Solution
There is great value in using Continuous Integration with LabVIEW software development because of how difficult it is to merge/integrate large LabVIEW projects and how long it takes to compile things in LabVIEW's Application Builder and LabVIEW FPGA.
Fundamentally, Jenkins can call anything, but the following tips can help when calling LabVIEW:
- LabVIEW should be packaged somehow so that it can quickly be re-deployed. For instance, you could use exports of LabVIEW and if something goes wrong, you could simply resync the export and try again.
- Use the following INI tokens (
LabVIEW.ini) to suppress popups and auto-reporting errors:NIERShowFatalDialog = 0
NIERFatalAutoSend = true
NIERNonFatalAutoSend = true
NIERShowNonFatalDialogOnExit = false
NIERSendDialogClose = true
autoerr = 3
DWarnDialog = false
AutoSaveEnabled = false
AllowMultipleInstances = true
promoteDWarnInternals = false
ShowAIVIsInErrorWindow = true
- It is helpful to have a very robust system setup. One way to do this is to have scripts that deploy a routinely maintained image of Windows, install all NI and third-party software, and reconnect to a Jenkins master without any user input. The alternative of installing software stacks takes hours manually per PC.
- Remember that any internal build tool that deals with LabVIEW, whether or not invoked by Jenkins, has been engineered to use LabVIEW as an automated compiler.
- Jenkins by default runs in a SYSTEM user account, so you'll want to use PsExec to explicitly run LabVIEW in the desired user account with the following batch file.
- - - -- -- exec.bat- - - - - -- - - - -
@ECHO OFF
rem ...\exec.bat [username] [password] App AppArguments
set LOCAL_DIR=%~dp0
set username=%1
set password=%2
for /f "tokens=3" %%I in ('%LOCAL_DIR%qwinsta.exe ^| find /i " %1 "') do (set _ID=%%I)
rem Group all remaining arguments after username and password
shift
shift
set appParameters=%1
:loop
shift
if [%1]==[] goto afterloop
set appParameters=%appParameters% %1
goto loop
:afterloop
%LOCAL_DIR%PsExec.exe -i %_ID% -u %username% -p %password% %appParameters%
- - - - - -- -- - - - -- - -- - There is an internal property node for LabVIEW called Unattended Mode. It can only be copied and not selected. This is critical for LabVIEW automation because it tells LabVIEW not to block the close of LabVIEW with prompts to save VIs. Snippet is below:
Note: This image is a LabVIEW snippet, which includes LabVIEW code that you can reuse in your project. To use a
snippet, right-click the image, save it to your computer, and drag the file onto your LabVIEW diagram.
- Keep the build fast. Get the latest Intel core at the highest clock frequency with fast SSDs.