Is it possible to change the location of the user component directory in TS4.0

[freak]

I would like to override the default location of the user component directory to a network drive / source control file system, in order to execute my own loginlogout sequence without having to deploy any files locally. is this doable in TS 4.0? If so how?

[Jervin Justin]

Hi freak,

Unfortunately what you are trying to accomplish is not entirely possible.

You can move your user components directory to a network drive and then add a search directory and point it to that location. And then you can set that to a higher priority than the NI and User components folders so that location gets searched first.

However, the issue is some components need to be in a certain local location in either the NI or the User components folder and TestStand will not look in other locations for them. This includes the languages and the icons, and more importantly the FrontEnd and Station Callbacks. And the FrontEndCallbacks.seq file is the file that contains the login/logout steps and TestStand will not look in a different  search directory for them.

Hope this answers your question.

[pwaszkewitz]

Hi,

this is really unfortunate since we would like to have our C drives cleanly installed from an image and have everything concerning the actual project on a different drive -- including the callback sequences.

Is it possible to have TestStand look in a directory different from "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\National Instruments\TestStand 4.1" by changing the TestStandPublic environment variable?

Regards

Peter

[pwaszkewitz]

In addition to this: if TestStand always loads the StationCallbacks.seq from a pre-defined location with a pre-defined name, what is the meaning of selecting "Station Callbacks" in the Type combo box on the Advanced tab of the Sequence File Properties dialog?

Regards

Peter

[James_Grey]

I can't recall any other functionality, other than the ability to introspect the file and determine its intended purpose.

PS. Note that a callback sequence in a fixed location could forward its calls via subsequence calls to a file in a dynamically determined location.

[pwaszkewitz]

Thank you.

Yes, that is clear, that we can forward the calls, but we still would have to backup that sequence with the project (admittedly, it is a rather cosmetic problem, as we could easily copy a project sequence to the predefined location).

[drohacek]

Peter -

With respect to your original question, rudimentary support for customizing the TestStand Public directory was added in TestStand 4.1. Please see KB 4LJI2Q00 for specifics.

David Rohacek

National Instruments

[pwaszkewitz]

Thank you! It may be rudimentary:-), but actually it is exactly what I was looking for. As we will be using TestStand 4.1 for new projects, this solves our issue nicely.

Regards

Peter

[drohacek]

I am very happy that it fits your needs. I called it rudimentary only because I think we could make switching the TestStand Public directory easier and more integrated with the overall development and deployment experiences. 

David Rohacek

National Instruments