How to view Output Messages in the LabWindows UI?

Question

In my LabWindows/CVI I would like to view the output messages that are sent from sequences:
"RunState.Engine.NewOutputMessage(Parameters.Messa​ge).Post()"
I thought there might be a TS UI Control like the one in the sequence editor called Output - but I can't find one.
So far I have managed to catch the message type (TS_UIMsg_OutputMessages) but I can't actually get the string from the event.
Does anyone have an example of doing this?
Thanks,
Ronnie
TestStand 4.2.1, LabVIEW 2009, LabWindows/CVI 2009

Answer 1

Ok, let me see if I can explain how to do it more clearly then.
1) Create a new OutputMessages collection using TS_EngineNewOutputMessages(). This collection will store your own private copy of the output messages. You can hold onto and add to this collection if you want to store them. If not you can just close the handle to free it once you are done with it.
2) When you get the UIMessage you need to get the ActiveXData property of it. I think the CVI function should be called something like TS_UIMessageGetActiveXData(). The CAObjHandle you get back from this function is a different OutputMessages object that you should NOT hold onto (because of multithreading reasons), you should instead close the handle before returning back from your UIMessage handler. Before doing that though, you should use the TS_OutputMessagesCopyMessagesToCollection method to copy the messages from this OutputMessages object to the new one you created in step 1) above (i.e. you are making your own private copy of the messages and leaving the ones in the UIMessage unchanged (again, it is for multithreading reasons that it must be done this way to avoid race conditions).
3) You now have a copy of the output messages from the event in your own private OutputMessages collection that you created in step 1) above. You can now access it to get the info for the output messages.  You can get the number of items it contains (and it might contain more than one), by using the TS_OutputMessagesGetItem() function and using CA_VariantInt(index) to package the integer that you pass for the index parameter.
4) Getting the item gives you an OutputMessage object (notice no plural). You can get information about the output message using the methods and properties of the OutputMessage class (see the online help for more info). There is more to an output message than just the message text. There is also a timestamp, category, location, icon, id, severity, color, etc.
If you need more information please let us know specifically what you are having trouble with or need more information about.
Hope this helps,
-Doug