internet toolkit

[Oriol Llargues]

Dear,

I am a catalan student and I am doing my Master Thesis. I have one problem: I can not find the way to get started with Internet Toolkit. I wish to know the way to do two things. The first one is to get the correct and useful information to get started with this toolkit. I have noticed that this website is full of good information but I am a little bit lost. The second one and the most important is how to monitor data in real time over the net and even control the program which gets these data. I will be very glad with the people who could help me.

Yours faithfully,

Oriol

[waldemar.hersacher]

Dear Oriol,

you do not need the Internet Toolkit to control a LV application over the web. LV has a built in mechanism called "Remote Front Panel" to access a LV app over the web.

You can find information in your help under VI, Function, & How to help. In the Index tab type "remote front panels" this will lead you to "Viewing a Front Panel Remotely Using a Browser".

You only need the Internet toolkit if you must avoid installing the LV runtime on the client system.

[zilla]

I have two questions on this topic.

Does the Server need to have LabView installed?

Can a Client remotely run a vi built as a .exe using Run Time?

[Oriol Llargues]

Dear collegue,

Thanks for your useful information. I will take it in account when programming my application. But what I want to do is to check the monitored data and control the VI from any computer wherever I am without having installed Labview.
But for this purpouse I need the internet toolkit, isn't it?

Thanks for reply my question.

Oriol

[Dennis_Knutson]

In order to use remote panels, all that you need on each client pc is the LabVIEW run-time engine. This can be downloaded from NI's web site by putting a link on the page with the remote panel. The Internet toolkit gives you CGI functions that can be combined with some html coding to allow monitoring and control without the run-time engine. I has been quite a while since I experimented with it, but the programming was much more time consuming and I don't think it was quite as flexible as remote panels. If you decide to avoid the remote panel approach, I would suggest getting the book "Internet Applications in LabVIEW" by Jeffrey Travis. It was written before the remote panel features were released and is filled with a lot of examples.

[waldemar.hersacher]

Dear Oriol,

in one word yes. But as Dennis says it is more complicated to control an app. using HTML and forms. You have to do a lot of programming in CGI VIs. You have to take into account that more than one client is able to connect and wants to control the app. Also the user is able to use the Back button of the browser to display an old document which is not consistent to the current state of your app. This way he is able to send commands which are not allowed.

[Oriol Llargues]

Thanks, I've considered to get the Run time engine. Probably I won't spend so much time to finish my application.

[Diego_M]

Hi Oriol,

I´d like to indicate more information about how you can develope remote applications with LabVIEW.

On LabVIEW, you can find the following ways:

1. Internet toolkit: It´s very heavy
2. Datasocket conexion
3. Web Server
4. Remote Panel

I´d like to show you several links where you´ll be able to find information reference to each point

1. Internet Toolkit
User guide: http://digital.ni.com/manuals.nsf/websearch/253D7A7E8C2F6A4986256E1A0072FBFC?OpenDocument&node=132100_US


2. Datasocket connection
Datasocket is an Internet programming technology based on TCP/IP that simplifies data exchange between computers and applications.

Datasocket allows you to transfer your data using different protocols- 6 protocols- (DSTP, OPC, Lookout, HTTP, FTP, and local files). I give you several links where you´ll see this information and an .bmp file reference to one example using DSTP protocol.

http://zone.ni.com/devzone/conceptd.nsf/webmain/9574A2833AB0F8B086256CB4006A1EF7?opendocument&node=dz00000_us#5
http://www.ni.com/pdf/wp/wp1680.pdf

Moreover, you´ll find more info in your help LabVIEW if you type "Datasocket". The functions on Labview are under All Functions>>Communication>>Datasocket and under Find Examples>>Search tab>>Datasocket.


3. Web Server
Web Server, which is an HTTP server. more info in your help LabVIEW if you type "Web Server" (Tools>>Web Publishing Tool)


4. Remote Panel
With the LabVIEW 6.1, NI introduced remote front panels, which you can use to view or control a VI in any Web browser.

Firstly you can consider several factors involving bandwidth and network traffic:
http://zone.ni.com/devzone/conceptd.nsf/webmain/e789515b9976253786256b1f007e039b

Knowledgebase Remote Front Panel:
http://search.ni.com/nisearch/nisearchservlet?nistype=default&ddown=2&filter=%2Btaxonomy:knowledgebase+%2Blanguage:en&q=Remote+Front+Panels

Distributed Application Development
http://zone.ni.com/devzone/conceptd.nsf/webmain/8bc90a5f744a482886256ba000681713

Remote Panel License - How Many Clients Can View or Control a Remote Panel in LabVIEW?
http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/websearch/2E814A22B7660EA786256BD500652F2C?OpenDocument

I hope this information is useful for your applications

Regards

Diego M.

[Esther.Lopez]

And what about controlling a built app (exe) without labview installed in the server?

- only built app (exe) installed in the server, and LabVIEW RTE
- client control through remote panels?

[anurag267]

I am new to Labview and have been given a project to access my VI's through internet.Can anyone be of any help to me..