updating 4.2.1 sequence files loses all .net adapter information

[GreggRupp]

After I installed TestStand 2010, I loaded a sequence file from 4.2.1. After loading the sequence, all of the .net adapter entries that are set to relative paths lose the information to call the adapters. Is there a way to update the sequence files to do this without having to manually update all of the steps?

[Jeff.A.]

Can you provide some more information?  What do you mean by "lose the information to call the adapters"?  Do you mean the relative paths to the assembly are not finding the file?  Can you attach a 4.2.1 file that reproduces this issue?

[Jeff.A.]

If the problem is that your relative paths aren't resolving, is your 4.2.1 file relying on directories that you added to your 4.2.1 search directories in order to find the files?  If so you will need to add these search directories to TS 2010 as well.

[GreggRupp]

We have a client using a Custom Sequence editor. The custom step types and tools were put into the Shared Documents/ Users/ Public(Win7) components folder under TestStand 4.2.1 as recommended in the deployment documentation. I copied all of the Custom StepTypes and Tools to the same folders under TestStand 2010.

The only difference between the search directories for the public components in TestStand 4.2.1 and 2010 is the version of TestStand in the middle of the path.

If I add a new step from the palette, it populates all of th information with the data from the new location.

I added 2 pictures of the same step after loading it from disk.

[dug9000]

The file conversion should be automatic. There is nothing special you should have to do. Does this happen in the TestStand sequence editor too, or only in the custom editor?

Can you please attach a 4.2.1 sequence file which reproduces this problem? That would be most helpful for us to determine what is happening. We don't need any code modules, just a 4.2.1 sequence file that, when opened in the TestStand sequence editor, shows the problem you are describing.

-Doug

[GreggRupp]

I am only using the TestStand editor. The custom sequence editor has not been updated yet. The file attached has a fixed path in the first step. The rest of the steps have relative paths.

[dug9000]

Thanks for the file. I was able to determine the cause of the problem.

It has nothing to do with relative vs. absolute paths. The problem is that when the module specified for a step is exactly the same as that specified for its step type then the conversion code is getting skipped if the file is saved in the XML or Binary file formats, resulting in the behavior you are seeing.

There are a couple of ways you can workaround this problem:

1) Save your files in the INI format in 4.2.1 before opening them in TestStand 2010. Once you have opened them in TestStand 2010 you can change them back to binary and resave them since the conversion has now already been done.

Or:

2) Another alternative is to make a trivial change to the .NET modules in your step types so that there are no steps that have exactly the same module settings as their step types. One such trivial change you can make that does not affect how anything executes is to modify the value of the TS.SData.ModuleSrcPath property of your step types (You will need to turn on the "show hidden properties" setting in the station options to see and edit this property on your step types). This property is only used for the create and edit code feature of code modules and does not affect how anything executes. Also, once you have resaved all of your files in TestStand 2010 you can change this back to whatever it was before. NOTE: You only have to change the step types, not the steps, so this workaround might be easier if you have lots of files since you can just put the modified step types in a type palette, then opening any of your existing files should then work.

I've reported this issue and it has the following tracking id#: 276654. It will likely be fixed in a future version.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this issue or the workarounds described above.

Hope this helps,

-Doug

[dug9000]

Actually, what I said in the NOTE above in workaround 2) is not correct. You will need to resave the files in 4.2.1 with the modified types before opening them in TestStand 2010 for that workaround to work. So for either workaround you will need to resave all files in 4.2.1 first.

-Doug

[dug9000]

One thing that can help with workaround 1) is that TestStand has a sequence file updating tool in the tools menu "Tools->Update Sequence Files..." that you can use to change multiple files to INI format all at once. Please let us know if you need help using this tool.

-Doug

[GreggRupp]

Thanks Doug,

I was able to save one of my files as an ini. I loaded it in TestStand 2010 and have it working. We will also look into changing the Step Types.

I have used the update tool and shouldn't need any help

Gregg