The External C Library Node

Use the External C Library node () to import a compiled native code library based on, for example, C code that you want to include in a method. To add a new External C Library node, right-click the Libraries node () and choose External C Library or click the External C Library button on the ribbon toolbar. Enter a label to display in the Label field and a name for the External C Library in the Name field.

You can import native libraries written in any programming language and compiled for the target platform of your application. This can be useful, for example, to access specific hardware (such as measurement devices) attached to the computer or to speed up heavy calculations. The requirement is that the methods you want to call follow the C language calling convention for the specific platform, but many programming languages can produce methods that fulfill this requirement.

In the Settings window, expand the sections corresponding to the platforms you intend to support, and then browse and select the shared libraries you want to import. On Windows, the file extension of a shared library is typically DLL, on Linux® the extension is typically so, and on Mac it is typically dylib. It is not necessary to click the Import button unless you change the library and want to import a new copy of it.

The Settings window for an External C Library node contains the following sections:

Import Library for Windows, 64-Bit

This section is expanded by default. Click Browse to locate and choose a compiled native code library file (DLL file) for 64-bit Windows. Then click Import to import the library into the application, if needed.

Import Library for Linux, 64-Bit

Click Browse to locate and choose a compiled native code library file (.so file) for 64-bit Linux. Then click Import to import the library into the application, if needed.

Import Library for OS X, 64-Bit

Click Browse to locate and choose a compiled native code library file (dylib file) for 64-bit Mac OS X. Then click Import to import the library into the application, if needed.

Loading

By default, the Allow loading on unsupported platform check box is selected so that it is possible to load the shared libraries on platforms that they do not support. On such a platform, an error occurs when you try to access the library from a method. If you clear the check box, you get an error message directly if you try to start the application on an unsupported platform, and the application does not start.