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Sequence Editor Public API

I would like to suggest adding a public API to the Sequence Editor in TestStand.

Recently, I watched a recording featuring members of the TestStand R&D team, where they explained that users often request various features in the Sequence Editor, even though they already have access to the TS API and TS UI Controls, which allow them to create their own custom user interfaces. Meanwhile, building a custom operating system just to play Heroes of Might and Magic is not standard practice — we buy a fully functional system and run the game on it. Similarly, when writing sequences in TestStand, we purchase a framework along with a ready-made GUI that should provide a comprehensive set of features for creating test sequences. The Sequence Editor is a paid tool, and since users pay for it, it should offer value out-of-the-box without requiring additional development of functionalities that users believe should already be standard.

For this reason, I believe that a paid GUI like the Sequence Editor should be enhanced with an API that allows programmatic control of its functionality.

Examples of functionalities that interest me:

Managing the Output Messages Pane
- Programmatically clearing messages.
- Exporting messages to a file.
- Opening or hiding the pane.
Managing UI Settings
- Programmatically loading a saved layout.
- Dynamically controlling the layout during runtime.
Changing Pane Colors
- Many users currently complain about the lack of a dark mode in TestStand. A partial dark mode can be achieved by changing the background colors of panes. Most (if not all) panes have a Color property that allows color changes, but for some reason, this doesn’t work in the Sequence Editor (I attempted to achieve this by retrieving references to panes through the Application Manager returned by Engine Internal Options, but unfortunately, without success).

These are just examples of features that would be useful to me today. However, long-time TestStand users could likely identify many more ideas for such API. A public API would open the door to much more advanced and personalized use of TestStand, while simultaneously increasing its value for a wide range of users.

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Currently, you have to choose between these options on each file (and the only indication of the choice is in the sequence file properties dialog). Both options can be quite useful in the Parallel and Batch Model (of course there isn't much of a difference in the Sequential Model). Clunky workarounds also exist like using Shared File Globals and having arrays for anything per-execution or using Separate File Globals while putting anything shared in Station Globals or in LabVIEW Functional Globals, but I think native support for both in the same file would be much cleaner and easier.

This could be just having two "FileGlobals" categories in the Variables pane (I prefer this), or it could be a right-click option on each individual File Global.

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Obviously it's not a great idea to have loads of nested conditional steps, but for longer sequences even with only a few nested conditions, I find it hard to find the matching END for example when an if-statement. Sure I can count the number of lines, but I think it would be a lot easier if the "scope line" that indicates the scope would stand out more and become bold or blue (like the selected line)

Here's are two mockups (bold line)

An alternative indication could be to highlight the ending line of the scope like below.

Having a keyboard shortcut for jumping between beginning and the ending within a scope would also be very helpful!

In Microsoft Visual Studio there's a keyboard shortcut (CTRL + [ ) which toggles the cursor position between the and and beginning of a scope, and it works with all things that encapsulates a scope or a string or expression. e.g. curly braces in code sections, quoted strings etc.

Add JSON string function

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

Show matching Parenthesis

Do you ever write an expression in TestStand with a bunch of parenthesis () and get lost halfway through trying to figure out which pairs are open and which are closed. Well, I do. Every Day. And I spend accumulated hours a week just trying to keep track of which ) goes with which (. If I'm lucky I can look for a little red item in the expression, or click on the check expression checkbox, but when I have a 'only runtime evaluatable' expression I'm out of luck (which is rather often) ). Some languages/editors have a parenthesis matching, where the ) your cursor is on causes the matching ( to get bold or flash. Others start coloring each pair a different color, so it's easy to see them all. Why can't TestStand do something like this????

In instances of nested expressions, it would be useful to be able to press tab to indent a line. I propose inserting "n" spaces when pressing tab.

Coding style of course varies, but for readability, I rather dislike the following

Trim(Locals.SomeLocal) == "" ? (Locals.SomeLocal = "foo",Locals.AnotherLocal = "bar", Locals.SomethingOrRather = "zoo") : False

...and much prefer this styling:

Trim(Locals.SomeLocal) == "" ? (
                Locals.SomeLocal = "foo",
                Locals.AnotherLocal = "bar",
                Locals.SomethingOrRather = "zoo" ) : False

...but at present the latter is tedious because one has to insert a lot of whitespace manually or worse yet, use another text editor and paste it into TestStand. It would be nice if TestStand's expression editor supported this basic feature available in almost every text editor or IDE.

Thanks,

Mr. Jim

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I just switched from TS2019 to TS2023. I am not finding a way to configure the TS editor, witch is a hard to orientate flash of white and black screen. The color separation of the different panes, icons, step colors, fields and menues is not given and there are no clearly visible frames distinguished by backcolors. Working with this new GUI is tedious and not suitable, not suporting a rapid development idea. The attention of development shold be by the code and not by the absorbing search and brain consuming editor. How can I use the old 2019 condition gain? Could you please change this in the NEXT Teststand version?

The settings field can easily become too long to see every active option and there's not necesarily any consistency between steps if they have differing options. What I mean by that is if you only set the "Do Not Record Result" (my favorite) option in one step, it will be on the left of the settings field. But if you now set several options on another step, the settings are not lined up so that it becomes hard to see at a quick glance which steps I forgot to not record (because TS still doesn't default to not recording steps). You have to analyze the settings line for each step.

I propose something more graphical and ordered. Here's my idea of at least ordered. The text could be replaced with icons representing each setting.

Then it would be graphical, ordered, and concise. What more can you ask for?

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When monitoring values within a loop in TestStand, it is often desired to only record step failure results. It would be useful to have a "Result Recording Option" of "Enabled On Step Failure":

This is possible through various means (SequenceFilePostResultListEntry callbacks and other custom code). However, I believe this would simplify TestStand sequence development significantly.

It would be nice to be able to "fold" control flow blocks (like if - else -end, while - end etc.). Despite the vertical lines connecting the control flow steps on the same level, it is sometimes very hard to find where a long control block actually ends or what the condition for the "end" is you are currently looking at.

In such cases it would be helpful, if the entire control flow block could be hidden under its first line, tree-view like with a +/- icon to show/hide the interior of the block.

Regards

Peter

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.

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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.

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

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Hi,
I would like to show the following problem with the Update Custom Data Type from Cluster tool when updating TestStand container type definition based on LabVIEW cluster.

TestStand creates new container type definition according to the LabVIEW cluster items order. The problem apears after you create the TestStand type definition and then reaorder LabVIEW cluster. After this change in LabVIEW, TestStand will not properlly reorder items in its definition. So for example:

We have LabVIEW cluster { 1My String, 2My Numeric, 3My Boolean },
Then we create TestStand type from it and we have { 1My_String, 2My_Numeric, 3My_Boolean},
Now, we change order in LabVIEW { 3My Boolean, 1My String, 2My Numeric },
TestStand do not see change,
Then we add new item in LabVIEW { 3My Boolean, This is new, 1My String, 2My Numeric },
Update in TestStand will be { This_is_new, 1My_String, 2My_Numeric, 3My_Boolean}.

So at the end we have:

in LabVIEW : { 3My Boolean, This is new, 1My String, 2My Numeric },
in TestStand : { This_is_new, 1My_String, 2My_Numeric, 3My_Boolean}.

IMO items order can be sometimes (if not always) important part of good style. That's why I would like to suggest to update also items order if you select Force Exact Match.

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Add progress bar option to Wait step

The built-in Wait step currently causes TestStand to simply stop at that step until the specified period has elapsed. For steps longer than a few seconds, it would be nice to have some sort of indicator to show how much time is left to wait (and to show that the computer hasn't locked up on those waits that are more than 15 seconds).

It would be really nice to have a check box option to show some sort of wait indicator, even if it was simply using the progress indicator in the lower right corner of the screen (something that simple could even just always be enabled).

On a related note, could the progress bar be made wider so that there is more resolution as to how much progress has been made? If there was a ten minute wait for something, the bar would be moving very slowly and hard to tell progression was being made.

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I'm taking a bunch of steps and trying to put a "If" flow control step around them.

Kinda like this:

But what I end up with is just a If/End statement in the middle of the steps that I selected (well, after the first step in the selection)

What I would have liked to see is this:

Whare the If/End wraps the steps that I selected.

I don't quite know how best to handle the situation where the steps you have selected are not sequential (there's an unselected step in the middle), but that could probably just behave how it is now.

Create a TestStand context help pane

When using the TestStand API, I always find myself switching back and forth between TestStand and the TestStand reference help. While the intellisense function help is usually enough, many times I like seeing the more detailed information in the help. I would really like to have the option of displaying context specific help in a TestStand pane, similar to the context help window in LabVIEW.

This pane could dynamically update to display function information when using expressions, or show general information about the active pane or dialog (for newer users). Much of the linking for the second case is already done, since the F1 key will pull up relevant help for the active pane currently.

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NI TestStand Idea Exchange

Sequence Editor Public API

Examples of functionalities that interest me:

Have Both Separate File Globals Per Execution and Shared File Globals in the Same File

Review all idea Exchange and Update status

Highlight the scope of selected a conditional step

Add JSON string function

Show matching Parenthesis

Support Tabs and Indentation in Expression Editor

Graphical distinguishing of menues, pains, borders, icons etc in Teststand sequence Editor

Visual settings in the steps pane instead of a (sometimes) mile-long text list

Add Result Recording Option "Enabled On Step Failure"

Folding editor for control flow

Integrate Diff Merge Utility into Sequence Editor

Add an "Insert Folder From Disk (Auto-Populating)..." option to projects for Improved Deployment Experience

Apply Cluster Passing Changes - Improvements

Update Custom Data Type from Cluster Force Exact Match - update items order

Select enumeration value directly in SequenceCall

Add progress bar option to Wait step

Update the Callbacks Dialog to use Checkboxes

Insert IF on selected steps automatically wraps steps

Create a TestStand context help pane