Improve Search Directories for TestStand

[warren_scott]

Right now I can configure search directories in TestStand, but I am limited.  There are 2 types: either an absolute path, or a "programatic" value (think <current sequence file directory>, <TestStand Public Directory>, <Windows Directory>, etc).  However, these "programatic" values cannot be modified.  I would LOVE to be able to configure a new search directory of "<Current Sequence File Directory>\LabVIEW_files\*", or "<Current Sequence File Directory>\..\Code Modules", but TestStand doesn't support adding modifiers to the ends of those paths.

It would also be nice to be able to specify <Current Process Model Sequence File> as another value.

This would help greatly with being able to move files around, and limiting the total number of search paths, and limiting the cross-linking of finding the wrong code modules for individual sequence files.

[dug9000]

Is there a reason why specifying a partial relative path would not be a good solution in these cases? For example, if you want "<Current Sequence File Directory>\LabVIEW_files\", why not just rely on the "<Current Sequence File Directory>" search directory and specify the modules in that file as "LabVIEW_files\myfile.vi" for example? This also has the added benefit of reducing the likelihood of an incorrect match because the subdir "LabVIEW_files" must also exist for the match to succeed.

-Doug

[warren_scott]

The key part is being able to specify <current seuqence file directory>\..\LabVIEWcode.

We are seeing some situations where we have c:\foo\Family\ProjectA\TestStandCode, c:\foo\Family\ProjectA\LabVIEWcode, c:\foo\Family\ProjectB\XXXcode, c:\foo\Family\Shared\LabVIEWcode.  Being able to specify in the search directories that your target LabVIEW code is <current sequence file directory>\..\LabVIEWcode, or even <current sequence file directory>\..\..\Shared\LabVIEWcode would speed up the search process.

[dug9000]

I see, I'm still not completely sure why you couldn't specify "..\LabVIEWcode\file.vi" for your code modules in your sequence files though? Is it that you want the ability to refer to a different subdirectory without having to modify the sequence file?

[warren_scott]

exactly we have found that using what we call "pseudo-relative" paths in sequence files causes us a great deal of issues.  They don't give the flexibility of changing directories around --

If we start out with c:\foo\family\shared\InputParameters\InputResistance.vi and c:\foo\family\shared\InputParameters\InputCapacitance.vi, I can't change it to c:\foo\family\shared\InputR\InputResistance.vi and C:\foo\family\shared\InputC\InputC.vi without changing the sequence file.  If I could specify <currentsequencefiledir>\..\..\shared\ * <and subdirs> this would work.

I don't want to hard code C:\foo\family\shared\* <and subdirs> into the search paths, because we have dozens of families of products, and this means dozens of entries.  having relative to current sequence file dir allows me to have one generic testexec.ini file with appropriate search paths be applicable to every deployed station on the production line, saving the need to hand edit and customize each one.

[dug9000]

I see. The use case is clear now. Thanks for the info.

-Doug