TestStand 4.0 Types

[hansf]

We have a large TestStand project with multiple development PCs and developers.  We are using Perforce to source control and share our work. We have created some custom type files which are in the Teststand\Components\User\TypePalettes directory which we have put under source control.  This has worked well in the past.

We recently upgraded to TestStand 4.0.  Subsequently, we decided to customize the order of the Step Types in the insertion palette.  After customizing the Step Type Menu, all of the type files under NI's directory and the User directory in the Type Palette are starred indicating that they all have changes to be saved.

If we save all the type files on that PC and then check in our custom type files under \User, we would like to be able to go to our other development PCs and get the latest revision of the type palettes in the \User directory and have those other PCs show the new step type menu structure.  That does not happen unless we also copy the \NI\TypePalettes\NI_Types.ini file to the other PCs.

We have three workarounds, all of which have negative consequences:

1) Leave NI_Types.ini out of source control and manually copy it to the \NI directory of each development PC every time we change the Step Type Menu. 
The bad: prone to error if a copy is not done on one station or if the wrong version of NI_Types is copied.

2) Copy NI_Types.ini from the \NI to the \User add add it to source control.  This allows us to automatically update our Step Type Menus across all the dev PCs just by getting the latest revision of \User from Perforce.  
The bad:  TestStand now shows two versions of NI_Types in the Type Palette, one from \NI and one from \User.  We had hoped that once TestStand found NI_types.ini in \User, it would no longer use the one in \NI, as happens with other files that are copied from \NI to \User such as the sequential model.

3) Do 2) and additionally manually delete NI_types.ini from \NI on each dev PC. 
The bad:  It's a manual operation that will have to be remembered for each existing dev PC and any new ones we buy. Then when we upgrade to a future TestStand version, we're guessing that NI_Types.ini will again show up in \NI so we'll have to manually delete it on each PC again.


Questions

1) Is it a bug that a TestStand modification such as editing the Step Type Menu makes changes to files outside of \User?  It does create problems for us.  We thought the whole point of \User was to avoid these types of issues.

2) Is there a better workaround than what we have come up with?

Thanks,
Hans  

[Dennis_Knutson]

You should post your question to the TestStand board and not LabVIEW.

[hansf]

Oops, I meant to post it there.  Now I will.

Hans

[Patrick_P.]

For anyone that is looking for the answer to this post, it can be found here.