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The following sections describe the recommended migration procedure for each previous TestStand version.
TestStand 4.1 includes significant changes to the directory structure to add support for Microsoft Windows Vista and later operating systems. Use the table below to migrate any customized components to the current TestStand directory structure.
Setting or Component | Location in TestStand 4.0.1 or Earlier | Corresponding New Location |
---|---|---|
Configuration Files¹ | <TestStand>\Cfg | <TestStand Application Data>\Cfg |
Custom Data Type and Step Type Pallete (TestStand 3.0 or previous)² | <TestStand>\Cfg\MyTypes.ini | <TestStand Public>\Components\TypePalletes |
Code Module Templates | <TestStand Public>\CodeTemplates | <TestStand Public>\CodeTemplates |
Custom Components³ | <TestStand>\Components\User\<component name> | <TestStand Public>\Components\<component name> |
Custom User Interfaces |
| <TestStand Public>\UserInterfaces |
¹Refer to the Configuration Files topic in the TestStand help for more information on the contents of each configuration file. You only need to migrate files containing settings you have customized.
²In TestStand 3.5, the default location for types files was moved to <TestStand>
\Components\User\TypePalletes. In TestStand 3.5 or later, your types will be migrated when you migrate the Components\User
directory. If yo have any other custom type pallette files in this location, you must migrate these as well.
³Includes Frontend and Station Callbacks, Icons, Language resource files, Process Models, Step and Data Types, Tools, Sequence File Translators. Note: if you need to migrate customizations to the process models, you must follow the procedure outlined in the Manually Migrating process Model Changes section to migrate your model customizations to the new TestStand version.
In addition to migrating the items in the table, you must complete the following tasks to account for the new directory locations when you migrate to the current version of TestStand:
ADE | Warning Description | Resolution |
---|---|---|
LabWindows/CVI | "some files were not found" warning when you open a project | Remove the files from the project and re-add them from the <National Instruments>\Shared\CVI\instr\TestStand\API directory in LabWindows/CVI 8.5 or later and from the <CVI>\instr\TestStand\API directory in LabWindows/CVI 8.1.1 or earlier. |
Visual Studio | "some TestStand API or adapter support files were not found" warning when you open a project | Add the $(TestStand), $(TestStandAppData), and $(TestStandPublic) environment variables as needed to the Additional Include Directories control for the project. |
If you made changes to the default process models, follow the procedure outlined in the Manually Migrating process Model Changes section to migrate your model customizations.
If you made changes to the report and/or database options, follow the procedure outlined in the Manually Migrating Result Processing Settings section to migrate these options.
If you are migrating from TestStand 2.0.1 or earlier, and you are planning to uninstall the previous TestStand version, you must complete the following steps to safely uninstall it and preserve all configuration files and files located in the User subdirectories. Otherwise, the uninstaller for TestStand 2.0.1 or earlier remove the <TestStand>\OperatorInterfaces\User
directory and its contents.
<TestStand>
\OperatorInterfaces\User
directory to a location outside<TestStand>
\OperatorInterfaces\User directory back<TestStand>
directory.You can now install the new TestStand version into this directory.
Refer to the Manually Migrating User Components and Settings section for general migration information.
If you made customizations to the process models, follow the procedure outlined in the Manually Migrating process Model Changes section to migrate your model customizations.
If you made changes to the report and/or database options, follow the procedure outlined in the Manually Migrating Result Processing Settings section to migrate these options..
TestStand 2010 and later includes a migration utility to facilitate the migration process. NI recommends using this utility to migrate your customized components and settings. To use the Migration Utility, follow the procedure outlined in the Migrating User Components and Settings Using the Migration Utility section.
If you made customizations to the process models, you must manually migrate these customizations due to TestStand 2012 model architecture changes. Follow the procedure outlined in the Manually Migrating process Model Changes section to migrate your model customizations.
Note: If you prefer to migrate user components and settings manually, refer to the Manually Migrating Process Model Changes section. If you choose to manually migrate customizations to the report or database options, you must also follow the procedure outlined in the Manually Migrating Result Processing Settings section to migrate your result processing settings, respectively.
TestStand 2010 and later includes a migration utility to facilitate the migration process. NI recommends using this utility to migrate your customized components and settings. To use the Migration Utility, follow the procedure outlined in the Migrating User Components and Settings Using the Migration Utility section.
Because TestStand 2012 and later use the newer TestStand process model architecture, the full migration process can be completed using the migration utility.
Note: If you prefer to migrate user components and settings manually, refer to the Manually Migrating User Components and Settings section. In addition to the files in this section, you must also migrate the result processing configuration file, located at <TestStand Public>
\Cfg\ModelPlugins\ResultProcessing.cfg
The information below is non version-specific migration information. For information on how to migrate from a specific version, refer to the Version Specific Migration Procedures section of this document.
TestStand 2010 and later includes a migration utility to facilitate the migration process. Complete the following steps to use the TestStand Migration Utility to copy settings, configuration, and public component files from the directories of TestStand 2010 or later to the current version of TestStand.
<TestStand Public>
\Components directory of the previous version of TestStand includes files installed by an installer other than the TestStand installer, you might need to use that specific installer to move the files for the files to function and uninstall properly from the <TestStand Public>
\Components directory of the new TestStand version. NI recommends that you use an installer that targets the new TestStand version to install any such components instead of using the utility to copy the components. However, some installed components can function properly when copied to another directory and are safe to migrate with the utility.The TestStand 2012 or later process models include significant changes to implement a plug-in architecture for model sequence files. TestStand 2012 or later uses the plug-in mechanism to decouple result processing from the process models. As part of this change, the result processing options move from the TestStandModelReportOptions.ini and TestStandDatabaseOptions.ini files into a single ResultProcessing.cfg file, located in the <TestStand Application Data>\Cfg directory, that stores configuration information for all result processing model plug-ins.
While the result processing options files from TestStand 2010 SP1 or earlier are not directly compatible with TestStand 2012 or later process models, the Migration Utility can convert the configuration files to the new format. The following actions are available in the TestStand Migration Utility to migrate the result processing configuration options from TestStand 2010 SP1 or earlier to the current version of TestStand.
Note: The utility does not support migrating the configuration files from TestStand 2010 SP1 or earlier if you modified the ReportOptions or DatabaseOptions data types defined in the default process models.
Because TestStand 4.1 and later versions use the same directory structure to store user components, migrating user components is a straightforward process when migrating from TestStand 4.1 and later. Use the table below to migrate custom settings and components to the new TestStand version
Note: If you made changes to the default version of a component (for example modifying the sequential process model file in the <TestStand>\Components\Models directory), you must migrate these files as well. NI recommends that you keep all custom files in the <TestStand Public> location.
Setting or Component | Corresponding Directory or File Location |
---|---|
Configuration Files¹ | <TestStand Application Data>\Cfg\ |
Code Module Templates | <TestStand Public>\CodeTemplates |
Components² | <TestStand Public>\Components\<component name> |
User Interfaces | <TestStand Public>\UserInterfaces |
¹ Refer to the Configuration Files topic in the TestStand help for more information on the contents of each configuration file. You only need to migrate files containing settings you have customized.
² Includes Callbacks (FrontEnd and Station), Icons, Language resource files, Process Models, Step and Data Types, Tools, Sequence File Translators.
Note: If you need to migrate customizations to the process models from TestStand 2010 SP1 or previous, you must use the procedure in the Manually Migrating process Model Changes section.
If you used custom Tools menu items in a previous version of TestStand, complete the following steps to import the items into a new TestStand Version.
Setup\ToolMenusToInstall
directory in the <TestStand Public>
directory of the new TestStand version.TestStand will add the new menu items to the Tools menu and delete the Tools menu file upon launch.
The TestStand 2012 process models include significant changes to implement a plug-in architecture for model sequence files. For this reason, you must manually migrate process model files when migrating from TestStand 2010 SP1 or earlier. There are two available options for migrating to the new TestStand version
The TestStand 2012 or later process models include significant changes to implement a plug-in architecture for model sequence files. TestStand 2012 or later uses the plug-in mechanism to decouple result processing from the process models. As part of this change, the result processing options move from the TestStandModelReportOptions.ini and TestStandDatabaseOptions.ini files into a single ResultProcessing.cfg file, located in the <TestStand Application Data>\Cfg directory, that stores configuration information for all result processing model plug-ins.
Complete the following steps to migrate result processing options from TestStand 2010 SP1 or previous for use with the current TestStand process models.
Note: Consider the following caveats when migrating result processing options:
TestStand includes several components you can customize, such as process models, user interfaces, and certain step types. When upgrading to a newer version of TestStand, it is important to consider the alternatives for integrating your customizations to a component with the improvements implemented by NI. This section provides information on considerations for integrating customized TestStand components.
You must first determine the changes between the current TestStand version of the the component and the original version of the component you modified. Consider that subsets of different versions of the same component are not necessarily interoperable without modifications. For example, you cannot replace a single sequence in the current TestStand default process models with the corresponding sequence from older process models without making further modifications. If you customized the process models, you must ensure that TestStand can find all the subordinate components the process models use and that any of those components that are ActiveX servers are registered. Additionally, the default process model sequence for TestStand uses separate sequences, DLLs, and ActiveX servers to support database logging and report generation features.
Based on the complexity of customizations you have made, choose one of the following approaches for integrating the files:
You can use the following types of file comparison tools:
File Type | Recommended Differ Tool |
Sequence file (.seq) | TestStand File Diff/Merge Application |
VI (.vi) | LabVIEW Compare VIs dialog box |
C code (.c, .h) | Edit » Diff in LabWindows\CVI |
Other files (non-binary) | Any 3rd-party text differ, such as Microsoft WinDiff |