When Web Publishing, how do I get dialog boxes to appear?

Question

I am trying to make my Test Station software accessable from the engineers desk. I used LabVIEW version 6.1 to publish the main VI. I can, through Microsoft Explorer, access my VI and change enumerations. I need to allow the users to enter excel spreedsheet file names that contain the input data and expected results for the test. Currently my software uses the File Dialog to prompt the user for the file name. I also use Two Button Dialog and another VI's front panel to gather information at specific points during the test. The File Dialog box is the first one within the flow of the software and it does not work over the internet. Do you have any recommendations on how I might be able to allow the user to enter
a file name similar to the File Dialog?

Answer 1

> I am trying to make my Test Station software accessable from the
> engineers desk. I used LabVIEW version 6.1 to publish the main VI. I
> can, through Microsoft Explorer, access my VI and change enumerations.
> I need to allow the users to enter excel spreedsheet file names that
> contain the input data and expected results for the test. Currently my
> software uses the File Dialog to prompt the user for the file name. I
> also use Two Button Dialog and another VI's front panel to gather
> information at specific points during the test. The File Dialog box is
> the first one within the flow of the software and it does not work
> over the internet. Do you have any recommendations on how I might be
> able to allow the user to enter a file name similar to the File
> Dialog?
>
The problem here is that the OS is bringing up the file dialog, but for
which computer? Asking computer B to show the directory structure of
computer A just doesn't work that well and it is also a potential
security lapse, so for these reasons, the VI Server doesn't do this by
default for the remote panel.
To let the remote client pick a directory, you have a couple choices.
If you trust them and they are easy to type, you can just present a path
control partially filled in and let them type the last portion.
Another, more limiting approach is to use the file function to list out
a directory and populate a listbox with the contents. This is an easy
way to give less control to those that you may not trust as much, but
still give them something similar to a file dialog. Finally, if you
look around, you can find a more complete simulated file dialog. I know
that the older test executive had one. You won't have to change
anything as it will be running on the server and displaying on the
client, just what you are looking for. Perhaps you will want to look
around on develop zone for something like
http://zone.ni.com/devzone/explprog.nsf/6c163603265406328625682a006ed37d/893644426b21c704862567b700720c06?OpenDocument
which I haven't look at, so no promises, but there are probably others
to choose from as well.
Greg McKaskle