Tenth Generation Automation Server is a Windows service that runs continuously in the background, usually on one or more servers that can schedule jobs (job scheduling) that run one or more common tasks such as:

• Picking up files from disk or FTP
• Dropping files
• Doing XSLT transforms
• Sending emails
• Running SQL scripts
• Calling functions in .Net assemblies
• Calling web services
• Running command line executables
• Posting to web pages
• Monitor Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) queues and dispatch messages received from those queues.
• Send MSMQ messages

Automation Console
The Tenth Generation Automation Console, that is a utility that creates and modifies the configuration file Automation.config used by the Automation Server.

Tenth Generation Automation Server Object Model
There are three top-level objects in the Tenth Generation Automation Server:

• Schedules
• Jobs
• MSMQ Monitors

Schedules
A schedule determines when a job will be run. You can have any number of schedules defined. More than one schedule can run the same job.

Jobs
A job is a series of tasks or "steps" to run. A job is run whenever a schedule has triggered it. Another job can be specified to run when the primary job has failed.

Steps
A step is a single task that is run as part of a job. Any number of steps can be defined for a job. Steps may receive input or specify an output or both depending on the individual steps available. If a particular step fails then the entire job fails with the exception of sending emails and writing to the event log. If a job has an error job specified then information about the step failure (known as an "exception") is passed to the error job as it's input.

The following steps are available:

• Pickup File
• Drop File
• Delete File
• Convert File
• FTP Pickup
• FTP Drop
• FTP Delete
• Send Email
• Send Multiple (Batch) Emails
• Send MSMQ Message
• Write to Event Log
• XSLT Transform
• XML Iterator
• Call Web Service
• POST Web Page
• GET Web Page
• Run Executable
• Call Function in Assembly
• Run SQL
• Run Job as a Step
• Null Step
• Send Exception Email
• Write Exception to Event Log

MSMQ Monitors
Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) is a messaging system built into Windows. It allows messages to be sent guaranteed between computers. A computer that wants to receive these messages must create a queue in the MSMQ MMC applet and then run a listener to listen for these messages. There is no built-in listener in Windows. That's what the MSMQ monitor in Automation Server provides. You specify a job to run when a message is received. MSMQ messages have a "payload" that is usually an XML file but can be in any format. This payload is sent to the job as it's input.

Tenth Generation Automation Server is a 100% managed .NET application and 64-bit ( x64, 64-bit) compatible.