This is the discussion topic for the wiki article: List of Xnode Abilities

What are the difference between Ability Name and Public Name? What is the Public Name used for?

I initially tought that the Public Name was used in the reply output of some abilities, but this is not the case.

Does anybody have a list of supported replies command?

So far I found the following replies commands:

• UpdateImageAndBounds
• UpdateTerms
• GenerateCode

I am trying to get LabVIEW to call the "Size" ability. I tried UpdateSize, OnResize, Size but none worked. Any idea?

Thanks

PJM

After digging a bit more, here is a possible - mostly untested - reply list (items in bold have been tested).

• SaveForPrevious
• AugmentSelf
• ReplaceSelf
• ModifyCode
• GenerateCode
• IssueWarning
• SdfX
• SimX
• XNodeType
• PreserveUserCodeGUID
• UpdateTerms
• UpdateLabel
• UpdateImageAndBounds
• UpdateImage
• UpdateHelp
• UpdateAutotoolRegions
• ShowMenu
• FailTransaction
• ChangeTransactionName

PJM

Ummm, which version of LabVIEW is this for ? I know there were substantial changes in abilities (and replies?) between 8.0 and 8.2, I assume that there have been more changes with 8.5....

These replies are for LabVIEW 8.21.

Please note that the one I did not test might not even be valid replies.

PJM

I think Size is only called when the user resizes the XNode. Why do you need to call it? You can invoke an UpdateImageAndBounds reply to call the Bounds ability and tell LabVIEW the new dimensions for your XNode.

Saludos,
Aitor

Aitor

I had a use case were this would have been convenient. Basically after a right click selection, I needed to redraw my xnode. But prior to that I had to resize it. Since I could not do it (invoking the size through a reply), I was able to achieve what I was trying to do by just running part of the size code in the SelectMenu3.vi before sending the UpdateImageAndBounds reply.

PJM

Public Name is a publicly viewed name for the ability that changes on different versions of LabVIEW.
Ability Name is the name recognized by LabVIEW internally.

Previous explanation:
http://forums.lavag.org/Wiki-XNodes-t6811.html#entry26206

Example:

In this example, GetGrowInfo is the Public Name (it describes the function more properly here), and GrowInfo is the Ability Name.
Naming your VI "GetGrowInfo.vi" is, of course, only a suggestion. You can choose to ignore the Public Name.

The reason this situation ended up becoming slightly ugly is that NI didn't plan to rewrite their Ability Names very carefully, so you have this situation:

1) LabVIEW 8.0: BuildPopup (now with public name "BuildMenu") is created. An input or output cluster contains X elements.
2) LabVIEW 8.?: BuildMenu (now with public name "BuildMenu2") is created to fix a problem or add functionality to (1). NI at this point did not use their current renaming strategy.
3) LabVIEW 8.2?:BuildMenu3 (with public name "BuildMenu3") is created to fix a problem or add functionality to (2). When this Ability is incorporated, the public names for the two previous "revisions" are set to BuildMenu2 and BuildMenu despite the confusion that now occurs.

The reason they do this is so that (a) you can see that BuildPopup was simply the first attempt in the series of the BuildMenu Abilities, and (b) backwards compatibility is retained.
This system works well now, but unfortunately the existence of old versions complicates the naming scheme like this.


As for replies, you should be able to call a large amount of "Abilities" (by their Ability Name) by specifying the reply as such. Your list is the first that I've seen.

It seems like you have the "Size" situation taken care of.
- Adam

Adam,

Thanks for the info.

I never realized what was the public name because I used the XNode Manager from Aitor and I never had to mess with the xml file directly.

As for the replies, I though I tried to call a couple of them by their name unsucessfully. I will give it another shot.

PJM

Someone please add the info from this thread in the xnodes wik article or make a new page.