What is the meaning of "limited support" with the FlexPendant SDK with RW > 5.15?

derekcharles

Regarding the post in this link: http://forums.robotstudio.com/discussion/8080/information-to-all-users-of-flexpendant-sdk

Now that the FlexPendant SDK (as it currently stands) has gone into limited support, what are ABB's plans to support application development in future versions of RobotWare?

Am I correct in thinking that the ability to leverage and extend existing .NET code is not available in ScreenMaker? This significantly limits its usefulness to me.

Will it still be possible to develop FlexPendant SDK apps with VS2008 and debug in later Visual Studio version as is currently the case?

I am just wondering what happens when RW 5.xx comes out -�can I just rebuild with VS2008 against the new RW and deploy my app, or do I have explain to my customer that a new version of RW means my app no longer works for them!

Cheers,

Derek.

John Wiberg

Hi derekcharles,

 

 

Now that the FlexPendant SDK (as it currently stands) has gone into limited support, what are ABB's plans to support application development in future versions of RobotWare?

There are lots of plans for application development. However as per what you link above that avenue is closed by Microsoft. So ABB can only give limited support since Microsoft gives us no support.

This limitation is however restricted to the FlexPendant SDK only due to the Microsoft Compact Framework platform. So, for instance, the PC SDK which has no such dependancies will continue to be developed and supported on future .NET platforms. Depending on your application you might want to consider creating PC apps instead?

 

Am I correct in thinking that the ability to leverage and extend existing .NET code is not available in ScreenMaker? This significantly limits its usefulness to me.

You are correct. ScreenMaker doesn't include a code behind option. The design of ScreenMaker is instead to handle such logic in RAPID instead.
 

 

Will it still be possible to develop FlexPendant SDK apps with VS2008 and debug in later Visual Studio version as is currently the case?

Yes, it should be possible. However that is not something which Microsoft nor ABB can guarantee for certain.

My personal view is that since it works with VS2012 it is most likely to work in future installments of Visual Studio as well.

 

I am just wondering what happens when RW 5.xx comes out -�can I just rebuild with VS2008 against the new RW and deploy my app, or do I have explain to my customer that a new version of RW means my app no longer works for them!

Most probably, yes, it will continue to work as it has before. The problem is though that ABB can no longer guarantee that, since it can no longer ask Microsoft for updates.

And the likely way something would happen is not that it wouldn't work at all, but rather that a specific function would stop working and we would have to try to find a workaround for such an eventuality. ABB will after all continue to support ScreenMaker, and all ScreenMaker functionality is built on FlexPendant SDK.

Now I'd be very suprised if such a thing would arise in the next version of RW 5.xx etc but the farther into the future we go the more likely *something* might happen.

What this means practically for you is that you need to include the same limitation down the line. You can only guarantee your FlexPendant application on RobotWare versions which you have tested it on. It should work on future RW that supports this generation of the FlexPendant, but you cannot guarantee it.

derekcharles

Thanks John, that's most helpful.

I guess if it becomes necessary to go to a PC SDK app then that's what will have to happen, but at the moment it's nice not to depend on (or have to install) additional PC hardware and connections - but it sounds like it's unlikely that I'll have to worry about that for a little while.

Derek.

John Wiberg

Agreed, the biggest benefit of a FlexPendant app is that you don't have to bother with an extra PC in the robot cell with all that comes with that.