API Design for Distributed APIs

Refer to the following table for best practices for designing VIs.

Guideline Required or Recommended? Details Example(s)

Include every public VI in your API in the API palette.

Required

Users may not look on disk to find advanced VIs. If a VI is not ready or intended for public consumption, make the VI private in the API component.

N/A

Do not use a VI in your API to open a dialog box unless that is the stated intent of the VI.

Required

N/A N/A

If you expect multiple calls of your API VI to run in parallel, consider making the VI reentrant.

Recommended

If the VI stores any internal state in feedback nodes or uninitialized shift registers, make the VI reentrant and stateful, such as a preallocated clone. If the VI doesn't store any internal state, make it stateless, as a shared clone. N/A