The Switch Automation Engine Configurator

Transcription

1 The Switch Automation Engine Configurator System requirements and troubleshooting Freddy Pieters

2 Page 1/6 Table of Contents The Automation Engine Configurator... 1 Introduction... 1 Target Audience... 2 Terminology... 2 Job delivery... 2 Database connectivity... 2 SQL querying outside the AE Configurator... 3 File delivery... 3 Troubleshooting file delivery... 4 Starting workflows... 4 Shuttle... 4 Advanced Shuttle setting... 5 AE licenses... 6 Troubleshooting workflows... 6 The Automation Engine Configurator Introduction The configurator for Automation Engine (AE) has been added to update 1 of Switch 11. This document gives some background information on the system requirements, configuration and troubleshooting and the known limitations of using the AE Configurator in combination with Automation Engine. The AE Configurator allows you to perform two types of actions: Delivering files to an AE job Starting a workflow These two actions use entirely different technologies. Therefore the configuration, the troubleshooting and the known limitations are also different. These two actions are described separately in this document.

3 Page 2/6 Target Audience It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the documentation of the AE Configurator (integrated in Switch; right click the AE Configurator in the Flow elements pane, and select Documentation). Terminology There are a few terms with a specific meaning in an AE context. Job: An AE job is not the same as a Switch job. In AE it refers to a print job with all its metadata and all files that are attached to it. The name and metadata of the job are stored in the AE jobs database; the files of the job are stored on a network drive. Customer Job Reference: This is a metadata field of an AE job, which contains the name of the job as referred to by the print buyer. Container: This is a network drive on which AE jobs are stored. There can be several containers i.e. network drivers. Each job usually has its own folder structure where different types of files are stored (e.g. print ready PDFs, images, original files, etc.). The root of a job does not have to be immediately under the root of a container (there can be sublevels), but nesting is not allowed, i.e. the root of one job cannot be under the root of another job. Pilot: This is the name of the client user interface to manage and use the AE server. Job delivery Database connectivity The configurator has been tested with AE servers using MSSQL 2000 and MSSQL 2005 databases. A regular installation of AE installs a free size limited version of MSSQL on the same server. However, it is possible to use a database server running a full version of MSSQL on a computer that is not the AE Server. There are several databases used by AE (BSJobs, BGARCHBASE, etc.). Make sure to define BSJobs as the default database in the ODBC driver. On OS X the user will need an ODBC driver that can connect to an MSSQL database. Such a driver can be obtained from Actualtech ( The free test version will only return the first three records. The full version costs less than 50$. On Windows the driver is standard available. Make sure to use 32 bit versions of the drivers for compatibility with Switch.

4 Page 3/6 SQL querying outside the AE Configurator Users may want to access the AE database from elements like a Submit point. A good example is to present to the user a list of job numbers for a specific customer. It is not possible to use the UI to build the SQL statement; manual editing is necessary. Here is an example of the SQL query that will return the AE customer job references for a certain customer: select CustomerRef from admin.jobs where Customer = (select Id from admin.customers where Name = '[Connection.UserName]') It is assumed in this example that the user name with which the connection to the Submit point is made, be it from Switch Client, a connector, or Switch Web Services, matches the name of the customer in the AE customer table of the jobs database. It is not allowed to modify the AE database with the Database connect element! File delivery The file is delivered by copying it into a folder inside the job structure of the AE job. The name of the folder is defined in the properties of the element. If the folder does not exist, it is created. Switch needs access to the path where the job is stored. It is therefore required that Switch has write access to all the AE containers. In the case of Switch on OS X, these volumes will also have to be mounted using SMB. The URL of the job as stored in the AE database is formatted as follows: file://server/container/job/folder. The name of the server is almost always a name and not an IP address. Therefore the connectivity to the container where the job is located should work with the name and not with the IP address. When Switch is running on Windows, the URL of the job is converted to a UNC by removing file: and by reversing the slashes. When copying is not successful, try using the UNC on a command line in a dir and/or copy command to see what error messages are displayed. When Switch is running on OS X, the URL of the job is matched with one of the mounted volumes. In case of problems check if the URL of the job can be matched with one of the mount points. Use the mount command in a terminal window to see if one of the listed mount points looks like this: //server/container on /Volumes/container (smbfs, nodev, nosuid, mounted by xyz) or

5 Page 4/6 on /Volumes/container (smbfs, nodev, nosuid, mounted by xyz) Troubleshooting file delivery When a file cannot be delivered, it can only be for one of the following three reasons: The name matching strategy does not return one AE job, but no jobs, or more than one job. The database is not accessible. Check the availability of the data sources, the credentials and the name of the default database (BSJobs). The volumes are not accessible. Check whether they are mounted and whether the name of the file server is used correctly. Starting workflows Shuttle To start workflows, the Switch AE Configurator communicates with the AE Shuttle server. This means that the Shuttle server has to be running. You can check that in the Pilot under Tools Configuration.

6 Page 5/6 There the port number is also defined. The number used in the property of the AE Configurator element has to match this number. The AE Configurator does not support public parameters. Only the default values will be used. Advanced Shuttle setting The communication with the Shuttle server is based on SOAP. By default, the Shuttle server expects authentication in the HTTP header. Switch does not support that yet, so the Shuttle server has to be configured not to require this authentication. To do this, proceed as follows: 1. Start the csfedt2 tool: In AE10 this tool is launched from a command line:..\bg_prog_fastservercltnt_v101\com_win\cfsedt2 In AE12 this tool is launched by right/alt clicking the Configure tool in the Pilot. 2. Go to Resources\Shuttle\Server\RequireAuthentication. 3. Change the setting to FALSE and click Change. 4. Stop and start the Shuttle server from the Configure tool in the Pilot.

7 Page 6/6 AE licenses To communicate with the Shuttle server, a Flexnet feature aeextsoap is required. This feature is only available when the customer has the Automed Job Creation Module. To test whether this license feature is available, run Test License Server under All Programs Esko System Controller Tools. Troubleshooting workflows The most common problem is that the Select from library list of workflows in the Workflow name property of the AE Configurator is empty. This can have a number of reasons; check them in this order: 1. Is the aextsoap license available? If not, then there is no point in trying any of the following checks. 2. Is the Shuttle server running? 3. Does the running server publish a certain number of workflows? The number of workflows in the list should be the same as this number. If this number is zero, it means everything is configured correctly, but there are simply no public workflows. To make a workflow public, check the Public toggle when saving the workflow. 4. Is the RequireAuthentication field set to FALSE? For advanced troubleshooting, proceed as follows: 1. In the Customer name property, fill in soapdebug. 2. Use the Select from library function of the Workflow name property. The SOAP exchange between Switch and the Shuttle server will be dumped into a set of XML files. 3. To find the location of these XML files, check the Messages pane of Switch Designer. 4. Collect the XML files and send them to Support (support@enfocus.com) for further analysis.