Automation Options and Tools - Scheduler & Generator

Omniscope Enterprise Editions install together with two additional automation tools designed to run on 'always-on' servers. The Scheduler performs merge, refresh and publication or distribution tasks according to a defined chronological schedule. The Generator listens on a port for delivery of personalised data updates delivered in XML from back-end systems 'on-demand'. Whenever the Generator detects an arriving new data set on its port, it refreshes a corresponding Template file to create a new file, then passes control to the Scheduler for re-publication and re-distribution of the new file(s).

Omniscope Enterprise Scheduler

The Omniscope Enterprise Scheduler is a graphical application requiring no development skills. File refresh, merge, export and publishing automation using the Scheduler are configured by 'recording' actions performed on existing Omniscope template file containing each data set for which you wish to automate tasks

First configure the Omniscope .IOK/.IOM files (which can be server-based 'data mart' files with user desktop 'child' files refreshing automatically from the 'data marts') containing some or all of the same data exactly as you want future, fully-populated and refreshed user report files to appear. Then configure the Scheduler to populate/refresh the template files from their linked data source(s) according to a defined time schedule. You can also use Scheduler commands to distribute the refreshed file(s) to file share folders, or by email or FTP to a website, add time stamps, archive copies, etc.

Note: Updating .IOK/.IOM files requires that the linked data source for each file to be up-to-date. If you have a live database this is given, but if you are using an .IOK/.IOM 'data mart' as a source for child files, or merging in data from .CSV files, be sure to schedule the update/save of the 'data mart' and linked source merge files on a more frequent basis to ensure that the Scheduler always has new data to work with.

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XML Enterprise Action Descriptors

The Scheduler uses Enterprise Action Descriptor XML files to define task lists for automation. You configure these tasks using the Enterprise Edition user interface, or manually coded XML copied from and based upon XML Actions files previously created using the user interface.

A sample documented specification is posted, but this is not kept up-to-date. Current syntax of XML Actions files can always best be observed by exporting an XML Actions file from the current version of Omniscope. Examples of actions which can be automated include:

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Omniscope Enterprise Generator

The Omniscope Enterprise Generator is used to create and deliver personalised Omniscope and exportable DataPlayer .SWF files 'on-demand'. The Generator is an always-on server application that listens for a source data file delivered from your systems on a specific port. When it detects that such a file has arrived from your systems, it applies the data in the source data file to a pre-defined Omniscope template file and generates a new 'on-demand' Omniscope .IOK/.IOM (with exportable .SWF DataPlayers). To use the Generator, you can deliver the data in .CSV, or transform your source data to the very simple Visokio XML schema, which is essentially the equivalent of .CSV files in XML.

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