Thinking in G » JKI

An easier way to use TortoiseSVN with LabVIEW

Jim Kring — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:12:14 +0000

I’m excited to tell everyone that the JKI Team has been hard at work on (and just announced) a tool to make using TortoiseSVN easier to use in your LabVIEW projects. It’s called the JKI TortoiseSVN Tool for LabVIEW and allows you to use TortoiseSVN from directly within your LabVIEW projects and VIs, without having to find VIs on disk in Windows Explorer.

For more information, check out the official announcement on the JKI Software Blog.

The coolest LabVIEW news in a long time

Jim Kring — Fri, 15 May 2009 09:15:50 +0000

Wow!!! LabVIEW Scripting (using LabVIEW to programmatically edit LabVIEW code) is going public and you’ll be able to created new LabVIEW features that extend the right-click menu of FP and BD objects. Check out the lastest blog post on JKI Software for more details:

Announcing the JKI Right-Click Framework for LabVIEW

I’ve already created a few new right-click menu features and it’s really fun and easy.

Introducing the JKI Software Blog

Jim Kring — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 21:41:56 +0000

Recently, JKI announced the new JKI Software Blog. I wanted to make sure that all of you, the readers of Thinking in G, knew about this great new resource on LabVIEW. But, I also wanted to explain how the JKI Software Blog relates to this blog, Thinking in G.

Over the years that I’ve been blogging here at Thinking in G, many of my posts have related to the software products of JKI, such as VIPM, EasyXML, and the JKI State Machine. But, from now on, I’m going to be posting JKI-related articles on the JKI Software Blog.

The goal of this change is to:

draw a more clear line between my own personal thoughts on LabVIEW and the messages coming from JKI, and
encourage other JKI team members to post articles (on the JKI Software Blog) that relate to JKI and LabVIEW.

Hopefully, this means more great articles about LabVIEW for all of you. I know for a fact that the JKI team has a LOT of great stuff planned for 2009, so stay tuned in to the JKI Software Blog.

For more information about the JKI Software Blog, visit blog.jkisoft.com.

Video of JKI’s NIWeek 2008 presentation on code reuse

Jim Kring — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:22:06 +0000

We’ve just posted video of JKI’s sold out NIWeek 2008 presentation on Effective LabVIEW Code Reuse Strategies and Tools.

We used Zentation to mash-up the Google Video with the PowerPoint slides and it turned out very good. Next year, we’re going to try to focus on taking video of the presenters (hopefully with better lighting), rather than video of the slides.

We hope you enjoy it.

Delivering Sold-out NIWeek Presentations

Jim Kring — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:54:44 +0000

The JKI presentations at NIWeek 2008 were very popular -- the rooms were full to capacity while eager attendees were (unfortunately) turned away at the door due to fire safety concerns. While the size of the audience is a good indication that people anticipated high-quality presentations, we were thrilled to received direct feedback from many attendees, afterward, who stated how much they enjoyed the presentations.

As a thank you, we decided to share some tips, below, for how we pull off high-quality, enjoyable presentations that people will remember:

Have passion for your what you are presenting -- if you don't care, neither will your audience.
Tell a story that will relate to the audience -- the story is what people will remember. If they care about the story, they will come looking for more detailed information, later.
Use images as a backdrop to your story, rather than slides with lots of bullets and small text -- the images set the tone and give people an emotional connection to what your talking about.
Include well-scripted demonstrations -- show them some LabVIEW, in action!
Keep text to a minimum and use large fonts -- any text should be mostly subliminal, meaning that the audience should not have to try hard to read it. They should be listening to your story and not reading your presentation.
Stand up next to the screen and talk directly to the audience, rather than sitting in front of the computer and reading slides -- you want people listening to what you have to say, not reading the slides. Be a good story-teller!
Use a wireless presenter mouse -- it will untether you from your computer and enable you to interact with your audience
Don't take too long -- There's nothing worse than not making it to the end of a story. And, make sure to leave time for people to ask questions and make comments.
Know your material -- you need to be able to give the presentation without reading your notes.

We are excited that JKI has earned a reputation, building on our success at NIWeek 2007, for dilivering high-quality, enjoyable presentations and we look forward to trying to raise the bar again next year

Even if you missed our sold-out presentations at NIWeek 2008, you can still check them out by follow the links, below.

We'd love to hear your feedback. What tips do you have for giving great presentations? How might JKI improve our presentations, next year? What are some presentation topics you would like JKI to cover at NIWeek 2009 (next year)?

Customizing the LabVIEW Palettes is (Ridiculously) Hard

Jim Kring — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:21:42 +0000

Have you ever tried editing the LabVIEW palettes in order to integrate your reusable VIs into LabVIEW? If you have then you've undoubtedly experienced the frustration of finding your VIs missing from your custom palettes, at some point.

Maybe you didn't realize one of the following facts about *.mnu files:

Tip: you can skip over this list, because it's probably completely irrelevant to you.

*.mnu files uses Symbolic Paths for linking to files some times
*.mnu (palette menu) files can be set to Synchronize with Directory
*.mnu files have both a Functions palette and Controls palette inside them
an LLB file contains a built-in palette menu
your palette was being stored in an LLB file that you overwrote
your palette was being stored in your My Documents LabVIEW data folder and didn't propagate with your reuse library folder
*.mnu files store deleted/hidden items
LabVIEW automatically creates dir.mnu files in folders found inside user.lib

except for folders that begin with an underscore ("_")

The "merge VI" setting is used to place a VI's contents when dropped, rather than placing a subVI

OK, you get the point. There's a lot you don't know (or more likely that you don't care to know) about *.mnu files. Whatever the reason, getting your reuse library into the palettes is way too hard. Only an unlucky few people in this world understand the idiosyncrasies of editing the LabVIEW palettes. Fortunately, a few of these people are at JKI working hard on a solution to this problem. And, the next version of VI Package Manager is going to make understanding how the LabVIEW palettes work completely irrelevant (unless of course, you work at JKI).

Imagine being able to get your reuse libraries into the LabVIEW palettes with the press of a button. And, that's just the beginning...

Have you tried editing the LabVIEW palettes? Were you successful? Do you feel that you understand how the palettes work? Are you looking for a better solution?

Using XML Data in LabVIEW Just Got Easier

Jim Kring — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 01:15:11 +0000

As I've mentioned before, using XML data in LabVIEW is way too hard. And, according to this poll, 7 out of 10 LabVIEW developers think so, too. LabVIEW's built-in XML schema and support functions are not at all useful for generating and parsing XML schemas defined by others. And, the various tools available to LabVIEW developers for generating and parsing XML schemas defined by others are not easy to use.

For example, there's really no simple and maintainable way to write the code necessary to generate and parse the following XML:

John
Doe

The existing tools require understanding way too much about the details of the XML language (e.g., DOM) and get in the way of the average developer doing useful work with XML data. For examples, this is the code required to read only a single attribute of an XML entity:

When I think easy, I imagine a tool that will allow the developer to:

1.) define a simple LabVIEW data structure that is analogous to an XML data structure of interest and
2.) use it to generate and parse the XML data.

For example, generating and parsing XML data in LabVIEW should be as easy as creating a cluster:

The good news is that JKI Software has just released such a tool that lets you work with XML by simply creating a cluster in LabVIEW. For example, you can create an XML playlist with just one VI and a cluster, as show in the screenshot, below.

And, parsing XML is just as easy, as you can see in this example that downloads the LAVA RSS feed and parses the data into a cluster.

This new tool is called the EasyXML Toolkit for LabVIEW and is a low-cost ($39 introductory price) toolkit that can be installed using VI Package Manager. And, you can even download the demo for free, using VIPM. Now, that's easy.

VI Package Manager 1.1 Released

Jim Kring — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:01:06 +0000

I'm happy to announce that JKI has shipped the 1.1 release of VI Package Manager , a tool that makes it simple to find, download, and install reusable LabVIEW VIs directly into the functions palette. We're very proud of this release, as it adds an important new feature: configuration management.

In this release, we've added a new construct called a VI Package Configuration file, which allows you to save and recall the state of LabVIEW for each of your projects (meaning, which libraries are installed).

And, we've even added support for saving the actual package files inside a VI Package Configuration file, so that you can easily store the packages inside your project folder (and thus use your source code control system to make the packages available to other developers and computers).

Configuration management was a very important problem for us to solve, since we work on a lot of different LabVIEW projects, both internally at JKI and for our clients. We can't afford the risk of not knowing which versions OpenG and other library VIs are required for a given project. So, before we start working on a project, we use VI Package Manager to apply our project's VI Package Configuration file.

JKI and the LabVIEW Community

Jim Kring — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 07:01:45 +0000

One the reasons that NIWeek 2007 was the Best NIWeek Ever was that during the NIWeek 2007 Alliance Day keynote, NI showed a slide called “The LabVIEW Community Online” (shown above) which included JKI’s logo! This slide displayed the logos of various LabVIEW community websites, including discussion forums, blogs, etc. I was extremely honored to see JKI’s logo included on the slide since we have long been focused on promoting and participating in the LabVIEW community.

What makes this somewhat interesting is that JKI is a company that provides consulting services around LabVIEW and other National Instruments hardware and software products. But, in addition to our work, we are extremely active in the LabVIEW blogosphere, discussion forums, open source community, and local LabVIEW user group meetings in the San Francisco Bay Area. In fact, the LabVIEW community is a core part of JKI. Let me explain.

JKI was founded in 2002 when I started working as an independent LabVIEW consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area. One of JKI’s very first customers met me at a San Francisco Bay Area LAVA group meeting where I had been regularly presenting and participating. This contact evolved into one of JKI’s best long-term customers (we have worked with them on and off for over 5 years, now) and played a huge role in providing a solid foundation upon which JKI has been able to grow its business.

I got to know two of JKI’s senior engineers, Michael Aivaliotis and Philippe Guerit, through participation in OpenG and the LAVA discussion forums. After working with each other on various OpenG projects, we found an opportunity to work together at JKI. Philippe and Michael are an integral part of JKI’s team and a huge part of our ongoing success.

Additionally, in 2004, Jeffrey Travis contacted me and asked me if I was interested in co-authoring the 3rd edition of “LabVIEW for Everyone“. I met Jeffrey through our involvement in OpenG and Info-LabVIEW. If it were not for my involvement in the LabVIEW community, I would not have received this invitation.

JKI is actively working hard to find more ways to be involved with and promote the LabVIEW community. We do this because we enjoy being a part of this community and want to see it grow. Also, there are incredible opportunities that arise from participation in the LabVIEW community — you meet potential customers, colleagues, and build a professional network that enables business success.

I’m not telling you all of this to convince you that participation in the LabVIEW community is a guarantee for professional success, but rather to reinforce the fact that it has rewards which are varied but incredibly hard to quantify. In JKI’s case, it has contributed to attracting great customers, talented engineers, and book offers, as well as recognition during an NIWeek keynote. Yes, community participation takes a lot of time, but it is undoubtedly worth it — in addition to the satisfaction of making friends and helping others learn and use LabVIEW, you are establishing yourself in a professional community where opportunities abound.

My NIWeek 2007 Presentations

Jim Kring — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 23:17:44 +0000

One the reasons that NIWeek 2007 was the Best NIWeek Ever was that I got to present four times! I gave the following two presentations (I presented the latter at three different times):

The first presentation, “Using Free and Open Source LabVIEW Software“, was given on Alliance Day (Monday, Aug. 6th, 2007) and was not open to the general public. However, the material is not confidential and I’m happy to make available everyone. This presentation discussed the different flavors of open source software licensing, why open source is an important part of our lives, and how LabVIEW developers can leverage open source software.

The second presentation, “Developing Commercial Software Applications in LabVIEW“, outlines some key issues that LabVIEW software developers should consider if they are thinking about selling their software. These are things that JKI had to learn about from our experiences working on our own commercial software product, VI Package Manager. Certainly, this presentation doesn’t cover every aspect of commercial software development, but I only had 45 minutes — and this topic could easily fill a whole book.

Soon, JKI will be making Michael Aivaliotis’ presentation on XControls available as a video — that’ll be very exciting. Michael’s presentation was really good — I heard that someone comment to him that it was the best NIWeek presentation given by a non-NI presenter in the 10 years they have been coming to NIWeek. Hopefully I didn’t set your expectations too high (I’m really excited, too, because I didn’t get to see Michael’s presentation)