Open File dialog window when setting the value of a path type input argument in a VI call

Question

Hi,
I am new to TestStand (running 4.0) and I want to create a sequence of VIs to turn on, setup and measure a device. One of my VIs sends a configuration file to my device. An input argument to this VI is the path of the config file. I would like to make it simple to modify this path when setting up the sequence by popping up the File Open dialog window and choose my file. Is this possible? I do not want to manually change the file during execution, just to have multiple calls of one VI, each call opening a different file according to the path given to it during the setup. 
So far I have only succeeded in manually entering the absolute path each time I add this step. What makes it even more annoying is the fact that LabVIEW interprets the path with the escape codes, rendering the path unusable. Manually adding a 2nd backslash at each '\' occurence adds another step to the process. I tried both String and Path type of inputs, and the SearchandReplace() or ToUpper() (trying to bypass the escape codes) functions in TestStand don't seem to help m.
Your help is very much appreciated,
Fred

Answer 1

Eudaemonic,
If you want to create a series of easy to configure step types so others can develop sequence files easily, you could use custom step types. When you create a custom step type you implement your own configuration dialog. Since you have control over what controls you expose in your configuration dialog, you can design it so the desired path is selected using a open file dialog. Refer to chapter 13 of the TestStand reference manual for more information about custom step types.
If you do not want to create a custom step type but you still want to give access to your sequence developers to pre-configured steps, you can use templates. A step template is a snapshot of a step that you can reuse later. Let's assume that instead of asking your users to edit the step to enter the desired path, you create several step templates with different pre-configured paths and based on their applications requirements they could use the appropriate template. Refer to the NI TestStand Help for more information about the Templates list on the Insertion Palette.  
Hope it helps.
Antonio Lie.