Replace by index channels with by name in pre-existing report

[TheWyrd]

We have a large report what we would like to change from the [Group Index] Structure to the [Group Name] Structure so we can add and delete channel and find them by name rather than index. 

I expected that changing the syntax dropdown from:

[Group index]/Channel name

to 

Variable: ExtendChnName

Group name/Channel name

Would allow me to automatically find the new groups after I change the order of Channel groups on a pre-generated report. However, thus far I have been unable to get the report to update. 

The settings are explained here: http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/370858M-01/varoff/extendchnname/

I changed the setting from the general settings page: http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/370859J-01/dlgshell/dlgshell/dlgconfshell_dialog/

If Brad or another guru doesn't know this off the top of their head I can provide an example project. 

Thanks for the help guys. 

[Brad_Turpin · Accepted solution]

Hi TheWyrd,

Changing that global setting changes how the channel reference is added to the REPORT object any time afterwards that you drag a channel from the Data Portal onto a REPORT object.  Now that you've changed that setting, is it feasible to re-drag all the channels?  If you open up each REPORT object's configuration dialog, you can re-drag the Data Portal channels onto the listed field in the dialog to update the syntax.

If that's too much work, I can send you some VBScripts that loop through the objects and make the index==>name switch programmatically.  In that case, though, I'd like to ask you to send over your TDR file and a sample data file, so I can verify that my script converts everything you need.  The XY channel references for a 2D curve are simple enough, but there are a LOT of other objects and places within objects that channel references can appear.

Brad Turpin

DIAdem Product Support Engineer

National Instruments

[TheWyrd]

Hi Brad, 

Thanks for the response, I am always impressed by your level of knowledge. 

The big thing was understanding why this setting wasn't updating before we put more working into building the reports up. Your explanation makes sense for what we saw.

I can't send you our project directly because of itar restrictions, but, we are just doing x-y graphs at this point. If you would like to send me those scripts I will just run them and check the report manually after the fact, if not, I can manually update the projects done so far. 

[TheWyrd]

Cross post: 

https://forums.ni.com/t5/DIAdem/Replace-by-index-channels-with-by-name-in-pre-existing-report/m-p/37...