This presentation is an introduction to LabVIEW project providers. It reviews the main functionalities offered by the project providers then gives an overview of a project provider example. This provider integrates a release server connectivity directly into LabVIEW IDE and helps developers to adpot early stages of a continuous delivery aproch.

1. Project Providers
USING A RELEASE SERVER FROM LABVIEW
LUGE 2020.1
May 7th 2020

2. Agenda
 What are project providers ?
 Features overview
 Release Server
 Example : Release Server Project Provider
 Conclusion
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3. About Me
Background & experience
Physics Engineer at INSA Toulouse (France)
8 years of LabVIEW experience
4 years of web experience
Software project manager & developer
Based in Grenoble
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4. LabVIEW Project Providers
What are these ?
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5. Overview
Main features
 Customize LabVIEW IDE
 Add new functionalities to existing project items
 Add new menu items
 Run custom functionality code
Some native items and menus in LabVIEW project window are project
providers (Build Specifications, Source Code Control… and third parties
GOOP, JKI, SEA…).
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6. LabVIEW Window Menu
 File / Tools / Help
 Add items
 Multi-levels
 Show or hide items
 Enable or disable items
 Control items position
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7. LabVIEW Window Menu 7
You have more control with project providers than with LabVIEW
resources directory.

8. LabVIEW Project Window Toolbar
 Add items
 Call your own VI on click
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9. LabVIEW Project Item
 Create new item types
 Change icon
 Replace icon
 Add icon overlay
 Store properties
 Temporary
 Persistent
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10. LabVIEW Project Item Menu
 Add items
 Multi-levels
 Show or hide items
 Enable or disable items
 Control items position
 Type filtering
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11. Type filtering
Menus added to EXE But not to DLL
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12. Triggers
 Items
 Init
 Double click
 Drag / drop
 OnPopup
 OnCommand
 …
 Project
 Opened
 Closed
 LabVIEW
 Startup
 Shutdown
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13. Getting Started
 Few documents
 Examples:
 Secondary provider (2 examples)
 Primary provider (1 example)
 Shipped LabVIEW 9
<LabVIEW>resourceFrameworkProviders
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14. Example
HOW TO USE A RELEASE SERVER FROM LABVIEW IDE ?
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15. Release Server
 Centralize all production of binaries
(executables, setup, libraries…)
 Goals
 Reinstall / duplicate a system (manually or scripted)
 Outsourcing tests
 Traceability
 Continuous Delivery
 Several commercial solutions (Artifactory, Nexus…) or home made
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16. 16
v2.0 v1.1 v1.0
Testers
Product
Support
Quality
…Operations Management
Developers
Releases
Server
Releases

17. Use case
Need to release a new version of an executable
Process
 Edit code
 Change software version
 Compile
 ZIP generated files
 Rename ZIP file
 Connect to release server
 Navigate through folders
 Upload
 Reupload if failed
 Notify those affected by email
(people or server)
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18. Use case
Risk of mistakes with repetitive tasks
Process
 Edit code
 Change software version
 Compile
 ZIP generated files
 Rename ZIP file
 Connect to release server
 Navigate through folders
 Upload
 Reupload if failed
 Notify those affected by email
(people or server)
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Error risk

19. Use case
Waste of time for human being
Process
 Edit code
 Change software version
 Compile
 ZIP generated files
 Rename ZIP file
 Connect to release server
 Navigate through folders
 Upload
 Reupload if failed
 Notify those affected by email
(people or server)
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Error risk
Lost time

20. Use case
Reduce manual tasks
Process Before
 Edit code
 Change software version
 Compile
 ZIP generated files
 Rename ZIP file
 Connect to release server
 Navigate through folders
 Upload
 Reupload if failed
 Notify those affected by email
(people or server)
Process After
 Edit code
 Change software version
 Compile
 Upload
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Error risk
Lost time

21. Use case
Simplify & improve remaining manual tasks
Process Before
 Edit code
 Change software version
 Compile
 ZIP generated files
 Rename ZIP file
 Connect to release server
 Navigate through folders
 Upload
 Reupload if failed
 Notify those affected by email
(people or server)
Process After
 Edit code
 Change software version
 Compile
 Upload
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Error risk
Lost time
Improved

22. Project Provider
Goal & expectations
Handle release server interaction directly from LabVIEW IDE and
automate most repetitive release steps.
 Avoid tools switching
 Spare time
 Limit human mistakes
 Deliver faster
 Increase deliveries granularity
 Do not rely on one server technology
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23. Demonstration
NOT LIVE BUT STILL A DEMO OF THE PROJECT PROVIDER
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24. Change version number
Change paradigm
 From version number…
 …To job kind
 Integrate company version
numbering policy into the provider
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25. Software Bundles
 Group softwares as bundles before release
 Align softwares version quickly
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26. Server Configuration
 GUI assistant
 Configure your server only once
 Or choose a preconfigured
frequently used server
 Each build specification can have
a separate configuration
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27. Upload
2 clicks away from release
 Menu greyed if server not configured or EXE not built
 Loading window
 Error handling
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28. 28

29. Provider Configuration
Global settings:
 Configure once frequently used servers
 Configuration shared:
 Between LabVIEW projects
 Between EXE build specification
 Centralize authentication credentials
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30. Hardware Abstraction Layer
Or rather Software Abstraction Layer
 Explorer (PC, USB key, network disk)
 WebDAV
 Amazon Web Services
 Artifactory
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31. Plugins
 Add more release server communication types (ex : FTP)
 Customize business logic
 Files organization
 External notifications
 CI server
 Object oriented
 Configurable in GUI
 Scripting generation
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32. Improvements
 Options
 Deploy as a ZIP (checkbox)
 Automatic upload if available
 Customizable storage logic
 Order by client
 Order by project
 Keep last N elements
 …
 Asynchronous upload
 Background upload
 Microsoft Windows notifications
 Plugin architecture
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33. Other Provider Examples
Readme
Generate document with:
 LabVIEW version
 Internal dependencies
 External dependencies
 Automatic triggers
(LabVIEW shutdown)
Release Note
Generate document:
 Based on tag version
 Base on date range
 Multi-formats
 HTML
 TXT
 JSON
 Changelog
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34. Disclaimer
Still better than nothing
 Not documented
 Not easy API
 VIs are password protected (hard debug)
 Slowdowns
 Not supported by NI
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35. Links
LabVIEW group on NI forum
https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Project-Providers/gp-p/bymqyodmkc
Release Server Project Provider
Soon available on VI Package Manager
https://github.com/tweeto/Release-Project-Provider/Package/
Soon available on GitHub
https://github.com/tweeto/Release-Project-Provider
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36. Questions 36

37. Stay in touch
After the meeting
Email
nicolas.bats@gmail.com
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolasbats/
GitHub
https://github.com/tweeto
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38. See you soon
Thank you for attending
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