I have some functionality I wish to add to TestStand as a Process Model Plugin. However, the functionality is related to how serial numbers are configured and parsed to extract UUT metadata and nothing to do with result processing.
Is it acceptable/recommended to create plugins that are not result processing specific?
I started by creating this plugin following the instructions here, which tell you how to make a plugin operate as part of the result processing - which means configuration info etc is held in 'ResultProcessing.cfg' and the config dialog I created for it is only accessible via the 'Result Processing' dialog. I had this working successfully, but it just feels wrong that I am having to go into the result processing dialog to access functionality that is unrelated.
I have therefore been trying to create a separate model plugin to perform the Serial number formatting task. Unfortunately there seems to be very little information about exactly how to do this. I am finding snippets of information here and there but no definitive direction.
So far I have created a configuration entry point in my PM (which adds an item to the config menu) and can call my config dialog with a sequence call to my plugin sequence 'Model Plugin - Configure Standard Options'. I realise that if a cfg file exists in the correct location, that modelsuport.seq will process it and the model plugin specific options become available in parameters - for use by the process model (more specifically the 'Model Plugin - pre UUT' sequence). The bit I am really stuck on is how to create the cfg file in the first place (from the plugin options that my config dialog modifies) and I am certain there are other things that I am missing / need to consider - one of which is the purpose of 'category' (this plugin shouldn't have the 'result processing' category I am sure).
I am using TestStand 2017 and LabVIEW 2017.
Any information / links, words of wisdom would be most appreciated.
- Barry