How do I get the TestStand Splash Screen to not appear when I call the Offline Results Processing Utility?

[GarryG]

So I'm calling the Offline Results Processing Utility (ORPU) from a call executable step in a plugin in order to do some custom processing in another configuration.  Everything's working great, including having it run minimized (essentially hidden) by using the /tray option.  When it's called though, the TestStand splash screen comes up (granted, this is not a show-stopper... but it's confusing from the user's perspective). 

Is there a way I can get this splash screen to not appear when calling the ORPU?  I notice in the help, there's mention of using the Callback file, and I'm wondering if anyone has successfully used this to avoid the dialog or other behaviors.  I would like to get more information on how this works, but there doesn't seem to be extensive detail on it in the help and I'm also not finding me any helpful examples.

[~jiggawax~]

I'm curious as well.  You would think it would be a setting in the config file.

[GarryG]

Additionally, I'd be curious to see if there are other command line arguments that aren't in the help.  There's a native seq file (OfflineResultsProcessingUtility.seq) that uses a /show-window argument that isn't in the help.  Are there other arguments that might be useful to us?

[flaborde · Accepted solution]

The source of the Offline Results Processing Utility is included with TestStand and can be modified. 

The ORPU source is located under "<TestStand>Components\Models\TestStandModels\Offline Results Processing Utility"

From the source you can see that there is no flag that will hide the splash screen (except for /quit, but that one will also close the ORPU!); however, you can easily modify the ORPU so it doesn't show the splash screen by removing the following lines in <TestStand>\Components\Models\TestStandModels\Offline Results Processing Utility\OfflineResultsProcessingUtility\MainForm.cs

if (!data.Quit)
    splashScreenForm = new SplashScreen(mEngine, false);

As far as undocumented flags, there really aren't many undocumented flags in the ORPU (again, you can see them in the source), and the undocumented flags have very specific use cases (opening files from the shell and NI's internal regression testing).

A complete (unofficial) list of the ORPU flags as of TS 2014:

/?
Shows help

/tray
Starts the ORPU in the tray

/exit-when-done
Exits when all the files are done

/quit
Immediately exits

/process-files-missing-data
Processes files even if they are missing data

/dont-process-files-missing-data
Do not process files which are missing data, only show an error (this is the default behavior).

/process-all-profiles
Start all profiles

/process-no-profiles
Start no profiles

/process-profiles
Process the profiles specified in the next arguments

/process-files
Add the files specified to the profile specified

/log-level

Sets the log level for the ORPU log, all messages above the specified log level will be logged.

/shellopen
This is an internal flag, it is used to process requests from the shell (for example, after double clicking a tsr in Windows Explorer). Do not use this flag.

/not-interactive
This is an internal flag used for testing. Do not use this flag.

Please note that NI does not support calling undocumented flags, and that NI is not guaranteeing backwards compatibility of these undocumented flags and they could change at any moment, without any warning. 

For a much more detailed explanation of how each option works, see Using Command-Line Arguments with the Offline Results Processing Utility in the TestStand help. 

Hope this helps,

Francisco

[GarryG]

Thanks, Francisco. 

A wish list item would be to get a '/no-splash' argument that would be passed to the ORPU.exe to avoid this (out of the box, without having to modify the source) in the next TestStand version.  One of the reasons we love NI products is because we don't have to open visual studio to get the customizations we need

[flaborde]

I have filed a feature request with the ID 523524. I will add the flag in a future version of TestStand 

- Francisco

[Mr._Jim]

Francisco, any update on this feature request?   The "no splash" argument does not yet appear to exist and I would rather not modify source code or tools if I don't have to.

By what means can we effectively bribe you?  

https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/teststand-api-reference/page/tsref/using-command-line-arguments...

Thanks,

Mr. Jim

[flaborde]

Hi Mr. Jim, 

Sorry I have not gotten to this yet. I have raised the issue to my manager and to the owner of the TestStand project, we are hoping we can get this change in for TestStand 2017 SP1. Thanks for your patience.

-Francisco 

[Mr._Jim]

Thanks very much Francisco - I completely understand the churn of priorities. (at least I think I do?)

Mostly I'm just trying to raise awareness that it would help us out in our implementation.

I have a workaround for most of it, but the splash screen is still unavoidable without recompiling.

Again, thanks!

Jim

[magnux]

I found that TS2023 ORPU has a /hide-splash-screen option which can be used with the /tray to make the ORPU launch without the splash-screen and hide in the tray.

/M=)