How to add buttons to the Project Window

[Neil Pate]

I have never needed to do this, but for some reason am now curious.

Can anyone point me in the direction of where to look for documentation of how to add buttons like this? 

[Antoine Chalons]

I think it's called project provider, there is a special interest group on NI Forums

I've never fiddled with this but some have, here's a few other links :

 - https://forums.ni.com/t5/Developer-Center-Resources/Customize-the-LabVIEW-Project-Explorer-Using-the-Project/ta-p/3532774?profile.language=fr

- https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Project-Providers/Project-Providers-Documentation/m-p/3492573#M285

-

 

[Neil Pate]

Thanks Antoine, that is a really useful link. I knew about the Project Providers, but thought it was just for things like adding stuff to the right-click menu. I will dig in 🙂

[Darren]

Relevant slide from my Don't Wait for LabVIEW R&D... Implement Your Own LabVIEW Features! presentation:

[bjustice]

There is also a presentation on youtube, which I found helpful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXGro_DylHs&ab_channel=LabVIEWArchitectsForum

FWIW, a few lessons learned:

• The project provider VIs have to be installed in the LabVIEW resource folder.  Distributing this through VIPM makes this super easy to specify this install location, and also turn on "require LabVIEW to restart" after install
• You have to restart LabVIEW to test code changes
• The code executes in a separate LabVIEW context.  This can cause some weird behavior, I found that not all code runs in this context safely

[Neil Pate]

22 hours ago, Darren said:

Relevant slide from my Don't Wait for LabVIEW R&D... Implement Your Own LabVIEW Features! presentation:

Even better, thanks! After my brief investigation yesterday I was not super enthusiastic to mess around with ini files and signing things. 

[bjustice]

For what it's worth, the INI file and INI file signing isn't that big of a pain.  Somewhere in the links posted previously is an INI signing tool.  NI basically open-sourced this.  Do it once, and never worry about it again.

[hooovahh]

Now I don't think it is completely fair to take what someone said during a presentation, and quote them out of context.  But I just love this from Darren's presentation:

Quote

If you see somebody talking about writing a provider, slap them.

If NI had a replacement for Project Providers that was documented and stable and all that, then I won't suggest anyone make a Project Provider plugin.  Until then I say there is a time and place for them, just knowing the edge cases, documentation, and support issues.  I think Darren's presentation does a good job of cautioning others.