Blue Prism Product

(a) If I attempt to start a BP runtime resource via CLI, the CLI doesn't return any output to indicate success or failure. All such information is written to the BP Resource PC window so my program is unable to tell if the "automate.exe /resourcepc ..." command has worked correctly. How have others handled this situation?

(b) Is there any way to shutdown a BP Runtime resource via CLI?

(c) I can trigger a process via "automatec.exe /run /startp ..." and can pass single instance data items via the "startp" xml string. I've not figured out how to pass in a collection however. Anyone know what the XML for that would be?

Thanks a lot.

Cheers
Dan

Dan,

To your first point, I don't know of any direct way to find status once it's kicked off. Indirectly, you can do so through the BP app server, Windows Event Logs, the audit/session logs, and other secondary sources.

There's no direct way to shut down a resource, but there are both primary and secondary ways to shut down a process. First, there's the "/requeststop" command line parameter for AutomateC which politely asks a process to die (the process has to be built to acknowledge the request). Similary, there are secondary ways - using a purpose-built process, for example - to update flag variables or queue items to put a different process into a finalized state and convince it to end gracefully.

At an extreme, you can always just use a Windows command line/power shell command to kill the proces.

The easiest way to pass a collection like that, honestly, may be to do something like pass JSON in as a single string and then parse it inside the process. I believe it's possible to pass in collections but it's a more complex XML structure, if I remember rightly. Take a look at how data is stored inside work queue items - I believe it's the same structure?

(a) If I attempt to start a BP runtime resource via CLI, the CLI doesn't return any output to indicate success or failure. All such information is written to the BP Resource PC window so my program is unable to tell if the "automate.exe /resourcepc ..." command has worked correctly. How have others handled this situation?

(b) Is there any way to shutdown a BP Runtime resource via CLI?

(c) I can trigger a process via "automatec.exe /run /startp ..." and can pass single instance data items via the "startp" xml string. I've not figured out how to pass in a collection however. Anyone know what the XML for that would be?

Thanks a lot.

Cheers
Dan

Dan,

To your first point, I don't know of any direct way to find status once it's kicked off. Indirectly, you can do so through the BP app server, Windows Event Logs, the audit/session logs, and other secondary sources.

There's no direct way to shut down a resource, but there are both primary and secondary ways to shut down a process. First, there's the "/requeststop" command line parameter for AutomateC which politely asks a process to die (the process has to be built to acknowledge the request). Similary, there are secondary ways - using a purpose-built process, for example - to update flag variables or queue items to put a different process into a finalized state and convince it to end gracefully.

At an extreme, you can always just use a Windows command line/power shell command to kill the proces.

The easiest way to pass a collection like that, honestly, may be to do something like pass JSON in as a single string and then parse it inside the process. I believe it's possible to pass in collections but it's a more complex XML structure, if I remember rightly. Take a look at how data is stored inside work queue items - I believe it's the same structure?

(a) If I attempt to start a BP runtime resource via CLI, the CLI doesn't return any output to indicate success or failure. All such information is written to the BP Resource PC window so my program is unable to tell if the "automate.exe /resourcepc ..." command has worked correctly. How have others handled this situation?

(b) Is there any way to shutdown a BP Runtime resource via CLI?

(c) I can trigger a process via "automatec.exe /run /startp ..." and can pass single instance data items via the "startp" xml string. I've not figured out how to pass in a collection however. Anyone know what the XML for that would be?

Thanks a lot.

Cheers
Dan

Hi,

This is how we do it ; probably you already figured this out. ( Using Powershell )

& $automatec /dbconname $DBConnection /resource $Resource /port 8180 /sso /run "Login" /startp "<inputs><input name='Login Locally' type='flag' value='False' /><input name='Domain' type='text' value='<YourAD_Name>' /><input name='Credential Name' type='text' value='$Credentials' /> </inputs>"

All the best,

Håkan

Dan,

To your first point, I don't know of any direct way to find status once it's kicked off. Indirectly, you can do so through the BP app server, Windows Event Logs, the audit/session logs, and other secondary sources.

There's no direct way to shut down a resource, but there are both primary and secondary ways to shut down a process. First, there's the "/requeststop" command line parameter for AutomateC which politely asks a process to die (the process has to be built to acknowledge the request). Similary, there are secondary ways - using a purpose-built process, for example - to update flag variables or queue items to put a different process into a finalized state and convince it to end gracefully.

At an extreme, you can always just use a Windows command line/power shell command to kill the proces.

The easiest way to pass a collection like that, honestly, may be to do something like pass JSON in as a single string and then parse it inside the process. I believe it's possible to pass in collections but it's a more complex XML structure, if I remember rightly. Take a look at how data is stored inside work queue items - I believe it's the same structure?

(a) If I attempt to start a BP runtime resource via CLI, the CLI doesn't return any output to indicate success or failure. All such information is written to the BP Resource PC window so my program is unable to tell if the "automate.exe /resourcepc ..." command has worked correctly. How have others handled this situation?

(b) Is there any way to shutdown a BP Runtime resource via CLI?

(c) I can trigger a process via "automatec.exe /run /startp ..." and can pass single instance data items via the "startp" xml string. I've not figured out how to pass in a collection however. Anyone know what the XML for that would be?

Thanks a lot.

Cheers
Dan

(a) If I attempt to start a BP runtime resource via CLI, the CLI doesn't return any output to indicate success or failure. All such information is written to the BP Resource PC window so my program is unable to tell if the "automate.exe /resourcepc ..." command has worked correctly. How have others handled this situation?

(b) Is there any way to shutdown a BP Runtime resource via CLI?

(c) I can trigger a process via "automatec.exe /run /startp ..." and can pass single instance data items via the "startp" xml string. I've not figured out how to pass in a collection however. Anyone know what the XML for that would be?

Thanks a lot.

Cheers
Dan

Hi Dan,

To the pointer below - 

(b) Is there any way to shutdown a BP Runtime resource via CLI?

Lets say the available resource named rpa-bot-prod-128 is in need of a reboot - and we do pass a CLI as below 

shutdown /m \\rpa-bot-prod-128 /r /t 0

This will immediately initiate the shutdown process 

(please do let us know if this is a working for you - and do suggest if this is one among the allowed practices as well )

------------------------------
Sreeram Rangu

RPA CoE Controller 

CDK Global India

Original Message:
Sent: 08-17-2019 11:57
From: Dan Ternes
Subject: AutomateC.exe & Automate.exe via command line

Hi Everyone

I've got a couple of questions relating to invoking automate.exe and automatec.exe via the command line.

(a) If I attempt to start a BP runtime resource via CLI, the CLI doesn't return any output to indicate success or failure. All such information is written to the BP Resource PC window so my program is unable to tell if the "automate.exe /resourcepc ..." command has worked correctly. How have others handled this situation?

(b) Is there any way to shutdown a BP Runtime resource via CLI?

(c) I can trigger a process via "automatec.exe /run /startp ..." and can pass single instance data items via the "startp" xml string. I've not figured out how to pass in a collection however. Anyone know what the XML for that would be?

Thanks a lot.

Cheers
Dan