NI TestStand

cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Modifications to a Custom Step Type (and migrating an existing sequence to use the new Step Type)

Hi,
 
I am using a global custom step type (visible in the Type Palette and not associated with a sequence file). I made a modification to one of the data structures in this custom step type. The datastructure is a container of arrays and other containers. The change I have made is to one of the containers inside the main container. 
 
Now when I open a sequence using the older custom step type I notice that the main container retains all the existing values for all its elements except the modified container (this has the default value) . The problem occurs when I use the modfied custom step type on another PC (other than the one I developed it on), and open the same sequence file, ALL the elements of the main container are now initialized to the default values, not just the modified container.
 
Am I missing something here? What is the expected behavior? Any help will be appreciated.
 
Thanks.
 
 
0 Kudos
Message 1 of 10
(3,545 Views)
Hi,
 
Did you get the type conflict dialog displayed when you opened your sequence file, if which option did you select.
 
Regards
Ray Farmer
Regards
Ray Farmer
0 Kudos
Message 2 of 10
(3,537 Views)

Hi Ray,

I got the type conflict dialog and I opted to use the "currently loaded type".  As I said before, what I really cannot understand is the difference in beahvior on 2 PC's - and what is the expected behavior?

Thanks,

Geeth

 

0 Kudos
Message 3 of 10
(3,536 Views)

Hi Geeth,

If you have the same types ini file on both systems, then I would have expected the same behaviour on both.

What version of teststand are you using?

Regards

Ray Farmer

Regards
Ray Farmer
0 Kudos
Message 4 of 10
(3,529 Views)
Hi Ray,
 
I am using TestStand 3.1 on both PC's. What is the behavior you would expect if a "sub"container data structure is changed - would all the values of the main container be lost or just the value of the sub container?
 
Thanks,
Geeth
0 Kudos
Message 5 of 10
(3,528 Views)

Geeth,

By modifying the sub container you mean only modifying the structure I assume (you can also modify the value of the properties).
You should not lose the values of the main container in that case.
I have some questions for you:
Did you increment the step type version after you modify it?
Did you copy the type palette file to the second PC?
By default TestStand would use the step type definition containing the highest version number.
You can change this option in the Step Type properties dialog under the Version tag.
Could you tell me how is your step type version tag configured?

Regards.

Antonio Lie.


 

0 Kudos
Message 6 of 10
(3,510 Views)
Hi Antonio,
I have only changed the data structure of the subcontainer. It used to be a container of a 2-D Array of container (containing strings and numbers) - now it is a container of many 2-D arrays of strings and numbers. The rest of the elements in the main container remain the same.
I did not increase the version number but have the modified check box set in the version tag of the step properties dialog box. When I reload the sequence file, it displays the type conflict dialog box which I resolve by selecting the "Currently loaded type". I can see that it loads the new step type by looking at the data structure, which is modified (on both the PC's).
I did copy the type palette file to the second PC. Another thing I observed is that on the development PC, when I copy the old type palette file and then again copy the new type palette, it still retains the values for the elements in the main container that have not changed - but on any other PC, all values are reinitialized to default.
Thanks,
Geeth
0 Kudos
Message 7 of 10
(3,501 Views)

Hi Geeth,

It maybe that you have a copy of your step type in one of the other ini files on your original system and its actually this step type being used on your original system.

Make a backup of you types ini files, so that you can restore your system. Copy from your target system a complete set of type ini files. Does this give you the same behaviour on both systems?

If it does, try copying a cross a file at a time from your saved set to find which file is causing the problem.

Regards

Ray Farmer

Regards
Ray Farmer
0 Kudos
Message 8 of 10
(3,498 Views)
Ray, Antonio,
 
I finally figured out what was going wrong. I just found out that the problem is because I was actually checking the wrong sequence file on the other PC! (the sequence did not have all the data in the main container populated even before I opened it with the new step type). Sorry about this and thanks a lot for the time you spent helping me resolve this.
 
Geeth
0 Kudos
Message 9 of 10
(3,495 Views)

Hi,

Glad you sorted it out.Smiley Happy

Regards

Ray Farmer

Regards
Ray Farmer
0 Kudos
Message 10 of 10
(3,490 Views)