Kapow Mashup Server 6.

RoboManager
Users Guide

RoboManager
Users Guide

Copyright 1999-2007 Kapow Technologies http://www.kapowtech.com All rights reserved.

CONTENTS

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Contents
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 1 What is RoboManager? ........................................................................1 Before You Read On ............................................................................1 Other Resources .................................................................................1 UNDERSTANDING ROBOMANAGER ................................................................. 2 Concepts in RoboManager ....................................................................2 Administrating the RoboManager Database.............................................2 A Quick Look at the RoboManager User Interface ....................................4 ORGANIZING YOUR ROBOTS ........................................................................ 5 Creating Robot Groups ........................................................................5 Creating New Robots...........................................................................7 Viewing Robots...................................................................................8 MONITORING YOUR ROBOTS ..................................................................... 10 Viewing Robot Runs .......................................................................... 10 Viewing Messages ............................................................................. 11 RUNNING YOUR ROBOTS .......................................................................... 13 VIEWING DATABASE OUTPUT OBJECTS ........................................................ 15 INDEX.................................................................................................. 17

INTRODUCTION

Introduction
What is RoboManager?
RoboManager is the application for organizing and maintaining a large collection of robots. Robots can be organized into robot groups, and you can easily monitor how your robots are running and hence detect robots that need to be fixed. In essence, RoboManager is a database client to a special database called the RoboManager database. All robot organizational information is stored in this database along with all the status messages that the robots generate when they are run. With RoboManager, you can easily search, view, and delete the content of the RoboManager database.

Before You Read On

Before you proceed to the chapters below on how to use RoboManager, make sure that you have already installed it, and the underlying RoboManager databases, correctly as described in the Installation Guide.

Other Resources
Additional, mostly referential information on RoboManager is available in the RoboManager entry in RoboHelp, which is accessible from the Help menu in RoboManager. You should also check out the support site at this URL: http://support.kapowtech.com/

ROBOMANAGER USER'S GUIDE

Understanding RoboManager
Concepts in RoboManager
RoboManager centers around four important concepts: robot, robot group, robot run, and message. A robot in RoboManager refers to a robot record in the RoboManager database, not to the actual robot created with RoboMaker. This might be somewhat confusing at first, but it should always be clear from the context what is meant. Whereas a RoboMaker robot is contained in a ".robot" file and can be run, e.g. by RoboRunner, a RoboManager robot is a record in the RoboManager database containing information about a RoboMaker robot, such as its id, name, and the robot groups it belongs to. RoboManager robots can be created in RoboManager as described in the Organizing Your Robots chapter. A robot group is a container for robots. It provides you with a way to organize (or group) your robots. For example, you might want to divide your robots into groups depending on who is responsible for maintaining them, i.e. "John's Robots" and "Jim's Robots". You might also want to organize them according to domain or type, i.e. "News Robot" and "Transaction Robots". Or you might organize them into groups depending on their difficulty or importance. A robot can belong to more than one group, or to no group at all. Robot groups can be created in RoboManager as described in the Organizing Your Robots chapter. A robot run in RoboManager is information about the run of a robot, such as which robot was run, when, and on what machine. Robot run records are inserted into the RoboManager database when robots are run in a Database Robot Info Environment by e.g. RoboRunner (consult RoboHelp or the RoboRunner User's Guide for more information on environments). Robot runs can be searched and deleted in RoboManager as described in the Monitoring Your Robots chapter. You can also run a robot in RoboManager as described in the Running Your Robots chapter. A message contains information related to the run of a robot, such as which robot generated the message, in what robot run, the message type, and a description of the message. Messages are inserted into the RoboManager database when robots are run in a Database Message Environment by e.g. RoboRunner. Messages can be searched and deleted in RoboManager as described in the Monitoring Your Robots chapter.

Administrating the RoboManager Database

RoboManager robots, robot groups, robot runs, and messages are all stored as records in the RoboManager database. You can, at any time, view the number of these records by reading the record counts in the bottom status bar of the

UNDERSTANDING ROBOMANAGER

main RoboManager window. You can refresh these counts at any time by icon. pressing the All databases, including the RoboManager database, slow down as the number of records (especially messages) increases. Therefore, if your searches begin to take a long time, then you should delete runs and associated messages. With most databases, when the message count goes above one million, it is usually the right time to consider deleting old records. RoboManager is able to guide you through this deletion process if you press the icon in the bottom status bar, or select Clean Up Database in the Database menu. It is also possible to have additional databases besides the default RoboManager database. This can be very useful if you have for example a test and a production installation, where you need to be able to monitor your robots in both environments. It is also useful if you have more than one robot library and want to monitor each robot library separately. If you have setup additional databases during installation, these will be available to RoboManager, and you can easily switch between using them. This can be done by selecting the desired database under Select Database to Use in the Database menu. If Select Database to Use is disabled, it just means that you only have one RoboManager database available. It is important to note that a proper RoboManager database must contain all of the necessary tables for RoboManager to work, such as those that contain robots and messages. When you switch between databases, RoboManager will verify that the database contains these proper tables, and if not, you will be asked if RoboManager should try to make the relevant changes to the target database. Once youve switched databases, all open search windows will be closed, and the status bar will indicate which database you are connected to, along with the robot, robot run, and message counts. Another important feature of RoboManager is the ability to synchronize between databases. Again, if you have a test and production installation, once testing is completed and satisfactory it may be necessary to synchronize your production database so that it contains the same robots and robot groups as your test database. RoboManager is capable of doing this for you using Synchronize Databases under the Database menu. The synchronization is always from the database you are currently working with to a specified database. Taking the example above, while viewing the test database, you would select Synchronize Databases to be prompted with a wizard that helps guide you through the synchronization process. First you must choose which target database you want to modify, in our case the production database, and then you are presented with a list of changes that will be made if you choose to complete the operation.

ROBOMANAGER USER'S GUIDE

A Quick Look at the RoboManager User Interface

The RoboManager user interface is divided into four parts: A menu line, a toolbar, a workspace area, and a status bar. In the workspace area, you can have several windows open at once. The screen shot below shows RoboManager with four windows open in the workspace area.

Figure 1: RoboManager Main Window

ORGANIZING YOUR ROBOTS

Organizing Your Robots

This chapter discusses how you can use RoboManager to create and organize your robots.

Creating Robot Groups

Before creating RoboManager robots, let us create the robot groups to which these robots will belong. To do this, open the Robot Group Administration window by clicking the icon.

Figure 2: Robot Group Administration Window

ROBOMANAGER USER'S GUIDE

Create a new robot group by clicking the New Robot Group button. This opens up the New Robot Group window as shown below.

Figure 3: Creating a New Robot Group In this window, you can provide the robot group with a name and a description, and you can add the robots that should belong to this robot group from the Available Robots selection box. Click the Save button to create the robot group and return to the Robot Group Administration window. You can later edit the robot group by right-clicking on it in the Robot Group Administration window, and then selecting Edit in the pop-up menu.

ORGANIZING YOUR ROBOTS

Creating New Robots

You can create a new robot (that is, a RoboManager robot) by clicking the icon. This opens up the New Robot window as shown below.

Figure 4: Creating a New Robot Entry RoboManager automatically provides the new RoboManager robot with a robot id. When you create the robot in RoboMaker you should enter this robot id into the Robot Id property in the Robot Configuration Window. The Robot Name property is a symbolic name for the robot. A good convention is to use the name of the web site that the robot works on, e.g. "CNN". The Default Robot URL property is a default URL to the robot file, e.g. "file:/C:/Project/Library/robots/CNN.robot". The Robot Groups property specifies the robot groups to which this robot should belong. Select the robot groups to which this robot belongs in the Available Groups selection box, and then click the Add> button. Click Save when done.

ROBOMANAGER USER'S GUIDE

You can also create a RoboManager robot from within RoboMaker. This is done by clicking the Register button in the Robot Configuration Window for the RoboMaker robot that you want to register in the RoboManager database. See the RoboMaker Users Guide for more information.

Viewing Robots
You can search your robots by clicking the Search window as shown below. icon. This opens the Robot

Figure 5: Robot Search Window In the Robot Search Criteria panel to the left you specify your search criteria. You can search for robots by robot ids, default robot URL, robot name, and robot groups. You can search by more than one robot id by separating the robot ids with a comma, e.g. "1001,1002,1003". When showing robots in the Robot Search window, the status of each robot is also determined, based on the success or failure of the previous runs of the robot. You can specify which runs should be used for determining this status by the name of a host that has run the robots, the date at which robot runs were started, and whether or not to include all runs or only the latest run. Once you have entered your search criteria click the Search button. The robots matching the search criteria will then appear in the Robot List panel to the right. Based on the robot runs of each robot, the robots are shown with icons

ORGANIZING YOUR ROBOTS

to indicate their status: if all relevant runs have been successful, if there were any warnings, if there were any errors, if the relevant runs have not generated any messages, and if the robot has not yet been run. In the list, you can right-click on a robot to bring up a pop-up menu that allows you to view the individual runs of this robot, edit the robot, delete the robot, or run the robot. As with all searches in RoboManager, you can save your search criteria by clicking the icon. You can later retrieve your search criteria by icon. clicking the

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ROBOMANAGER USER'S GUIDE

Monitoring Your Robots

Monitoring your robots include searching for robot runs and robot-generated messages. Typically, you want to find those robots that generated errors, and hence need to be fixed.

Viewing Robot Runs

You search for robot runs by clicking the Search window as shown below. icon. This opens the Robot Run

Figure 6: Robot Run Search Window In the Robot Run Search Criteria panel to the left you specify your robot run search criteria. You can search by robot id (or comma-separated robot ids if more than one), robot groups, robot run id (or comma-separated robot run ids if more than one), the name of a host running robots, the date at which robot runs are started, and a robot run type. The following robot run types exist: All runs include all robot runs. Completed runs include all those robot runs that have both a start and finish date. Unfinished runs include all those robot runs that have no finish date. Generally, a robot run is unfinished if the robot is currently running, or if a robot run has been stopped before it completed.

MONITORING YOUR ROBOTS

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When you have entered your search criteria click the Search button. The robot runs matching the search criteria are then listed in the Robot Run List panel to the right. The status of the run is shown as either finished with no errors , finished with warnings , finished with errors , finished with no messages or unfinished with only informational messages , or unfinished with no messages . Right-clicking a robot run in this list opens a pop-up menu allowing you to view the messages generated in this run, view the robot that was run, and delete the messages generated in this run. You can save and retrieve a search criteria by clicking the and icons, respectively.

Viewing Messages
You can search robot-generated messages by clicking the the Message Search window as shown below. icon. This opens

Figure 7: Message Search Window In the Message Search Criteria panel to the left you specify your message search criteria. You can search messages by robot ids, robot run ids, the message description, the date at which the message was created, and the message type. The following message types exist: Object_Handling_Error: indicates that the message is an error message generated during the handling of some object, such as a missing

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ROBOMANAGER USER'S GUIDE

attribute value. Robots that generate this type of messages when run should probably be fixed. Robot_Execution_Error_Report: indicates that the message is an error message generated during the execution of a robot (excluding object handling), such as a missing tag due to the change of a page layout. Robots that generate this type of messages when run should probably be fixed. Program_Error: indicates that the message is an error message caused by a program error. Generally, you should report such errors to support@kapowtech.com. Object_Handling_Warning: indicates that the message is a warning message generated during the handling of some object. Robots that generate this type of messages when run should normally be fixed. Object_Handling_Info: indicates that the message is an informational message generated during the handling of some object, such as an object being added to storage. Robot_Execution_Info: indicates that the message is an informational message generated during the execution of a robot (excluding object handling). When searching for robot error messages, you should select the Object_Handling_Error, Robot_Execution_Error_Report, and Program_Error message types. The Robot_Execution_Error_Report messages contain a location code that you can use in RoboMaker to go directly to the step that caused the error message to be generated. (See the RoboMaker User's Guide for more information.) When you have entered your search criteria click the Search button. The messages matching the search criteria are then listed in the Message List panel to the right. Messages with black text indicate standard informational messages, while those in blue indicate warnings and those in red indicate errors. Right-clicking a message in this list opens a pop-up menu allowing you to view the robot that generated the message, and to delete the message. You can use the Ctrl and Shift keys to select more than one message. Rightclicking on these will provide menu options that work on all the selected messages. You can also save and retrieve a message search criteria by clicking the and icons, respectively.

RUNNING YOUR ROBOTS

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Running Your Robots

RoboManager contains a simple user interface for running robots. Typically, robots are run with RoboRunner or RoboServer, but the functionality built into RoboManager allows you to quickly test a robot as if it was being run in production. Click the icon to open the Run Robot window as shown below.

Figure 8: Running a Robot In the Robot URL property, you enter the URL of the file containing the RoboMaker robot you wish to run, or click the Browse button to locate it on a local drive. In the Environments property, you select the environments the robot should use when running. You can read more about these environments under the RoboRunner entry in RoboHelp, or by consulting the RoboRunner User's Guide.

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ROBOMANAGER USER'S GUIDE

Note that you will need to configure the Database Storage Environment with the desired object database before being able to run the robot. Click the Run button to run the robot, and the Stop button to stop a running robot. When a robot is running, you can click the Show Run button to open a Robot Run Search window initialized to this robot run. From this window you can view the messages generated by the robot by right-clicking the robot run and selecting one of the Show Messages... entries. Note that the robot that you run must belong to the robot library in the current robot project. To run a robot that does not belong to that robot library, you first need to switch to the robot project containing the robot library that the robot belongs to. This is done using the Settings application. After switching projects, you need to restart RoboManager for the change to take effect. See the RoboMaker Users Guide for more on robot libraries and robot projects.

VIEWING DATABASE OUTPUT OBJECTS

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Viewing Database Output Objects

A useful feature in both RoboManager and RoboMaker is the ability to view existing database output objects in any of your available object databases. You can use this feature to verify that database output objects that are generated by your robots are indeed being correctly saved in the appropriate object database. For more information about database output objects, consult the ModelMaker Users Guide. If you select Search Database under the Database menu in RoboManager (or under the Tools menu in RoboMaker), you will open the Database Search window. This view allows you to specify which database you want to search from, which database output object you are interested in searching for, and any search criteria on the attributes of the selected object. The figure below shows the Database Search window. The view has been configured to search for NewsArticle objects under the Object setting.

Figure 9: Database Search Window Note that when you set the view to search for any database output object, there will always be five attributes that are listed at the top of the attribute search criteria view (robotId, robotRunId, etc.). These are required attributes of database output objectsyou can read more about these attributes and what they are used for in the ModelMaker Users Guide.

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ROBOMANAGER USER'S GUIDE

In our example above, by entering search criteria for any of the attributes of the NewsArticle object, you can limit your search to show only the relevant objects that you are interested in viewing. For example, to view all of the NewsArticle objects collected in the past 24 hours, you could specify the appropriate date value in the latestExtractionDate field and then click Search. Selecting a different object under the Object setting will reset the view to show the relevant search criteria for the attributes of the newly selected object. All of the database output objects that are found during a search will be displayed in the table to the right of the database search view. By selecting an object in the table, its details will be displayed in the area just below the table.

INDEX

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Index
D
database output objects viewing, 15 adding robots to, 7 creating, 5 robot runs, 2 viewing, 10 robots, 2 creating, 7 organizing into groups, 5 running, 13 viewing, 8

M
messages, 2 types, 11 viewing, 11

R
RoboManager, 1 RoboManager database, 3 cleaning, 3 switching between databases, 3 synchronizing, 3 robot groups, 2, 5

W
windows Message Search Window, 11 Robot Run Search Window, 10 Robot Search Window, 8 Run Robot Window, 13