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Modifying names in interface are never good idea, but some times it is must.

No matter is the change made in LabVIEW Front Panel or in TestStand type cluster mapping. Or the cluster type is changed for some other reason. The changes needs to be applied in LabVIEW module call parameters.

When you have multiple sequence files and multiple calls to same VI or with same cluster type in each of them, you would not really want to go trough the steps one by one.

 

Ideas:

- Cluster mapping changes apllied with LabVIEW Protorype reload

- Cluster mapping changes applied to hole sequence file or/and to all same VI calls in the sequence file

- Need of cluster mapping change applying notified with Analyzer

When user opens the Offline Processing Utility and at the same time starts to type on the keyboard the user can accidently rename the profile.

(Attached a screen-recording to visualize)

It would be great if there was no selected row or column when starting/opening ORPU. The renaming of the profile disturbs the production since the database logging will not work as expected.

 

When we start ORPU we already have the '/tray' enabled but somehow its still possible to accidently rename the Profile.

My team uses Analyzer Rules to enforce best practices for developers across sequence files and workspaces with great results.  However we would love to be able to also provide rule checking and warnings for developers on some basic *.tsd file content  such as Installer Name field, and build-path & installation-path/image-path, etc...  New (or rusty!) developers often miss steps in their configuration and needlessly struggle with badly behaving deployments.

As TSD files do not appear to have an API available from TestStand at this time nor conform to  a json/xml syntax internally, for easy parsing via 3rd party tools, some method(s) for 'reading' file (or converting to readable syntax) may also be required in order to build rules effectively?

I think it can a be a really good idea to review and give feedback on all Idea exchange.

 

You ask us to give feedback but you don't finish the loop.

 

Some idea are mark as new for many years now...

It would be nice to have an Auto-populating folder option for TestStand projects much the same way that LabVIEW project do.  

 

Folders added to TestStand projects are snapshots of the folder's contents when added.  Any files added to the folder on disk afterwards are not marked for inclusion with the deployment at analysis time.  This behavior is fine as a default.

 

However, there are times when you do want to automatically include all files in a folder.  Having an auto-populating folder option would mark the folder and all its contents for inclusion automatically with the deployment at analysis time.  After analysis is over the user could still choose to uncheck any files they wish before selecting the build button.

 

From version to version, it's only natural that developers will be adding new files to established folders.  Since the TestStand project doesn't aid in development activities, it's easy for folks to forget to add files while they're developing.  We often have a faulty build or two with each release because necessary files aren't making it into the build.  We ultimately have to delete the folders in the project and re-add them, then go through the hassle of fixing the paths and included files. An auto-populating folder option that integrates with the build utility would save us time and headaches.

 

TestStand File Diff and Merge Utility is not very useful for code reviews on its own.  It seems adequate for notifying the user that a sequence was added, however from the tool itself the user cannot actually review the newly added or removed sequence's contents.  Why is there no + on the item tree to go deeper.

 

Alternatively:

If I have to right-click a sequence and select "Go to location" then why bother with the separate tool to begin with?  Why isn't the diff utility integrated into TestStand's sequence editor itself?  Seems like a side-by-side comparison within Sequence Editor would allow a reviewer to poke and prod around all the hidden settings that are often missed using the existing utility.

 

TestStand File Diff and Merge Utility has the ability to produce reports in XML format with a slew of dependencies on TestStand (stylesheets, button images, etc.) making them not very portable.  Yes, I know they can be packaged with the extra utility, but that's a hassle too.  Now instead of managing a file I have to manage a folder of files.

 

Additionally, these reports only seem to work with Internet Explorer which I'm hearing is going away. Not sure if it's just me, but Edge's IE mode doesn't seem to work for these reports either.

 

Can NI do something to address this?

  • Make a browser extension that works with at least chromium based browsers.
  • Figure out a nice PDF format.

 

Ideally, I want to upload the file type into my code review platform of choice (git, perforce swarm, crucible, network folder share, etc.) and not require my reviewer to have TestStand installed on their machine.

Add feature to allow commands and sequences created in Tools->Customize->Customize Tool Menu->Add Tools Menu Item.
When customer creates a command or sequence in this section he would like to put it in the toolbar for quick access , TestTand does not allow this task. TestStand allows the toolbar customization for items that are TS native basically

I was debugging on a test station and had several watch expressions.

When I came in this morning they were all gone, someone else used that station and deleted them.

 

I think it would be good to be able to save the expressions in a file and be able to load them.

An additional feature would be the ability to load them from a sequence step.

Background

Under the Installer Options tab, there is a button called Advanced Options.... (help linked)and then a section for TestStand Specific Settings. This section allows a user to specify where the configuration files will be located when running the TestStand runtime engine on a deployment machine. See screenshot of help discription and then of the utility below:

Help

TestStand specific settings.PNG

 

 

Screenshot of Deployment Utility Section

Deployment Utility Advanced Options.png

 

Recommended Change to Documentation

When looking at the help documentation, it does not detail what each of the possible destination directories are pointing to. However, if we move to the Distribution Files tab section of the help, there is a detailed list. See this example link here https://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/370052AA-01/tsref/infotopics/deploymentutility_distfilestab_instdestopt/

 

I recommend making a quick link to this same page to clarify the directories that can be specified for Cfg files.

Hello,

 

CSV Input Stream allow to parse CSV files to input data into a Stream Loop for instance. By default, the separator is a comma (,). I use a non english version of Excel to edit a CSV file, and every CSV format write a semi-colon as separator (;):

A;0;0;2
A;10;30000;5
A;20;15;7
B;75;42;1
B;100;12;0

 

Using an expression, I am able to dynamically (at run-time) change the property SeparatorChar:

Locals.MyInputStream.AsCsvFileInputRecordStream.SeparatorChar = ";"

 

I think it could be more convenient to have a direct access to this parameter in the configuration pane, allowing also to check the content of the file  before execution with Parse Record Prototype funtions.

 

Best regards,

When you devevlop in TestStand, you may have some tools that you can use to automate some developments actions but it's not easy to share of use it in TestStand.

 

My best way is to customize my Tools menu but it's not user friendly.

Since you introduce the Quickdrop in TS2019, can we imainge that you can support addon to have access more easily to developpers tools ?

In LabVIEW, we have a lot of tools to help user to develop more efficiently and almost all of them are handle with VIPM.

 

Can we expect to have something similar from NI for TestStand ?

 

Best regards

when manipulating data between different system, JSON string are very usefull to have a standardize, simple and readable exchange format.

 

Python or LabVIEW can dump structure (dictionnaires or Cluster) to JSON and vice versa.

It can be very usefull to allow to dump a TestStand variable or container to JSON and vice versa.

 

It can be good to have also a way to have native function in string functions to read, write or add a specific value in a JSON string.

 

MaximeR

We have dozens of custom analyzers.  Every time we want to update a tsarules file, we are force to manually check each box to include in the export.  It would be nice to add common toolbar items to perform such task.  This includes commands like Select All, Unselect All, etc..

 

Thanks

 

The property loader step allows the source location to be defined via an expression.  However, if that expression does not evaluate to a file on disk at compile time you get an error.  This isn't always desired behavior, for instance, when used in a plugin architecture.

 

Expression.PNG

 

The current workaround is to include a dummy file which could unnecessarily complicate the software & deployments.  A dummy file also has the potential to mask errors that should be presented to the user. 

 

The only validation TestStand does of the property loader source location file is that it exists.  It doesn't do any validation on the file contents.  So is there any benefit?  TestStand properly throws an error if the expression doesn't evaluate to a valid file.

 

Alternatively, a developer could deselect the sequence analyzer rule "Property Loader source should be proper", but this would disable it for all analysis not just the ones that use expressions

TestStand's LabVIEW interface could benefit by being able to programmatically get and set LabVIEW Class Objects using the Get Property Value.vi and the Set Property Value.vi.

 

After much toil with this subject, I've finally come to the conclusion that I cannot get a LabVIEW Class Object from TestStand using LabVIEW. I've tried both the Get Property Value.vi and a combination of property and invoke nodes to no avail.

 

Capture.PNG

When profiling an sequence, it's would be useful if also the version of .NET DLL that was loaded/unloaded could be displayed in the report in a new column next to Item Name. I have not found a way to do do this. I think this would be helpful to be able to compare performance of different versions of DLL:s, and also when troubleshooting sequences (e.g. when adding search directories and wrong version of a DLL is used by mistake).

 

Currently the only way I found to see version loaded was using tools like Visual Studio or Process Explorer, but that's run time, requiring breakpoints etc - the above approach would provide an better overview of the execution, and is more convenient.

 

 profiling.png

Hello,

Many SW-Tool providers have realized that how comfortable it is for a programmeruser to work with dark backgrounds. Microsoft did it in 2013 for visual studio and now browser companies are doing the same. Unfortunately, I can Change background color of MAX and TestStand. This makes longer working painful for eyes.

 

An example of such a bakground is attached with the message.

 

Such a feature will improve ergonomics.

 

Thank you

Regards

Ricky

If you create a *.tsd file, there is no way of reverting back to older formats of the deployment utility. We should have a Save As feature for converting these build definitions to older versions of TestStand, just like the Save As feature for normal sequence files.