I am communicating across USB, using a proprietary protocol, with some custom hardware I've built. I have a GUI that handles all the communications/interaction with that hardware and a (C#) DLL which exposes all the relevant USB functionality. I need to write a LabVIEW driver (VI) for communicating with the hardware. My thought is that I just use LabVIEW to open up my GUI and have a socket with which I expose all the relevant control to LabVIEW with. Is it possible to open a socket in LabVIEW and communicate with my GUI? Is this a bad approach or should I just try and make LabVIEW invoke the DLL and handle the hardware control instead of my GUI (polled communications, solicited/unsolicited commands, etc)?
IS there a reason you want to use your GUI only? In terms of time, I would say build a good front panel in LabVIEW and just communicate to the hardware directly using the DLL. Adding the GUI is just an added layer of complexity which might be difficult to maintain later on? Why not do everything in LabVIEW if you can?