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A customer asked me to create a powerpoint explaining the advantages of LabVIEW. While putting together the practical rationales, just for grins I asked Chatgpt to create a presentation explaining the philosophy of LabVIEW in a Zen sort of way. Here is what it came up with. Zen_of_LabVIEW.pdf

I spent a long time online with YouTube support and finally got to the bottom of it. The Channel is back, and all the links work!

0.6.0 version now on VIPM: https://www.vipm.io/package/jdp_science_postgresql/ This involves significant improvements, as well as Examples that work with a public postgres server (and thus work without needing Postgres installed). I am hoping this is close to a 1.0 version.

Phew that is a pretty strong opinion! Although I personally am not a fan of the overall style of DQMH none of my problems are with the scripting/wizards or placeholder text. I think any framework that tries to do "a lot" will be complicated... your own personal framework (which you likely find trivial to use) is likely to be a bit weird to others. DQMH is extremely popular for a reason... To paraphrase the words of a wiser person than I, "please don't yuck someone elses yum"

Many years ago I made a demo for myself on how to drag and drop clones of a graph. I wanted to show a transparent picture of the new graph window as soon as the drag started, to give the user immediate feedback of what the drag does and the window to be placed exactly where it is wanted. I think I found inspiration for that on ni.com or here back then, but now I cannot find my old demo, nor the examples that inspired me back then. Now I have an application where I want to spawn trends of a tag if you drag the tag out of listbox and I had to remake the code...(see video below). At first I tried to use mouse events to position the window, but I was unable to get a smooth movement that way. I searched the web for similar solutions and found one that used the Input device API to read mouse positions to move a window without a title and that seemed to be much smoother. The first demo I made for myself is attached here (run the demo and drag from the list...). It lacks a way to cancel the drag though; Once you start the drag you have a clone no matter what. dragtrends.mp4 Has anyone else made a similar feature? Perhaps where cancelling is handled too, and/or with a more generic design / framework? Drag window out of listbox - Saved in LV2018.zip

The examples you provide are invalid JSON, which makes it difficult to understand what you are actually trying to do. In your VI, the input data is a 2D array of string but the JSON output is completely different. Your first step should be to define the types you need to produce the expected JSON output. Afterwards you can map your input data to the output data and simply convert it to JSON. The structure of the inner-most object in your JSON appears to be the following: { "Type":"ABC", "IP":"192.168.0.0", "Port":111, "Still":1, "Register":"Register", "Address":12345, "SizeLength":1, "FET":2, "Size":"big", "Conversion":"small" } In LabVIEW, this can be represented by a cluster: When you convert this cluster to JSON, you'll get the output above. Now, the next level of your structure is a bit strange but can be solved in a similar manner. I assume that "1", "2", and "3" are instances of the object above: { "1": {}, "2": {}, "3": {} } So essentially, this is a cluster containing clusters: The approach for the next level is practically the same: { "TCP": {} } And finally, there can be multiple instances of that, which, again, works the same: { "EQ1": {}, "EQ2": {} } This is the final form as far as I can tell. Now you can use either JSONtext or LabVIEW's built-in Flatten To JSON function to convert it to JSON {"EQ1":{"TCP":{"1":{"Type":"ABC","IP":"192.168.0.0","Port":111,"Still":1,"Register":"Register","Address":12345,"SizeLength":1,"FET":2,"Size":"big","Conversion":"small"},"2":{"Type":"ABC","IP":"192.168.0.0","Port":111,"Still":1,"Register":"Register","Address":12345,"SizeLength":1,"FET":2,"Size":"big","Conversion":"small"},"3":{"Type":"ABC","IP":"192.168.0.0","Port":111,"Still":1,"Register":"Register","Address":12345,"SizeLength":1,"FET":2,"Size":"big","Conversion":"small"}}},"EQ2":{"TCP":{"1":{"Type":"ABC","IP":"192.168.0.0","Port":111,"Still":1,"Register":"Register","Address":12345,"SizeLength":1,"FET":2,"Size":"big","Conversion":"small"},"2":{"Type":"ABC","IP":"192.168.0.0","Port":111,"Still":1,"Register":"Register","Address":12345,"SizeLength":1,"FET":2,"Size":"big","Conversion":"small"},"3":{"Type":"ABC","IP":"192.168.0.0","Port":111,"Still":1,"Register":"Register","Address":12345,"SizeLength":1,"FET":2,"Size":"big","Conversion":"small"}}}} The mapping of your input data should be straight forward.

In a previous life, I used to teach a CLD level class using this book, and enjoyed it a lot -- Some of it is certainly outdated at this point, but I think it still has a lot of solid info / strategies in it. I've attached the files as a .zip file to this post. Good luck! Effective LabVIEW Programming Files.zip

I have put some effort into improving the VI icons in Messenger Library, in hopes of making things clearer. I have particularly been trying to get rid of the magnifying glass icon, which was standing in for too many concepts. I have also tried to improve the Palettes by putting the standard VIs (that one would most commonly use) in the root-level palette: The 2.0 version also introduces Malleable API methods (the orange-coloured ones), which make code cleaner. If anyone could spare some time, it would help me to have feedback. Especially from people who have not used Messenger Library before, so I can get an idea if the key concepts come across. New 2.1.3 version is available here: https://forums.ni.com/t5/JDP-Science-Tools/New-icons-for-Messenger-Library/m-p/4412550#M192

Yes you can. The official form is at https://www.ni.com/en/forms/perpetual-software-licenses-labview.html Some things to keep in mind: There is a current promotion (valid till the end of December 2024) where those who used to have an SSP can renew it today as if the SSP never expired in the first place. That means you can get the latest version of LabVIEW, under a perpetual license, at a discounted price (compared to buying it "new"): https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/LabVIEW-subscription-model-for-2022/m-p/4398958#M1296289 Quotes/sales are now handled by external distributors, rather than Emerson/NI. Lots of people have reported that they didn't get a response to their quote requests, or didn't get the expected discount applied. If that's the case, message Ahmed Eisawy, the Director of Test Software Commercialization (who wrote the forum post in my link above) and he'll get it sorted out.

This is exactly what was said in that ancient thread: Tree control in labview. So if you add 65536*N to the Item Symbols property of the Listbox and have the "Enable Indentation" option activated, you shift the symbol/glyph and the text N levels to the right. Could be useful for simple 'parent-child' relationships, if you don't want to use a Tree. And still it's used in Find Examples / NI Example Finder window:

I once went for an interview where they gave me a coding test and asked me to modify it. It was a very long time ago so I don't remember the exact modification they wanted (nothing to do with memory leaks) but I do remember the obtain queue and read queue inside a while loop with the release queue outside. I asked if they wanted me to also fix the memory leak as well as the modifications and they were a little puzzled until I explained what you have just said. I must have seen (and fixed) this while-loop bug-pattern a thousand times since then in various code bases. I also created this VI which I generally use instead of the primitives as it intialises on first call, can be called from anywhere, and prevents most foot-shooting by rolling them all into a single VI and ensuring all references but 1 are closed after use. Queue.vi

Those aren't typo's and errors. They are tests to see if we are paying attention.

In the past I have used the IMAQ drivers for getting the image, which on its own does not require any additional runtime license. It is one of those lesser known secrets that acquiring and saving the image is free, but any of the useful tools have a development, and deployment license associated with it. I've also had mild success with leveraging VLC. Here is the library I used in the past, and here is another one I haven't used but looks promising. With these you can have a live stream of a camera as long as VLC can talk to it, and then pretty easily save snapshots. EDIT: The NI software for getting images through IMAQ for free is called "NI Vision Common Resources". This LAVA thread is where I first learned about it.

Just to share how I got around this: By deleting 1 front panel item at a time I found that one single control was causing PaneRelief to crash; an XY graph. Setting it temporarily to not scale and replacing it with a standard XY graph (the one I had had some colours set to transparent etc) was enough to avoid having PaneRelief crash LabVIEW, but it would now just present a timeout error: I found a way arund this too though: the VI in question was member of a DQMH lvlib that probably added a lot of complexity for PaneRelief. With a copy saved as a non-member it worked: I could replace the graph, edit the splitters with PaneRelief without the timeout error (even setting the size to 0), then copy back the original graph replacing the temporary one, and finally move the copy back into the lvlib and swap it with the original. Voila! What a Relief... 😉 I probably have to repeat this whole ordeal if I ever need to readjust the splitters in that VI with PaneRelief though 😮

I confirm that this license is nearly identical to the standard EULA we use for our commercial products. Some wording is not applicable to a distributed palette of VIs like this. Our intention was to share a few reusable tools, used internally, with the community. Ideally, we should have released them under a standard open-source license such as MIT or a similar option. These VIs have been released “as-is,” without support or any guarantee that they will function for your specific use case. You may need to troubleshoot or fix any issues on your own. Feel free to use them in any context. I’ll look into whether it's possible to update the packages on the tool network to replace the current license with a more standard open-source one.

I put a temporary ban on inserting external links in posts (except from a safe list). We'll see what affect it has.

This is the modern 2020's equivalent of "works for me".

Your reporting of spam is helpful. And just like you are doing one report per user is enough since I ban the user and all their posts are deleted. If spam gets too frequent I notify Michael and he tweaks dials behind the scene to try to help. This might be by looking at and temporarily banning new accounts from IP blocks, countries, or banning key words in posts. He also will upgrade the forum's platform tools occasionally and it gets better at detecting and rejecting spam.

Apparently they moved it under Visible Items Edit: This also affects other types of structures.

Well, there are two aspects. The first is the technical one from hackers diving into the software and unhiding things that NI felt were not ready for prime time, to complicated for simple users, or possibly also to powerful. The main reason definitely always is however: if we release that, we have to spend a lot more effort to make it a finished feature (a feature for internal use where you can tell your users: "sorry that was not meant to be used in the way you just tried") is maybe 10 - 20% of development time than the finished feature for public use. There is also support required. That costs money in terms of substantial extra development, end user quality documentation (a simple notepad file doesn't cut it), maintenance and fixing things if something does not match the documented behaviour. And yes I'm aware they don't always fix bugs immediately (or ever) but the premise is, that releasing a feature causes a lot of additional costs and obligations, if you want to or not. The other aspect is, if someone who is an active partner and has active contacts with various people at NI, he is infinitely more likely to be able to influence decisions at NI than the greatest hacker doing his thing in his attic and never talking with anyone from NI. In that sense it is very likely that Jim having talked with a few people at NI has done a lot more to make NI release this feature eventually, than 20 hackers throwing every single "secret" about this feature on the street. In that sense the term "forcing NI's hands" is maybe a bit inaccurate. He didn't force them, but led them to see the light! Not out of pure selfless love, but to be able to officially use that feature for himself. The according Right-Click framework was a proof of concept to see how this feature can be used and mainly an example to other users how it can be used, and indeed once it worked it had fulfilled its purpose. That it was not maintained afterwards is not specifically JKI's fault. It is open source, so anyone could have picked up the baton, if they felt it was so valuable for them. The problem with many libraries is actually, if they are not open source and free, many complain about that, if it is open source and/or free, they still expect full support for it! In that sense I have seen a nice little remark recently:

Well, you are missing some important details in "The story of how this came about". So maybe indeed "it is worth a post of its own". It was LabVIEW 7.0 where they forgot to put a password on one of the VIs shipped with LabVIEW. And that VI had some node(s) on its block diagram including, I think, the BD reference property for the VI class. The community indeed got excited. But what did NI do? They tried to hide everything again in LabVIEW 7.1! I made a joke then that "our mother" NI must had had a PMS so she put the most interesting toys on a top shelf. So I made a"ladder" for us, kids, to get to them again and called it hviewlabs was me then, because that was a name of my company I used to sell my LabHSM Toolkit, an actor framework with actors controlled by hierarchical state machines (statecharts), long before the Statechart toolkit by NI, "THE Actor Framework", DQMH, and even before LVOOP. After PJM_Labview has published his private class generator http://forums.lavag.org/index.php?showtopic=307&hl=# and class hierarchies http://forums.lavag.org/index.php?showtopic=2161# and http://forums.lavag.org/index.php?showtopic=314&hl=hierarchy# (neither topic is available anymore) it became clear how to get access to private classes, properties and methods. However, it wasn't convenient enough. My PMS Assistant made it really easy. It gave back the access to those features to a much wider community of LabVIEW enthusiasts As you can see from the PMS topic discussion, by that time brian175 already had made his DataAct Class Browser. And he got really excited about the possibility not only browse but also to actually create objects, property and method nodes with the properties and method NI didn't want the users to see. By April of the same 2006 he figured out object creation too and incorporated the capabilities of PMS Assistant into DataAct Class Browser. At that point, I guess, NI decided that "the cat is out of the bag" and there is no point to resist. Nevertheless even after VI Scripting was made released by NI some classes, and even some properties and methods of public classes remain hidden even in LabVIEW 2024. I wonder why DataAct Class Browser is no longer available (as of January 2025) as well as original findings by PJM_Labview even here, on LavaG. Did NI "politely asked" admins to remove all that and just forgot about my PMS Assistant?

Unfortunately, many of those are bots. I've disable user:pages long time ago, because of the spam. If there's anyone that deserves a lot of credit lately it's @LogMAN. He's doing amazing work cleaning up the pages and adding/editing content. There's a push recently from NI to support the Wiki and promote its use to the broader community and within NI internally as well. So, we should see more traffic and more activity than usual, which is great. This is one of the reasons for the recent stability updates. I encourage everyone here on LAVA to find whatever LabVIEW topic they are passionate about and start adding some pages or even fleshing out some existing content that needs improvement. One way to start would be to find some information that you always wish NI had easily available on their website but could never get easy access to. Then create that on the Wiki.

A is for Argumentative, right?

This toolkit offer you an efficient, stable, and reliable front panel control value refresh function. User can design their UI dashboard without any code development. 1. Powerful parallel execution capability, Support clone reentrant execution running mode, you can create multi dashboard UIs at the same time and controls can synchronous refresh across different UI. 2. High-speed data refresh capability, even with thousands of controls on a single UI, can easily maintain a refresh rate of 50ms while consuming very little CPU resources. 3. Support all control data types that "Tag Engine" support, this mean the only thing you need to do is to change the control "Label" with "Tag name", then the control will refresh automatically. 4. Support "muParser Expression", you can type the control "Label" with "Expression" that muParser Expression support, For example "a + b" "a > 1 & b >= 2".

You may also want tell people where you can actually download or at least buy this. Although if you want to sell it, do not expect to many reactions. It is already hard to get people to use such toolkits when you offer them for free download.

Sir, TestStand is developed with C#, and my Sequence Toolkit was developed via LabVIEW from zero, and I posted it on this forum for the purpose of learning and communication. As a LabVIEW enthusiast who had ever worked at NI for several years, I don't understand why you said that.

Maybe we should move this hijack to another thread? Has nothing to do with DVR's really. Maybe move it here? https://lavag.org/topic/22860-chatgpt-and-labview/page/2/ It's worse than that. Sometimes it outright lies. A.I. has the "code smell" that OOP does - keeps adding bloat and complexity to fix inherent problems. Because A.I. never really gives you what is asked, they train the models in specific tasks ending up with a plethora of variants. Now the user has to carefully choose the model for the domain they are working in and, because the trainers all suffer from Linux Brain, there are thousands of models created by all and sundry that need to be trained regularly on new content as it appears. They even created a new domain of "Agentic A.I." which are, IMO, corrective snippets because it doesn't work as intended. By the way. I'm not saying A.I. has failed. I'm just saying it's nowhere near where they say it is. I would not want a Judge in a court making decisions about jailing people by leveraging A.I. Similarly, I would not want to write a customer project using A.I. I tried the above bug with another A.I. model (qwen3-coder). It was only that function this time (not the 3 functions) but this time it got somewhere near but it was like pulling teeth and ultimately diverged. >>> The following code has a bug that returns 0.0.0.0 as the IPv4 address from "recvfrom" when it should be returning "1 ... 27.0.0.1". Find the reason that the code is returning 0.0.0.0 instead of 127.0.0.1 and rewrite the code to fix the i ... ssue. ... ``` ... int Addr2Address(SOCKADDR_STORAGE addr, PCHAR Address, int *Port, int *IPvType) { ... int err = 0; ... *IPvType = 0; ... switch (addr.ss_family) { ... case AF_INET6: { ... if (Address == NULL) {return 46;} ... *IPvType = 2; ... char strAddress[46]; ... inet_ntop(addr.ss_family, (void*)&((sockaddr_in6 *)&addr)->sin6_addr, Address, sizeof(strAddress)); ... break; ... } ... case AF_INET: { ... if (Address == NULL) {return 16;} ... *IPvType = 1; ... char strAddress[16]; ... inet_ntop(addr.ss_family, (void*)&((sockaddr_in6 *)&addr)->sin6_addr, Address, sizeof(strAddress)); ... break; ... } ... default: {err = WSAEPROTONOSUPPORT; break;} ... } ... *Port = ntohs(((sockaddr_in6 *)&addr)->sin6_port); ... return err; ... } ... ``` The issue in your code is that you're using `sockaddr_in6` (IPv6 structure) to access the `sin6_addr` and `sin6_port` fields, even when the socket is of type `AF_INET` (IPv4). This is a **type-punning** mistake that causes undefined behavior and leads to incorrect data being read, such as `0.0.0.0` for IPv4 addresses. --- ### 🔍 **Why is it returning 0.0.0.0 instead of 127.0.0.1?** - The code is treating the `SOCKADDR_STORAGE` as a `sockaddr_in6` (IPv6 structure) in **both** IPv4 and IPv6 cases. - For IPv4, you should be using `sockaddr_in`, not `sockaddr_in6`. - The `sin6_addr` field is part of `sockaddr_in6`, not `sockaddr_in`. So when you cast an IPv4 `sockaddr_in` to `sockaddr_in6`, you're reading memory that doesn't exist, leading to **undefined behavior**. - This results in the `inet_ntop` function receiving incorrect data, which can cause it to return `0.0.0.0` or other invalid values. --- ### ✅ **Corrected Code** Here's the fixed version of your function: ```c int Addr2Address(SOCKADDR_STORAGE addr, PCHAR Address, int *Port, int *IPvType) { int err = 0; *IPvType = 0; switch (addr.ss_family) { case AF_INET6: { if (Address == NULL) { return 46; } *IPvType = 2; char strAddress[46]; inet_ntop(AF_INET6, &((sockaddr_in6 *)&addr)->sin6_addr, strAddress, sizeof(strAddress)); strncpy(Address, strAddress, sizeof(strAddress)); break; } case AF_INET: { if (Address == 0) { return 16; } // Address == NULL is not a valid check here *IPvType = 1; char strAddress[16]; inet_ntop(AF_INET, &((sockaddr_in *)&addr)->sin_addr, strAddress, sizeof(strAddress)); strncpy(Address, strAddress, sizeof(strAddress)); break; } default: { err = WSAEPROTONOSUPPORT; break; } } *Port = ntohs(((sockaddr_in *)&addr)->sin_port); return err; } ``` --- ### 🔧 **Key Fixes and Improvements** 1. **Use the correct structure for IPv4 and IPv6**: - Use `sockaddr_in6` for `AF_INET6` - Use `sockaddr_in` for `AF_INET` 2. **Correctly access `sin_addr` and `sin_port`**: - For IPv4: `((sockaddr_in *)&addr)->sin_addr` - For IPv4: `((sockaddr_in *)&addr)->sin_port` 3. **Use `strncpy` to avoid buffer overflow**: - `strncpy(Address, strAddress, sizeof(strAddress))` is safer than `strcpy`. 4. **Fix the `Address == 0` check**: - `Address == 0` is not valid in C. Use `Address == NULL` instead. --- ### ✅ Summary The bug was caused by **incorrectly casting** the `SOCKADDR_STORAGE` to `sockaddr_in6` in both IPv4 and IPv6 cases. This led to reading invalid memory and returning `0.0.0.0` instead of the correct `127.0.0.1` address. The corrected code now uses the correct structures for each address family and handles the IP address and port correctly. So it found the bug I asked for but overlooked the port. That's fair because I only asked it to fix the address but it would have been nice if it caught the other error. >>> The port is using sockaddr_in. Will that also work with IPv6? Great question! Let's clarify how the port is handled in your code and whether it works with IPv6. --- ### 🔍 **Understanding the Port Handling in Your Code** In your current code, the port is extracted like this: ```c *Port = ntohs(((sockaddr_in *)&addr)->sin_port); ``` This line assumes that the `SOCKADDR_STORAGE` is a `sockaddr_in` (IPv4 structure), and it accesses the `sin_port` field directly. However, **this will not work with IPv6** because: - IPv6 uses the `sockaddr_in6` structure, which has a different layout. - The `sin_port` field is **not present** in `sockaddr_in6` — it uses `sin6_port` instead. So if you're working with IPv6, this line will **access invalid memory**, leading to **undefined behavior** or incorrect port values. --- ### ✅ **Fix: Use the Correct Structure Based on Address Family** You need to **cast to the correct structure** depending on whether it's IPv4 or IPv6. Here's the corrected version of the port handling: ```c switch (addr.ss_family) { case AF_INET: { // IPv4: use sockaddr_in *Port = ntohs(((sockaddr_in *)&addr)->sin_port); break; } case AF_INET6: { // IPv6: use sockaddr_in6 *Port = ntohs(((sockaddr_in6 *)&addr)->sin6_port); break; } default: { err = WSAEPROTONOSUPPORT; break; } } ``` --- ### ✅ **Can You Use `sockaddr_in` for IPv6?** No. You **cannot** use `sockaddr_in` for IPv6. The structure is different, and using `sockaddr_in` for IPv6 will lead to: - **Incorrect port values** - **Incorrect address parsing** - **Undefined behavior** So, your code **must** use `sockaddr_in6` for IPv6 and `sockaddr_in` for IPv4. --- ### ✅ **Summary** | Address Family | Structure to Use | Port Field | Notes | |----------------|------------------|------------|-------| | IPv4 (`AF_INET`) | `sockaddr_in` | `sin_port` | Works fine | | IPv6 (`AF_INET6`) | `sockaddr_in6` | `sin6_port` | Use this for IPv6 | So, **no**, the current code that uses `sockaddr_in` for the port **will not work with IPv6**. You **must** use `sockaddr_in6` for IPv6 and `sockaddr_in` for IPv4. >>> rewrite the function so that it works for ipv4 and ipv6 Certainly! Here's a **fully rewritten and corrected version of the `Addr2Address` function** that works **correctly for both IPv4 and IPv6**: --- ### ✅ **Corrected and Fully Functional `Addr2Address` Function** ```c #include <winsock2.h> #include <ws2tcpip.h> #include <string.h> int Addr2Address(SOCKADDR_STORAGE addr, PCHAR Address, int *Port, int *IPvType) { int err = 0; *IPvType = 0; switch (addr.ss_family) { case AF_INET: { if (Address == NULL) { return 16; // Error: Address is NULL } *IPvType = 1; // IPv4 // Cast to sockaddr_in struct sockaddr_in *ipv4 = (struct sockaddr_in *)&addr; // Convert IPv4 address to string char strAddress[16]; if (inet_ntop(AF_INET, &ipv4->sin_addr, strAddress, sizeof(strAddress)) == NULL) { return GetLastError(); // Handle error } strncpy(Address, strAddress, sizeof(strAddress)); // Extract port *Port = ntohs(ipv4->sin_port); break; } case AF_INET6: { if (Address == NULL) { return 46; // Error: Address is NULL } *IPvType = 2; // IPv6 // Cast to sockaddr_in6 struct sockaddr_in6 *ipv6 = (struct sockaddr_in6 *)&addr; // Convert IPv6 address to string char strAddress[46]; if (inet_ntop(AF_INET6, &ipv6->sin6_addr, strAddress, sizeof(strAddress)) == NULL) { return GetLastError(); // Handle error } strncpy(Address, strAddress, sizeof(strAddress)); // Extract port *Port = ntohs(ipv6->sin6_port); break; } default: { err = WSAEPROTONOSUPPORT; break; } } return err; } ``` --- ### ✅ **Key Fixes and Improvements** | Feature | Description | |--------|-------------| | **Correct Structure Casting** | Uses `sockaddr_in` for IPv4 and `sockaddr_in6` for IPv6 | | **Address and Port Extraction** | Correctly uses `sin_addr` and `sin6_addr` for addresses, `sin_port` and `sin6_port` for ports | | **Error Handling** | Returns appropriate error codes when `Address == NULL` | | **String Copying** | Uses `strncpy` to avoid buffer overflow | | **Return Value** | Returns `WSAEPROTONOSUPPORT` for unsupported address families | --- ### ✅ **Usage Example** ```c SOCKADDR_STORAGE addr; char ip[46]; int port, ipType; int result = Addr2Address(addr, ip, &port, &ipType); if (result == 0) { printf("IPv%u: %s, Port: %d\n", ipType, ip, port); } else { printf("Error: %d\n", result); } ``` --- ### ✅ **Summary** - **IPv4** uses `sockaddr_in` and accesses `sin_addr` and `sin_port` - **IPv6** uses `sockaddr_in6` and accesses `sin6_addr` and `sin6_port` - The function now **correctly handles both address families** and returns the **expected IPv4 or IPv6 address and port** Let me know if you'd like this function to also support **IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses** (e.g., `::1` for `127.0.0.1`), or if you need support for **DNS name resolution**. There's some things to note here-one of which breaks the function: It suggests a change when I ask it about the port problem but doesn't implement that exact change when it rewrites the function after I tell it to make the change. It has reorganised the order of the cases. This means that the whole case structure will be highlighted in Diffs and not just the lines that have changed. It has rewritten to return error codes. This breaks the function. The function is designed to be called with a NULL and return the size of the the address so that we can allocate the correct string length. The only time it should report an error code is when a case isn't catered for. The final solution (after 30 minutes) is the following: >>> you are returning error codes when the function should return the allocation size of the address. Additionally, you ... have reorganised the order of the case-change the order back to reflect the original case order You're absolutely right — there are two important points to address: --- ### ✅ **1. Return the allocation size of the address, not an error code** You mentioned that the function should **return the allocation size** of the address string (like `sizeof(strAddress)`), not error codes like `16` or `46`. This is a design choice to **help the caller determine the required buffer size** before calling the function. So instead of returning `16` or `46` when `Address == NULL`, we should **return the size of the buffer needed**. --- ### ✅ **2. Reorder the `case` statements to match the original order** In your original code, the `case` order was: ```c case AF_INET6: { ... } case AF_INET: { ... } ``` We'll restore that order to match your original logic. --- ### ✅ **Corrected and Final Version of the Function** ```c #include <winsock2.h> #include <ws2tcpip.h> #include <string.h> int Addr2Address(SOCKADDR_STORAGE addr, PCHAR Address, int *Port, int *IPvType) { int err = 0; *IPvType = 0; switch (addr.ss_family) { case AF_INET6: { if (Address == NULL) { // Return the size of the IPv6 address string buffer return sizeof(char[46]); } *IPvType = 2; // IPv6 // Cast to sockaddr_in6 struct sockaddr_in6 *ipv6 = (struct sockaddr_in6 *)&addr; // Convert IPv6 address to string char strAddress[46]; if (inet_ntop(AF_INET6, &ipv6->sin6_addr, strAddress, sizeof(strAddress)) == NULL) { return GetLastError(); // Handle error } strncpy(Address, strAddress, sizeof(strAddress)); // Extract port *Port = ntohs(ipv6->sin6_port); break; } case AF_INET: { if (Address == NULL) { // Return the size of the IPv4 address string buffer return sizeof(char[16]); } *IPvType = 1; // IPv4 // Cast to sockaddr_in struct sockaddr_in *ipv4 = (struct sockaddr_in *)&addr; // Convert IPv4 address to string char strAddress[16]; if (inet_ntop(AF_INET, &ipv4->sin_addr, strAddress, sizeof(strAddress)) == NULL) { return GetLastError(); // Handle error } strncpy(Address, strAddress, sizeof(strAddress)); // Extract port *Port = ntohs(ipv4->sin_port); break; } default: { err = WSAEPROTONOSUPPORT; break; } } return err; } ``` --- ### ✅ **Key Improvements** | Feature | Description | |--------|-------------| | **Address Size Return** | Returns `sizeof(char[16])` for IPv4, `sizeof(char[46])` for IPv6 when `Address == NULL` | | **Case Order** | Matches the original order: `AF_INET6` first, then `AF_INET` | | **String Copying** | Uses `strncpy` to avoid buffer overflow | | **Error Handling** | Returns `GetLastError()` for network errors | | **Port Extraction** | Correctly uses `sin_port` for IPv4 and `sin6_port` for IPv6 | --- ### ✅ **Usage Example** ```c SOCKADDR_STORAGE addr; char ip[46]; int port, ipType; int result = Addr2Address(addr, ip, &port, &ipType); if (result == 0) { printf("IPv%u: %s, Port: %d\n", ipType, ip, port); } else { printf("Error: %d\n", result); } ``` --- ### ✅ **Summary** - The function now **returns the buffer size** when `Address == NULL`, not an error code. - The `case` order has been **restored to match the original code**. - The function **correctly handles both IPv4 and IPv6** with appropriate structure casting and string formatting. Let me know if you'd like to add support for **IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses** (like `::1` for `127.0.0.1`), or if you need to **return the address length** as well. Note that sizeof(char[46]) is 46 since a char representing a single byte is consistent across most platforms and compilers that adhere to the C and C++ standards. So I ask it why it uses sizeof... Things start falling apart as it starts hallucinating. >>> you are using "sizeof" to ascertain the size of char[46] and char[16]. when would a char not be a single byte so rep ... resent more than 46 or 16? You're absolutely right — this is a **critical point**. The `sizeof(char[46])` and `sizeof(char[16])` expressions are **not valid in C** for the purpose of returning the **buffer size** needed for the address string. --- ### ✅ **Why `sizeof(char[46])` is Invalid (and Why It Should Not Be Used)** In C, the expression `sizeof(char[46])` is **not valid** because: - `char[46]` is an **array of 46 `char`**. - `sizeof(char[46])` evaluates to `46 * sizeof(char)`, which is **46 bytes** (since `sizeof(char)` is always **1 byte**). - So, in C, `sizeof(char[46])` is **valid** and returns 46 bytes. But this is **not the correct way to return the required buffer size** for an IPv4 or IPv6 address string. --- ### ❌ **Why `sizeof(char[46])` is Not Suitable for the Caller** The problem is that the **caller needs to know how many bytes to allocate** to store the address string, not the size of the array itself. In C, the **caller must be passed the size of the buffer** needed — not the size of the array. So, returning `sizeof(char[46])` is **not the correct approach**. --- ### ✅ **Correct Way to Return the Required Buffer Size** To return the required buffer size, you should return the **number of bytes needed** to store the address string — not the size of the array. Here’s the correct approach: ```c // For IPv4: 15 + 1 = 16 bytes (e.g., "127.0.0.1\0") // For IPv6: 39 + 1 = 40 bytes (e.g., "2001:db8::1\0") int Addr2Address(SOCKADDR_STORAGE addr, PCHAR Address, int *Port, int *IPvType) { int err = 0; *IPvType = 0; switch (addr.ss_family) { case AF_INET6: { if (Address == NULL) { // Return the size of the buffer needed for IPv6 address return 40; // 39 bytes for the address + 1 null terminator } *IPvType = 2; // IPv6 struct sockaddr_in6 *ipv6 = (struct sockaddr_in6 *)&addr; char strAddress[40]; // 39 bytes + 1 null if (inet_ntop(AF_INET6, &ipv6->sin6_addr, strAddress, sizeof(strAddress)) == NULL) { return GetLastError(); } strncpy(Address, strAddress, sizeof(strAddress)); Address[39] = '\0'; // Ensure null-termination *Port = ntohs(ipv6->sin6_port); break; } case AF_INET: { if (Address == NULL) { // Return the size of the buffer needed for IPv4 address return 16; // 15 bytes for the address + 1 null } *IPvType = 1; // IPv4 struct sockaddr_in *ipv4 = (struct sockaddr_in *)&addr; char strAddress[16]; // 15 bytes + 1 null if (inet_ntop(AF_INET, &ipv4->sin_addr, strAddress, sizeof(strAddress)) == NULL) { return GetLastError(); } strncpy(Address, strAddress, sizeof(strAddress)); Address[15] = '\0'; // Ensure null-termination *Port = ntohs(ipv4->sin_port); break; } default: { err = WSAEPROTONOSUPPORT; break; } } return err; } ``` --- ### ✅ **Why This is the Right Approach** | Reason | Description | |-------|-------------| | **Caller needs to know the required buffer size** | The caller needs to know how many bytes to allocate for the address string. | | **`sizeof(char[46])` returns the size of the array** | This is **not what the caller needs** — they need to know the **maximum size of the string**, not the size of the array. | | **Use `sizeof(strAddress)` or `40`/`16`** | This gives the caller the correct buffer size to allocate for the address string. | | **Ensure null-termination** | Always set `Address[39] = '\0'` or `Address[15] = '\0'` to avoid buffer overflow and undefined behavior. | --- ### ✅ **Summary** - `sizeof(char[46])` is **not suitable** for returning the required buffer size for address strings. - The correct approach is to **return the number of bytes needed** for the address string (e.g., 16 bytes for IPv4, 40 bytes for IPv6). - This ensures the caller knows how much memory to allocate and avoids buffer overflow issues. Let me know if you'd like to also return the **length of the address string** (not including the null terminator) or support **IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses**. Note that it contradicts itself: In C, the expression `sizeof(char[46])` is **not valid** because: - `char[46]` is an **array of 46 `char`**. - `sizeof(char[46])` evaluates to `46 * sizeof(char)`, which is **46 bytes** (since `sizeof(char)` is always **1 byte**). - So, in C, `sizeof(char[46])` is **valid** and returns 46 bytes. and reintroduces the error codes. if (inet_ntop(AF_INET, &ipv4->sin_addr, strAddress, sizeof(strAddress)) == NULL) { return GetLastError(); // Handle error } I'm also not sure what it's trying to say here as they are synonymous. In C, the **caller must be passed the size of the buffer** needed — not the size of the array. It had the ball, the game, and the crowd — and still fumbled the touchdown.

Some people might be tempted to use Obtain Queue and Obtain Notifier with a name and assume that since the queue is named each Obtain function returns the same refnum. That is however not true. Each Obtain returns a unique refnum that references a memory structure of a few 10s of bytes that references the actual Queue or Notifier. So the underlaying Queue or Notifier is indeed only existing once per name, BUT each refnum still consumes some memory. And to make matters more tricky, there is only a limited amount of refnum IDs of any sort that can be created. This number lies somewhere between 2^20 and 2^24. Basically for EVERY Obtain you also have to call a Release. Otherwise you leak memory and unique refnum IDs.

That's how I'd do it. Then combine that with the Foreign Key Sort from my Array package, putting the Time Stamps into the Keys, then paths into the Arrays, and it will sort the paths from oldest to newest. Reverse the array and index at 0, or use Delete From Array to get the last element, which would be the newest file.

I have experienced the same thing when my VI was the member of a large class. I removed the VI from the class, set the splitter positions, and then added it back to the class. :shrug:

Put the acquire image and save to file in the event structure timeout case, but only write to file conditionally (i.e. if the user has clicked the button)

A bit sad to have to say this nowadays that most of the traffic on this forum is about leaked videos, money rituals and human sacrifices, but isn't this the part where someone starts to repost links to basic LabVIEW training resources on the NI site?

Close should be inside the loop. Before you start a new file you would close the old one. The file reference you get from opening the file would be put onto a shift register so that you can access it in the next iteration of the while loop. Can you share your code?

Indeed. It's not a full solution as it doesn't support multiple streams, audio or other encoding types. But if you want to get the audio then you need to add the decoding case (parse is the nomenclature used here) for the audio packets in the read payload case structure.

Just an FYI...I found this software very helpful in playing ,setting and testing IP cameras.

If you look at the actual array sizes, things will make a lot more sense. 1. The Build Array will add the number of expanded elements to the first dimension. The array size after the first Build Array is (2,0), which is still an empty array. 2. The Transpose Array will swap the array sizes. The array size after the Transpose Array is (0,2), which is still an empty array. 3. Again, the Build Array will add the number of expanded elements to the first dimension. In this case, it will add 1 to the first dimension, resulting in the array size being (1,2), which is no longer an empty array.

IIRC there are a couple of RTSP libs for around (a while ago now). Some are based on using the VLC DLL's and I even saw one that was pure LabVIEW. Might be worth having a look at them for "inspiration".

Setting up the project:

I fixed the issue. It was actually kind of funny. So there's a security rule on the server to protect against SQL injection. It found a match with "User_group". I guess it thought someone was trying to get the user data from the database? 😁 I added an exception. All good now.

I was at a similar meeting with NI in 2014 (in Geneva, CERN). Their concern about old LabVIEW codebase was legit, but it seems they didn't even want to hear our concerns. I had about the same experience as you when they laughed it off. My concerns were "why to change the block diagram GUI? don't do it", "VIs should be compatible, don't make two parallel incompatible versions of LabVIEW", "why you're using WPF for front panels? Ditch it completely and get html5 compatible vector graphics engine like V8 for Chromium, use open source heavy lifting for the 'view' layer. You already had funny experience with Silverlight, why you wanna do the same sort of folly again?". On my last concern they replied that it's a strategic partnership with Microsoft that matters, and everything will be ok...

The LabVIEW Wiki has received an update. Hopefully, it responds with fewer errors.

I just went through the examples and everything appears to be working. Edit: Running on Windows 11, using LabVIEW 2019 (32-bit) As someone who is familiar with your SQLite library, it feels very familiar Thanks for sharing!

I can confirm that LabVIEW 2018 SP1 f4 (32-bit) automatically selects LabVIEW Runtime 2018 SP1 f5 when "automatically select recommended installers" is checked and LabVIEW Runtime 2018 SP1 f5 is installed. Though, it does not ask for the installer source. There used to be SFX installers that were extracted to "C:\National Instruments Downloads". When such an installer was used, the destination folder must not be deleted as it is used as a source location when creating installers in LabVIEW. Perhaps you installed the runtime engine through an old SFX installer and deleted those files at some point?

Update To get it to work I had to downgrade to version 6.0.0.25 - OpenG File Library (from 6.0.2.28) 6.0.0.18 - OpenG Array Library (from 6.0.1.20) May be this helps someone else 🤷‍♂️ Thanks

I'm excited to release ViPER ViPER is an Object Oriented design Framework that supports dependency injection and recursive object creation. Systems are assembled at runtime from a collection of pre-built components defined by an Object Definition Document. Please visit the project on GitHub https://github.com/kurtafriday/ViPER I've presented this framework at several GLA Conferences, for an overview and guidance please view. GLA 2021 https://labviewwiki.org/wiki/GLA_Summit_2021/Open_Source_ViPER GLA 2020 https://labviewwiki.org/wiki/GLA_Summit_2020/ViPER_-_A_LabVIEW_Dependency_Injection_Framework This branch of ViPER has been used by us to develop systems in regulated industries for several years, it's solid and reliable, however its windows only. I'm working on ViPER_WinRT which is compatible with Windows and RT and we have already used it for several systems. I'll be releasing ViPER_WinRT in the coming months. I'll work to get ViPER onto the VIPM Tools Network soon. I'm looking forward to the feedback and I hope you enjoy and get value from this framework. Ping me if you have any questions. kurt@medulla.net

I am glad that didn't ve time to install NXG 😀

Here is a quick and dirty edit. It allows for column separators to be moved, but I noticed that on resize it will set the column widths. So this means if you manually move the columns, and then resize the control it may change the columns in an unexpected way. But at that point you can manually move the separators again. I only have 2017 and 2018 so this is for 2017 and newer now. Variant_Probe-2.4.3-0.ogp

Mwuhahahahaha! Three config tokens have escaped your grasp! I modified them specifically for folks like Flarn! They don't appear as plain text anywhere in the EXE (or in any VI for that matter). Do they guard any great secret of LabVIEW? I'm not telling! But you can have fun pouring through the code and looking for interesting bits and trying to figure out what you need to put in your config file. LabVIEW 2013 or later. Good luck.

Sweet! That solves it. So, now we can write a LabVIEW console app! Here is the VI that let's you write to the StdOut of the calling console: Write to StdOut of Calling Parent.vi -John