Automic Workload Automation

Hi All,

I am just starting out with Automic. I know that Automic isn't designed to interact with GUI elements but what about a console application where you have set of interactions to achieve some task?

For Ex, A console application running on a Unix machine prompts for login first, next some menu selections using number keys , then finally displays some data which is to be captured by Automic. Is this kind of interaction possible in Automic?

Specifically, I need this solution for QAD ERP Application. 

Thanks.

Hi

no there is no interaction possible neither with GUI nor with console programs.

You can do with automic everything you can do on a console (except interactive task - e.g. on WIN runas will prompt for a PW, thats not useable with automic)

So if the program has a batch mode, it will work.

cheers, Wolfgang

Thanks for the reply FrankMuffke 

Is there any way where commands written in batch file or PS does this type of automation?

Commands would be like:
1. open the application
2. enter username > press enter
3. enter password > press enter etc..

So having saved this in a batch file or a ps script, if we directly run this script then can we achieve the above task?

I know of a way where we can use Sendkeys method in powershell. But this doesn't seem much reliable.

Any other way around?

Thanks

Hi.

So having saved this in a batch file or a ps script

There is a wealth of (separate) commercial or free software that can automate console input by sending pre-determined key presses to other applications, e.g. in the field of macro software or even software usually used in gaming. You can probably find a lot by looking for "emulate keyboard input", "simulate key presses", "macro software" and similar topics in Google, Source Forge etc.

However, your software, if run under Automic, will have it's stdin device taken over by Automic. So my advise is, before you invest a lot of time finding ways to emulate or "script" the input into your software with the idea to eventually do that within Automic, make sure your software (and possibly, the added input emulation software) even works when run from within Automic.

In some cases, interactive-mode software (like the one from the screenshots) won't even start up properly in Automic. So to start, I would simply try to launch your software from within Automic and see if it even starts and waits for input (of course, you'll not see anything, you'll be doing it blindly). It's not unlikely your software will terminate right away because it has it's standard input redirected and doesn't like it. What happens will depend on how exatcly your software is coded. In that case, you're entirely out of luck with any ideas of using your software in Automic (i.e. unless it has a dedicated, built-in non-interactive, or "batch" mode).

Generally speaking, Automic is neither designed nor very suitable for automating interactive console apps. Automic is, historically, a scheduler for batch-style applications first with next to no considerations for automating interactive apps.

So at best, you can use entirely other software to automate your interactive process by emulating input, and once that works, you could consider additionally adding Automic as another layer to that combination - if the particular scheduling features of Automic are desired. However, this may always be a fickle setup and I, for one, would go to some length to avoid having to create and maintain this sort of thing.

Hth,

Carsten

Hi

I do not know a method to fulfill your request with Automic :-(

Most Applications I know have either a seperate interface or a batch Mode to deal with.

The best way would be contacting the vendor and asking for your possibilities in that case.

cheers, Wolfgang