AUTOMATE 5
Copyright 2003, Unisyn Software, LLC
Versione 5.0.4.1
Data di rilascio: gennaio 2003

BENVENUTI NEL FUTURO DELL’AUTOMAZIONE
AutoMate, nel suo insieme, è una piattaforma per creare, gestire e avviare task automatizzati in Windows. Si compone di differenti elementi ma è gestito centralmente da Task Administrator.
AutoMate 5 comprende:

1)	Task Administrator
si utilizza pr amministrare AutoMate, ivi compresi l’elenco dei task, i trigger e le impostazioni generali. Task Administrator sostituisce “Configuration Manager” presente nelle precedenti versioni di AutoMate e funge da “home base”.
2)	 Generatore di Task
si utilizza per creare i task ed eseguire il loro debug.  Contiene più di 100 azioni molto efficienti. Task Builder sostituisce “Step Builder” presente nelle precedenti versioni di AutoMate.  Permette di creare e verificare le parti dei task dette “azioni”, cioè quelle che eseguono il “compito asssegnato”.
3)	Servizio Task 
si esegue in background (o sulla barra delle applicazioni). Sorveglia la generazione degli eventi e quando un evento si genera, il servizio avvia il task associato eseguendo SPAWNTASK.EXE. 
4)	spawntask.exe
Quando il task è avviato, spawntask.exe carica gli oggetti AutoMate ed esegue le varie istruzioni.  L’introduzione di tale peculiarità ha consentito di rendere questa versione di Automate molto più affidabile delle precedenti, dato che, se si verifica un’interruzione, essa influsice solo su spawntask e non sull’applicazione stessa.  Con questa architettura, i task si eseguono indipendentemente uno dall’altro e il servizio task è isolato e protetto da qualunque problema possa insorgere a carico di ogni singolo task.

Per ulteriorei informazioni fare riferimento alla Guida.

REQUISITI DI SISTEMA
Hardware
·	 60 MB di spazio su disco (consigliati 150 MB)
·	CPU AMD Athlon™ o Intel Pentium™ a 300 MHz minimo (consigliati 800 Mhz)
·	Almeno 128 MB di RAM (consigliati 256)
Sistemi operativi supportati
·	Windows 98, ME (per ottenere le migliori prestazioni si consigliano sistemi basati su NT come NT, 2000 o XP)
·	Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 SP6 o successivi
·	Windows 2000 SP2 o successivi
·	Windows XP
Note sul sistema operativo:
·	Windows 95 non è supportato a causa delle limitazioni interne di questo sistema operativo e della mancanza di assistenza da parte di Microsoft.
·	Per garantire un corretto funzionamento del sistema operativo eseguire gli aggiornamenti più importanti e installare i Service Pack di Microsoft. Gli aggiornamenti si possono ottenere dal servizio assistenza online al sito Windows Update di Microsoft.
Configurazione del sistema operativo
·	Nel computer deve essere installato Internet Explorer 5 (o versioni successive), tuttavia non è necessario che esso sia selezionato come browser predefinito
·	Il computer deve essere dotato di connessione di rete funzionante TCP/IP
·	Il monitor deve essere impostato ad una risoluzione minima di 800x600 e con intensità del colore a 65.536 o 16,8 milioni di colori (consigliato) (è possibile scegliere impostazioni meno precise, ma l’aspetto dell’interfaccia sarà di qualità inferiore. Si consiglia inoltre di installare i driver video più recenti)
·	E’ necessario aver sottoscritto un account per effettuare i collegamenti in rete, richiesti da certe azioni
·	Per le azioni connesse al database è necessario OLEDB
·	Per le azioni “vocali” è necessario SAPI 4 o 5

PROBLEMI
-	Il file Guida è ancora solo in inglese, presto sarà disponibile la traduzione in altre lingue. Si consiglia perciò di verificare spesso gli aggiornamenti disponibili presso il Centro Risorse Utenti AutoMate all’indirizzo <http://www.automate5.com>.

CHANGES IN 5.0.4.1

ENHANCEMENTS

Task Service
  - tasks whose filenames are relative (e.g. "Internet.aml" as opposed to "C:\Internet.aml") now use a path hierarchy of 
current folder, Task Service folder, default task location to find the proper task file
  - added task name in front of each logged message.  
  - rnd function now properly returns a random number between 0 and 1
  - logging on a workstation when a task triggers now supports clearing the Legal Notice/Group Policy messagebox on logon

Task Administrator
  - clicking the "Task triggering is disabled" banner will re-enable task triggering

Input Box Action
  - can now specify a default value

Log Event Action
  - returns more verbose information when an entry cannot be logged (for example, when the log file is full)
  - more On Error options
  
FIXES

Task Builder
  - fixed errors displayed in the status bar of the Task Builder being overwritten by "step ended" message
  - correctly remembers its last position
  - the last opened task no longer overrides a task opened from a shortcut
  - importing a task that refers to a task file that uses a path that doesn not exist on the target machine now imports properly

Task Service
  - now works correctly on Terminal Service consoles
  - fixed environment variables not being recognized as valid variables in a task
  - fixed "Log Brief" option logging more information than necessary
  - added diagnostic warnings to log when a Folder Watcher trigger cannot find the folder it is to watch
  - fixed sample tasks not working correctly after install but before reboot
  - “Only show AutoMate Icon when a task is running” now works correctly
  - automatically fixes improperly formatted AMFTPLOGOFF steps
  - fixed "EAccessViolation" that would occur after running an embedded task using Start Task when the embedded task contains a script that populates a passed AutoMate variable with a non-printable character
  - fixed lockup that occurred when using SendKeys AutoMate Basic function
  
Event Monitor
  - blocked from running on remote Terminal Service sessions (not supported)

Task Administrator
  - fixed "Cannot locate Process ID" error that occured when a task was set to not run when a workstation was locked and 
the task appeared to trigger
  - fixed Task Administrator hanging when trying to connect to a Task Service that does not accept connections
  - editing a remote task using the Edit Steps button on task properties would cause the task to not be updated
  - added accelerator keys to Folder Watcher properties screen

Send Email Action
  - authentication errors were not being sent when authentication failed

Lock Workstation Action
  - now works properly on Windows NT

Extended Functions
  - CreateODBCTime(), CreateODBCDate(), and CreateODBCDateTime() now return a properly formatted value

CHANGES IN 5.0.4

NEW FEATURES

Task Service
 - now supports running tasks when a workstation is locked or logged off on Win NT/XP/2000 (acts as true Win32 Service)

Lock Workstation Action
 - action can be used to lock a workstation on Windows NT/2000/XP
 
ENHANCEMENTS

Memory and CPU Utilization
 - optimized several important areas of the product to increase speed and stability
 - reduced consumption of system resources by Task Administrator on Windows 9x by 18%
 - reduced executable size of AutoMate Service and most associated files by 20% or more
 - fixed minor leak in SpawnTask and Task Builder 
 - dramatically reduced CPU utilization when using the File Watcher on Windows 9x
 - introduced safeguards to prevent overuse of CPU when using the File Watcher

Task Triggers
 - added trigger parameter TRIGGER to AMTriggers dataset.  When a task is triggered, AMTrigger.Trigger will return the name of the trigger that started the task

File Watcher Trigger
 - added option to wait for file to be accessible before triggering. When this option is selected, the task will not trigger until a file add or modification is fully completed (useful when watching a file or folder that contains large files)
 - filters now accepting file masks with paths (wildcards are also allowed, e.g. "C:\*folder*\*")
 - AMTrigger dataset now contains the following additional fields:
   * FILENAME - the filename that caused the file watcher to trigger
   * ACTION - one of the following: FILE ADDED, FILE DELETED, FILE MODIFIED, TOO MANY FILES, ONE FILE TOO BIG
   * SIZE - the size of the file that triggered the task
   * NBFILES – number of files now in the folder

Task Service
 - AutoMate system specific settings (i.e. settings in Task Administrator | System | Options) are now written to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and locked from unauthorized access using standard Windows security
 - added option "Maximum total of simultaneously running tasks:".  This can be used to limit the total number of tasks AutoMate will run at once
 - more explicit information is logged to the debug window if an error email cannot be sent when using On Error Send Email
 
Task Administrator
 - display area below toolbar now shows the current folder (helpful when the folder view is off)
 - Cut, Copy, Paste, and Select All have been moved from the File menu to its own Edit menu

Extended Functions
 - added the following extended functions:
   * GetMousePosX - returns x coordinate of the current mouse position
   * GetMousePosY - returns y coordinate of the current mouse position
   * GetParentTaskName - returns the name of the task that spawned the currently running task
   * GetAutoMateLogfile - returns the file name and path to the AutoMate log file
   * GetLastErrorText - returns the error text of the last error reported by GetLastError
   
File Actions
 - now return more verbose error information when a file action fails

Ping Action
 - optimized
 - added support for retrieving the IP address of the specified host

Print A Document Action
 - added support for wildcards

Installation
 - shuts down any running services before upgrade
 - automatically starts AutoMate Task Service if product installed successfully
 - remembers serial code when upgrading
 
FIXES

Task Service
 - tasks started using the Start Task action now return the proper task name when using the GetTaskName() extended function
 - no events written twice in the log file when both Log Brief and Log Verbose options were selected in System Options
 - On Error Start Task now works regardless of whether or not the task is to Stop or Continue on error
 - fixed AutoMate icon switching from green "running" mode back to blue "active" mode when a task is run and Automated Processing is disabled

File Watcher Trigger
 - triggers on a watched folder even if the folder is created after the trigger has been activated
 - triggers on a watched folder even if the folder is deleted and subsequently recreated without restarting the triggers
 - modifying a File Watcher trigger would trigger the task even if Automated Processing was disabled

Task Administrator
 - now properly imports tasks that were exported using AutoMate 5.0.3 and older
 - now properly imports tasks created by the AutoMate 5 Conversion Utility
 - removed superfluous "Open task properties on double click" checkbox from System Options (use "Double-clicking on task will" option instead)
 - attempting to move or copy and paste folders caused errors
 - Play Sound on Error option in System Options was not saving correctly
 - title bar of System Options changed from "Preferences" to "Options"
 - when running in a locale other than English, identical shortcuts were being assigned to multiple menus

Task Builder
 - task "failing" with an error if the last step of a task fails and Continue Task is selected
 - pasting of steps never working again after attempting to paste invalid tags from the clipboard
 - extraneous spaces between action command name and the first parameter causing a parsing error and resulting in an invalid task
 - line number column was not sizing properly when adding 10 or more steps to a blank task
 - line number column was not sizing properly when mouse recorder added steps to a blank or existing task
 - strange messagebox no longer appears when E is pressed while the Available Actions is focused
 - when running in a locale other than English, identical shortcuts were being assigned to multiple menus

Start Task Action
 - now fully backward compatible with tasks made before 5.0.3 (TASKNAME parameter was unrecognized in 5.0.3)

Loop Dataset Action
 - was not returning to the top row of the dataset when using Loop Dataset on the same dataset more than once

Kill Process Action
 - fixed handle leak

File Copy Action
 - using the 'Include Subdirectories' option caused attribute filters to not be saved.

Loop Actions (all)
 - fixed embedded loops locating the final /AMLOOP tag incorrectly and causing loops to fail once they finish their embedded looping

Loop List Action
 - optimizied for better performance
 - no longer considers new line as a final delimiter for the list unless "new line" is explicitly selected as the delimiter

Run Action
 - using multiple Run steps in a row (usually six or more) would cause an Abnormal Program Termination error in the Task Builder, or cause SpawnTask to shutdown without warning

Message Box Action
 - when the dialog box was modeless and the text was wider than the screen, the text was truncated

Send E-mail action.
 - when choosing to use a file's contents as the body of the message, there would be no wrapping tag written to the task.  This caused subsequent steps to be ignored while running or editing the task.

Authenticate Action
 - "Must enter password" option was not being repopulated correctly on edit
 - "Enter password" dialog now uses correct system icon

CONTACTING UNISYN SOFTWARE

Unlike some software companies, we don't want to hide from our customers.  Call us, 
e-mail us, fax us, or write us, let us know what you think -- we'd love to hear from you.

UNISYN SOFTWARE, LLC
654 South Western Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90005

(888)7-UNISYN Sales

(213)738-1700 Main Line
(213)738-7665 FAX
(213)738-6966 Technical Support

http://www.unisyn.com

frontdesk@unisyn.com
sales@unisyn.com
automate@unisyn.com

To be notified of product updates, sign-up to the AutoMate Newsletter, visit: http://www.unisyn.com/newsletters/

Participate in discussions with other AutoMate users in the AutoMate User Resource Center, visit: 
http://www.unisyn.com/automate/user/

CREDITS:

Dustin Snell 
Scott Robinet 
Nathalie Nahmani
Jeff Easton
Alexey Surkis
Jani Järvinen

…and our customers, who provide the incredible feedback that guides our product development.

Translators:

Spanish: German Acevedo
Italian: Carla Zanoni
German: Klaus Hofmann

We thankfully acknowledge the hard work of the “Venom” Beta Test Team.
Our special thanks and appreciation to:

Gijsberth de Ruiter  
Danny Kohn
Jean Delfosse 
Morgan Erickson 
Jeff Evans 
Alan Watson
George Martin