simple text report plugin configuration

[David_Stevenson]

I am updating a Teststand 4.2 project to 2012. The original had a text report via a modified sequencial model, and cvi code. I am trying to find the current best practice to achieve a similar report.

I have installed the simple text report plugin example but can find no documentation on how to configure it.

The example works fine, but the columns do not have the limits or the measured value, and do have several other items I do not need.

Looking through the code I can see these are set in parameters to the plugin, but I can not see where in my project to set them.

I will also need to configure the report header, and file name.

David

[Jason-H]

Hi David,

Why are you only upgrading to TestStand 2012 instead of the most recent?

The Simple Text Report CVI plugin doesn't expose the properties you're looking for by default in the configuration window. You can access these properties using the ModelPluginConfiguration callback from the client sequence file or modify them directly in the plugin sequence file.

Model Plug in Client-File Callbacks

You should also be able to configure the header with the Create Header sequence in the NI_SimpleTextReport_CVI sequence file and the file name with the Generate Report Path sequence. If you've already tried that, what issues were you running into?

You may also find the following documentation useful:

Report Generation Explained

Best Practices for NI TestStand Report Generation and Customization

[David_Stevenson]

Jason

Thanks for our response.

2012 is just current company standard.

I have looked in the sequencialModel.seq ModelPluginConfiguration subsequence and I do not see any of the current settings, I was expecting to find the list of existing columns that I could edit.

I have now found these in NI_SimpleTextReport_CVI.seq ->ModelPlugin - Initialize -> Locals->ReportColumns - thanks for the information.

Can you explain more detail on how I can change these from the SequencialModel call back?

I have not yet looked at the header or footer.

David

[Jason-H]

You can use the ModelPluginConfiguration callback to make modifications at runtime to the Simple Text Report plugin. In the attached image, you can see that through this callback I have access to the ReportColumns and their names, as well as other various properties, like ProcessOnTheFly.

[David_Stevenson]

Thanks, this is slowly making more sense to me, I feel as if I missed a chapter in the manual.

Is there a list of the available key values, I have found Numeric,Limits.Low and Limits.High but I also need the type of test ie <GELE>

For non numeric tests I get a lot of <MISSING> strings in my report, I can see these are added by the ProcessOneResult function in Reporter.c of the SimpleTextReport cvi code. But I do not see how to get the results and limits from a string test into the report.

David

[Jason-H · Accepted solution]

What exactly do you mean by "key values"? Are you referring to the Key property in the NI_SimpleTextReport_CVI.seq?

In order to get the comparison type of a Numeric Limit Test, for example, you could use a Post-Expression like the following:

Locals.ComparisonType = Step.Comp

This would return "GELE"

As for adding results to the report, the Key values are a look-up string relative to a Result object. In this case, you can add what you want to log to the Additional Results of that step. Then, you can add a new Report Column in the NI_SimpleTextReport_CVI.seq file and make the key value:

AdditionalResults["NameOfAdditonalResult"]

 

[David_Stevenson]

Jason

Thanks for your help with this, I can now find the data I want and have added it to the report. I have changed the cvi code to not output items with no data so I can have both string columns and numeric columns and only the relevent ones are in the report.

I have started setting the header / footer and that looks fine.

So one last query, when I installed the NI_SimpleTextReport the seq and the dll were copied to a plugin directory on my C drive, is there any reason not to put the modified version in my project directory, which happens to be on D drive. If so where do I need to set this address?

David

[Jason-H]

TestStand looks for plug-ins and add-on's in specific directories, which is outlined in the first section of Creating Process Model Plug-ins. I don't believe TestStand would be able to find the plug-in if you moved it.

[David_Stevenson]

Well I guess I can survive that.

Thanks again

David

[Kurt-P]

Hey David, 

We are running a beta for TestStand that has a feature you might find useful. If you are interested, you can sign up at www.ni.com/beta. Once you agree to the terms and conditions we can discuss what feature would apply to your use case. 

Thank you,

-Kurt