Automation Options and Tools- Scheduler & Generator

Visokio Omniscope/DataPlayer Studio Enterprise and FeatureFinder Web Editions install together with 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 applies the settings from a corresponding Template file to create a new Source file, then passes control to the Scheduler for re-publication and re-distribution of the new file(s).

Scheduler

The Visokio Scheduler is a graphical application requiring no development skills. File refresh, merge and publishing automation using the Scheduler begins with existing .IOK/.IOM /.FFC files. For each data structure you wish to automate, you must first prepare the .IOK/.IOM and/or .FFC Template files configured as you want future fully-populated and refreshed files to appear.

You then configure the Visokio Scheduler to populate/refresh the Template file to create/refresh the Source file from its own linked data source(s) according to a schedule. You can also use Scheduler commands to distribute the refreshed file by email or FTP it to a website, or add time stamps.

Updating .IOK/.IOM/.FFC files requires that the linked data source to be up-to-date. If you have a live database this is given, but if you are using a .CSV file, you will need to schedule the updates to the the .CSV file from your systems to ensure that the Scheduler always has new data to work with.

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Generator

The Generator is used to create and deliver personalised Omniscope and DataPlayer .SWF files 'on-demand'. The Generator is an always-on server application that listens for an XML 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 .XML file to an existing Template file and generates a new Omniscope .IOK/.IOM or .SWF DataPlayer file. To use the Generator, you must first transform your source data to the very simple Visokio XML schema, essentially the equivalent of .CSV files in XML.

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XML Enterprise Action Descriptors

The Scheduler uses Enterprise Action Descriptor XML files, which you can configure using the Enterprise Edition user interface, or manually coded XML based upon files previously created using the user interface - there is also an older documented specification available which is not up to date. Examples of actions which can be automated include:

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