Can a tab dialog get its contents from an enum?

Question

Suppose you've got a simple enumeration of states ("Login", "Measure", "Save", "Logout").
You'd like to define that enum in one place and then use it as states in a state machine to keep track of what point in the process your program is in. You'd also like to use the same list of states for the pages in a tab dialog.
Now, in the world of reusable software, you'd like it if you could have the list of states defined in one place, and when you change it, it automatically updates the case statement for your state machine AND automatically adds/deletes/changes the pages on your tabs. Even if it wasn't 100% automatic, you'd at least like it to be a click on "update this object" or something, as opposed
to opening each object and changing the states that appear in a completely manual way.
As far as I can tell, I can't wire an enum to a tab control in any way. Is there a way to propagate the contents of an enum to a tab control?
The more I use LabVIEW the more I realize that resuse simply is not a real option, and this is a great tool for the quick&dirty but a terrible tool for anything that might evolve or modify over time.

Answer 1

It is tricky but you can have the enum to get its strings from the tab
strings.
Run the attached "TabtoEnum.vi" first to get the tab strings. Since the tab
control do not
have a Strings[] property like the menu enum, you have to get them on the
diagram where
the tab control resides.
Second you run SetEnumStrings.vi to change the enum Strings[]. Since
changing enum strings is edtiting stuff, the VI where the enum is located
must not be running.
Jean-Pierre Drolet
"Bmarsh" a écrit dans le message news:
[email protected]..
> Suppose you've got a simple enumeration of states ("Login", "Measure",
> "Save", "Logout").
>
> You'd like to define that enum in one place and then use it as states
> in a stat
e machine to keep track of what point in the process your
> program is in. You'd also like to use the same list of states for the
> pages in a tab dialog.
>
> Now, in the world of reusable software, you'd like it if you could
> have the list of states defined in one place, and when you change it,
> it automatically updates the case statement for your state machine AND
> automatically adds/deletes/changes the pages on your tabs. Even if it
> wasn't 100% automatic, you'd at least like it to be a click on "update
> this object" or something, as opposed to opening each object and
> changing the states that appear in a completely manual way.
>
> As far as I can tell, I can't wire an enum to a tab control in any
> way. Is there a way to propagate the contents of an enum to a tab
> control?
>
> The more I use LabVIEW the more I realize that resuse simply is not a
> real option, and this is a great tool for the quick&dirty but a
> terrible tool for anything that might evolve or modify over
time.
[Attachment SetEnumString.vi, see below]
[Attachment TabToEnum.vi, see below]
LabVIEW, C'est LabVIEW
Attachments:
SetEnumString.vi ‏33 KB
TabToEnum.vi ‏22 KB