Automic Workload Automation

We would like to run HTTP request from UC4. For example, if we enter a request in the browser, sms will be sent.
How can we run it trough UC4? Can we use dynamic params ?

It's possible to open a browser session from a Windows job with this command:

start <browser.exe> <url>

e.g.

start firefox.exe http://google.com

You may as well use a script variable as the url :

ex:

:SET &URL# = "http://google.com"
start firefox.exe &URL#

However it's not possible to use a script variable to define one or several parts of the url, because of the "&" character which is used in script variables' names. This character is also commonly used in urls, which makes the variable resolution fail at runtime.

e.g.

:SET &DOMAIN# = "http://google"
:SET &EXTENSION# = ".com"
start chrome.exe &DOMAIN#&EXT#

Will fail:

c:\>start chrome.exe http://google  & EXT#
'EXT#' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

As a workaround you may store the complete url into a single script variable:

:SET &DOMAIN# = "http://google"
:SET &EXTENSION# = ".com"
:SET &URL#=&DOMAIN#&EXTENSION#
start firefox.exe &URL#

Best regards,
Antoine

Antoine Sauteron said:

However it's not possible to use a script variable to define one or several parts of the url, because of the "&" character which is used in script variables' names. This character is also commonly used in urls, which makes the variable resolution fail at runtime.

e.g.

:SET &DOMAIN# = "http://google"
:SET &EXTENSION# = ".com"
start chrome.exe &DOMAIN#&EXT#

 

Hey Antoine_Sauteron

It is possible. You need to enclose it in quotation mark:

start chrome.exe "&DOMAIN#&EXT#"

Also, you can play around with other options for the executable you are running.
Example for Chrome browser.. below it will open Chrome in a maximized window.

start chrome.exe --start-maximized "&DOMAIN#&EXT#"

http://www.ghacks.net/2013/10/06/list-useful-google-chrome-command-line-switches/

Hi Christine_Chavez_6412
Thanks for the hint!

However the original request was to use a url whose parts would be defined with a variable - for instance
http://sms-srv/SNSManager/msgSend.jsp?uid=&MYUSER#&encoding=windows-1255&pass=&PASSWORD#&sender=&SENDER#=sql&msg=&MESSAGE#

So I'm not sure this would work with a url like the one above.
I tried with my Salesforce login page:

https://login.salesforce.com/?ec=302&startURL=%2Fhome%2Fhome.jsp%3Fsdtd%3D1&sdtd=1

:SET &PART1# = "/?ec=302"
:SET &PART2# = "%2Fhome%2Fhome.jsp%3Fsdtd%3D1&sdtd=1"

start firefox.exe https://login.salesforce.com/"&PART1#"&startURL="&PART2#"

And it returns this :

U00021719 Syntax error in object 'JOBS.WIN.KICKURL', line '00002'. 'U01001308 Variable 'sdtd' has not yet been defined.'.

If fails with :

start firefox.exe "https://login.salesforce.com/&PART1#&startURL=&PART2#"

start firefox.exe https://login.salesforce.com/&PART1#&startURL=&PART2#

:SET &PART1# = "/?ec=302"
:SET &PART2# = "%2Fhome%2Fhome.jsp%3Fsdtd%3D1&sdtd=1"
:SET &URL# = "https://login.salesforce.com/&PART1#&PART2#"

start firefox.exe &URL#

So it seems the AE will try to interpret strings that contain '&' as variables. For this reason this method only works if the url to be called by the job does not contain this character.

Best regards,
Antoine

Just why I am curious - Why do you want to open a Web GUI (e.g. firefox) with a tool that does not support GUI interactions?
I do not get the use behind that?!?

wouldn´t here be any kind of API a better solution?

cheers Wolfgang

Hi Wolfgang,

The initial request was to know if it was possible to send a SMS via the AE, with dynamic parameters - like the sender, message, etc.

FYI the customer finally decided to use a REST WS job for this task.

we found a solution using WS REST job.
In this method, we can pass dynamic parameters.
For now we are checking the result using regular POST_PROCESS_REPORT, though we will change it and use XPath\XQuery, since it's more reliable.

Best regards,
Antoine

Hi Antoine_Sauteron


Instead of:

start firefox.exe https://login.salesforce.com/"&PART1#"&startURL="&PART2#"

Enclose the whole http in quotation marks. That way the whole http string will be interpreted as one.

start firefox.exe "https://login.salesforce.com/&PART1#&startURL=&PART2#"

Hi Christine,

This is exactly what I did (see my comment above):

https://us.v-cdn.net/5019921/uploads/editor/8j/jcumjlm0d336.png" width="756">
The job gets a 'FAULT_OTHER - Start impossible. Other error.' status.

In the details the last message is:

U00021719 Syntax error in object 'JOBS.WIN.KICKURL', line '00002'. 'U01001308 Variable 'sdtd' has not yet been defined.'.

I would suspect it refers to this part of the url: '&sdtd=1'.

Does it work at your end?

Best regards,
Antoine

Antoine Sauteron said:

https://login.salesforce.com/?ec=302&startURL=%2Fhome%2Fhome.jsp%3Fsdtd%3D1&sdtd=1

:SET &PART1# = "/?ec=302"
:SET &PART2# = "%2Fhome%2Fhome.jsp%3Fsdtd%3D1&sdtd=1"

start firefox.exe https://login.salesforce.com/"&PART1#"&startURL="&PART2#"

And it returns this :

U00021719 Syntax error in object 'JOBS.WIN.KICKURL', line '00002'. 'U01001308 Variable 'sdtd' has not yet been defined.'.

Hi Antoine_Sauteron

You might want to review your comment because your code above shows that you have &PART1# and &PART2# in quotation marks :)

Yes, it works on my end.

Regarding the error 'sdtd' not yet defined, this is because in &PART2# you have a "&" which AE interprets as a variable. So it interprets sdtd as a variable. That needs to be changed to &&. Just like when you're trying to print
&MYVAR#, you do

:PRINT variable name is &&MYVAR#

This prints  "variable name is &MYVAR#".


If you do just:

:PRINT variable name is &MYVAR#

This will throw an error that 'MYVAR#' has not yet been defined.


I have already tested this and it works (well it's not a valid URL but it opens chrome with https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl+whatever&sdtd=1). Note the value for &param2#.

:set &name#="http://google" :set &param1# = "?gws_rd=ssl" :set &param2#="+whatever&&sdtd=1" start chrome.exe "&name#&ext#&param1#&param2#"


Hi Christine, I think you missed parts of my comment :)
I did several tests - I did not only try with:

start firefox.exe https://login.salesforce.com/"&PART1#"&startURL="&PART2#"

If fails with :

start firefox.exe "https://login.salesforce.com/&PART1#&startURL=&PART2#"

start firefox.exe https://login.salesforce.com/&PART1#&startURL=&PART2#

:SET &PART1# = "/?ec=302"
:SET &PART2# = "%2Fhome%2Fhome.jsp%3Fsdtd%3D1&sdtd=1"
:SET &URL# = "https://login.salesforce.com/&PART1#&PART2#"

start firefox.exe &URL#

Christine Chavez said:

Regarding the error 'sdtd' not yet defined, this is because in &PART2# you have a "&" which AE interprets as a variable. So it interprets sdtd as a variable. That needs to be changed to &&. Just like when you're trying to print
&MYVAR#, you do

:PRINT variable name is &&MYVAR#

This prints  "variable name is &MYVAR#".


If you do just:

:PRINT variable name is &MYVAR#

This will throw an error that 'MYVAR#' has not yet been defined.


I have already tested this and it works (well it's not a valid URL but it opens chrome with https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl+whatever&sdtd=1). Note the value for &param2#.

:set &name#="http://google" :set &param1# = "?gws_rd=ssl" :set &param2#="+whatever&&sdtd=1" start chrome.exe "&name#&ext#&param1#&param2#"


Regarding the error 'sdtd' not yet defined, this is because in &PART2# you have a "&" which AE interprets as a variable. So it interprets sdtd as a variable. That needs to be changed to &&. Just like when you're trying to print &MYVAR#, you do

:PRINT variable name is &&MYVAR#

It did work after changing '&std' to '&&std' in the url, thanks for the  hint!

Best regards,
Antoine

Unix: curl

Windows: nothing beats Powershell. Best is native as in V12 / custom interpreter. You can also access the result & interpret it (like parse for an expected string) easily or check the HTTP code.

powershell -command "$request = Invoke-WebRequest -TimeoutSec 600 -UseDefaultCredentials -UseBasicParsing -Uri '&L_URL#'; $request.rawContent; if ($request.StatusCode -ne 200) { exit 1; }"