How can I restrict developers to just wiring to my icon and restricting them from seeing the front panel or block diagram?

[Dennis_Knutson]

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Coq Rouge wrote:

If you remove the diagrams, you can only run your VIs in your current version(8.5). If you plan to send your system to other Labview user they have to use Labview 8.5 also. Not very practical I will say. I did it once accidentally. It worked for a while. But then a new Labview version surfaced we got a lot of angry phone calls from people more or less pi**ed off. But if you password protect they will be able to to use newer Labview versions without problems. If you are afraid that they can see details on the front panel so hide it. NI use password protection then they want to hide inner VI working from the users. So it should be pretty safe. If you want your software to be 100% tamper proof. You have to hide it in a safe, and never show it to anyone. Much like some crown jewels. Are your software really so valuable

By the way. If you make a DLL people using your functions must have Labview 8.5 runtime engine installed.

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good point. Years ago, I made the same mistake of buying a block diagram removed toolkit. Never again. Like a great number of third-party vendors, the one I bought it from disappeared after a short while and I was stuck with something that could not be used. Never again. I know a lot of users feel the same way.

[road_dog]

OK! I will test password protection in private files of .lvlib to see if front panels are not accessible. (They are accessible when using password protection with VIs not in a .lvlib..)

& THANKS for all your helpful info making it clear that I should NEVER remove the block diagrams! I won't...

The great Developer Zone article, "Sharing Code with the LabVIEW Project Library" shows that even for private VIs in a lvlib, developers can see them, and even put their icons on their block diagrams (but this will break their vi).  I don't want my clients to even know the lower level VIs exist, or have to deal with them in any way.

It is true that the string function is not a VI at all, but I mentioned it to show how I would like my top VIs to behave...

Thanks for all your comments. I still don't have a solution, but I will play with .lvlibs and source distributions more...