Design Patterns in NI LabVIEW

Developer Days 2009

What Is a Design Pattern?

Based on LabVIEW code template or framework Widely accepted and well-known Easily recognizable

Benefits of Using Design Patterns

Simplify the development process
Developers can easily understand code Do not have to reinvent the wheel Provide preexisting solutions to common problems

Reliability
Many have been used for years they are tried and true Refer to large development community and resources online
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Getting Started: How Do I Choose?

Identify the most important aspect of your application:
Processes that require decoupling Clean, easy-to-read code Mission-critical components

Select a template based on potential to improve

Caution
You can needlessly complicate your life if you use an unnecessarily complex design pattern. Do not forget the most common design pattern of all data flow!

Basic Tools
Loops Shift registers Case structures Enumerated constants Event structures

Todays Discussion
As we look at each design pattern, we will discuss
A problem we are trying to solve Background How it works Technical implementation Demonstration Use cases/considerations

Design Patterns
Basic State machine Event-driven user interface Producer/consumer Advanced Object-oriented programming

National Instruments Customer Education

LabVIEW Basics I and II

State Machine
I need to execute a sequence of events, but the order is determined programmatically.

Background
Static Sequence Dynamic Sequence: Distinct states can operate in a programmatically determined sequence

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Vending Machine
Initialize Wait
Change Requested Quarter Deposited Total <50 Nickel Deposited Dime Deposited Total <50 Total <50 No Input

Change

Quarter
Total 50 Total >50

Dime
Total 50

Nickel
Total 50

Vend

Soda costs 50 cents

Exit

Total = 50

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Breaking Down the Design Pattern

Case structure inside of a while loop Each case is a state Current state has decision-making code that determines next state Use enumerated constants to pass value of next state to shift registers

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How It Works
Case structure has a case for every state Transition code determines next state based on results of step execution

FIRST STATE

Step Execution
Shift registers used to carry state

Transition Code
NEXT STATE FIRST STATE

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Transition Code Options

Step Execution

Step Execution

Step Execution

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State Machine

DEMO

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Recommendations
Use Cases
User interfaces Data determines next routine

Considerations
Creating an effective state machine requires the designer to make a table of possible states Use the LabVIEW Statechart Module to abstract this process for more sophisticated applications

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National Instruments Customer Education

LabVIEW Intermediate I

Event-Driven User Interface

I am polling for user actions, which is slowing my application down, and sometimes I do not detect them!

Background
Procedural-driven programming
Performs a set of instructions in sequence Requires polling to capture events Cannot determine order of multiple events

Event-driven programming
Determines execution at run time Waits for events to occur without consuming CPU Remembers order of multiple events

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How It Works
Event structure nested within loop Blocking function until event registered or time-out Events that can be registered:
Notify events are only for interactions with the front panel Dynamic events implement programmatic registration Filter events help you to screen events before they are processed

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How It Works
1. Operating system broadcasts system events (mouse click, keyboard) to applications Event structure captures registered events and executes appropriate case Event structure returns information about event to case Event structure enqueues events that occur while it is busy

2.

3. 4.

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How It Works: Static Binding

Browse controls Browse events per control Green arrow: notify Red arrow: filter

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Event-Driven User Interface

DEMO

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Recommendations
Use Cases
UI: Conserve CPU usage UI: Ensure you never miss an event Drive slave processes

Considerations
Event structures eliminate determinism Avoid placing two event structures in one loop Remember to read the terminal of a latched Boolean control in its value change event case

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National Instruments Customer Education

LabVIEW Intermediate I

Producer/Consumer
I have two processes that need to execute at the same time, and I need to make sure one cannot slow the other down.

How It Works
Master loop tells one or more slave loops when they can run Allows for asynchronous execution of loops Data independence breaks data flow and permits multithreading Decouples processes Thread 1

Thread 2

Thread 3

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Breaking Down the Design Pattern

Data-independent loops = multithreading Master/slave relationship Communication and synchronization between loops

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Queues
Adding Elements to the Queue

Select the data type the queue will hold

Reference to existing queue in memory

Dequeueing Elements

Dequeue will wait for data or time-out (defaults to -1)

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Producer/Consumer

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Producer/Consumer

DEMO

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Recommendations
Use cases Handling multiple processes simultaneously Asynchronous operation of loops Considerations Multiple producers one consumer One queue per consumer If order of execution of parallel loop is critical, use occurrences
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National Instruments Customer Education

LabVIEW OOP System Design

Object-Oriented Programming Factory

I need my application to be scalable and modular without sacrificing memory efficiency.

Object-Oriented Programming

What if we need multiple printers of different types?

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Object Orientation Classes

A glorified cluster A user-defined data type A type of project library

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Object Orientation Objects

An object is a specific instance of a class Object data and methods are defined by the class

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Object Orientation Inheritance

Each child class inherits methods and properties from its Printer parent Each child class can also have its own Laser Printer unique methods

Copy Machine Inkjet Printer

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Object Orientation Dynamic Dispatching

Calling VI determines which version of a subVI to use at run time. This prevents unneeded subVIs from being loaded into memory.

Laser Printer

Printer

Inkjet

Copy Machine

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Object Orientation Creating Classes

Create a class from within a project Add VIs to the class to control methods and properties

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How It Works Factory

Factory design pattern One subVI handles the interaction and selection of the modular object Dynamically selects which subVI to load into memory Modularity only requires adding the new class to the project and modifying the subVI that chooses which class to call
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Object-Oriented Programming Generic Factory Pattern

DEMO

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Recommendations
Use cases Applications needing high-level modularity or scalability Memory conservation when loading subVIs Considerations More complex; requires strict architecture Not needed for limited applications

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Using Design Patterns

Lets put what we have learned to use.

Using Design Patterns

Problem: Create a responsive user interface We need an application with a responsive user interface that detects user inputs and reacts accordingly. This user interface should not use excessive CPU resources. The actions we need to take are not dependant on each other. Solution: Event-Based Design Pattern We should use an event-based design pattern because we need to limit the CPU usage while waiting for events. We should not encounter any race conditions because our actions are independent of each other.

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Using Design Patterns

Problem: Test and calibration system We need to test several devices on a production line. Based on the results of the test, we may need to calibrate the system using one of two calibration routines, then retest the system. Solution: State Machine Because we do not know which of the calibration routines we need to use, we should use a state machine to dynamically select which of the two states we should enter. Note: We should NOT use the object-oriented programming factory design pattern for this because we only have two calibration routines. Using object-oriented programming would be needlessly complex.
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Using Design Patterns

Problem: Data acquisition and data logging We need to acquire data from two external instruments that sample at different rates, filter the data, add the time of the test and the operator who performed the test to the data, and then write it all to a file.

Solution: Producer/consumer We should use the producer/consumer architecture because we have multiple tasks that run at different speeds and cannot afford to be slowed down. Each of the external readings will be in separate producer loops and the data processing and logging will be in the consumer loop.
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Using Design Patterns

Problem: Dynamically render a group of 3D objects We need to create a series of 3D objects and display them. These objects will be different from each other but will share some similar properties. The number of each type that we will need to create will not be known until the program runs.

Solution: Object-oriented programming We should use object-oriented programming with a factory that produces the proper number of each type of 3D object. Because we do not know how many will be produced beforehand and they all share some similar properties, dynamically creating these objects from an object-oriented programming factory is the most efficient solution.
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Object-Oriented Programming 3D Object Field

DEMO

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Resources
Example Finder New>>Frameworks>>Design Patterns ni.com/statechart ni.com/labview/power Training
LabVIEW Intermediate I and II

White paper on LabVIEW Queued State Machine Architecture

Expressionflow.com
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How to Develop Your LabVIEW Skills

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