Automatic type version handling

[bienieck]

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@jopexa wrote:

In most of the higher level languages, as well as the mid levels like java and c#, there are ways to represent data objects as an generic 'object' type.

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As a side note I can add that in TS almost everything you use can be type casted to generic Property Object class. So, perhaps if you have a data with ever changing definition you could use an object instead of "strict" definition. There is also an option to create unstructured clusters as a type definition - that could help to some extent sometimes.

The point is that the problem you describe here requires proper design upfront because TS will not help you if you messed up the types, unfortunately 🙁

[bienieck]

I think I know how to accomplish a silent type update, but I don't have time to confirm it now.

Read about Do Not Mark Files as Modified if Modification is Caused Only by Automatic TestStand Version Upgrade Station Option here:

hh.exe mk:@MSITStore:%TestStand%\Doc\Help\TSRef.chm::/InfoTopics/DB_Station_Opt_File_Tab.htm

According to the help file, TestStand can perform silent automatic type updates BUT only for NI-installed stuff. So, the type definition would need to be marked with PropTypeFlags_NIInstalledType flag; see this:

hh.exe mk:@MSITStore:%TestStand%\Doc\Help\TSAPIRef.chm::/RefTopics/PropertyObjTypeFlags.htm

The problem here is that you can't set this flag from GUI AFAIK. But in the attachment, you can find some LV code you can use to create such a type.

I was not testing this but I think it might work.

[bienieck]

Instead of writing a custom script to update all types, you can use Sequence File Converter.

hh.exe "mk:@MSITStore:%TestStand%\Doc\Help\TSRef.chm::/InfoTopics/Sequence_File_Converter.htm"

However, in your case, there is still a problem related to files being stored in an external location. I was thinking that perhaps you could convert types in those files right after downloading from an external location. Just run this tool from the command line before executing sequences.