SBNRJLX2 Just replace the character on the top with the one under it. So the new string will be "SKC5TB399TSSKJS3WN2B93LR9NW5CTW9". One more step! For each pair of characters, i.e. "SK", "C5", "TB", ..., switch the two characters. In this case you'll have "KS5CBT93T9SSJK3SNWB239RLN95WTC9W". And look! That's the signature in the INI file! I've attached a VI that does this for you, minus the step of concatenating the INI values. Just pass the VI a string and it will output the signature. Enjoy, but keep in mind the usual warning about using unreleased features of LabVIEW: don't use it for anything too high-stakes. Generate PPF Signature.vi EDIT: To make this process easier, I have also written a C# program that will automatically sign an INI file for you. Just drag and drop the INI file onto the EXE, or use the command line to specify an output filename as well. Both the source code and EXE are included here. SignPPFPlugin.zip Also, here's some palette files for the PPF's API VI's. Since they won't all fit on one page, I did some very simple categorization, simply creating separate menus for "Get" functions, "Set" functions, and one for all the others. Extract the ZIP file to menus\Categories\Addons, and then just put it in your palette from the palette editor. PPF Menus.zip Finally, here's a tool that will automatically generate the interface VI's for you. I found it annoying to always have to update them. Basically they're just VI's that output a cluster with a bunch of paths to "method VI's", which are basically the PPF equivalent to XNode ability VI's. So this will just search for method VI's in the same folder, and generate an interface VI for you through scripting. I called it "PPF Assistant" in case I ever decide to add stuff to it for other PPF-related tasks. This requires OpenG, as well as gb119's Scripting Tools. PPF Assistant.zip EDIT2: Looks like the PPF was recently officially made public (though still not supported) including NI's official INI signing tool. Glad my thread here could be of assistance to the people having trouble with that tool!