Scripting¶
The basic version of the octoplant data management system already supports the most common automation systems and devices used in practice. Nevertheless, companies do not have a homogeneous automation landscape and sometimes devices that are not included in the functional scope of octoplant need to be secured.
After a little research, it is possible to assess whether a device can be retrofitted using a specially designed script and thus meet the customer's requirements. Practice has shown that this is possible for most of the more recent devices without major effort. However, the chance of finding a solution for older devices is not so high.
Nowadays, manufacturers are already keen to enable backup of their own products' data and therefore offer their own tools to perform the backup. In most cases, however, this is not automated and requires a high level of expertise on the part of the operator. This is precisely where octoplant can come in with scripting and generate added value for the customer.
The manufacturer's own tools are often integrated into the upload process and thus the range of functions of octoplant via scripting.
Functionality¶
Scripts are bound to events in octoplant, i.e. an action in the software triggers the execution of the script. These events are divided into server and client events.
Events on the server¶
- After a Check-In on the server
- After a Check-Out from the server
- Before and/or after a comparison
- After executing a job
- Before and/or after a backup job
Events on the client¶
- Before and/or after checking for changes
- Before and/or after a comparison
- Before starting an editor
- Before and/or after restoration of a version (e.g. before and/or after a Check-Out)
React to an event¶
Scripting must generally be activated in the Global settings module, as it is not selected in the default settings. If such a trigger is triggered after activation, octoplant checks whether a script is assigned to this trigger and executes it accordingly.
Script creation¶
A script can be created using many different tools and programming languages. The simplest option is to use a text editor, which is included in every Windows installation. The most complex and also most expensive option is to use a development environment such as Microsoft Visual Studio. The options available for script development depend largely on the tool used. The most common tools, which are usually completely sufficient in practice, are:
- a custom scripting language from octoplant
- batch files from the Windows world
- Powershell as a development environment
Almost all (special) scripting tasks can be solved with these tools.