XML Actions Guide

Defining & Editing XML Action files 

Omniscope Enterprise Editions feature XML Actions process support and permit programmatic (or manual) creation of XML Action Descriptors. These are used to automate the steps involved in refreshing, manipulating and distributing/publishing Omniscope files.

Prerequisites are the same as for running the Scheduler and Generator (for example, you will need to be running an activated Enterprise Edition on a Windows server or PC).

Although you can author XML Actions Descriptors manually, at least initially the easiest way to discover the XML Actions syntax is to use the Enterprise Edition user interface to configure tasks, then inspect the files created. This ensures that each action is well-formed, and you can benefit from the hints given in the dialogs.

To create a new XML Action file:

From the Main Toolbar, go to

(2.4) Tools > Advanced Tools > Edit Enterprise Action Descriptor

(2.5) Settings > Enterprise > Edit Enterprise Action Descriptor

A file dialog will appear. Choose where you will want to save the new file:

The Create new Action dialog will appear. Choose the type of action you want:

Configure using the dialog that appears; then click OK to save the file in the location you chose.

For more help configuring actions, see Using the Scheduler

To edit an existing XML Action file:

From the Main Toolbar, go to:

(2.4) Tools > Advanced Tools > Edit Enterprise Action Descriptor

(2.5) Settings > Enterprise > Edit Enterprise Action Descriptor

The action configuration dialog will appear. Make your changes and click OK. The existing file will be overwritten.

Action file syntax in depth:

(see XML Actions Specification for an in-depth guide to the XML structure with examples)

Invoking the process

Once you have created your XML Actions file(s), open command prompt and type cd to this location (C:\Program Files\Visokio Omnisope), execute the following system command (all on one line):

"C:\path\to\java.exe" -Xms64M -XX:MinHeapFreeRatio=20 -XX:MaxHeapFreeRatio=30 -Xmx1100M  -Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true -Dvisokio.winproxyenable="0" -Dvisokio.winproxyserver=""
-cp "C:\Program Files\Visokio Omniscope\Main.jar;C:\Program Files\Visokio Omniscope\lib\mail.jar;C:\Program Files\Visokio Omniscope\lib\activation.jar"
com.visokio.ent.EntLaunch -executeAction "C:\Path\To\My action file.xml"

Notes: This syntax is valid for recent versions (Omniscope 2.4+). We advise you upgrade if you have an older version.

Use a Java VM with version 1.4.2 or greater. If you do not have Java installed, Omniscope will have its own Java VM; use "C:\Program Files\Visokio Common\pvm15\bin\java.exe". Current working directory should not matter.

Change the memory allocation according to your situation. We recommend allowing 75% of physical RAM, as a very rough guide. This will only be taken if needed and is usually released when the task completes. For small files, 128 MB will be sufficient.

Using this method, each action is executed in a separate Java VM instance which is started before and closed after executing the action. This has a startup and shutdown overhead of 10 seconds on a moderately powered server. Alternatively you can use the watch folder function to avoid this overhead. In future, additional Java APIs (via a library JAR) for executing actions in the same VM may be made available.

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