Automise

What's new in Automise 4

IDE Changes
The new IDE allows multiple projects to be opened for editing (as opposed to Automise 3 which only allows a single project to be opened at a time). To complement this feature the new IDE includes docking which will allow you to re-arrange the tabs to your taste. A number of other improvements have been made throughout the IDE to improve the experience of creating and maintaining your Automise projects. These improvements include:

Improvements To Variable Manipulation
Automise 4 allows you to cut, copy and paste variables. Multiple variables can be cut, copied or pasted in a single operation when using the Variable Editor Dialog. When editing variables from the Project Tree, you can only cut and copy single variables at a time, however you can copy a group (containing multiple variables from the tree) and paste multiple variables at once using the project tree.

Variable Renaming Support
In Automise 4 when you rename a variable, all references to the old variable name will be updated, to save you digging through your project in an attempt to find where you used your variable.

Remove Unused Project Variables
Automise 4 will allow you to remove any project variables that are not referenced throughout your project.

Core Changes
A number of changes went into the Automise Core for version 4. These changes will affect both the Automise IDE and ATCMD.

Unicode Support
Automise is now compiled with a Unicode aware compiler. This was a big change which now allows Automise to support unicode formats. You may notice that some of the text file actions now include options to specify the encoding to be used when creating the file, this was previously not possible with Automise.

Variable Types
In previous versions of Automise all variables were implemented as variants, which are a flexible type that allow you to store value of various types. In most cases variants are sufficient, but in some cases they are not so practical. For instance if you wanted to store a string "03" in a variant, you need to wrap the value in quotes otherwise the value will be interpreted as a number and next time the value is retrieved, Automise will get 3 (rather than 03). In Automise 4 you can specify a type for a variable for those cases where you want a specific data type to be used.

When a typed variable is created, you also have the option to also provide a format string. This can be used to ensure that whenever a specific variable is retrieved it will be in the desired format. Say you had a variable of type integer that you always wanted to padded to 4 digits, setting the format string to %.4d would allow this.

Local Variables
Automise 4 introduces local variables which allow you to create a variable for temporary use. Local variables are ideal for situations where you only need a variable to store data for a small operation of a few actions. The Action Group action has an additional property page that allows you to define local variables. Any variables you define for a particular Action Group can only be referenced by the child actions of the action group. Local Variables are designed for temporary use only and cannot be persisted or used as environment variables.

New Actions
The following new actions are included for the initial release of Automise 4:

• FTPS Actions - Perform FTPS operations.
• EC2 Actions - Manage EC2 instances from Automise.
• Secure ZIP Actions - Archive files using 256-bit AES encryption.
• Hyper V Actions - Manage your Hyper V virtual machines.
• SSH Actions - Run SSH Commands.
• WBAdmin Actions - Perform advanced backup and recovery operations.
• FTP Mirror Action - Mirror files and directory structure from local directory to FTP server or vice versa. Also provides the option to overwrite files that exist in both source and destination based on file size, file date and file CRC (where FTP server supports CRC).
• Exit Loop Action - Exit out of a loop action before the loop condition is satisfied.
• XML Node Exists Action - Check whether a node exists in an XML document.
• Improvements to CD/Burning/Imaging Actions - Changes to CD Burning/ ISO actions to provide full Unicode support.

What's New in Automise 3.0?

Core Improvements

Windows PowerShell & IronPython
PowerShell and IronPython are now supported alongside VBScript and JavaScript as Automise scripting languages. This means that any action can be extended with PowerShell or Python script events, and it is also possible to create PowerShell and Python based custom actions with ActionStudio.

Action Logging
Action log output is now tagged and color-coded according to Errors, Warnings, Success and Information. It is possible to filter the log display in the IDE according to these output tags (for example, to show only Error & Warning output.)

Hierarchical Logging
Actions now produce hierarchical log output, so related messages are grouped together in the log tree.

Performance
Automise is now faster to start up, and runtime performance has dramatically improved. Live logging performance has also increased markedly over previous versions.

Improved Output Quality
All frequently used actions have been visited and revamped, with a view to improving the quality and usefulness of log output.

Automatic Descriptions
Automatic descriptions for all commonly used actions have been revisited and improved. This make it easy to create a self-documenting project.

Action Output Monitors
The new Action Output Monitor feature allows you to watch for particular patterns of log output from an action. The action's behaviour can be modified depending on the output, or specific messages can be captured or suppressed from the action log.

Error Dialog Monitor
This new feature allows you to monitor a third party application for error dialogs popped up while running an action. Dialogs can be automatically dismissed, as appropriate. This is useful when working with poorly-written third party tools that display dialogs when running in an automated mode.

New user info file
The various user-specific .atd,.atw,.atp files used in previous versions have been converted into one common .atpinf file, with all user-specific data for the project. This file also contains information on the current layout of the project tree, which makes the project file more version-control friendly.

IDE Improvements

IDE Action Types and Options Filter
The IDE Action Types view has been heavily revamped with a new, smarter, search system. This makes it easier to find the action that you're looking for. The same new view has been added to the Options dialog.

IDE Welcome Page
The new Welcome Page provides quick and easy startup, introductory information, and quick navigation to commonly used starting points.

IDE Redesign
The layout of the Run Status and Run History tabs have been rearranged for improved usability and performance. It is now possible to watch the Run Status and the project layout at the same time.

Live Logging Improvements
Enabling live logging while the project is running now shows any existing output from the current running action.

Validation
Action validation errors are now hyperlinks to the source of the failure (action or option pages.)

Easy Scripting of Action Properties
Selecting any action property in the Properties tab (formerly called the Action Inspector) now automatically displays the fragment of script used to access that property from an action script event.

Project Author and Notes
The Project Tree has new fields for project author and any notes about the project.  These fields are displayed in the Project Information node, as well as on the Welcome Page in the recent projects section.

Project Information in Project Tree
The Project Tree now includes a project information node that provides detailed information about the current project.  The information exposed is:

• Project Name
• Project Path
• Created Date
• Modified Date
• Successful Runs
• Failed Runs
• Total Runs
• Success Ratio (expressed as a percentage)
• Last Runs Date
• Last Runs Result
• Action List Count
• Action Count
• Log File Size
• Project Author, and
• Project Notes.

Variable Groups
Variables can now be grouped for easier management.

Variable Suggestion
Press F12 while editing any action property field to automatically see a list of suggested variables to substitute for hard-coded strings. This feature makes it much easier to create a robust and maintainable project.

Global Script Editor Enhancements
Find and Replace has been added to the Global Script Editor as well as many other usability enhancements like better resizing of the window, works with dual monitor setups better, and if no changes are made to the script then Escape and Cancel will close the window without prompting.

Batch Project Upgrade
For Automise users that have dozens or even hundreds of projects in older formats, the new batch project upgrade dialog will enable you to upgrade old projects automatically.

New Actions

SFTP actions
New actions are now available for transfering files securefly over SFTP. Actions include:

• SFTP Connect/disconnect
• SFTP Download file/files
• SFTP Create/Remove Directory
• SFTP Remove File/Files
• SFTP Upload file/files/filesets
• SFTP List Files
• SFTP Query Available Space
• SFTP Rename file
• SFTP Copy remote file

CSV Field Iterator
Iterate the fields of a CSV (or similar) file.

IIS 7 Actions
New actions for managing Application Pools and websites on IIS 7 servers.

Simple Math Action
An action to perform simple maths as part of your project, including addition, subtraction, modulus, factorial, logarithm and sine etc.

VMWare
New actions for VMWare Server including:

• Listing virtual machines,
• Creating/deleting/Reverting snapshots,
• Changing VM state, including:
  • Start
  • Stop [Hard]
  • Stop [Soft]
  • Reset [Hard]
  • Reset [Soft]
  • Suspend [Hard]
  • Suspend [Soft]
  • Pause
  • Unpause
• Running Guest Commands, including:
  • Run a program in Guest OS
  • Run a program interactively in Guest OS
  • Check if a file exists in Guest OS
  • List running processes in Guest OS
  • Kill a process in Guest OS
  • Run a script in Guest OS
  • Delete a file in Guest OS
  • Rename a file in Guest OS
  • Create a directory in Guest OS
  • Delete a directory in Guest OS
  • List a directory in Guest OS
  • Write a variable in the VM state
  • Read a variable in the VM state
  • Write a variable in the guest environment
  • Read a variable in the guest environment
  • Save screen capture of virtual machine to host
  • Copy a file from the guest operating system to the host
  • Copy a file from the host to the guest operating system

Web Service Actions
New actions for querying and receiving data from Web Services.

Improved Actions

Run Action as User
All actions now have a "Run Action as User" field to allow you to run each action as a specific user.

Export Log Action
Can now export a log fragment instead of a whole log.

ActionStudio

Custom Action Property Sets
Custom actions defined in ActionStudio can now define their own Property Set types. It is also possible for custom actions to access built-in Property Set types.

Custom Action File Sets
Custom actions defined in ActionStudio can now access File Set information and file lists.

New .NET Custom Action API
Automise 3 ships with a new API for creating .NET custom actions. The new API makes it quicker and easier than ever to create custom actions with ActionStudio and .NET

Find & Replace
Find & Replace has been added to ActionStudio in the script editor to easily search for and replace text.

Windows PowerShell
PowerShell has been added to ActionStudio as a scripting language for developing custom actions.

IronPython
IronPython has also been added to ActionStudio as a scripting language for developing custom actions.

Search Keywords
Actions can now define extra search keywords which is used by the Automise IDE when a user searches for actions.  For example, a action called "Delay" could define keywords "Wait" and "Pause" for easier searching.

Iterator Actions
A third type of action, Iterator has been added alongside Standard and Execute Program.  The Iterator action type allows the development of Iterator actions that run multiple times (including their child actions) for each value in a list.

What is Automise?
Traditionally, batch files and scripts have been used to automate Windows. These can take a significant amount of time to write for a complex process, especially one that is reliable enough to use regularly. They are also difficult to maintain, arduous for people to understand and suffer from a lack of proper error handling. Automise offers a quick and easy alternative for automating Windows tasks.

By reducing the need for writing script, Automise empowers anyone to automate Windows tasks. It's easy to create and maintain an automation project with drag-and-drop in its graphical interface. Once finished, anyone can run a project with a single click, keystroke or automatically on a schedule and save time with the power to run tasks automatically.

With a wide variety of built-in functionality for automating many common tasks and support for 3rd party applications, Automise is also a very versatile Windows automation tool. It even includes flow control and error handling to develop dynamic automation projects and ActionStudio for making custom actions.

What can Automise automate?
It’s easy to automate Windows tasks by adding any of over 380 built-in actions to workflow.
Built-in functionality can automate:

• Batch file operations (copy, move, create, delete, etc)
• Mouse click and movement
• CD/DVD burning
• Active Directory management
• IIS 5 and 6 operations (start, stop, create website, etc)
• Downloading and uploading websites
• Batch image manipulation
• Database manipulations using SQL or stored procedures
• FTP operations (put, get, create directory, etc)
• Iteration through files, folders, file content, lists
• Creating zip files, unpack RAR files, etc
• Manipulate XML files
• PDF conversion and manipulation
• WMI operations
• and much more

Why automate Windows?
There are many benefits in automating Windows, including:

• Efficiency: once a task is automated, you have a one click solution to a complex problem.
• Consistency: the same process is repeated to produce the same result every time.
• Dependability: automating Windows removes the potential for human error.
• Productivity:
  • Relieves people of repetitive tasks, freeing time for more stimulating work
  • Schedule tasks to run at night and off-peak times to ease the drain on resources during the day
  • Regular tasks can be scheduled to run automatically to reduce workload

Why automate Windows with Automise?
There are also many distinct benefits to automating Windows with Automise, including:

• Versatility - With over 380 built-in actions to automate many repetitive Windows tasks; and ActionStudio for developing custom plugins to empower you to automate anything
• Reliability - advanced automation engine; and stable and mature code base
• Graphical development process - lowers the upfront time required to automate a task compared to scripting; facilitates more efficient and effective project maintenance and debugging; and assists in project sharing and collaboration between different team members
• Full logging - to facilitate quick and easy debugging of projects; and automate the process of record-keeping and reporting
• Free run-time - Automise Runner empowers anyone to run automation projects, enabling Automise users to freely share their projects

Automise Plugin Architecture - ActionStudio
Automise ActionStudio is a companion product included with Automise. Its and IDE for defining and developing actions to allow anyone to create custom actions for Automise.

Actions can be developed in any of the following languages:

• Active Script (VBScript, JScript)
• .Net languages

ActionStudio is used to create Action Packages, which contain one or more Automise Actions.  The action package file defines the action properties, events, options, and property pages in an XML file format.  Actions written in Active Script are completely contained within the action package, whereas .Net based actions refer to external dlls and assemblies for the implementation of the action.

What are Automise Plugins?
Automise Plugins are extra functionality (actions) for Automise.  The plugins are developed in ActionStudio, and are then installed into the Automise ActionDefs folder.  The plugin definition file is simply an XML file, which can be edited by hand but is much easier to edit the action within ActionStudio.  Actions that are implemented with .NET will require the assembly file to be placed in the ActionDefs\Assemblies folder.

To launch ActionStudio, click on "Action Studio" under the "Tools" menu in Automise and Automise Lite.

Automise
Automise empowers System Administrators and IT Professionals to automate enterprise level IT processes. It is packed with almost 400 actions for automating many of the complex repetitive processes present in large corporate environments. Included only in this version are actions for automating the management of:

• Active Directory
• COM+
• IIS 5 and 6
• NTFS junction points
• Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ)
• Registry values and INI files
• Virtualization software

If Automise does not include the built-in functionality you need for automating an IT process, it also features ActionStudio for developing custom actions.

Automise Runner
Automise Runner is a free application for running Windows automation projects. It allows Automise users to share their projects with clients, colleagues and family, empowering them to automate Windows tasks with a single click or keystroke. Without the full IDE, automation projects cannot be created or scheduled in Automise Runner, but variables and other options can be edited to ensure projects effectively automate Windows' tasks across different computers.

Software Assurance
Software Assurance provides the purchaser with access to all Upgrades & Updates at no further cost for a period of 1 year. Usually upgrades are sold at a cost of around 35 - 60% of a full purchase, whilst Software Assurance is priced at 20% of a full purchase. This provides you with a discount on the next version of FinalBuilder should it be released within your software assurance period.

Software Assurance can only be purchased at the time you purchase or upgrade FinalBuilder. You will be able to renew your software assurance when your current software assurance expires.

Without Software Assurance you may : Download and use every minor update made available for the purchased version, for example if you purchased version 4.x, you can upgrade free of charge to 4.0.0.408, 4.0.1.500, 4.1.2.600, 4.5.0.700 etc
To upgrade to the next major release (eg. 5.0) will require the payment of an upgrade fee.

With Software Assurance you may : Download & use every minor update and any new Major Version made available within your Software Assurance Period, for example if you purchased 4.x, you can upgrade free of charge to 4.0.0.408, 4.0.1.500, 4.1.2.600, 4.5.0.700, 5.0.0.0, 5.5.0.300 etc.
In the above example, if version 5 is released within your Software Assurance Period then you would receive that upgrade at no extra cost.