How do I access TestStand from an independent LabVIEW VI?

[Caribe]

If I start an independent VI, from LabVIEW (7.1), and want
to have access to the runnig TestStand (3.1) application,
for example, I need to know which sequence is selected,
which step is selected, what are the names o the sequence
files opened, etc... How do I do this?

Important Conditions for this task:
- The VI is not a code module.
- It is impossible to pass a "Sequence Context" refNum or a
"Test Stand UI Application Manager" refNum to the VI. (or is it possible?)
- TestStand is open, a sequence an a Step are selected, but
it is not executing.

How do I access TestStand from this VI?

This would help me a lot in my Project!

Thanks to all!

Regards,

- Caribe -

[Scott_Richardson]

Caribe -
If the VI is running in the same process as TestStand, i.e. using the in-process LabVIEW RTE, you can acquire the engine reference by attempting to open a reference to the engine and ask for the active one. If the VI is not running in the same process as TestStand, there is no way to do this unless you previously stored the engine reference in some location and then later ask for that reference.

The TestStand engine does not export a list of sequence files that are open using its API. Your OI typically knows this list though. If your Operator interface is written with the ApplicationMgr control, it has a property called SequenceFiles that manages the list of open sequence files for it. The Sequence Editor is not written using the ApplicationMgr control, so its list of sequence files is not available.

For sequence files that are displayed in an application like the operator interface or sequence editor, the applciation typically knows the selected files, sequences or steps, but TestStand does not expose a mechanism for this, because the application could have multiple documents displayed at once and each could have selected objects.

Now with that said, TestStand does have a generic methodology for the application to specify what the active file, sequence, step or object is when starting an execution. This is the way the Tool menu works when it wants to operate on a selected object, but the operator interface must define the selected objects. I do not think that this is what you are asking for.

So if you have access to the source code for the operator interface, you could define a mechanism to publish open files and selected object information in some way so that your VI could access it. However, this idea is not possible if you are using the sequence editor.

[Caribe]

Now thats what I call an Expert answer! :-))))

Thanks a lot!

I will work on the information you gave an try to
work out the best solution for me! I understand
things better now!

Thanks again and Best regards,

- Caribe -