Writing messages from a VI to another VI Panel

[ofer_o]

Hi:
I need to write some application that will test a communication board & will show test status while test is running.
Details:
1) I'm using Testend 3.1 & Labview 7.1.
2) At the first step of my Testend sequence I want to load a VI which will show a 'test status window'. This status window should be unloaded at the end of the sequence.
3) Other steps of my Testend sequence will run VI's which will send messages to the status window.
4) At the end of the sequence the status window should be unloaded.
Does somebody know how it can be done?
Thanks,
Ofer

[DWeiland]

Hi Ofer,

To a large degree, what you are looking to do is already taken care of with the Operator Interfaces (OI) that ship with TestStand, one of which is written in LabVIEW.
In your start menu, you should be able to find the full featured LabVIEW operator interface executable by navigating to Start > All Programs > National Instruments > TestStand > Operator Interfaces > LabVIEW. This full featured operator interface allows you to run test sequences written in TestStand, give continuous feedback on the status of your sequence steps, log to databases and generate reports.

If there is something you want to display that isn't already in the OI, we also ship the code for the operator interface with your copy of TestStand. You can find this by navigating to

C:\Program Files\National Instruments\TestStand 3.x\OperatorInterfaces\NI\Full Featured\LabVIEW

There is also a "simple" version of the OI that doesn't include quite as many features. Just copy the contents of the NI\Full Featured\LabVIEW over to Users\Full Featured\LabVIEW, to ensure that you always have a fully functional original copy before you start modifications. For more information on modifications, you can check out Chapter 9 Creating Custom Operator Interfaces in the TestStand Reference Manual.

Hope this helps Ofer, let us know if you have any more questions.

Thanks!

Dan Weiland
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[Dennis_Knutson]

I just wanted to add that for custom messages, you can use the Thread.PostUIMessage method. There is a shipping example called DisplayingProgressAndStatus.seq that comes an example VI.

[ofer_o]

Thanks Dan,
I think that DisplayingProgressAndStatus.seq example can help me. Do you have more vi example that show how to write from a VI to Testend screen?.

[ofer_o]

I just want to note that some methods (vi methods) at the DisplayingProgressAndStatus.seq  example are obsolete. Do you have an  example with up to date methods?
Ofer

[DWeiland]

Those obsolete methods (PostUIMessage) are still supported and functional in TestStand 3.1. The preferred method, however, is PostUIMessageEx, which has an additional parameter for Active X data.

If you'd like, you can change the PostUIMessage method to a PostUIMessageEx method, and make sure the parameters are properly connected. Simply selecting PostUIMessageEx from the method drop down, for example, will cause the Synchronous Boolean to be wired to the activeXDataParam  - you'd need to rewire this to the "synchronous" parameter, and wire an empty constant to the activeXDataParam.

Like I said, this doesn't necessarily have to be done, but doing so doesn't cause any problems either.

Thanks Ofer,

Dan Weiland
Applications Engineer
National Instruments