Creating a Webpage That Remotely Monitors a VI
Based on a report by Joe Losco

• You need to have a vi that you want to monitor.  It should be something that you have developed previously.  The first thing to do is open the vi that you wish to monitor remotely.
• From the Tools Menu Select the Web Publishing Tool, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1
Web Publishing Tool Menu Item in LabVIEW

• The web publishing tool dialog box appears, and it should look like Figure 2.

Figure 2
Web Publishing Tool

• Change the Viewing Options to Monitor.
• Click on Save to Disk.
• Save the Webpage to the default location with the default file name (C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW 7.0\www\   ).
• The web publishing tool should then display the web address to use to remotely monitor the VI.  It will be similar to Figure 3 with the exception of the actual address.  Write this web address down as it will be necessary to enter this on a different computer to observe the VI.  Then Click OK to close the Document URL dialog box.

Figure 3
Dialog box showing the URL of the website

• Then click Start Web Server in the Web Publishing Tool Dialog Box and then click Done.
• Run your program.
• Go to a different computer and open a web browser.  Different web browsers act differently when viewing the webpage created by LabVIEW.
• Internet Explorer will show the current status when the webpage is opened and will only refresh when the refresh button is pressed.
• Mozilla will refresh for a little while and then stop, until refresh is selected again.
• Netscape will continuously refresh.
• Enter the website into the Address box of the web browser, while the program is running.  The Front panel should be displayed.

        There are things that can go wrong.  Here are some things to check.

• The LabVIEW vi that you want to observe should be as follows.
• It must be in the LabVIEW www folder.  If you decide to save it elsewhere it will not be observable on the network.  If you want a copy, save it to your network file space, or to a diskette, etc., but keep the copy in the LabVIEW www folder and run it from the LabVIEW www folder.
• The LabVIEW vi must be running.  If it isn't running it isn't gathering data, etc.
• There can be problems with your network, or with the network setup on the computer where the vi is running.  Here is one problem of that nature that we have encountered.
• The name of the computer was not registered.  The computer name for the server was something like CC4-4, but was not registered.  The "cure" was to determine the actual IP address and use the IP address in place of the computer name in the URL.
• There is a plug-in needed in order to receive the data.  If that plug-in is not installed on the computer where the data is read (the remote computer) you will get a message to download the plug-in.  When you get that message, follow the instructions you get to install the plug-in on the remote computer.