Resolve TestStand data type conflict pragmatically in CVI

[Joe123!]

Hi There

I am porting a User Interface to CVI/TestStand 2010.  My problem stems from badly planned propagation of custom defined data types.  Whereas I can manage the definitions in MyTypes.ini and StationGlobals, the sequences that we are loading are causing the "Type Conflict In Type" dialog box to appear.  The sequences that are being loaded have been created under previous versions of TestStand (3.1 and mostly 4.0).  The main reason why a "conflict" is detected is because the data types from the sequences may either have different flags set (for example, "modified") or different update dates.  The structure of the types are ALWAYS the same so there is no danger in choosing the "wrong" data type.  However, since the "Currently Loaded Type" is the one that "should" always be used, it would be great if the resolution could be pre-selected so that the Operator never has to see the dialog.  In our Manufacturing Environment such dialogs are considered errors.

There are hundreds of sequence files that may be affected.  The process for going through each one individually and fixing the data types would be impractical (really, out of the question).

I am using TSUI_ApplicationMgrOpenSequenceFile() to open the sequence and cannot find a way to set the conflict resolution to automatically chose the "Currently Loaded Type".  Please let me know if there is any way to do this, and if so, provide an example.  Any other suggestions you may have would be welcome.

Thanks

jf

[Jackie_B]

Hi JF,

You can disable the dialog box by allowing automatic type conflict resolution in Teststand 4.1 and greater by going to Configure->Station Options->File and setting Allow Automatic Type Conflict Resolution as "Always". For future development, I would highly recommend the following TestStand Type Versioning and Conflicts article, which explains how to avoid these type conflicts. Also in the future, as this question is related to the Teststand dialog popups, I would post this question and other Teststand related questions to the NI Teststand Discussion Forum. You will get access to users proficient in Teststand this way. I hope that this addresses your question! Good luck and have a great day!

Regards,
Jackie

[Joe123! · Accepted solution]

(By the way -- I meant to say "programmatically", not "pragmatically" in the Subject heading)

I have tried your suggestion and I still get the dialog box when

[Joe123!]

Hi Jackie_B

Thanks for your prompt response and sorry for the hacked up response...

As i started to say, on the subject heading i meant to say "programmatically", NOT "pragmatically".

I tried your suggestion.  However, if either the loaded data type or the sequence data type has the "modified" flag set, I still get the dialog box.

The message looks something like this:

    Summary of Differences:

    T3_FunWithTypes (Value or Flag Difference)

(Where T3_FunWithTypes is the data type in question)

Can you make any suggestion to deal with this situation?

Thanks again

JF

[Jackie_B]

Hi Joe,

I would recommend selecting the "Do Not Mark Files as Modified if Modification is Caused Only by Automatic Teststand Version Upgrade" option under the Station Options menu where you selected type resolution as "Always". This should suppress sequences being flagged as modified.

If this does not work, I would recommend using the NI TestStand Toolkit for Large Application Development. The Type Differ tool included in this download can be used to determine and resolve differences in types between any two NI TestStand files.

Good luck and have a great day!
Regards,

Jackie

[Joe123!]

Hi J

Back to the original intent of my question: Is there any way to programmatically (using CVI) resolve type conflicts when loading a sequence?

Thanks bunches

jf

[Jackie_B]

Hi Jf,

Sorry about that. I should have clarified in my last post that there is not a way to do this programmatically. The only options would be handling them under the Station Options or by using the program I linked you to that would resolve mass type conflicts in your sequence.

Regards,

Jackie