How many "NI-internal" features are there in LabVIEW, and what are they?

[Sparkette]

I know about VI scripting (which isn't internal anymore) XNodes, and I also know there's some events that aren't exposed to the user, but what else is there? And is there any kind of "hack" that tricks LabVIEW into thinking you're an NI employee or something unlocking these features? I don't know exactly how this works.

[Norm Kirchner]

I don't know exactly how this works.

Well, I would recommend checking out ni.com/jobs for starters

There was a good reason scripting wasn't released for a long while (and some not so good).

But the basic premise is that if we let loose all the hidden stuff, the likelyhood of you shooting yourself in the foot would increase drastically and even if that wasn't the case we would have to support you through trying to figure it out or unfiguring out how to do something.

I know this my not be NI's official response, but I've never been very official anyway.

There are things, to get access to all the passwords and hidden stuff, you need to be in the tower.

Until then, it's up to the community to figure out how to hack into hidden/non-released features as possible and in doing so, support themselves. IMO it's a good natural filter.

So to answer your question better, there is no magic key, and your best bet is to keep a close eye on LAVA

Best,

~,~

Norm Kirchner

[Sparkette]

Well, I would recommend checking out ni.com/jobs for starters

There was a good reason scripting wasn't released for a long while (and some not so good).

But the basic premise is that if we let loose all the hidden stuff, the likelyhood of you shooting yourself in the foot would increase drastically and even if that wasn't the case we would have to support you through trying to figure it out or unfiguring out how to do something.

I know this my not be NI's official response, but I've never been very official anyway.

There are things, to get access to all the passwords and hidden stuff, you need to be in the tower.

Until then, it's up to the community to figure out how to hack into hidden/non-released features as possible and in doing so, support themselves. IMO it's a good natural filter.

So to answer your question better, there is no magic key, and your best bet is to keep a close eye on LAVA

Best,

~,~

Norm Kirchner

How much is there still that we aren't seeing, though? There should be an option in the preferences (or maybe even just the configuration file) that says something like "Enable private/untested features" with a warning like "Checking this box will enable features that have not fully passed testing for use outside National Instruments and are subject to change. NI is not responsible for any consequences of using these features, and we do not provide support for their use. Use of these features is done solely at your own risk. These features will appear with red text in the LabVIEW interface."

[pylb]

There is one thing that unlock a few function like interaction with the oS though. If you add the following line to the Labview.ini file it will "unhide" some properties and method at least in the application nodes.

SuperSecretPrivateSpecialStuff=True

I actually found this somwhere on this forum trying to have an application react to a double click on a file associated to it in Windows Explorer. But, as Norm said, it is at your own risk, there is no official support for it.

Pierre-Yves

[hooovahh]

I know this my not be NI's official response, but I've never been very official anyway.

I really wish NI would be less "official". Like for instance I was wondering, why are there VI's in my vi.lib with passworded block diagrams? Before I was told it was because these VIs had scripting and NI didn't want to expose people to that. But now I can't seem to think of a good reason to hide any source code, other than the code may not be very professional looking.

[gb119]

There was a good reason scripting wasn't released for a long while (and some not so good).

But the basic premise is that if we let loose all the hidden stuff, the likelyhood of you shooting yourself in the foot would increase drastically and even if that wasn't the case we would have to support you through trying to figure it out or unfiguring out how to do something.

Of course this sometimes works the other way. Because I've been messing with XNodes, I now assume that all crashes of LabVIEW I encounter must be my own stupid fault for messing with the things I'm not supposed to and therefore I don't get so frustrated at National Instruments....

[Norm Kirchner]

other than the code may not be very professional looking.

It's not all about the professionalism of things (although that is part of it in certain cases). Sometimes, most times, they are accessing some of these hidden properties or methods or even calling into custom made dll that were created for a very very unique case but could be ab-used.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to open it all up, I've even been known to blurt out things that might or might not sound like passwords in the middle of the NI-week BBQ, but I also know the AE's that would need to help someone like GB119 who isn't as understanding and blames LV for things crashing when it's really something they've caused.

Personally I'd rather have the AE's limited bandwidth dedicated to learning RF

[GregSands]

I know about VI scripting (which isn't internal anymore) XNodes, and I also know there's some events that aren't exposed to the user, but what else is there?

Well, here's one: the Generic VI.

And just last week, this was posted: https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-16905

Not "NI-internal" as such, but not exactly fully supported either. Hmm, wonder if those are related at all....

Having written a few XNodes lately, I really appreciate having that functionality available, even in a completely unsupported way. But I'm still struggling to master the techniques that are available (XControls, LVOOP - I'm looking at you!) without worrying too much about what else might be under the hood - apart from that Generic VI - that really would be useful.

[Sparkette]

Well, here's one: the Generic VI.

And just last week, this was posted: https://decibel.ni.c.../docs/DOC-16905

Not "NI-internal" as such, but not exactly fully supported either. Hmm, wonder if those are related at all....

Having written a few XNodes lately, I really appreciate having that functionality available, even in a completely unsupported way. But I'm still struggling to master the techniques that are available (XControls, LVOOP - I'm looking at you!) without worrying too much about what else might be under the hood - apart from that Generic VI - that really would be useful.

Why is that generic VI password protected? Just put an "unsupported" warning in the block diagram! We want to see how you did it!

(And can an NI employee please answer this question: in your "special" NI version of LabVIEW, if it exists, how do you use these features?)