How to access other tools and tabs from test stand?

[Scoffield]

Hi, we are trying to access a particular tool from TestStand. We are able to open the tool from the TestStand. And we are trying to access different tabs of that tool, enter or modify the data valus in particular sections of that tool. Any inputs on this would be helpful.

[~jiggawax~]

It all depends on the tool.  Which tools are you specifically talking about and which data did you want to manipulate?

Most of the tools seem to be written in CVI or a .NET language.  They do not have an API to the tool itself.  But you can generally manipulate the same data via another method.  Underneath the hood they are calling API calls to the engine. 

If it is dealing with the Report, Model or Database options then you should use the callbacks.

If you go to th TestStand folder and look under Components you will see a Tools folder.  Inside of there you will see some of the tools that ship with TestStand (such as the Depoyment Utility).  You can open the respective folders and see how the tool was created (i.e. what language it was written in).  In some cases they have the source code so you can actually find out what API calls the tool was making.

Regards,

[Scoffield]

The tool that I want to access is TwinCAT (developed by EtherCAT Technology Group). And I am trying to access various tabs present in it. Thanks for the reply Jiggawax. I'll try out the solution suggested by you.

[~jiggawax~]

Since this is a third party (i.e. not created by NI) tool then it may be a lot more difficult.  Generally they wouldn't give you the source code.  You can check with them though.  On the various tabs I'm assuming there are settings?  You need to figure out exactly what each of the settings are doing.  Either one of two scenarios is happening:

1-  They are calling into the API and manipulating things in TestStand related to your edit time copy of the sequence file and it's components.  In which case you would have to just figure out how to mimick their API calls.

OR

2-  They are saving the settings to disk (i.e. ini file or something similar).  In which case you need to figure out during execution time where those settings get read in and how they are bing used.  Then you can intercept that information and manipulate it during execution time.