VI Package Manager 2013 is here! Click here to download it. VIPM 2013 continues the refinement and improvement of VIPM for LabVIEW teams and add-on creators.

This year’s update makes VIPM easier to use and maintain on multiple machines, adds new features suggested by users on the VIPM Idea Exchange, and brings the Mac version of VIPM up to date with the Windows build.

If you’re already a VIPM Pro user, your upgrade is either free or $349. For new purchases, VIPM Pro is still just $499. Of course, VIPM Free is always free for everyone.

Here are a few of the most important changes in VIPM 2013. For full details, read the release notes or just go to the download page to get started.

Package Building Improvements

• Support for .ctl files in the Functions palette. Now you can add controls/typedef’s to your package’s Functions palette. When you drop them on the block diagram, you’ll get a constant.
  
• Better Pre- and Post-build action handling. VIPM 2013 does a better job of handling pre- and post-build actions in error situations, and also prompts the user if they try to execute an action that’s disallowed in VIPM Free.
• Improvements to license file management for users who do their own custom license binding.

Repository Management Improvements

• Multiple Repository Management. Switch between multiple VI Package Repositories without leaving the Repository Manager window.
  
• Easier Package Publishing. Publish packages by dragging them from the VIPM Main Window into your Repository window.

VIPM Installer Improvements

• No more separate Run-Time Engine download. The Windows and Mac VIPM installers both contain the necessary components of the LabVIEW RTE, so installation is a breeze.
  
• Silent command-line install support. VIPM can now be installed silently from the command line, to enable automated installation.

Mac OS X version in sync with Windows

Until now, the latest version of VIPM for Mac OS X has been VIPM 2010. This release brings the Mac version back up to parity with its Windows cousin. Mac users can take advantage of everything VIPM has to offer:

• Repository Management
• Package Building
• VIPC File Creation
• …and more.

]]> http://blog.jki.net/news/vipm-2013-now-available/feed/ 0 http://blog.jki.net/news/do-the-harlem-shake-labview-style/ http://blog.jki.net/news/do-the-harlem-shake-labview-style/#comments Mon, 01 Apr 2013 13:14:47 +0000 JKI http://blog.jki.net/?p=3028 Continue reading →]]> We enjoy a good Harlem Shake as much as anyone else, so we thought, “Let’s do it… LabVIEW Style!”

We’re proud to note that the JKI team hatched this idea at the Americas CLA Summit 2013. The energy and creativity of the Summit really got our juices flowing, and we’ll have more blog posts about our CLA Summit experience coming soon!

How’d we do it? LabVIEW Scripting, of course. Want to know more? Post in the comments!

It’s that time of year again – The Americas CLA Summit in Austin is next week!

In just a few short years, the annual National Instruments Certified LabVIEW Architect Summit has established itself as the premiere LabVIEW technical conference aside from NIWeek itself. This year marks the fourth US CLA Summit, and the second European CLA Summit.

The CLA Summit is unique because the content of the conference is determined entirely by attendees themselves. This year’s topic (in the US) is Delivering Professional Software. From development processes, to user experience, to application distribution, to licensing, to customer support, it’s a topic that touches every Certified LabVIEW Architect.

In addition to connecting with our friends and colleagues in the LabVIEW community, JKI will be leading two talks/discussions at this year’s Americas CLA Summit:

Connecting LabVIEW to Everything Else
Jim Kring, JKI CEO

Our customers want the software we create to be “open,” in the sense that they need to integrate it into other business systems, or they need to use it from their own system development, or they just need to get data out in the way they want. This means providing an external API that users/clients can access – especially from tools other than LabVIEW. Jim will explain why external APIs are a fundamental part of professional software development, and will explore how different types of APIs are useful at different stages of development all the way from proof-of-concept to final shipment. There will be plenty of time, too, for people to share their own experiences.

Software Licenses for Dummies
Justin Goeres, JKI Marketing Manager and Senior Engineer

All professional software developers need to know the basics of software licenses: what “copyright” is, and what common licenses such as GPL, LGPL, BSD, the LabVIEW EULA, and even the and ni.com Terms of Use really mean. Unfortunately, many people are misinformed (or just afraid) about how these basic, common legal agreements affect them. Justin will try to cut through some of the fog with examples and common plain-English definitions to help you deal with software licenses.

If you’re a Certified LabVIEW Architect, we hope to see you at the Summit! If not, or if your boss didn’t buy the reasons you should attend, then watch this space. We’ll post our presentation content afterwards.

Cyber Monday is here! What better way to kick off your holiday shopping than by getting something for yourself and your team?

TODAY ONLY (26 Nov), JKI is offering 50% off all VIPM license purchases and renewals. Buy VIPM from our website and enter the discount code CYBERMONDAY2012 at checkout, or click this link to add VIPM Pro to your cart and apply the discount automatically.

Have you been thinking of purchasing VIPM Pro for yourself or your colleagues? There’s no time like the present. If you need to run the purchase through your company, contact us today for a quote; we’ll hold the discount for you.

To learn more about VIPM, visit our website.

We’re pleased to announce the availability of VI Package Manager 2012 Service Pack 1.

Cyber Monday is Coming. Save on VIPM!

November 26th (one week from today) is Cyber Monday, the unofficial kickoff of holiday shopping season in the United States. To celebrate, JKI will be offering 50% off all VIPM license purchases and renewals. If you’ve been thinking about purchasing VIPM Pro, Cyber Monday will be a great opportunity to do it. Look for our special deal on the JKI Blog or in your inbox one week from today!

When: Tuesday, November 13th, 2012  5:45 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Where: Tu Mero Mole at 590 Old San Francisco Road, Sunnyvale, CA, 94086
To Register: Sign up here.

Like usual, this BALUG meeting will feature several different presentation & discussion topics. Jim Kring will reprise JKI’s popular NIWeek 2012 presentation, “Secret Sauce: Tools to Make You a Better LabVIEW Developer,” James Hannah from Solution Sources Programming will dive deep into LabVIEW Data Structures, and NI Field Engineer Thaison Verasiri will explore the latest LabVIEW templates for application development.

Come for the food, drink, and friends, then stay for the knowledge. We’ll see you there!

Calling all Bay Area LabVIEW users! Join JKI at the 2012 National Instruments Technical Symposium this Thursday, October 25th. At this free, full-day conference, you’ll learn all about the latest NI technologies and development techniques for taking your measurement and automation systems to the next level.

You’ll also learn about the great new capabilities of LabVIEW 2012, including the feature we’re most proud of: VI Package Manager 2012 now ships on the LabVIEW Platform DVD. If you do any kind of professional development in LabVIEW, and especially if you work on a team or handle multiple projects, stop by our NITS booth and see how VIPM can help you work smarter.

The Bay Area is home to one of the most thriving corners of the LabVIEW ecosystem, so don’t miss this opportunity to mingle and network with all your LabVIEW and National Instruments friends. We’ll see you there!

Register Now

Continuous Integration (CI)–continuously building and integrating your application to reduce risk and improve quality–is an important part of modern professional software development. There are many ways to implement CI for your LabVIEW projects, and in this presentation I describe how JKI has integrated Jenkins into our build process and how you can do the same thing in your organization.

But first, I’d like to present to you ‘the missing slide’ from my presentation. I omitted an overview of what the CI process looks like from high above.

Of course, things can get more interesting as you automate more and more of your build and release (i.e. integration) processes – as I show in my presentation and in the sample code below.  In the presentation example, we’re continuously building a VI Package using VIPM’s new API – but you can easily imagine doing the same thing for a LabVIEW built executable or installer.

If you want to get a jump-start on using Jenkins with LabVIEW in your organization, download the sample code from this presentation and get started.

If you’re interested in Continuous Integration support services from JKI, contact us and we can discuss your CI needs and whether JKI services could help!

How do you bulletproof your LabVIEW builds? Join the conversation in the comments.

Video in part courtesy of Tecnova‘s Mark Balla, LabVIEW Champion and friend of JKI. Thanks, Mark!

Thanks again to everyone who attended. For those of you who were there, your enthusiasm and your questions/comments made it a great experience for me and (hopefully) for the rest of the attendees. If you missed it, don’t worry – see the video and slides below!

What tools do you use to help you work smarter? Add your thoughts in the comments.

Video in part courtesy of Tecnova‘s Mark Balla, LabVIEW Champion and friend of JKI. Thanks, Mark!

One of the coolest of these features is the inclusion of VIPM 2012 with every LabVIEW installation. That’s right – VIPM 2012 Free now ships with LabVIEW. This means that if you have LabVIEW 2012 installed on your computer, you already have the VIPM installer on your machine.

To launch VIPM 2012, just click on Find Drivers and Add-ons >> Find LabVIEW Add-ons in the newly redesigned LabVIEW Getting Started window.

If this is your first time launching VIPM 2012, you will be asked to proceed with the installation. If you have an older version of VIPM installed, VIPM will walk you through the upgrade process.

VIPM 2012′s inclusion with LabVIEW 2012 has multiple benefits for LabVIEW Add-on creators and users:

• VIPM can be installed easier in environments that have strict IT controls on installed software. Since LabVIEW has already been approved for use, the included support applications, which now include VIPM, are more acceptable for installation.
• If you distribute VIP packages for toolkits or libraries, the end user experience is more streamlined. When you double-click a package, you will be prompted to install VIPM and then when the installation is complete, the package is opened and installed. Since an installer download is not required, the process is easier and quicker.
• It’s easier to install packages on LabVIEW systems that are not internet enabled, since you don’t need web access to install VIPM. The packages themselves of course still need to be transferred to the machine. VI Package Configuration files can be used for this purpose.

This tighter integration between LabVIEW and VIPM will allow easier distribution of LabVIEW Add-ons and reusable libraries, for your development team and your Add-on customers.

Sign Up For Our New VIPM Webinar!

Sign-up for the upcoming VIPM 2012 webinar to find out what’s new in VIPM 2012 and learn more about the following:

• How to use VIPC files to keep our project up to date.
• Using VIPM with Dropbox to cloud enable your development team.
• Using the new VIPM API to implement a check for updates tool for remote test systems.

Click here to sign up.