How Can I View Remote LabVIEW Real-Time Front Panels in a Web Browser?

Primary Software: LabVIEW Modules>>Real-Time Module
Primary Software Version: N/A
Primary Software Fixed Version: N/A
Secondary Software: LabVIEW Modules>>Real-Time Module

Problem:
I want to remotely view the front panel of an application running on a networked Real-Time (RT) Series Target. How can I do this using a web browser?

Solution:
This tutorial uses LabVIEW 8.x. and above. Follow these steps to successfully create an embedded program with a Remote Front Panel on a Real-Time system:

Before you begin, ensure that Remote Panels toolkit is activated in NI-License Manager (see Image 1). For instructions on how to do this, please see DeveloperZone Tutorial: How Do I Activate My National Instruments Software Using the Automatic NI Activation Wizard. You will need to have at least the 5-pack license activated, which is included with LabVIEW Professional Developer Suite.

Image 1: NI License Manager

Once you have verified Remote Panels is activated, proceed with the following steps:

Open a project and add a Real-Time (RT) target to the project
1. In the Project Explorer, right-click your .lvproj file and select New»Targets & Devices...
2. From the Add Targets and Devices window, select or create your RT target.
In LabVIEW RT 8.6 and later, you must explicitly install the Web Server for LabVIEW RT to the RT Target in order to use a Remote Front Panel on it. Refer to the Remote Systems Help in Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX) for information on how to do this.
Enable the web server on the RT target
1. Right-click the target in the project
2. Click Properties
3. Navigate to Web Server: Configuration, and make sure that Enable Web Server is checked (see Image 2). Also verify that Visible VIs and Browser Access have the correct permissions setup (* can be entered to allow access to all VIs or IP addresses).
  
  Image 2: Web Server Configuration
4. Click OK
5. Right-click the target again, and select Deploy. This will deploy the settings to the target and enable the web server.
6. Reboot the target.
Move your VI so that it is located under the target in the project.
Right-click Build Specifications under the target, and select New»Real-Time Application (see Image 3).

Image 3: Built Real-Time Application
When the build is finished, right-click the application and select Set as startup (see Image 4)

Image 4: Set as Startup
Deploy the application to the target.
Reboot the RT target and verify that the embedded program is running.
Open the VI on the target by double-clicking the VI in the project. It will ask you to stop the program that is running, select OK.
In the VI, select Tools»Web Publishing.
Select your VI on the target as the source for the HTML file (see Image 5).

Image 5: Select VI that is located on your target
Finish creating the HTML document. For simplicity use a short file name with no spaces in it.
Complete the following steps to copy the HTML file to the RT Target that is running the VI.
1. Open an FTP session to the RT Target.
2. Change directories to C:\ni-rt\system\www.
3. Copy your HTML file using the Windows System Exec, Internet Explorer, or a FTP software to the C:\ni-rt\system\www folder on your RT Target. The attachment below shows this done using the Windows System Exec. If your RT target is a CVS, you can also use the MAX FTP options. There is a link below to a KnowledgeBase explaining this process.
Reboot the target.
Open a web browser and navigate to http://[IP address]/[document name].html where [IP address] is the IP address of the RT system and [document name] is the name of the HTML document.
Your executable should be running, and the front panel will update.

Additional Notes:

Your executable must be running so that you can connect to it via Remote Front Panels. If you stop your executable, your Remote Front Panel will immediately disappear. Once you stop your executable it is no longer in memory. To reconnect via Remote Front Panels you will have to reboot your RT controller to make sure your startup executable is in running mode again.
You must have the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine installed to view Remote Front Panels from a web browser. You may choose to install the full Run-Time Engine, which will run LabVIEW executables, or the Web Browser Only version, which will only support Remote Front Panel viewing.
If you are using a cFP controller, you will need to make sure that a copy of the startup.rtexe is placed in C:\ni-rt\startup.exe of your host computer. If you change and rebuild the executable, you will need to copy it into this directory on your host PC before downloading it onto the RT target.
Notes for LabVIEW 7.1 and earlier:
- References to the Project Explorer will not apply, including steps 1,2, 4-6, and 9.
- For information on deploying a Real-Time application, see the related link on this topic.
- In step 3, the properties can be changed in Tools»Network Options.
- The information in steps 10-16 on the Web Publishing Tool is the same as LabVIEW 8.x.

Report Date: 12/14/2001
Last Updated: 01/06/2010
Document ID: 2GD9NCZ8

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