automatic conversions...A Bug? or just a feature(How to turn it off?)

[Wojtek]

I Using TS 3.0(.0.12373) I seem to have stubbled over a annoying 'feature' which I can't turn off...Any one got ant ideas.......
Every sequence file I load(eg from the \examples\) when When loaded the '*' appears next to the file name indicating a change has happend. When closing the file TS asked "......file modified due to automatic conversions TestStand performed when loading file".
The only change that happened to the .seq file is a change to the Path, timestamps, and Version(From 3.0.0.12373 in the original to 3.0.0.12374 in the Updated one) at certain points in the file (found using a examine differences program ExamDiff.exe) examples below.
Any ideas how this feature is switched on,
and more importantly how to switch it off?
Cheers

[Scott_Richardson]

Wojtek -

It appears that somehow you have edited an NI type and incremented the version number. Your debug work was correct, so looking at the sequence file you will notice that the following sections have a changed version number:

[Action]
%VERSION = "3.0.0.12374"
...

[Error]
%VERSION = "3.0.0.12374"
...

Basically TestStand assumes that the newly edited NI type superceeds the one the TestStand finds in the sequence file. For most NI types, the default copy is stored in the type palette files and these probably have the 3.0.0.12374 version. Depending on which NI type was edited, a copy of the newly edited type might also be in the INI files that TestStand uses in the Cfg directory.

In TestStand 2.x if a user attempted to
edit an NI type instead of creating your own copy of the type, the sequence editor would warn them and suggest not editing the NI type. In TestStand 3.0, we wanted to be more strict and not allow editing of NI types at all, but the code did not work properly when released and instead it allows anyone to edit NI types without a warning. TestStand 3.1 now propertly prevents the editing of NI types.

What I recommend is to search all INI files under TestStand and all your sequence files for the '%VERSION = "3.0.0.12374"' text and hand edit them to replace this text with '%VERSION = "3.0.0.12373"'. This should address the issue for you.

If you have sent sequence files to others, and you do not want them to see the automatic conversion issue, their files should also be hand edited. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Sincerely,
Scott Richardson (NI)

[Wojtek]

Thanks for your help. And speedy response

[J. Barbour]

Is there any way to prevent automatic conversion without modifiying the sequence files where the types are employed. We are looking to update our test systems from TestStand 2.0.1 to 3.1. I cannot change any sequence file that was built against 2.0.1 in any way without having to re-release it in our system.

I have tried removing every type palette file under 3.1 and installing my type palettes from 2.0.1 but my sequences (and my Process Model) are still being converted.

Jeremy Barbour
Software Engineer
Smiths Aerospace

[Scott_Richardson]

Jeremy -
The automatic conversion only occurs when an instance is updated by a new version of a type in a file. The TestStand owns some built-in types to support the features of the engine. Examples include the TEInf type for support of the TS property under all steps, the adapter types for TS.SData which store a specified module. These types are typically modified from one version to the next and these changes trigger the "automatic conversion" state of a sequence file. This is just the way that TestStand is architected.