Service packs for ....my application?

[nistam]

I have created an application that reads some digital signals through a PCI-6503. This application does not need user intervention and has to be installed on at least 30 computers, so a problem has arised, how i could upgrade my application remotely from time to time to all of these PCs at once, without my intervention. I've thought of copying my built EXE to a FTP server and, between specific time intervals, querying that server for a new EXE file from within my application. If a new one exists, then download the file and...then what? My application must be automatically stopped, and somehow place the new exe over the old one...maybe a computer restart that replaces the old EXE. I don't know how i could do this kind of restart with LV7.1 and Windows 2000. I don't actualy know if my thought stands. I've also thought of creating a small EXE that should run all these VIs that do my job. These VIs should be external. Has anybody come through such problems?

Thanks guys.

[didierj]

Have a separate app (I name it "helper" app) that looks in regular intervals at this location. If the creation date of the exe (acquisition-app) is newer than the one is running, then this means that a new version exists.

This "helper" app can be run from windows with the scheduler - check in the system settings, there is a tool to add a task (haven't got the english name since my computer runs german).

If all your apps (the one that checks and the one that acquires data) are written in LV, then the "helper" app could access the other one with VI-server, set there e.g. a global variable to stop the acquisition-app (having so a controlled termination, not just a task kill). Then your "helper" app copies the exe and restarts the acquisition-app.

I haven't got an example ready, but it's on my to-do list for our facility programs we wrote and use.

Didier

[Mike Ashe]

The latest edition of the OpenG Toolkit includes a nifty little utility that lets your restart LabVIEW from the LabVIEW File>Restart LabVIEW... menu. As part of this tool they have a "helper" application such as didierj refers too above. Seems that with a bit of judicious tweaking you could make it do what you want. And you would now be using the OpenG Toolkit as well.

Get the toolkit (all packages 2.3.1):

http://sourceforge.net/projects/opengtoolkit/

and the OpenG Package Installer:

http://openg.org/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=...ckage+Installer

Install the Installer first, then use it to install the OpenG Tookit. In addition to what you want, there are lots of other goodies.

Merry Christmas...

[nistam]

Thanks guys. Michael, i already have OpenG toolkit, but.... i've used only o bit of it (((

Thanks to both of you.