Client automation & scripting: AutoIt 3.2

AutoIt 3.2
http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/index.php

If you are like me, you are always trying to make tedious tasks not so tedious, whether it is by simplifying a process, finding alternate ways of doing things, or providing great documentation. Sometimes, you can only achieve so much with depending on your users to follow the right set of tasks you need them to perform in order to get a peice of software installed, or a change made, etc.

When it comes to automation, I am huge into VBScripting, and I LOVE it. I'm no expert, but I get around OK - and there's not much a VBScript can't do when you need it to automate a system or application task. With that said however, there's a bit of a learning curve, and it takes a bit of troubleshooting to understand how it works in the backend before expecting useful results to spring magically from your fingertips. I know that my keyboard sometimes loses a little bit of the translation as I'm typing - :)

Does anyone remember Microsoft Scriptit? It was a 'button-pressing' automation tool that allowed system admins to run a script that waited for certain windows to appear with title x and then if that window appeared, press a key that corresponded to a control on the particular window - great for automating software installations.

Sometimes you need MORE than just a button pressing tool, and this is where AutoIT comes into play.

I see AutoIt as being Scriptit with a VBScript-esque mindset to it.

AutoIt not only can press your buttons for you, but it can utilize a wide array of time-saving built in macros, create a GUI front end, plug-in to current scripting languages, and a LOT more. AutoIt is most definitely NOT limited to button pushing.

A quote from the website:

AutoIt can:

• Provide a general-purpose scripting language for all Windows versions
• Simulate keystrokes (supports most keyboard layouts)
• Simulate mouse movements and clicks
• Move, resize and manipulate windows
• Interact directly with "controls" on a window (set/get text from edit controls, check boxes and radio buttons, select items in drop-down lists, etc.)
• Create complex user interfaces (GUIs)
• Work with the clipboard to cut/paste text items
• Provide a scriptable RunAs function for Windows 2000/XP/2003

Some of the built in macros can easily get the OS version, IP address, Windows installation folder, other special folders (favorites, my documents, etc.), and a LOT more.

As a quick "cool" example of manipulating the OS, say you wanted to be notified of various parameters, or other notifications were needed to alert the user regarding something... you can manipulate the systray bubble object for status messages during your script execution. .

Support is great, and the forums have a LOT of user-submitted scripts to make your life easier. For example, I downloaded a snippet that allowed me to detect if a computer was a laptop or desktop (my requisite was that I could not use WMI). Once I had it working, I had a status balloon appear saying "laptop configuration detected" - and then it sent the script down a different path of installation.

New to version 3.x is the ability to build GUI interfaces so now you aren't limited to producing a HTA/HTM page using standard forms.



A scriptable DLL is included so you can include AutoIt functions within ASP/HTM pages or VBScripts and HTAs, so it is constantly blurring the line between being an easy-to-use automation tool and a full fledged (I would argue that it is) scripting language.

Many text editors like PSPad, UltraEdit, TextPad, etc. have syntax highlighting for the AutoIt language, so it is becoming very mainstream.

In summary, if you want a GREAT utility for nothing :) that can provide you with a way to reduce your automation woes, then I recommend AutoIt. Fine, I recommend AutoIt either way. You can also use it to make your friends go crazy, but I won't get into that!