folder structure

[LVB]

There doesn't seem to be a lot of discussion on the internet for TestStand folder structure.  There is a short description from a DevZone article: NI TestStand Shared Drive Deployment Reference Architecture.  This article does not go into much depth and basically says every use case is different.

I am looking to develop:

1. A re-use library for the OI (developed in LabVIEW)
2. Individiual "Projects" that use the above library and have additional code modules.  Each Project is associated with a single product, but running the batch process model.

My initial idea was:

\LabVIEW                    <-- OI code only

\TestStand\Workspace.tsw
\TestStand\Config           <-- TestStand settings
\TestStand\Documentation
\TestStand\Sequences
\TestStand\TestCode         <-- LabVIEW code used in TestStand Sequences

Any advice/warnings on folder structure with TestStand and the LabVIEW adapter?  Anything that should be added?  I would like to avoid adding search directories and make the setup work with minimal configuration.

[.aCe.]

If you are planning to use the deployment utility to deploy your code, you HAVE to keep the OI in the same directory as the others. I have created a new folder and placed my OI project here: C:\Users\Public\Documents\National Instruments\TestStand 2010 SP1\UserInterfaces\Simple\. The components folder (C:\Users\Public\Documents\National Instruments\TestStand 2010 SP1\Components) and overriding files can be a nightmare if you try to place in a custom folder. Again the deployment utility can pick this up and deploy as required.

The rest of the files can be your choice. Also make sure you change the labview adapter to run-time before you use the deployment utlity to save you building it again.

I am not sure if this was any help, all the best.

[LVB]

Ace,

Thanks for the response.  Any information or advice is appreciated.  It sounds like TestStand is VERY particular with directory structure and file naming.  I am aware that duplicate file names can cause issues (which is easy to avoid).  The directory structure issues seem undocumented.

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@.:aCe:. wrote:

If you are planning to use the deployment utility to deploy your code, you HAVE to keep the OI in the same directory as the others. I have created a new folder and placed my OI project here: C:\Users\Public\Documents\National Instruments\TestStand 2010 SP1\UserInterfaces\Simple\.

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Is this requirement documented?  What issues did you experience using a Custom OI from a different folder?

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@.:aCe:. wrote:

The components folder (C:\Users\Public\Documents\National Instruments\TestStand 2010 SP1\Components) and overriding files can be a nightmare if you try to place in a custom folder. Again the deployment utility can pick this up and deploy as required.

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Isn't this the purpose of the workspace?  I thought the workspace handled "Custom" Types, Templates, ...

[.aCe.]

Sorry, I may have mislead you (I have just gone through my previous deployment) as I was using a workspace file just for my code modules and sequences, rest of the components were being drawn in from the public directories.If that is the case, you have to have the OI in the teststand public documents folder and it will appear as one of the components in the deployment utility.

You could add your OI lvproj to workspace project and deployment utility should pull the relavent files in.

And the same applies to your component types. The other consideration I suppose is that if you have it in the default folder, anyone else who needs to look at your deployment would find it easy.

My previous deployment wasnt plain sailing, this was partly due to report generation toolkit (as this is now based on oop, some of the files are called dynamically) and partly due to the fact that I did not know where to look as information about deployment I thought was scattered.