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This online help file is for the Advanced Workflow Engine v8. For other versions, please refer to http://help.globalscape.com/help/index.html. (If the Index and Contents are hidden, click Show Contents pane in the top left corner of this topic.) |
AWE provides an incredibly easy-to-use, intuitive interface for developing automation applications. The basic building blocks are called actions, which are plain-English, drag-and-drop, fill-in-the-blank tools developers use to build AWE tasks. Actions enable the development of sophisticated automation processes, and eliminate the need for code. You could think of them as the steps that do the actual work of a task. Developers drag-and-drop actions in the Task Builder to build a series of AWE steps that collectively make up the task. You can view all available actions in the Task Builder's Available Actions pane, categorized into folders. You build a task by dragging actions from the Available Actions pane into the Steps pane of the Task Builder. For more information, see Adding Task Steps.
AWE's pre-built actions include starting applications, sending keystrokes, clicking controls, uploading files, and much more. These actions can be further expanded by the use of variables, constants, and expressions.
AWE Actions are organized in groups (or categories) to facilitate the development process:
Action Group |
Description |
Allows automation of common Active Directory operations. |
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Allows you to edit the computer registry, event logging, and the addition of VB script to a task. |
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These actions allow for control of task execution within the scope of a task. For example, a subtask could be started within the scope of the main task. |
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Allow for automatic compression/decompression of files using commonly-used formats. |
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Provides encryption automation to secure files before they are transported. |
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Enable the execution of SQL queries and stored procedures on any ODBC database. Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, mySQL, and more are supported. |
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Allow for automation of data input and retrieval from Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and templates. |
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File actions enable automation of file and folder commands such as copy, move, rename, delete, etc. These actions also allow data to be read from and written to files. |
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Flow actions enable complex decision making based on variable data in the context of a task. |
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Provide the ability to loop through data sets, files, processes, lists, and more for dynamic automation. |
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Network actions enable drive mapping and the sending of network messages. |
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Security actions allow for user authentication in the context of a task. |
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Session actions enable automatic shutdown, startup, logging off, locking of workstations and servers. |
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Allow for automatic processing of SNMP (simple network messaging protocol) events that occur on the network. |
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System actions enable execution and termination of executables, as well as printer and display control. |
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Enable automation of all terminal emulation and Telnet processes. |
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Text actions enable the manipulation and parsing of textual data. |
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Used to gauge the execution time between selected steps. |
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Provide the ability to create and perform complex programming elements such as creating and running variables and datasets. |
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Wait actions provide the ability to pause task execution until a specified system event (e.g., the appearance of a file) transpires. |
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Window actions enable interaction with and control of windows. |
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Allows XML parsing and manipulation. |