VI Scripting - locate loop iteration and conditional terminals.

[TeraTech · Accepted solution]

Well, it's finally working but like @Paul, I'm not sure of the exact thing that fixed it. 

Here are some notes:

-The original zip file posted by @raphschru contained a folder called “Find Loop Terminals.llb” not an actual, single, LabVIEW LLB file. As previously stated, I “put the .llb folder in "<YourUser>\Documents\LabVIEW Data\PopupMenus\edit time panel and diagram" ” then restarted LV.  I did not get the intended Find after right-clicking on a while loop.

-I am new to right-click plug-ins and after doing some reading, I was under the impression that an LLB file was needed. Thus, I had wondered why @raphschru didn’t provide the LLB file, regardless, I converted it to a single LLB file by running the “Create Shortcut Menu Plug-In From Template.vi” under the LV2021 folder C:\Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\LabVIEW 2021\resource\plugins\PopupMenus .  I then edited and updated the resulting template Vis with the contents provided by @raphschru. I tested again by right clicking a while loop and still no Find option.

Long story short, after many iterations of rebuilding, recompiling, restarting LV, clearing object cache… in various orders it finally started working as an LLB file. It is strange that the LLB I uploaded in a previous post worked for others but not for me. 

Not being satisfied at it simply working, I did some more research.

Apparently LV2021 SP1 changed how right-click shortcut menus are stored. Now the single LLB file is replaced with a folder of the same name. Details here:

Change in LabVIEW 2021 SP1 affecting right-click plugins - NI Community   

But “Thankfully, the plugin will still work when it is implemented as folder instead of an LLB.”

At this point it’s important to note that I was on a pc with LV2021 that did not have LV2021 SP1 installed yet. Ah, that explained why @raphschru supplied a zipped folder instead of an LLB file. Still, this only explained why it initially didn’t work when I dropped the folder rather than an LLB file. So again, not 100% clear what got it working. Now instead of clear as mud, it’s clear as muddy water.😊

One more note for anyone reading these posts in search of solution to right-click menu strangeness. (though it should not have impacted my scenario)

There was a bug fix in in LV2020 for right-click menu plug-ins:

Bug Fix for ALL Right-Click Menu Plug-Ins (LV2015 to 2019) - NI Community

One final note (I promise):  The test pc had both LV2017 and LV2021. I ultimately wanted this right-click functionality to be available in both, so rather than having two copies, in the end I created a LV2017 version and installed it to

<LabVIEW Data>\PopupMenus\edit time panel and diagram so both LV installation would benefit.

Thanks all for chiming in, and especially @raphschru for the plug-in!

My version of single LLB file "Find Loop Terminals.llb" attached again for convenience. (this should work on LV2015 and greater)

[raphschru]

As you have noticed, making LabVIEW plugins is not an easy task, especially when there are multiple LV versions involved, and it will be even more difficult if you plan to distribute your plugins with VIPM.