Editing template window programmatically

Question

Hello,
I have a vi which is using the UI controls.  It is going to be used for end user editing of a series of sequences, which will only use a subset of step types.  I have the insertion a palette correctly displaying all of our step types in the step types window, and all the statically defined template steps we have.   I now want to temporarily populate a template folder at run time, the
contents of which will be a series of instances of a particular step
type that whose properties are particular to the UUT under test at the time, so the  user can more easily set up that uut.
I am looking at the UI InsertionPalette control methods and properties, and the ConnectInsertionPalette methods/properties, but nothing is jumping out.  I see where I can get a reference to pages, then item, but the properties available after that are extremely limited, and don't seem to have what I need.  Is there a way to dynamically edit the templates window using the UI controls somehow?
I am already to the point of having a sequence dynamically defined which has all the instances contained in it, I just want to put that in the templates window, in a folder.
Thanks
David Jenkinson

Answer 1

Hi David,
You are right, the UI Controls API does not expose all of the same functionality for the Insertion Palette that is available from context menus and manual manipulation. Future versions of TestStand may have expanded functionality for these and other similar controls, the developers are aware of this requested feature.
Luckily, you still should be able to accomplish dynamic template insertion. By accessing the TemplateFile PropertyObjectFile you can get access to the Data PropertyObject member of this PropertyObjectFile. The Data PropertyObject has a Root SubProperty which is the template information. 
From here, you can clone and insert what ever steps, variables, and sequence property objects that you desire into this Templates List.
Keep in mind that you can force these changes to the TemplateFile to be saved to disk by calling the IncChangeCount() method on the TemplateFile object.
In order to refresh the InsertionPalette you can post the UIMsg_RefreshWindows UIMessage using the PostUIMessageEx method.
Putting the following code in a statement step may help get you started:
Locals.fileref = RunState.Engine.GetTemplatesFile(0),
Locals.data =Locals.fileref.AsPropertyObjectFile.Data,
//make changes here,
Locals.fileref.AsPropertyObjectFile.IncChangeCount(),
RunState.Thread.PostUIMessageEx(UIMsg_RefreshWindows,0,"",Nothing,True)
If you are not quite sure what to start editing, visualizing the Data PropertyObject may help with this. Setting a breakpoint after executing the above series of expressions will allow you to look at the Data in the TemplateFile PropertyObjectFile using the watch view. Here is what it looks like for me, with 1 step template:
The three SubProperties here match the three default folders in the Templates List section of the Insertion Palette Pane; you can see the matching step template in the Steps folder:
I hope this helps!
Message Edited by Evan P. on 11-21-2008 04:28 PM
Evan Prothro
RF Systems Engineer | NI
Attachments:
watch view.png ‏9 KB
templates.png ‏3 KB