Append report stats to a file across network for use in a database??

[TheJ'ster]

We have four systems testing UUT's in seq mode using Labview 7.1 and TestStand 3.1.   Currently, the test reports at the end of the sequence are stored individually on each machines local hard drive per test. I need to be able to pull stats from the four stations running per day. The seq process does scan a MAC address and uses TestStand to open a notepad file on the main server (thru just a mapped drive on the XP Pro) that appends the MACs tested. We seem to have issues with this locking up our systems when two people scan at the same time, so I dont want to induce more errors by trying this method using report generation. Lol, also we are allowed zero budget. My ? is:  Is there any database tools I can use built into the current OS (XP Pro)?  I see MySQL is a free download but I would have to learn that also to make it work. I want to be able to have the each of the four stations open a reliable database file and append the needed stats continously so I can pull one file and create Excel graphs reports of production stats at the end of the day. Any help in any direction to get this rolling would be greatly appreciated! (Yes and maybe I should have set the font to green as I am new to TestStand but not Labview)

[James M]

Hi TheJ'ster,

I think there are two approaches you should consider:

1. You said you have zero budget - if this is true, you may not want to go the database approach. Instead, you could just write to four files on the server (one for each TestStation), and I have a program that runs at the end of the day that merges them into one large file. Run the report on the resulting file and you are finished. This approach would require a minimal amount of additional code/configuration and it could be put in place until you have more resources to devote to option two:
   
2. If you do actually have some resources to devote to the project, the database approach is probably the most elegant/scalable solution. You may already have MS Access, or you can download MySQL for free. From there you would need to setup your MySQL database and then configure the MAC address to be logged (as a UUT property assuming there is one MAC address per UUT).
   

Regards,

[TheJ'ster]

Thank you for the reply James,

After thinking more about it over the weekend, I agree with your first solution. It will be the best solution to show results with min working. If the project grows the second solution can be implemented with the re-work. Do you use notepad or excel to append the files there for your program that merges them?

[James M]

Hi TheJ'ster,

I actually don't use either as I was responding to your post in a theoretical sense. If I was going to implement this it depends on your situation. If you want to manually merge the files, and all they contain is plain text, I would just use notepad. If you want the merge to happen automatically, I would probably just write a simple program in C to run at a scheduled time.

Regards,