AutoMate, er, automates

To keep you in that state of wild exhilaration after last week's foray into prebuilt virtual machines, this week we have a tool that could make your life easier, a prospect that may induce something akin to ecstasy.

Just over two years ago we discussed a Windows automation tool, RoboTask, which we really liked and which has since had a dot release and remains a product of great value. But RoboTask is designed to be used with a single machine, so we decided to look at a more network-oriented automation tool: AutoMate 6 Professional Edition from Network Automation.

AutoMate, available only for Windows, consists of three programs: the Task Administrator, the Task Builder and the Task Service. The Task Administrator lets you create and organize tasks, view the event log, manually run tasks, configure tasks (including defining which events trigger execution of individual tasks), and edit global system settings.

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To keep you in that state of wild exhilaration after last week's foray into prebuilt virtual machines, this week we have a tool that could make your life easier, a prospect that may induce something akin to ecstasy.

Just over two years ago we discussed a Windows automation tool, RoboTask, which we really liked and which has since had a dot release and remains a product of great value. But RoboTask is designed to be used with a single machine, so we decided to look at a more network-oriented automation tool: AutoMate 6 Professional Edition from Network Automation.

AutoMate, available only for Windows, consists of three programs: the Task Administrator, the Task Builder and the Task Service. The Task Administrator lets you create and organize tasks, view the event log, manually run tasks, configure tasks (including defining which events trigger execution of individual tasks), and edit global system settings.

The Task Administrator also lets you administer remote copies of AutoMate on other PCs over a TCP/IP network (security is controlled by name and password access). On a remote machine you can do anything that you would do on your local system.

Editing a task is done with the Task Builder, which uses a GUI that has a list of the available functions in an Available Actions pane on the left. You drag functions from the list on the left over to the Steps pane on the right to construct a task.

As each function is dropped onto the Steps pane, a tabbed dialog box appears, letting you set the various parameters of each step, as well as specify which error conditions are to be trapped on the Error Causes tab and what to do about an error on the On Error tab. Options include breaking out of any running loop, setting a variable and sending e-mail.

Some functions have additional tabs, such as the Message Box's Buttons tab for selecting which buttons are available and what they do; the SQL Query function has a Cache tab, so you can specify whether to use cached SQL queries and for how long.

The available functions include basic programming constructs (manipulating variables, loops, conditionals, text manipulation and task-execution control), SQL operations, Excel spreadsheet manipulation, Windows window control and interrogation, clipboard access, application control (including send keys, mouse simulation, select GUI items), file compression and manipulation and Internet operations (FTP, POP3, SMTP, HTTP, ping).

The output from running tasks in the Task Builder is displayed in a tabbed subpanel at the bottom of the Steps pane. The other tabs show breakpoints, watches, variables, attachments and labels associated with the task.

The final program, the Task Service, runs in the background as a run-time to execute tasks. In the Enterprise Edition you can buy the Task Service separately to run as remote clients without GUIs.

The next version, AutoMate 7, due out in January, will focus on enabling enterprise workflow and feature a client written in Java that will run on any system that hosts a Java run-time and a new component, the AutoMate Server. The server will act as a central script repository for all clients. In the meantime, if you need to control other systems, and you have the AutoMate Enterprise Edition, you can use the terminal emulation functions to drive all kinds of hosts.