Design Patterns in NI LabVIEW

Developer Days 2009

Agenda
What is a design pattern (what)
Benefits of design patterns (why)
Examples of design patterns (how)

The Need for Design Patterns

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In the World of LabVIEW

How to avoid this:

What Is a Design Pattern?

Formal, solution to a problem

Widely accepted and well-known
Easily recognizable
Implementation Independent
Example: The Kitchen Sink

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

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

10

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.

Why Use a State Machine

Easily Extended
Can you add feature [x] to this program?

Flexible
Oops, I forgot to include a step to do [y]!

Easily Maintained
Thank goodness John used a state machine, we
can easily understand whats going on

12

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

13

Vending Machine
Initialize

No Input

Wait
Change
Requested

Total <50

Change

Nickel Deposited

Quarter Deposited

Quarter

Dime Deposited
Total <50

Total <50

Nickel

Dime

Total 50

Total 50

Total >50

Vend

Soda costs 50 cents

Exit

Total = 50

14

Total 50

What is a State Machine in LabVIEW?

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

15

Defining the State Machine (1/4)

Framework
Decide which state to execute
Decide which state is next

16

Defining the State Machine (2/4)

State Code
StateCode
Code
State
Code
State
State Code

Execute code for a given state

17

Defining the State Machine (3/4)

Transition Logic
Figure out which state is next

18

Defining the State Machine (4/4)

Framework

State
State
Code
State
Code
Code

Transition
Logic

19

State Machines in LabVIEW

Framework

State
State
Code
State
Code
Code

Transition
Logic

20

State Machine

DEMO

21

Recommendations
Use Cases
Almost Always
Any program with more than a few steps

Considerations
You need to make a state diagram
LabVIEW Statechart module implements UML
statecharts

22

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

24

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

25

How It Works
1.

2.

3.
4.

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

26

How It Works: Static Binding

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

27

Event-Driven User Interface

DEMO

28

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

29

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
Thread 1

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 2

Thread 3

31

Breaking Down the Design Pattern

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

32

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)

34

Producer/Consumer

36

Producer/Consumer

DEMO

37

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
39

National Instruments
Customer Education

LabVIEW OOP
System Design

Object-Oriented Programming
Dynamic Allocation
Inherited Functionality
Polymoprhism

Object Orientation Classes

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

41

Object Orientation Objects

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

42

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

43

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

Copy
Machine

Inkjet

Printer

44

Object Orientation Creating Classes

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

45

Object-Oriented Programming Logging Status Messages to a File

DEMO

46

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.

48

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.
49

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.
50

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.
51

Object-Oriented Programming 3D Object Field

DEMO

52

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
53

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