Batch File Automation - Part 4

Archive Files Using Automation - by Passing Arguments

In the previous post we had a scenario where we had archived files form one folder to Archive folder but the structure of the folder was fixed as we had hard coded the values in the script. Now let us see how we can write a code that can work on any folder structure. 

The best part of any VB Script is it can accept arguments from command line. As the script can accept the arguments from command line we can have a bat file that can call the VB.

The VB script below would accept four parameters and if four parameters not passed it would throw a message as "Not enough Arguments". The four arguments w.r.t to the position of the arguments is 

Arg(0):{DriveName, E:}, 

Arg(1):{PathName, Test_E}, 

Arg(2):{ArchivePath, E:\Test_E\Archive\}, 

Arg(3):{Prefix, Test_E}

These arguments are for the requirement if the source is E:\Test_D and Archive path is E:\Test_D\Archive and Files with prefix as Test_E*.txt would be archived.

strComputer = "."

If WScript.Arguments.Count = 4 Then

Arg_1 = cstr(WScript.Arguments.Item(0))

Arg_2 = cstr(WScript.Arguments.Item(1))

Arg_3 = cstr(WScript.Arguments.Item(2))

Arg_4 = cstr(WScript.Arguments.Item(3))

strName = strDrive & "\" & "Test\"

Else

 Wscript.Echo "Not enough Argumets"

 Wscript.Quit

End If

strDrive = Arg_1

StrPath = Arg_2

desPath = Arg_3

PrefixfName = Arg_4 & "%"

Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer)

Set objF = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

Set colFiles = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * from CIM_DataFile where Drive = '" & _

strDrive & "' AND Path = '\\" & strPath & "\\' AND FileName Like '"& prefixfName &"'  AND Extension = 'txt'")

For Each objFile In colFiles

objF.CopyFile objFile.Name, (desPath & objFile.Filename & "_" & _

Left(objFile.CreationDate, Len(objFile.CreationDate) - 11) & "." & objFile.Extension)

Next

The above script is saved as ArchiveAny.vbs

The requirement as below

 There are two folders in two different drives 

E:\Test_E and E:\Test_E\Archive\ and files have prefix as Test_E

E:\Test_D and D:\Test_D\Archive\ and files have prefix as Test_D

The bat file has following lines

@echo off

Cscript ArchiveAny.vbs "e:" Test_E "e:\Test_E\Archive\" "E_Test" 

Cscript ArchiveAny.vbs "d:" Test_D "d:\Test_D\Archive\" "D_Test" 

This is really a good way to automate the process of automation if scheduled. We shall discuss on how such a process can be scheduled. 

Stay Tuned....

Batch File Automation Part - 3

Archive Files Using Automation

Let me discuss on a new requirement that was in my project. The requirement is as follows.

1. A particular directory would have a number of text files with different names but they all have a similar prefixes.

2. The number of files are too many which would make manual work tedious and time consuming.

3. The files must be archived to the Archive file and they should be having a time stamp appended in the file name.

4. The appended time stamp should not be the archived date but the file created date. So that this helps in checking the date  which the file was created.

5. Once the files are archived they would be deleted form the source directory.

The requirement is very simple and a VB script would be doing the entire process with few lines in it.

Consider the folder structure E:\Test\ and E:\Test\Archive.

E:\Test\ folder would have 10 files namely Text_1.txt, Text_2.txt, Text_3.txt, Text_4.txt, Text_5.txt, Text_5.txt, Text_7.txt, Text_8.txt, Text_9.txt, Text_10.txt.

All these 10 files in folder E:\Test\ to be archived to E:\Test\Archive. 

Here is a sample VB Script which would do satisfy the above requirement.

strComputer = "." ' Comuter Name

strDrive = "e:" ' Drive Letter

strPath = "Test" 'Directory Name

desName = strDrive & "\" & strPath & "\Archive\" 'Complete path of Target Directory

Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer)

Set objF = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

Set colFiles = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * from CIM_DataFile where Drive = '" & _

strDrive & "' AND Path = '\\" & strPath & "\\' AND FileName Like 'Test%' AND Extension = 'txt'") ' this would fetch a cursor like in PLSQL with all the matches

For Each objFile In colFiles

objF.CopyFile objFile.Name, (desName & objFile.Filename & "_" & _

Left(objFile.CreationDate, Len(objFile.CreationDate) - 11) & "." & objFile.Extension)  'Move each file and rename it to archived directory

Next

Save the above code snippet in a file by name Archive.vbs and then call the vbs file from bat file. I would call my bat file Archive.bat. This bat file would have following line

@echo off
Start Archive.vbs

The bat file would call the vbs and archive all the files as required.

How ever the above code would be specific only to a specific structure. We wuld be discusing how this can be generalized to any folder structure.

Stay Tuned....... 

Batch File Automation Part-2

As discussed in the previous thread. A Batch file along with VB can used to automate a process.

Let us consider a requirement where you are suppose to place a file in a directory. The directory might have a file already with same name as the one being moved. This is very easy when we do it manually as the OS would through a error saying "file with same name already exists and do you want to replace it"  and we can easily click on yes and continue. But when we automate we should be able to move the file with out any discrepancies.

Let us see how such a automation can be done.

Steps
1. Create a Batch file that would create a New file by name "Move_Me.txt" at C:\Test
2. The batch file would then try to move the file to C:\Test\Moved using a VBS

Fig : Showing the files used in the example 

The details of the files

CreateFile.bat
This file has the following lines to


@Echo off
Echo "I will be Moved" > C:\Test\Move_Me.txt
Echo "File Move_Me.txt has been created. File would be moved now...."
pause
Start MoveFile.vbs


The above piece of code would first create a File Move_Me.txt with test as "I will be Moved".
Then the code would display message on the screen saying "File Move_Me.txt has been created. File would be moved now...." and pause would wait for user input.
Start command would kick start the MoveFile.vbs which would move the Move_Me.txt to the destination folder.

MoveFile.vbs
VB script is as below

FilePath = "C:\Test\"

Filename = "Move_Me.txt"

NewPath = "C:\Test\Moved\"

Set ScriptObj = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

If ScriptObj.FileExists(FilePath & Filename) Then

    If ScriptObj.FileExists(NewPath & Filename) Then

        ScriptObj.DeleteFile (NewPath & Filename)

    End If

ScriptObj.MoveFile (FilePath & Filename), (NewPath & Filename)

    End If

Set ScriptObj = Nothing

The code is hard coded with the values of file path and file name. Not a good programming practice. But for beginner this should be fine. How ever we will discuss on how parameters can be passed with a different example.

Try this out and let us discuss if any better way of doing this.

Stay tunned for upcoming topics.........

Batch File Automation Part-1

Batch File Automation

In the previous post a small detail on how to create a Batch file in MsDos was shown. Just a Batch file by itself is of no use until we have a specific task for it. As an example a Batch file when runs, creates a Notepad file and adds a set of lines in it and saves. This is a very simple example. This kind of requirement is simple in Unix platforms where the shell scripts would help. Similar task can be accomplished by using VB script.

 The structure for such automation is as below

Fig 1 Structure of Automation

In the Fig a batch file would trigger a VB script and the VB script would interact with the application in return

We shall discuss with example how such a structure can be used and automation can be achieved.

Stay tunned……..

Dos Batch File - Creation

MS Dos Batch File is wonderful creation of Windows which allows Windows users to create a series of commands and put them in a Batch file and then execute the commands on a mouse click.

A DOS Batch file will have a extension as .BAT and this file can be executed directly in the Windows GUI by double clicking it.

Below is a sample example of Batch file used to set the Date and Time using a Batch file

Step 1: Goto Run -> Type cmd -> Command prompt opens -> Type Cd\
Step 2:  Create a new directory for flexibility. Here I am going with Temp
Step 3: Create a file Example. bat as shown below

Step 4: Once the bat file is created go C:\Temp and you should be able to see the bat file created Example.bat
Step5: Double click on the Example.bat it would prompt you would see the System date and it would prompt to enter the new Date. once you enter the Date it would ask for Time is a similar fashion.

Similarly the Batch file can be created using a notepad do not forget to save the notepad file as .bat extension file. 

This article is one small example. There are much more to come. Stay tunned.

Upcoming atriciles

1. Declaring variables in a batch file

2. Opening other non MSDos applications 

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