Industry Trend with ATML Report

[JJZhang]

We are considering using ATML as the standard reporting format moving forward, but I haven't hear many people talking about this format besides NI. What are everyone's experience with ATML? Pros and cons? And, what companies are currently using this standard?

[~jiggawax~]

Have you seen this whitepaper: http://www.ni.com/white-paper/3893/en/

I know that ATML can be advantageous for trend analysis and such.  However, we just use a database for that.  I prefer Databases because they are more flexible (in my opinion).  And you don't have a bunch of flat files laying around.  It's all stored in one location.  Especially when you have multiple benches.  This isn't to say that you could write all your AtML files to one shared drive/folder. 

For our reports that we print we use a customized HTML plugin.   This is because we found ATML and XML required us to port the stylesheets around with the files.  This is painful, especially for managers who want to view the data without porting multiple files around.  Actually, to be honest we have another plugin that takes the HTML and renders it to PDF.  Then the images can be embedded into the file as well.

Regards,

[JJZhang]

Yes, database was under consideration as part of the overall architect. But in the case if the databaser server or the network is down, partial report generation, or reports that are created during development testing. Is there much value to creating an in-process data file in the ATML (or some other) format that is later post process and insert into the database? This way, the engineering reports can be filtered out. In addition, the mentioned html and pdf reports can also be created from this in-process data file.

[~jiggawax~]

This can be done with TSR files.  They have an offline processing utility that will take the TSR file and run it through whichever plugin you want.

http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/370052N-01/tsref/infotopics/offline_processing_utility/

That's what I would do if I were you.

EDIT: BTW- all of this is native to TestStand and just requires you to change some settings.

[JJZhang]

Very good, will need to look into these in detail. Does the TSR files follow some standard format? And, how flexible is it to configure the end result of the reports and how much control do developers have over configuring how data get insert into the database?

[~jiggawax~]

The TSR files are proprietary to NI.  I think it stands for TestStand Result file.  It basically captures all of the information for the test run and puts it into a flat file.  You can then take this and run it through the OPU(offline processing utility) (as many times as you want).  You can change the OPU to use any configuration of Plug-In that you'd like.  For instance you may want to output to the standard XML format.  No problem.  Just run the TSR through there and set the result processing to be XML.  Or if you have your own custom plug in you can run it through that.  It's actually quite powerful. It does not mess with the integrity of the data either. 

For more on Plugins see these documents:

http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/370052K-01/tsfundamentals/infotopics/process_model_plugin_ar...

http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/370052K-01/tsfundamentals/infotopics/pmpcreatingplugins/

When writing tests there are 2 parts for reporting: Result Collection and Report Generation.

Result Collection is collecting everything you want to be in the report/database.

Report Generation is what you do with the Result Collection, whether it be write to a database, or put in Excel, or write and ATML report.  Basically plugins are a way to abstract the Report Generation out of the Process Model so that you have more flexibility.  By doing this you can come along later and take that Result Collection (TSR) and run it through any plugin (custom or native).

Hope this helps,

[Dennis_Knutson]

Did you notice that ATML is not supported by the latest version?

http://forums.ni.com/t5/NI-TestStand/NI-Teststand-ATML-Toolkit-for-2014/td-p/3236023

[~jiggawax~]

ATML report generation is absolutely supported with the latest version of TestStand.  In fact it ships with TestStand and is built into the result processing.

What isn't supported is the ATML Toolkit.  This toolkit allows you to take an ATML report and convert it back to a Sequence File.  The ATML Toolkit also has some additional features.

Do not confuse the 2.

Cheers,

[Dennis_Knutson]

Sorry, I didn't understand the difference.

[~jiggawax~]

Honest mistake.  I can easily see where the confusion comes in to play.  I've learned so much from you over the years Dennis!  Usually it's me saying the wrong thing and you correcting me... 🙂