National Instruments Corporation

Greg McKaskle

Jeffrey L Kodosky

Andrew Philip Dove

Jason King

Craig Smith

Robert E Dye

Christina C Rogers

Chris Cifra

Roger Zhang

Meg Fletcher Kay

A system and method for enabling a graphical program to receive and respond to programmatic events, such as user interface events. The graphical program may include a graphical user interface having various user interface elements and a block diagram having a plurality of nodes indicating functionality of the graphical program. The graphical program may be configured to receive and respond to one or more user interface events. For each event, a portion of graphical source code (such as a plurality of interconnected nodes) may be included in the block diagram, wherein the portion of graphical source code is operable to receive and respond to the respective user interface event. The portion of graphical source code may be executable to perform a desired process or action in response to the respective event. In one embodiment, a sub-program node may be associated with each event. In another embodiment, an event structure node may be included in the block diagram, wherein the event structure node includes one or more sub-diagrams, each sub-diagram including graphical source code for responding to one or more events.

Graphical programming system with event-handling nodes

Evaluation of graphical program nodes. A first graphical program may be displayed on a display. The first graphical program may include a plurality of interconnected nodes which visually specifies functionality of the first graphical program. User input may be received which selects at least one of the plurality of interconnected nodes while editing the first graphical program. A second graphical program may be automatically generated based on the user input. The second graphical program may include the at least one node. The second graphical program may be executable to allow the user to evaluate the at least one node. The second graphical program may be displayed on the display.

Evaluation of graphical program nodes

A system and method for enabling a graphical program to receive and respond to programmatic events. The graphical program may include a graphical user interface having various user interface elements and a block diagram having a plurality of nodes indicating functionality of the graphical program. The graphical program may be configured to respond to one or more events. For each event, a portion of graphical source code may be operable to receive and respond to a respective event. The portion of graphical source code may be executable to perform a desired process or action in response to the respective event. In one embodiment, a sub-program node may be associated with each event. In another embodiment, an event structure node may be included in the block diagram, wherein the event structure node includes one or more sub-diagrams, each sub-diagram including graphical source code for responding to one or more events.

System and method for enabling a graphical program to respond to user interface events

A system and method for creating a graphical program, wherein the graphical program is operable to invoke execution of textual code. The user selects a code node for inclusion in the graphical program, wherein the code node is displayed on the screen. The user then selects or enters textual code that is comprised in or displayed in the code node. The textual code may be code from a text-based language, such as Perl, Mathematica, or Java, etc., or may be a script from a scripting language. The user may manually enter the textual code into the code node, or import the textual code from a file. The textual code comprised in the code node is user viewable and editable. During execution of the graphical program, the code node is operable to invoke execution of the textual code comprised in the code node. The textual code is preferably executed by an instance of a server program. During execution of the graphical program, the graphical programming system provides the textual code to the server program, as well as any input data received by the code node. The server program then executes the textual code, using any input data received by the code node, and produces an output which is provided back to the graphical program. The present invention thus enables a user of a graphical programming system to more easily incorporate, view, edit and debug textual based code from within the graphical programming system.

Code node for a graphical programming system which invokes execution of textual code

A type definition ability in a graphical programming environment which enables a user to assign a name to a custom control that the user intends to use throughout one or more virtual instruments. The user can create a master or original of a control and use copies of that control in all subsequent virtual instruments. If a user subsequently needs to change that control, the user merely updates the single master control which was saved as a type definition. This has the effect of updating all other copies of that control to that of the changed master or original control. An auto-update feature is included which allows a user to choose between automatic updating of all type definition copies or merely indicating to the user which controls need to be updated. Strict type definitions are provided wherein virtually any user change made to a parameter of the original typedef, i.e. appearance, propagates throughout the remaining instances or copies where that type definition is used. Two cluster functions referred to as Bundle by Name and Unbundle by Name are also provided to allow more flexible access to data in clusters. The Bundle by Name and Unbundle by Name functions allow the user to access specific elements or variables in clusters by name. Since these functions reference components by name and not by their position in the cluster, a user change to the data structure of a cluster, for example the addition or removal of elements, or the reordering of elements in the cluster, does not necessarily result in any errors.

Method and apparatus for providing improved type compatibility and data

A system and method for providing attribute nodes in a data flow diagram which allow a user to programmatically access various parameters of a control or indicator. In this manner, a user can programmatically make changes that affect the output or appearance of controls and indicators. A user can also access these parameters interactively during execution of a block diagram. A user can creates an attribute node containing one or more attributes corresponding to controls that affect a parameter of the control, such as the color used for the respective display, the visibility of the control, the scales or cursor position for respective graphs or charts, etc. The purpose of an attribute node is to affect the visual output of a control provided on the front panel depending on events which occur during execution of a VI or on user input during execution of a VI. An attribute node thus allows the execution subsystem to monitor user interaction by reading attribute data that previously was not available to the program. An attribute node allows two types of operations, these being reading an attribute node or writing to an attribute node. These operations of reading and writing an attribute node can be performed either by a block diagram during execution, wherein the user has programmed the block diagram to perform this function, or interactively by the user during execution. The process of writing to an attribute node refers to the execution subsystem updating an attribute of a control in the front panel display to reflect an attribute that has been set programmatically in a block diagram. The user can also 'write' to an attribute node by providing input to a control in the front panel during execution of a block diagram. Reading an attribute node refers to the execution subsystem reading the value of an attribute for a certain control during block diagram execution that may have been changed by the user, or may have been changed during execution of a VI by the execution subsystem. Reading an attribute also refers to the user viewing changes to the attribute during execution.

Growing community of inventors

Austin, TX, United States of America

Greg McKaskle