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 is available in different editions.
Everyone performs repetitive tasks. So to make the benefits of automation accessible to a variety of different users, VSoft offer a range of editions and licensing options. These are designed to make Automise available to everyone from the home power user performing batch image processing to the System Administrator managing 1,500 servers.
Automise
The full featured version of 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.
ATCMD Run-time licensing
VSoft offer ATCMD run-time licensing to facilitate large scale distribution of Automise's full functionality. ATCMD run-time licenses allow Automise projects to be triggered to run on remote computers, without requiring the purchase of the more expensive full Automise IDE licenses.
ATCMD licenses are included in enterprise licensing to offer better value for System Admins, Network Admins and other IT Professionals wanting to automate their repetitive tasks across the entire organisation.
Automise Lite
Automise Lite is for the PC power user. It offers functionality that is useful for automating many repetitive tasks. It doesn't include the functionality required in enterprise environments so is available for a price tag affordable to an individual. Automise Lite can be used to automate Windows tasks like:
- Downloading and uploading web content
- Sending email, ICQ and MSN messages
- Batch image processing (resize, change image format, rotate, flip, mirror)
- Batch file operations (rename, move, copy, create, delete)
- Sending mouse clicks and keystrokes
- Backing up files
- CD/DVD burning
- Disk management
If this this edition does not include the built-in functionality you need for automating a Windows task, it also features ActionStudio for making 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.
