LabVIEW Online-Training May 2020

In March 2020 NI announced free access to NI online eLearming course material: Refer to LabVIEWForum for details. Since our annual CS Workshop has been canceled, we are willing to organize an online training as substitute for the CS++ hands-on course for advanced LabVIEW developers. Beginners should start with the Self-Paced-Training, LabVIEW Core 1,2,3.

Since an online training has a different character than a face to face meeting, we need to exercise such an online approach. Therefore we would like to start with three tutorials with focus on object oriented programming with LabVIEW and NI's Actor Framework. Then we would like to continue with the CS++ libraries extending the AF. CS++ is already in use for several GSI experiment control systems.

We'll see how it works out. Please contact HolgerBrand or DennisNeidherr for your favorite online training dates.

Topics

1. Introduction to object oriented programming with LabVIEW
   • About three hours are planned for this topic.
2. Introduction to NI Actor Framework
   • At least eight hours are planned for this topic.
3. AF Hello World
   • Three to five days planned for this topic.
4. Distributed Systems with AF/CS++ libraries
   • Three to five days planned for this topic.

The first two topics include talks and manuals in English and German language. We will give the talk and attendees work through the manual on their own, asking questions to the moderator. By using screen sharing all attendees can follow advice and problem solutions. The third topic is more interactive. The problem statement is introduced and the attendees try to solve it by using knowledge from previous topics. Solutions for for each development step are provided as subsequent commits in the corresponding Git repository. Daily online training meetings, one or two, are planned for discussion and to support the attendees to solve problems which they are facing during their offline developments and to answer questions. The forth topic introduces the CS++ libraries extending the Actor Framework. CS++ focus is on commissioning and test of distributes systems. A poster provides an overview of CS++ functionalities extending NI's Actor Framework.

Online discussion between attendees are very welcome. Moderators will assist for problem solution and background explanations. If necessary we could summarize some important LabVIEW basics for not so advanced developers.

Participants

SteffenLohse, SaskiaKraftBermuth, AlexandruState, WolfgangMaier, RagandeepSinghSidhu, SimonRausch, AlexanderKessler (CS++ only), MaxHorst, AlexanderJankowski

Time Schedule

We continue with part three of the online training. The latest commit contains the goal and proposed solution which I presented on Friday, May 29, 2020. All attendees will work on their own solution. We will have the first review with discussion, question and answers on Friday June 4,2020, 13:00. Of course we can arrange ad-hoc meetings if necessary, e.g. you stuck in the middle of something.

Virtual Meeting Room

We are planning to use an Adobe Connect based virtual room. It provides support for chat, audio, video, presentation, document and desktop sharing as well as notes, polling and white board. Up to 27 attendees are allowed, but I think we should restrict ourselfs to small groups. You need a headset to join conversation. Echo canceling is most important, otherwise you become muted and chat is left only. We have to exercise the online training before it actually begins. Camera is optional.

Prerequisites

• Good knowledge of the LabVIEW development environment is an advantage.
• Contents of the LabVIEW Core I, II and III courses
• Good experience in programming LabVIEW is an advantage
  • Multi-threading and
  • Event mechanisms
• PC/Notebook
  All attendees need to prepare their own notebook or PC. You may need administrator privilege to install missing modules or permit firewall exceptions.
  • LabVIEW 2019 and the VIPackageManager must already be installed. More LabVIEW modules or NI Software would be an advantage, e.g.
    • Data Logging & Supervisory Control or Database Connectivity Module
    • DIAdem or at least the
      • TDM Add-In Tool für Microsoft Excel or
      • TDM Add-In Tool für OpenOffice.org Calc.
  • You should install Git, it's available in GSI software center, in order to clone the referenced topics. You may prefer another Git client.

-- HolgerBrand - 2020-05-22