VI class/Front Panel.Open method

VI Server Method Information
Method ID	438
Scope	Basic Development Environment
Data Name	FP.Open
Short Name*	FP.Open
Long Name*	Front Panel:Open
* Displayed here in English. Short and Long names appear in the language of the LabVIEW IDE.
Owning Class ID	2
Owning Class Name	VI Class
Return Data Type	No return value
Invoke Node
Available in Real-Time Operating System	Yes
Available in Run-Time Engine	Yes (Read/Write)
Available with control VIs	Yes
Available with global VIs	Yes
Available with polymorphic VIs	Yes
Available with strict type definitions	No
Loads the block diagram into memory	No
Loads the front panel into memory	No
Must wait until user interface is idle	No
Need to authenticate before use	No
Remote access allowed	Yes
Settable when the VI is running	Yes

Opens the front panel window. If the front panel is already open, this method changes the state of the front panel window to the state you wire to this method.

Use the Front Panel:Close method to close the front panel window.

You also can use the Front Panel Window:State property to set the state of a front panel window that is already open.

Parameters

Data type	Name	Required	Description
	Activate?	No
	State	No	Sets the state in which to open the front panel window.

Uses

Minimize a caller VI while a subVI is running.

If you would like to minimize the caller VI, for example if you have a main VI that does essentially nothing while the subVI that it calls is executing, you need to reference your calling VI. So upon calling your subVI the first action would be to open a reference to your calling VI and size its front panel appropriately by using the VI Property Node. Then when exiting the subVI after completing execution you can restore the calling VI's front panel to its original size and close the reference.

Under Windows 98/2000 you can effect the above behavior with a couple of simple calls to the user32.dll API. First you get a handle to the window of the calling VI (or other Window) and then call either:

ShowWindow()

or

AnimateWindow()

The info on making the calls can be found for free at Microsoft at:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default..../ShowWindow.asp

or by going to http://msdn.microsoft.com and search on ShowWindow or AnimateWindow.

History

Version	Change(s)
	More info to come.