Running TestStand Sequence from Word or Text file

[Foreshadow20]

Hi,

How and what would be the best way to run a sequence from a Word/Text document?

What we have and need to do:

We need to merge 1000s of old small Word written procedures into TestStand using sequences already created for another project.

Here's a few ideas I have that seems possible:

1) Dump the Word/Text file content into an array and read each line then execute the sequence file (same name as the line itself +.seq) using the "Specify by Expression".

Pros: Fast development and I already did something similar for dynamic selection of hardware.

Cons: May run into timing issues from the time to dynamically call a sequence.

2) Create a parser in LabVIEW to automatically generate a complete .seq file for the whole Word/Text procedure.

Pros: Reduces timing issues. TestStand files can be the final product rather than Word documents. Easy to debug.

Cons: Programming time. I never worked with the TestStand API in LabVIEW.

3) LabVIEW control of TestStand (somewhat of a merge of ideas 1 and 2) where LabVIEW reads the the Word/Text document and for each line executes a TestStand sequence.

Pros: Could require less work than to create a LabVIEW to TestStand parser.

Cons: I never worked with the TestStand API in LabVIEW.

4) 1000000 of Select Cases.

Pros: TestStand for Dummies.

Cons: Difficult to maintain.

Unknown: I don't know if the Select Cases work the same way as the Switch Cases in C where it tests each case condition.

5) Your Idea.

Thanks

[~jiggawax~]

I'd create a sequence file to do it.  You can use LabVIEW or .NET steps to do the Word API calls.  But then use TestStand steps to do the TestStand API calls.

Are you creating these sequence files to replace the Word documents?  Or is this a dynamic thing where the Word documents will always drive the system?

Regards,

[Foreshadow20]

I'd create a sequence file to do it.  You can use LabVIEW or .NET steps to do the Word API calls.  But then use TestStand steps to do the TestStand API calls.

Would this sequence file be a basic while loop through each line of the Word file with .NET calls? How would the TestStand steps and API calls determine which sequence/subsequence to use?

Are you creating these sequence files to replace the Word documents?  Or is this a dynamic thing where the Word documents will always drive the system?

Which ever is the best way.

Thanks Doc

[~jiggawax~]

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@Foreshadow20 wrote:

 Would this sequence file be a basic while loop through each line of the Word file with .NET calls? How would the TestStand steps and API calls determine which sequence/subsequence to use? 

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Yes.  It would be the same as what you were going to do in Word but it would now allow you to do all your API calls in TestStand (which is much easier).  I'm assuming your Word documents are al formatted similarly such that a parser could go through them like this.  You could either have pre-determined sequences and steps to copy to a new file, or you could dynamically generate the steps and sequences.

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Which ever is the best way.

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I'd go with the replacing Word altogether.  Then you wouldn't have to maintain this generation engine and everything would be native to TestStand.