VIPM 2010 has entered beta testing…

and we need your help!

VIPM 2010 has lots of cool improvements like major performance boosts, better configuration management tools, and support for 64-bit LabVIEW.  But more importantly, it sports a completely redesigned Package Builder that lets you package any type of LabVIEW Add-on you can think of.

Can you prove us wrong?  Is there a special kind of package you’ve been unable to build because VIPM (until now) didn’t support what you needed?  Are you an enthusiastic VIPM user and you want to help us improve the product before we ship it?

If any of those apply to you, please go here and sign up for the VIPM 2010 Beta Program.

We’re looking forward to hearing your feedback!

Bug photo courtesy of spakattacks.

Having the world’s largest VI Package repository means that we can identify scaling problems before they start to affect our customers.  That’s why we identified some key bottlenecks when using VIPM to manage large repositories, and fixed them in VIPM 3.0.  The result is that VIPM 3.0 is faster than VIPM 2.0, especially when dealing with large numbers of packages.  Here are a few of the benefits you’ll see as a VIPM user:

Faster initial setup time for new VIPM users

In VIPM 2.0, you might have noticed that it could take several minutes for VIPM to download information from the VI Package Network about all the packages available.  Now, in VIPM 3.0, we’ve implemented lazy downloading of package information (see the lazy acquisition design pattern [PDF] for more info), which means that VIPM downloads only the information it needs, right when it needs it.

Faster “Check Network for Package Updates”

Another effect of the lazy downloading of packages (described above) is a faster check for package updates.

Faster Installation and use of VI Packages and VI Package Configurations

We’ve optimized the zipping and unzipping of VI Packages and VI Package Configurations.  We found some areas where we were using high-level OpenG Zip Tools functions, but there were more optimal ways to use some of the lower-level functions.  This means that saving and loading of VI Packages & VI Package Configurations is now a lot faster.  You’ll notice a big difference especially when working with large VIPC files.

Faster Package Search and Column Sorting

We noticed that when there were a lot of packages in VIPM’s package list, the search and column sorting got a little slow.  So, we took a close look and found some ways to optimize this.  This wasn’t rocket science; VIPM mostly just caches certain data now, rather than recalculating it every time the search/sort operation is performed.  The result is that searching your package list for the package you want will be more responsive with larger numbers of packages in your library.

We hope you find VIPM 3.0’s performance to be better than ever.  If you haven’t downloaded it already, what are you waiting for?  Get it now!

And, stay tuned for more articles about “What’s new in VIPM 3.0?“

One of the most important new features in VIPM 3.0 is the ability to create and manage your own VI Package Repository using VIPM Enterprise.  Now you can find, download, and install VI Packages of your team’s reusable code from a VI Package Repository located on your corporate network or the Internet.  Your developers will be able to install and use your VI Packages just as easily as they install and use packages from OpenG or JKI Software!

How Does It Work?

Sharing VI Packages with VIPM Enterprise is easy.  VIPM provides a Repository Manager window that lets you create a VI Package Repository on any standard file or web server.  Using the Repository Manager window, you can see what’s in your repository, add or remove packages from the repository, and manage users’ access to the repository.  To publish a package, just drag & drop a package file from Windows Explorer into the Repository Manager window.

Once the VI Package has been published to your VI Package Repository, VIPM users on your team will get a message from VIPM, telling them that the new package is available for download and installation into LabVIEW.

VIPM is so “Web 2.0″

As an added bonus, VIPM allows you to publish an RSS feed of your package releases, so your team can also receive notifications of package releases in any RSS reader (Outlook, Google Reader, Thunderbird, etc.).  Now go tweet your coworkers, telling them that your LabVIEW code reuse system is Web 2.0 compatible!

But that’s not all!  VIPM 3.0 includes other cool features, like:

• User Management — VIPM lets you control which users are authorized to access your VI Package Repository.
• VI Package Deprecation — VIPM lets you hide outdated packages from your users to discourage their use.
• VI Package Validation — VIPM calculates a cryptographic hash for every package, which allows users to verify that they have the official released version of a package for traceability purposes.
• much more…

I’ll be going over these features (and other VIPM 3.0 features) in future articles, so stay tuned.

If you haven’t downloaded VIPM 3.0 already, what are you waiting for?  Get it now!

VI Package Manager™ allows you to get your reusable LabVIEW VIs into the palettes, organized the way you want, in just minutes. It has powerful, easy-to-use features that make sure you’re always in control of your reusable VIs, without the worry of missing subVIs in your LabVIEW projects.  And, it allows you to share your reusable VIs with your entire team, over the network.

Want to hear what others are saying about VI Package Manager? See our Customer Quotes.

VIPM Community

• Install VI Packages
• Download free OpenG VIs
• Keyword search for VIs

VIPM Professional - In addition to all the features available in VIPM Community, VIPM Professional offers the following additional features:

• Create VI Packages
• Configuration Management of Projects
• Source Code Control  Integration

VIPM Enterprise – In addition to all the features available in VIPM Professional, VIPM Enterprise offers the following additional features:

• Network Package Sharing
• Team-based code reuse
• User Management

You can learn more about VIPM 3.0, as well as download it on the Web at: jkisoft.com/vipm

We’re very proud of this release and hope you find that it’s full of great new features that help you in your LabVIEW projects. Thank you for all your feedback and support.

That’s why the next release, which we’re calling “VIPM Enterprise Edition“, is going to focus on features that will enable a team of LabVIEW developers to share packages easily.

Here’s a sneak peak at the VI Package Repository Manager…

Note: Please, keep in mind that this is under active development and might change significantly before release.

A new toolbar button opens the VI Package Repository Manager window

Managing the repository in the new VI Package Repository Manager window

VIPM Enterprise Edition will enable you to:

• Publish VI Packages to your team
• Manage an Enterprise VI Package Repository
  • Release packages (so they will automatically appear in your team’s package list)
  • Deprecate old packages (so obsolete packages will no longer appear in your team’s package list)
  • Control client access (so only the people you want to have access will have access)
• Make OpenG packages available to a team on on a restricted internal network (networks with no Internet access, due to firewalls or proxies)
• and much more…

In the coming weeks, we’ll be doing a series of articles about VIPM Enterprise Edition.  We’ll start by taking a brief look at the big pieces of VIPM Enterprise Edition.

VIPM Enterprise System Components

VIPM Enterprise Edition will consist of three main parts:

1. VI Package Repository – a collection of VI Packages (and other related information) that will be accessible over a corporate network or the Internet

2. VIPM Clients – VIPM (Community, Professional, or Enterprise) installations that will access the VI Package Repository (e.g. over the network), in order to download VI Packages

3. VI Package Repository Manager – a special window in VI Package Manager Enterprise Edition that allows you to create/manage your VI Package Repository and the packages it contains

More Articles on the Way…

We’re working hard on VIPM Enterprise Edition, and will have more to say as time goes on.  Soon, we’ll be posting articles about other VIPM Enterprise concepts, such as:

• Package Deprecation – for marking packages as obsolete
• Package MD5 Checksums – for ensuring that you’re using “official” versions of packages
• and more…

VI Packages are a great way to share your reusable VIs with other LabVIEW developers, allowing you to get your reusable LabVIEW VIs into the palettes, organized the way you want, in just minutes.

NI has helped make sharing reusable VIs even easier by allowing packages to be attached to forum posts – Thanks, NI!

Note: this would be similar to how we can refresh the palette menus programmatically by invoking the Application:Refresh Palettes method (shown below).

I bring this up, because one feature that I’d love to see added to VIPM (some day) is an easier way to build menu-launch tools into VI Packages, and I’m sure more people would be asking us why their add-on doesn’t show up in LabVIEW after it’s installed.

Hopefully, we can help NI get this feature onto the LabVIEW roadmap by convincing them that it’s worthwhile.