Does Labview support Active X control?

[dav2010]

I was looking at Dataq DI-149 data acquistion starter kit.  They claim that their "Active X" controls are supported by Labview. 

What is an "Active X" control?  Is this the same as a device driver?  Is this is an executable?

[Josh_B1]

Hi dav2010,

ActiveX is not a device driver or executable. Basically ActiveX is technology provided by Microsoft that allows various properties of software to be controlled or modified independently of the programming language being used and LabVIEW does indeed support it. Here is a knowledge based article that talks about the basics of ActiveX use in LabVIEW.

http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/371361H-01/lvconcepts/using_activex_with_labview/

Let me know if this is useful.

Regards,

Josh Brown 

[dav2010]

Hi Josh,

Thanks for the article reference.  I read it, and, like a lot of the NI literature, it's a bit difficult for an outsider to grasp.  For example,...

"You access an application by accessing an object associated with that application and setting a property or invoking a method of that object."

What is a simple example of "setting a property" and what is meant by "a method of that object"?  I measure voltage, and I use DAQmx to do it.  I also measure timing of my voltage signals and calculate frequency and velocity etc.  What is the definition of an "object?"  Am I using objects and I am unaware of them?

The articles are very difficult to understand because there appears to be a presumption of a lot of knowledge of programming.  I understand that they are written to be very general and exhaustive, which is good, of course, but, I am a Ph.D. scientist with very little training in software architecture, so, I struggle to understand sometimes, what these things are intending to convey.

A "method of that object".  What the heck does that mean????

I will keep studying the article, but, if you can suggest some examples that help to illustrate the Active X functions, that would be quite helpful to me.

Thanks for your comments, of course.

Dave

[Josh_B1 · Accepted solution]

Hi Dave,

I have attached a simple example of using ActiveX that basically open Microsoft excel. I apologize that are article on this topic is hard to understand. The reason that there are statements like "method of an object" is because ActiveX is a framework and has very broad applications. You can think of the methods of an object as the things the object can do. You use invoke nodes to do this programatically. For example in the example VI I have attached an object that is used is an excel sheet and a method that could done is to add one. I hope this makes more sense. For your getting more information about how to use ActiveX with the Dataq DI-149 data acquisition starter kit you will have to refer to there documentation.  I hope this helps.

Regards,

Josh Brown 

[dav2010]

Thanks a bunch, Josh.  That really helps me a lot.  I understand that these things are quite broad and difficult to make simple, so, I appreciate your patience and your effort to make it simpler for me.

Dave