TestStand Action Step Type

[ctakac]

Hello, all--

I have a TS question on the Action step type, no adapter.  In code I am maintaining, I see this step type used to output information to a custom report.  The data/comment to output is put into StationGlobals.Measurement.String and StationGlobals.Measurement.ActionType is set to 1 or 2.  The TS documentation tells me the action step is an NI step type, and it doesn't appear that this has been customized in any way.  I cannot find any documentation either in built-in help or online explaining how to use the action step in this manner or what values are valid for .ActionType and what they signify. 

Am I wrong?  Is this a customized step type, or is this use just undocumented?  If someone has knowledge about using action step like this, please reply.  Thanks very much.

[~jiggawax~]

Hey ctakac,

Look in your StationGlobals.  Ctrl-G or View->StationGlobals.  In there you should have a container (I'm assuming) called Measurements.  If you expand that you should see String and ActionType.  It should tell you the type in the Type column.  It is probably Number since it's set to 1 or 2.  Whoever set up your StationGlobals inserted this as I've never seen it before. 

The Action Step Type is native to TS and they are probably using those StationGlobals to either get set or set a step property.  Go to the step that is doing this and look at the properties.  Look in the Expressions and see if they are using them there.  They could also be used in the Precondition or PostAction.

Let me know what you find,

Regards,

[ctakac]

Thanks for the reply, jiggawax, but I know that StationGlobals.Measurement.ActionType is a number--no problem there.  I had already looked at my StationGlobals hoping that someone had put a comment in there telling me what the values of ActionType signify.  That is my question:  What do the values for ActionType signify?  I cannot find documentation for that anywhere.

[~jiggawax~]

Sorry I misunderstood the question.  This is not native to TestStand so I would not know where to find documentation.  Your quickest way to find it is to talk to whomever developed it.  However if that is not an option then you will have to find out where it is being used by searching for every instance and follow it until you see it being set or used. 

My hunch is that it's just a flag.  Basically if it's a 1 then whatever is using it knows it's an Action Step Type or if it's a 2 then it's a different step type.  However unless I can look at your code and trace it then I wouldn't know. 

Sorry I couldn't be more help than that but the options are limited here.

Let me know if you have any questions. 

Regards,

[RayFarmer]

Hi,

Is this a Custom Step Type or just the standard NI Action step type?

Can you get any hints by looking at the steps either side of this action step?

Have you tried changing the value of the StationGlobals.Measurement.ActionType to see what happens.

Regards

Ray Farmer

[ctakac]

Thanks to you both for your attempts to help.  I found out this is a customized step, or a customized use of this step (?), and am now trying to get documentation on it from the people who put it together.