Editor : Deployment of Test Plan

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Two questions (9.15)

  1. If I license the Keysight KS8400 package for development, does this include deployment of the editor for runtime testing? My understanding is it does, but I’ve seen another post implying there is no runtime and full licenses are required for each tester. This would invalidate my decision to use openTAP.

  2. How does one deploy opentap with compiled scripts and instruments to another PC? I tried copying the directories but the Editor doesn’t seem to open. I can run tap and install packages. I don’t want to use tui. If the answer is simply the license for the KS8400 package needs to be installed on the development PC this would be great . I received a temp license but haven’t installed it yet thinking it didn’t provide anything above the CE package.

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  1. Yes, the license allows for running tests, but would depend on the type of license you have if you are able to simply move the license to another system vs requiring a separate one (there are node-locked, transportable, and floating license). OpenTAP itself is essentially the “runtime” so this can be used without the Editor and a custom UI as well if desired. This is normally what we see, since most users want to restrict the level of access an operator has when making changes once tests are deployed.

  2. It sounds like in this case yes, you are just missing the License. You should be able to copy the entire directory into a new location on the system as well as to another system. Generally though, we split this into two steps the first being installing OpenTAP (or the Developer System) and then creating a custom plugin that installs everything else you need. There is a video on how to create a Package here:
    Plugin Packaging: Package.xml | OpenTAP - YouTube

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  1. Previous discussions were around licensing one copy of KS8400 and deploying on several testers. Since I don’t have staff (at this time) to write a custom version of the editor and TUI just isn’t good enough what are my cost effective options for deployment with the editor? If necessary I’ll go back to writing the entire test app in c# which would be a shame.
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The license is intended to be used on one system at a time (meaning the Editor actually being open). If that is acceptable, you could use a Transportable or Floating license to move across systems.

Otherwise, it would require multiple licenses at this time. Do you have a Keysight Account Manager you normally work with? Their may be some other more cost-effective options through them (taking time into account as well) that would be better rewriting everything.

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I may have mis-understood the licensing for deploying openTAP. Maybe one option is the KS8000B license path. Would this be considered a runtime license for all KS8400 components?

Is there a “site license option available” for testers at multiple locations in a limited geographical region? I can’t guaranty network access at a test facility down the street and I would prefer not to node lock unless using a dongle.

In reference to an account manager, my original corporate contact referred me to you when I had questions on licensing openTAP.

Finally would you expect the CE version to run if copying a complete directory structure to another PC? This is what originally sparked my post since I expected openTAP to be totally self contained in its directory structure.

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KS8000B adds Keysight commercial support as well as the REST API to OpenTAP. It does not have all the UIs (Editor, etc). There are single-site licenses available but they are floating/network based.
If you are ok with me sharing your email, I can have someone from the Keysight sales team contact you and find something that works for you use case. I think we can figure something out.

For the Community Edition, likely that will not work by just copying the directory structure over since it does require the acceptance of the EULA to run. If you were to install it first, and then copy everything over, it should work from there.

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I’m open to a call from keysight sales or sharing of my e-mail address.

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Thank you for your help (offline). Ive gotten the example GUI to function as a starting point and can run an existing testpla. I also see in the example results listener how to manipulate text based data fields associated with the teststep (e.g., name). Is there an example of how to access the [Output] variables from test steps in the results listener. I see where I could use the Publish results method to pass information to the listener via a table, but I was hoping to monitor the Output Variables from individual test steps as they run.

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9

Glad you got things working @craig.petku. Right now, the Output parameters aren’t automatically passed to Result Listeners. You can publish them in the same way as any other value though within a setting.

It is an existing feature request for the Output parameters to be accessible.

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That would be nice. My workaround is to duplicate the public variable so that the one which is not an [output] can be accessed by the results listener when it querries the testStep. This allows the GUI to readily display results on the screen more real time and now that CSV’s work I don’t need to write a routine to parse the results table.

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You can also use ResultAttribute to mark a property as a result. Then it will get automatically propagated to ResultListeners after the step has been executed.

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12

Hi @brennen_direnzo,

I know this is an old thread, but I just want to ask a couple of questions related to this. I think the original poster touched on this, but basically my plan for the test stations at our company is that we won’t have to pay for any licenses for deployment because we will only have the editor.exe on a few development machines (KS8400 license), and we will utlimatley have custom UIs that will be plugins.

I believe that Tap.exe and OpenTap.dll can be deployed onto the test stations along with whatever plugins we create (custom UIs, result listeners etc…) as well as test plans we generate (which are XML files or packages?). So, I believe that we will not have to pay anything for the deployed code, just the licenses for the editor.exe on a couple of development machines.

Is this a correct assumption and the usual practice? If so, it beats NI TestStand, where you need a deployment license for each test station!

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@reelthymeos yes, you got it. The main license is the KS8400B Developer License, but for deployment with a custom UI you are able to use just OpenTAP with any custom plugins you have created without a license.

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