Understanding Measurement Plug-In Behavior

A measurement plug-in consists of measurement logic, metadata, and an optional UI. A measurement plug-in runs as a service. The measurement logic does not execute when your measurement service starts.

A measurement plug-in can be deployed and statically registered with the Measurement Plug-In discovery service. The Measurement Plug-In discovery service makes registered measurement plug-ins visible in supported applications.

To execute your measurement logic, do one of the following:

  • Run your measurement logic from your measurement development environment.
  • Run your measurement interactively by clicking Run on the measurement UI toolbar in InstrumentStudio or the Measurement Plug-In UI Editor.
  • Run an automated test sequence that includes your measurement as a step using TestStand.
Note While a measurement service runs, there are multiple ways to execute the associated measurement logic. The measurement UI toolbar indicates where active measurement data originates.

When you execute your measurement logic, the measurement service is called and your configuration values are passed to the measurement service. When the measurement logic completes execution, the measurement service returns measurement data.

Pin Maps and Hardware-Based Measurements

Pin maps associate physical device I/O with user-defined pin names and site names. For Measurement Plug-In measurement plug-ins, a pin map allows you to address device I/O while Measurement Plug-In services use information from the pin map to simplify driver session management. Pin maps enhance the flexibility of your measurement and allow the measurement user to focus on the DUT in a more intuitive way.

Use InstrumentStudio to create a pin map for your application. For more information about how pin maps are used, refer to Understanding the Driver Session Management Service and Understanding the Pin Map Service.

Note A pin map is not required to take measurements.