"File Name" field being overwritten in my DataPlugin

[BowenM]

So, I wrote  a DataPlugin for a custom file type.  It appears to be working fine - with one exception:  In the plugin, I set the File Name to be something OTHER than what the real file name is.  When I load it in Diadem, the name gets set back to what the real File Name is rather than what I tell it to be. My file title and description work fine, and other names (group, channel) are working.

The reason for this is how we stucture our data.  The data for one test is all stored in a folder.  The name of that folder = the name of the test.  Each test can consist of multiple runs, each of which gets its own file.  So, the structure I'd like to see in Diadem would be:

"Test name" -> File Name (in Diadem)

Each file in folder -> Channel group (in Diadem).

This way if I loaded the same run from two different tests they would show up correctly.  Unfortunately, Diadem seems to completely ignore what I put in the Set Properties [File].Name field.  In addition, even if I load files from two different tests it clumps them all under one file name.

Is there something I'm missing?

[Brad_Turpin]

Hi BowenM,

You raise two separate issues here, the first of which is how to have the Data Portal show a Root.Name value different than the actual name of the file loaded.  The Root.Name property value you assign in the Data Plugin will be stored and can be viewed and accessed in the Data Portal under the Root property displayed as "Source Name" in modern DIAdem versions.  I would recommend instead just creating a new property called "Test_Name", which will be closer to what you want to see and will also be queryable.  It is not possible to load a data file into an empty Data Portal and have the Root.Name property displayed there be anything other than the name of the file on disk.  You can change that name after loading the data file, and you could even implement a load event so that it looks like the DataPlugin is doing that, but it won't actually be.

The second issue you raise is the behavior of the Data Portal when more than one data file is loaded.  The Root.Name displayed in the Data Portal in that case will always be the name of the first data file loaded into a previously empty Data Portal.  All subsequent Root properties from the remaining data files loaded are not by default loaded into the Data Portal at all, including the Root.Name property.  You can configure the loading behavior of DIAdem to send all Root properties to the Group level(s), if that would help, but the only option DIAdem offers is to concatenate together the list of Groups from multiple files under the Root of the first file loaded.

Brad Turpin

DIAdem Product Support Engineer

National Instruments