Structure navigation (case structure, event structure, stacked sequence, etc...)

[smithd]

Just to get this out of the way, this draws on the following ideas and integrates them into something that I think fits well with things like the web UI builder:

1 http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Case-Structure-Navigation/idi-p/1160707

2 http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Case-Structure-Controls/idi-p/1099942

3 http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Moveable-Case-Selector-Label/idi-p/1094982

4 http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Integrated-Structure-Labels/idi-p/936654

Basically, I think cases should have labels like in 4 (perhaps floating labels like I show below), but remove the other configuration items currently there. This eliminates the problem in 3, and essentially requires something like idea 2. Instead of the current selector, it will have a button similar to the tab viewer in IE (see picture), which will bring up a screen similar to idea #1. However, I think thumbnails arent enough, and I think it should show up more like this picture below:

Anyway, even if you don't like this idea, you should give kudos to the four above, because they are awesome.

Thanks!

[AristosQueue (NI)]

I asked a couple of developers to comment on the feasibility of your idea, but they declined because no one was quite sure what you're proposing here. Can you give more of a step-by-step walkthrough of how you imagine users would interact with this? Is this a new way of editing structures, or just a way of navigating between frames, or something else entirely?

[smithd]

Gooooood question. Well, thanks for taking it to the developers. Thats always pretty cool.

My initial idea was just this: I was looking through some code, and having a huge amount of difficulty visualizing that was going on. There were tons of case structures I thought it would be far easier to have a different configuration/viewing method. After all, even text-based languages let you see all the cases (or at least multiple cases) at the same time, with all the commands involved. Being able to expand the structure into a larger configuration screen would allow you to see the flow of the program better.

On the other hand, after your question I thought about a few other interesting possibilities. For example, you could pop down a case structure and wire your selector enum/boolean/etc. in, and then be able to drag and drop cases and configure the entire structure on that screen. Sort of like this terrible terrible mock-up for events:

To my mind, this would make it easier to configure and read structures, as well as making diagrams more readable--sort of in the same way we compress a large number of functions into subVIs to make the diagram more readable, we can compress a structure into a single item as normal to save space, but then open it up and expand it in order to view all the cases at once.

So, I hope this helps explain what I'm thinking, even if it makes you think its a terrible idea. Let me know if you do have more q's

Thanks

[AristosQueue (NI)]

Got it. Thanks.

[Darren]

Any idea that has received less than 4 kudos within 4 years after posting will be automatically declined.