Streaming Custom Clusters: Parsing Bug with Dots in Element Names

[Tom-McQuillan]

Description

Confirmed bug where element names containing dots (.) cause parsing failures in the Nominal LabVIEW Client's custom cluster parsing functionality.

User Confirmation

User tested and confirmed:

• ✅ Changing dots to hyphens (e.g., 202.02 → 202-02) resolves the issue
• ❌ Element names with dots cause parsing to fail

Root Cause

The bug is in the custom cluster parsing logic documented at:
https://github.com/nominal-io/labview-client/wiki/Streaming-Custom-Clusters

The parser uses dots as delimiters, causing it to misinterpret element names that legitimately contain dots.

Example

Fails:

202.02
202.04
202.06

Works:

202-02
202-04
202-06

Impact

• Users with existing LabVIEW code using dots in cluster element names cannot use the toolkit without refactoring
• Common naming conventions (e.g., version numbers, decimal identifiers) are not supported

Proposed Solution

Update the custom cluster parsing logic to:

1. Properly escape or handle dots in element names
2. Use a different delimiter internally that won't conflict with user-defined names
3. Add validation/error handling for unsupported characters if dots cannot be supported

Related Documentation

https://github.com/nominal-io/labview-client/wiki/Streaming-Custom-Clusters