If you’re in the Bay Area, don’t miss next Wednesday’s Bay Area LabVIEW User Group meeting!

The Time: Tuesday, February 7th, 2012  5:45 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
The Place: The Lookout at 605 Macara, Sunnyvale, CA 94085
To Register: Sign up here.

JKI Project Engineer Joe Lee will give a talk called, “Closing the Loop: Generating LabVIEW Data Structures from XML.” He will be discussing how (and why) to use XML with LabVIEW for web application interfacing, configuration management, and flexible data storage. You will learn how to take XML data and start manipulating it right away using EasyXML, and if there’s time Joe will show off a new, unreleased EasyXML feature that analyzes XML code and generates the corresponding LabVIEW cluster automatically.

Joe will be joined at this meeting by NI Field Engineer Logan Herr, and Dmitry Sagatelyan from Arktur Technologies, who will each be sharing presentations on LabVIEW Design Patterns.

So come for the LabVIEW and stay for the food, drinks, and community! We hope to see you there.

To all our friends,

We hope your 2011 was as exciting and fulfilling as ours. As we look toward 2012, we reflect on how lucky we are to have such awesome tools, visionary customers, and world-changing partners to work with every day. Warm holiday wishes to each and every one of you.

From all of us at JKI
(including Tomi, who was busy delighting a customer on picture day!)

JKI is pleased to announce the release of VI Package Manager (VIPM) 2011.0.1. This release fixes a number of outstanding issues reported by VIPM users and community members. All users should upgrade.

If you’re already a VIPM user, you’ll be prompted to install this update the next time you launch VIPM. If you don’t have VIPM 2011 yet, get it here for free.

New Fixes in VIPM 2011.0.1

A few of the notable fixes in VIPM 2011.0.1 are listed below. Click here for the full release notes.

• Fixed an issue that made some LabVIEW Tools Network views unusable under certain Windows XP themes.
• Fixed cosmetic issues with Windows “Large Font” settings.
• Fixed an issue that broke previously-working package builds if they included hyphens and periods in their names.
• Fixed multiple causes of crashes on VIPM startup.
• Improved error message when the user tries to install a set of mutually conflicting packages.

Do you have an idea for how to improve VIPM? Is there some way VIPM can make you better at your job? Visit the VIPM Idea Exchange, where VIPM users can interact directly with each other and the VIPM development team and let us know!

JKI is pleased to announce the release of the TortoiseSVN (TSVN) Tool for LabVIEW v2.2.0. All users are recommended to upgrade. See below for detailed changes.

This upgrade is free for all paid users of TSVN Tool for LabVIEW v2.0 and above. If you are a paying customer of the TortoiseSVN Tool for LabVIEW, please contact JKI support to get your updated package or check your email for upgrade instructions.

If you are a new or demo user of the TortoiseSVN Tool for LabVIEW, click here to install it using VI Package Manager 2011. Don’t have VIPM 2011? Get it here.

New and Changed Features

• Added support for Windows 64-bit.

Resolved Issues

• Fixed incompatibility with TortoiseSVN 1.7.

Learn more about the TortoiseSVN Tool for LabVIEW.

Every Fall for the last three years I’ve made a pilgrimage to absorb wisdom face-to-face from software greats like Seth Godin, Joel Spolsky, and Eric Ries at the Business of Software (BoS) conference.

It’s an expensive conference, but it’s worth every penny to get the latest, greatest insights from movers and shakers who understand both business and technology, and whose ideas are shaping the future of software entrepreneurship. And the opportunity to mingle with like-minded entrepreneurs is priceless!

BoS also has a Lightning Talk competition – short, fast-paced talks that consist of 15 slides, set to auto-advance every 30 seconds. Giving a Lightning Talk is not for the faint of heart. This year, prospective speakers were required to submit audition videos. Those selected as finalists are invited to give their talks at the conference itself, where the audience votes to determine the “Best Lightning Talk” for the year.

What's Your Tuva?

I’ve been nudging Justin for years to come along, but he never could swing it. This year, though, he decided to “earn” his way by submitting a Lightning Talk (also he likes to do this sort of crazy stuff). So he put together a video and sent it along. And in the face of stiff competition, he got accepted to speak!

So this October, both Justin and I trekked to Boston to attend Business of Software 2011. Like the last two years, the conference was incredible! For the first two days, we were awed by speakers like Dr. Clayton Christensen, the Harvard professor who wrote The Innovator’s Dilemma and other award winning books. Praxeology expert Rory Sutherland blew us away with his insights applying human behavioral science and economics to business situations. Dharmesh Shah, Hubspot founder and author of Inbound Marketing, showed us in detail how to build a bad-ass software business. Jason Cohen, author of popular blog A Smart Bear, rocked the house with his insights on Naked Business: How Honesty Makes Money. (Justin’s and my detailed notes for the sessions are online here).

The Lightning Talk competition happened towards the end of the second day. This year there were five talks, all by really smart people who can present really really well:

• Corey Reid, Cat-herder at Freshbooks on Hiring Developers
• Karl Treier, CTO/Partner at Prospect Stream on Tips on Starting a Software Company
• Justin’s talk – the only “non-business” one: Getting to Nowhere – the story of Richard Feynman’s ‘last journey’ to a country called Tannu Tuva, and what a lifelong quest means for all of us
• Patrick Foley, Evangelist and popular blogger from Microsoft on Confessions of a Wannapreneur
• Tyler Rooney, Founder/CEO of 4ormat on Things I Learned the Hard Way at Amazon.com

All of the talks were outstanding — which makes it even more of an accomplishment that the BoS audience voted Justin’s talk the winner of the contest! As he introduced the speaker after Justin, Conference Organizer and emcee Mark Littlewood said Justin’s talk brought tears to his eyes. For the rest of the conference, I heard people asking each other, “What’s your Tuva?” In other words, what’s the quest that gives meaning and adventure to your life?

Just getting up in front of this crowd of software superstars and not embarrassing oneself is reason for celebration, but winning the competition is truly a special accomplishment! Not only did Justin receive a Kindle for his efforts, but he won a full speaking slot at next year’s Business of Software conference (October 1-3 in Boston). So from all of us here at JKI, a big congratulations goes out to Justin, who had the focus and courage to step out in search of his Tuva.

Stay tuned – we’ll post the video of Justin’s talk as soon as it’s available! And Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at JKI!

JKI's newest CLA, Jack Dunaway

I am very proud to announce that Jack Dunaway just achieved the highest level of NI LabVIEW certification by passing the Certified LabVIEW Architect exam.

I am even prouder of Jack for doing this only 5 months after joining the JKI team and right before NIWeek, which is one of the busiest times of the year at JKI (when we’re preparing for presentations, social activities, and product releases). Jack, too, was busy preparing for his NIWeek presentation on LabVIEW Community Involvement not to mention wrapping up customer projects.

Jack, you’re a great example of the high-caliber LabVIEW talent at JKI, and I am very proud to have you on the JKI team!  I’m a strong believer that LabVIEW Certification matters and your achievement of the CLA makes a big difference to both JKI and our customers, and (by adding one more expert LabVIEW developer to the world) helps increase the general perception of LabVIEW as a highly capable platform for solving the important challenges of our time.

Thanks for making us proud!

Jim Kring
Founder and CEO, JKI

If you missed NIWeek 2011 — or even if you didn’t — now’s your chance to explore NI’s latest trends in automation, design, and test in this free, full-day conference in Santa Clara on October 27, 2011! The National Instruments Technical Symposium agenda features a keynote, a variety of technical sessions, hands-on labs, and presentations.

In addition to the latest in NI hardware advances, you’ll learn about the new features in LabVIEW 2011, some of which (again this year) were suggested by JKI engineers in the LabVIEW Idea Exchange.

We’ll have a booth, so make sure to come by and visit with Jim Kring and Michael Aivaliotis, the VIPM Product Manager. We’d love to hear about your latest cool application, your ideas for how we can make JKI products better, and we’re always happy to chat about LabVIEW and answer questions. Jim will even sign your copy of LabVIEW for Everyone, and if you don’t already have one, he’ll have a few available for a mere $60 ($22 less than the list price).

As always, NI feeds you breakfast and lunch, and you’ll have the chance to catch up with your local NI buddies. Come on by and say hello!

Register Now

We need your help to make the Idea Exchange a success. You can participate in several ways:

• Submit your own ideas – Is VIPM missing something? Is there a task that is painful for you that you wish VIPM could solve? Are we just doing it wrong? Tell us!
• Vote for existing ideas – Show your support for other ideas by voting for them. Ideas with more votes carry more weight with the development team.
• Comment on existing ideas – Help clarify and expand on ideas submitted by other users to make their ideas better.

Join the VIPM Idea Exchange today! The development cycle for VIPM 2012 will be starting soon, so get your ideas submitted before the window closes.

We will be reviewing the activity on the Idea Exchange throughout VIPM’s development. The more popular an idea is, the more likely we are to include it in the next version of VIPM. Don’t be afraid to submit off-the-wall ideas or things that you think are outside “normal” VIPM usage. We want VIPM to be the best tool to create, use, and distribute LabVIEW add-ons of every kind, so it’s important that we hear from you, no matter how you use VIPM.

The Lifecycle of an Idea

The VIPM Idea Exchange is about two-way communication between you (the users) and us (the developers). To keep you updated on the status of all the ideas, we’ve created the process below. Ideas progress through the following stages:

• Under Review – New ideas start here. The VIPM developer team will review this idea and decide what to do next. An idea can go into the Planned stage or the Declined stage next.
• Planned – This idea is slated for a future VIPM release. There is still no guarantee that an idea will make it into the final product, but the likelihood is high.
• Started – This idea is under active development (design and coding) for the next major VIPM release.
• Completed – This idea has been implemented for the next VIPM release. Development is complete and it will ship with the product.
• Declined – This idea has been rejected. We’ll provide a reason accompanying the response.

Special Thanks

JKI would like to extend a special thank-you to everyone who helped out during the beta period of the VIPM Idea Exchange. You know who you are. Your feedback and help working out the kinks and submitting the first few dozen ideas has been invaluable.

Now tell us what you want VIPM to do!

“We have high confidence in the quality JKI produces. The code they deliver works – they’ve clearly tested it thoroughly. And when JKI makes a promise about a timeline, we know we can trust it.” - Gary Palmer, Staff Electrical Engineer, Proteus Biomedical, Inc.

How cool would it be if your medication system could report your body’s vital signs as well as your dosage history? Gary Palmer and his team at Proteus Biomedical are developing just such a system called Raisin™.

Raisin combines an intelligent pharmaceutical (a pill with a sensor) with a wearable monitor. Tiny, digestible sensors made from food ingredients and bonded to a patient’s pills, then activated by stomach fluids after the patient swallows the pill. The patient also wears a small bandage-style patch on his or her skin to detect the ultra-low-power, private, digital signal emitted by the sensor.

This system can provide extremely useful data for healthcare providers and patients:

• The Raisin patch personal monitor records information such as type of drug, dose, and place of manufacture; captures date and time; and also measures and reports physiologic parameters such as heart rate and activity.
• Healthcare professionals can also derive metrics like sleep patterns and respiration rate from the collected data.
• The patch communicates with the patient’s phone using Bluetooth, and the phone makes the data available to patients via user-friendly customized displays on mobile phones, tablets and desktop computers. Patients can choose who else can see their data, including family members or doctors.

Read the case study to see how Proteus and JKI created a collection of LabVIEW-based component and system testing tools to manage system verification and production testing for the Proteus Intelligent Medicine system. The result? With this amazing system, patients can better understand and manage their health. And doctors can provide better care because they have better information.

Note: The Raisin™ system is an Investigational Device limited by Federal (or United States) law to investigational use.  The Raisin™ system is not for sale and is available for use only under Investigational Review Board (IRB) approved clinical studies. 

Smart pill with tiny digestible sensor

Proteus "smart pills," wearable electronic recorder patch, and phone-based monitor

Here’s the problem: unit testing can seem tedious. Prohibitively expensive. Tough to justify. Even intimidating! As a result, applications and application components can easily get starved of any form of automated testing.

A colleague let me in on a secret that helps break down these misconceptions. It’s simple, and maybe even obvious, but it’s still a secret worth sharing: a unit is as big as you want it to be. It’s just that once the unit gets big enough, we call it something else: a functional test, or an integration test. This type of testing can be a great strategy if you’re looking to minimize time writing tests yet ensure many high-level functional units are working as expected.

Here’s an example of how I recently used JKI’s VI Tester to develop an integration test for a LabVIEW application I was working on, and turned some low-value “throw-away” code into a permanent, reusable part of my application’s build process.

I received a new requirement that would require significant modification to a stable application. In this project, a .NET FileSystemWatcher monitors a directory where a third-party app creates test result files. This new requirement involved monitoring for an additional file extension, which meant I could no longer rely on the simple filter built-in to the FileSystemWatcher. While working on this modification, two things became evident: I was going to need to write some helper code in order to develop the feature, and I would need a test plan that involved more than just kicking the tires after building.

I started to write some throw-away code to enable development of a regular expression to replace the simple built-in filter. During this process, it hit me: toss this code into a VI Tester Test Case, and the helper code would effectively become my test plan. By making this code part of a Test Case and running those tests automatically at build time, the code became a valuable, functional part of my QA process! (By the way, the winning regex turned out to be “^[^\~].*\.(xls|xlsm)$“)

This VI is the Test Case that is run by VI Tester. It ensures that the application is able to properly monitor the test file directory and filter the filenames of interest.

By using two application functions (File System Watcher and File Call Back) as part of the Test Harness, I ensure functionality of the entire application component.

Functional tests like these help quell misconceptions about writing software tests. Testing does not have to be boring – feel free to whip out some application design patterns to create integration tests! Further, testing does not have to be tedious. Consider functional testing of high-level processes if the application does not warrant unit testing each low-level function.

Download a packaged version of this example below and poke around. There are a few more goodies in there, such as the source of the FileSystemWatcher setup, and a design pattern I dub “The Flaky Delegate” where a .NET callback brokers messages back as LabVIEW User Events.

Download the example as a VI Package. (108 KB, requires the free VI Package Manager Community Edition or higher)

Learn more about VI Tester, JKI’s free unit testing framework for LabVIEW.

A view of VI Tester and the project structure of VIs under test.