Deployment Alternate Association broken

[Captain_Jack]

I'm using TestStand v3.5, and we've set the Alternate Association for .seq files to be our Test Executive. The problem we are running into is that the update to the association in the Folder Options File Types for .seq files does not map the location of our Test Executive properly. The path is missing the root drive letter and ends up as "Test\Bin\TestExec.exe" "%1" instead of "C:\Test\Bin\TestExec.exe" "%1".

Also we'd like to be able to add the -useExisting flag to the file association - i.e.; "C:\Test\Bin\TestExec.exe -useExisting " "%1".

Does anyone know what might be causing the drive letter to be omitted from the path to the executable?

Other settings that may be a factor are: we install to the Windows Volume (C:\) drive with no Default Installation subdirectory, since we install files in two different locations that branch from the C:\ drive (C:\Test\... and C:\Program Files\...). Enabling/disabling the Do Not Ask User for Installation Directory option has no effect.

Does anyone know of a work-around that would allow us to get the desired file association programatically (script, batch, hack)?

Our current solution is to turn off this feature and manually edit this association after the install, but we'd really like an automated method.

Thanks,

-Jack

[Rick_Francis]

Jack,

>Does anyone know what might be causing the drive letter to be omitted from the path to the executable?

It sounds like a bug- I will make sure we have correction action requests for these bugs.   The Alternate Association for .seq files isn't configurable however, you could use a custom command to run an executable that creates the exact association that you would like for the .seq file.

-Rick Francis

[Captain_Jack]

FYI,

I kept digging into this to see how we could get around this issue, and it appears that you can send some command line configurations as Custom Commands. Here are the commands that I found that appear to work (YMMV):

cmd /c "ASSOC .seq=NationalInstruments.TestStandSequenceFile.1"

and

cmd /c "FTYPE NationalInstruments.TestStandSequenceFile.1="C:\Test\Bin\TestExec.exe" "-useExisting" "%1" "

Note that the location of quotes appears to be important. If you're installing on top of an existing TestStand installation, I believe you only need the second command, as the association of the .seq suffix has already been set. I also disabled the Alternate Association of .seq files in the Advanced Options.

I've not gotten a chance to release a deployment using this, but have tested it a few times on the development machine. If anyone sees any potential problems with using this work-around, I'd appreciate hearing about it ASAP!

-Jack

[Rick_Francis]

Jack,

>If anyone sees any potential problems with using this work-around, I'd appreciate hearing about it ASAP

I don't see any problems with this strategy the custom commands were made for this type of use case.  I would test the syntax with an installer- if you only tested it with an command prompt you may need additional " or ', my DOS command syntax is pretty rusty but I have seen that type of syntax change when running commands in .bat files as opposed to typing them into a command prompt.

-Rick Francis

[J_Stape]

Hey Jack,

Did you ever find a solution to this problem? 

If not, we would like to work with you to debug the issue further.  In order to do this, we would like to contact you directly which would require your permission.  If the problem still exists, do you mind if we contact you directly?

[Captain_Jack]

Jessica, No it's not a problem. As to getting it resolved, I've had mixed results - I thought that it worked on a test deplolyment, but when I tested it on another machine it didn't appear to work - There could be other issues involved, that I haven't tracked down on that install though.

Please feel free to contact me at my work number or e-mail in my profile. Let me know if you need more than that.

-Jack

Message Edited by Capt. Jack on 09-15-2008 08:55 AM