How to compile VIs for different targets with compile flags in LabVIEW?

Question

I have five RT targets that run almost equal code. I don't want to copy the VIs around to every target. Obviously because I don't want to recopy everything when changes happen. My prefered way would be that I write one VI with some conditional disable or case structures where the desicion whether it's enabled or not should be made with a build file/script.

To achive the case switching I'd like to define string constants in a build script and the dead code elemination should remove the unused cases after compilation.

What are the right tools to achive that? And how would you combine that with CI?

Answer 1

There's no API today to do this from the build, but I would suggest that a conditional disable structure is what you want. There are some ideas on the LV idea exchange requesting this functionality.

Some options:

1. I believe you can set the condition value per-target, so you can have one target for each build and set a different value for each target. Or you could have multiple projects and have a different value for each project.
2. The CDS should have a target condition. I'm not sure how detailed you can make that condition, because I rarely work with targets.
3. While there's no proper API, you can call a pre-build VI and set the condition's value in the project/target programmatically using a tag. Haven't done this myself, but there are examples here and here.
4. I'm not sure how this would work with CI, as I don't do automated builds. I'm guessing once it's part of the build spec, it will simply be executed when you call the build spec.