UI testing of LabVIEW executables

By Anders Pedersen Sekanina · 15 February 2024 · ← Back to blog

At NORDLUG's second online meeting I gave the talk "LabVIEW UI testing of executables – review of existing toolkits". NORDLUG is the Nordic LabVIEW user group, where developers from across the Nordic countries share experiences. Here is a brief overview – the recording can be watched at the bottom of this post.

Why UI-test an executable?

UI testing of the compiled application is a good complement to unit testing. It is especially relevant when the application needs to run on multiple platforms (Windows/Linux), when it is configurable – and when you want a fully automated system test that tests the programme exactly as the user experiences it.

The options

In the talk I go through the paths you can take and what each of them can do:

• VI Server: Set or read front panel controls programmatically – also in other VIs and even in another application. This is the most "LabVIEW-native" approach.
• Mouse control from LabVIEW: Simulate mouse clicks and find the position of front panel controls, so the test can click like a real user.
• WinForms/WPF tools: Generic Windows UI testing tools do not support LabVIEW's front panels.
• OCR / image recognition: May work where the other methods fall short.
• Ready-made solutions: Including SSL Drona and Pytest for LabVIEW.

Watch the talk

If the video does not play here, it can be watched directly on YouTube.

If you are considering automated testing of your LabVIEW applications, please get in touch.

/Anders Pedersen Sekanina