Jim Kring Posted December 29, 2005 Report Share Posted December 29, 2005 In LabVIEW 8.0, the Flatten To String function has an option called Convert 7.x Data that causes the familiar type descriptor output to appear. According to the documentation... If you need to flatten type descriptor data to a string that is readable by LabVIEW 7.x or earlier, right-click this function and select Convert 7.x Data from the shortcut menu. In Convert 7.x Data mode, this function shows the type string (7.x only) output and displays the icon for this function with a red 7.x on it. LabVIEW 7.x and earlier stores type descriptors in 16-bit flat representation. LabVIEW 8.0 and later stores type descriptors in 32-bit flat representation. National Instruments recommends reworking any application that uses the Convert 7.x Data mode as a long term solution. My question is this: If LabVIEW 8.0 and later stores type descriptors in 32-bit flat representation, how to we access LabVIEW 8.0+ type descriptors? Has anyone found a way to access and decode these? It seams like the documentation is recommending that we "rework" for this new format, but I can't seem to find anything that leads down this trail. Quote Link to comment
Rolf Kalbermatter Posted December 30, 2005 Report Share Posted December 30, 2005 In LabVIEW 8.0, the Flatten To String function has an option called Convert 7.x Data that causes the familiar type descriptor output to appear. According to the documentation... My question is this: If LabVIEW 8.0 and later stores type descriptors in 32-bit flat representation, how to we access LabVIEW 8.0+ type descriptors? Has anyone found a way to access and decode these? It seams like the documentation is recommending that we "rework" for this new format, but I can't seem to find anything that leads down this trail. Could this be something delegated to the scripting feature now? Would seem to me that you could enumerate the diagram or whatever and as one of the properties of a control or wire get its new 32 bit type descriptor. As such it is of course basically not accessible anymore. Talk about removing features due to an update! NI seems to find with every new version new ways to make a power user wonder if an upgrade is really such a good idea. Rolf Kalbermatter Quote Link to comment
i2dx Posted January 4, 2006 Report Share Posted January 4, 2006 NI seems to find with every new version new ways to make a power user wonder if an upgrade is really such a good idea. sad but true ... Quote Link to comment
Michael Aivaliotis Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 In LabVIEW 8.0, the Flatten To String function has an option called Convert 7.x Data that causes the familiar type descriptor output to appear. My question is this: If LabVIEW 8.0 and later stores type descriptors in 32-bit flat representation, how to we access LabVIEW 8.0+ type descriptors? Has anyone found a way to access and decode these? It seams like the documentation is recommending that we "rework" for this new format, but I can't seem to find anything that leads down this trail. Can you not use the Variant to Flattened String? This should give the current LV8 type descriptor data? Quote Link to comment
Jim Kring Posted January 10, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 Can you not use the Variant to Flattened String? This should give the current LV8 type descriptor data? Look deeper. Quote Link to comment
Michael Aivaliotis Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 Look deeper. My bad... Quote Link to comment
Jim Kring Posted January 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2006 Here's an update... There is no access provided to the 32-bit type descriptors in LabVIEW 8.0. NI recommends using the Variant API VIs (which are new to LabVIEW 8.0) located in: .\vi.lib\Utility\VariantDataType These are similar to OpenG's LabVIEW Data Tools library (but do not offer any where near the breadth of functionality of the OpenG library). The vi.lib Variant API will likely be extended to support more variant operations (currently there is not nearly enough functionality in this API to be of much use). And, the Type Descriptor interface will likely be phased out; but not very soon, due to the fact that there are a large number of toolkits and other VIs that use 7.x Type Descriptors. Quote Link to comment
jpdrolet Posted January 28, 2006 Report Share Posted January 28, 2006 Here's an update...There is no access provided to the 32-bit type descriptors in LabVIEW 8.0. NI recommends using the Variant API VIs (which are new to LabVIEW 8.0) located in: .\vi.lib\Utility\VariantDataType These are similar to OpenG's LabVIEW Data Tools library (but do not offer any where near the breadth of functionality of the OpenG library). The vi.lib Variant API will likely be extended to support more variant operations (currently there is not nearly enough functionality in this API to be of much use). And, the Type Descriptor interface will likely be phased out; but not very soon, due to the fact that there are a large number of toolkits and other VIs that use 7.x Type Descriptors. I have flattened a Variant (a numeric) to string to see if the new TD was exposed but it is the 7.1 TD of the numeric that is flattened... The 8.0 TD is kept private, although the help on type descriptor seems more extensive about 7.1 TD so we could fill some gaps in Data Tools... Quote Link to comment
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