How Do TestStand Commands Actually Execute? (Fun with TSUI.Command objects!)

[Mr._Jim]

Hi there,

I've been nerding out, staring at a lot of TestStand help documents, and I'm hoping that someone at NI or some other very knowledgeable person can help me tie together a handful of concepts relating to the handling of commands at runtime. (TSUI.Command objects)

Commands appear to be able to be instantiated (or possibly obtained in some cases?) either directly or indirectly in several ways:

• The ApplicationMgr.NewCommands method, followed by a Commands.InsertKind method for each command inserted into in the Commands object.
• [Manager Object].GetCommand, where [Manager Object] is one of {ApplicationMgr, SequenceFileViewMgr, ExecutionViewMgr }
• [Manager Object].ConnectCommand

I've tried to boil down my confusion on this topic into a few questions:

1. When Command.Execute is run, does the ApplicationMgr execute the command, or does the respective manager object execute it, especially when the command is instantiated using [Manager Object].GetCommand?
2. If running, for instance, ExecutionViewMgr.GetCommand and the CommandKind isn't applicable to the ExecutionViewMgr, is a generic command object instantiated that isn't necessarily associated with the ExecutionViewMgr?
3. If running, for instance, ExecutionViewMgr.GetCommand, is the ExecutionViewManager property of the command automatically populated?
4. Does populating either the ApplicationMgr or ExecutionViewMgr property of a given command merely provide the command the necessary contextual information for handling that command, or in addition to that also cause the respective manager to execute it at runtime?
5. How are commands handled differently at runtime depending on how they are instantiated or obtained?

If I've missed a Knowledgebase article I'm sorry - I searched the whole NI domain for one.

Thanks very much,

Mr. Jim