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What's the Best Way to Handle Scripting Under XP?
ChrisZermatt asks: "I've got to build a custom workflow for a customer that has a photography business. His photographers take hundreds of thousands of photos a year, and since he's recently moved entirely to digital, he wants to automate a lot of his current processes. Ideally I'd be able to plonk a recent Mac running Tiger into his shop, and use a combination of AppleScript, iView
Pro, Photoshop and an FTP program to handle all his needs. Sadly, he insists on using *cheap* PC's running Windows, so a Mac isn't an option for this project. So, what should I use on the Windows side of things to build a custom workflow?"
"iView lets you control the program using VBS or Javascript, but they don't really offer much in the way of advice on building a Windows workflow. I need to be able to copy/move a ton of files around and link the above mentioned programs. I'd really rather *not* spend money on something like VisualBasic. What are the alternatives for scripting on Windows?"
put linux on it.
Or jsut make "Batch" files.
/* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
Well, besides the obvious Perl, etc., it is entirely possible that you can accomplish what you wish using the Stupid Command Program (cmd.exe).
.bat file in that converts a buncha tiffs to pdfs and sed's an import script to change the file extensions.
I just loaded ImageMagick and sed on a peecee running W2K for my current gig and put a little
If the script wants to do a lot of logic, then Perl, Python, and that ilk may be more to your liking.
Mark
Batch files come to mind. if all you are doing is moving files and automating the launch of different apps. If you need to macro out processes in the apps, there are macro tools out there for windows. -Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
I use batch files to operate a software level RAID solution! It's easy!
/e /k /i /c
RAID.bat
xcopy c: d:
VBA is the standard scripting language in Microsoft-land, or use Python with the Win32 stuff.
Damien
Take a look at http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/. It can automate windows GUIs and you can convert your scripts to .EXE files for easy of deployment.
-Adam
. Ideally I'd be able to plonk a recent Mac running Tiger into his shop, and use a combination of AppleScript, iView Pro, Photoshop and an FTP program to handle all his needs. Sadly, he insists on using *cheap* PC's running Windows, so a Mac isn't an option for this project.
Perhaps you could explain to him the meaning of being "Penny wise, Pound foolish"
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/scripting/
Still, with a plan, you only get the best you can imagine. I'd always hoped for something better than that. -CP
Monad is supposed to do this, in Longhorn; but it might be possible to get the beta version working with .NET.
Depends on the processes. However if what you're after is something to take in a bunch of files, call a command-line program (or programs) to munge them in some way, and spit them out elsewhere, Python isn't a bad tool for connecting the dots. It's not blindingly fast itself, but if you're just using it for scripting then no problems there.
Python's default GUI provision is a bit basic though. If you want to build a Python user interface quickly, the PMW widget set (http://pmw.sourceforge.com/ is worth a look.
Grab.
Use Macro Express. It's like Automater, but with more programming constructs and less user interface. It isn't exactly intuitive, but it does the job.
For an off-the-shelf implementation, batch files/cmd files work for simple work flows. But can be really clumsy if they get large and you need to do a lot of branching. In this case, VBScript is a better choice (in spite of its reputation).
If a really complex workflow is needed, why not try using Ant? It's not just a build tool (look at the list of tasks that come with it, specifically FTP) .
GOBACK.
Here's some advice: avoid working for cheapskates. If someone doesn't want to pay for the right tool for the job, they are extremely cheap and will probably screw you over. Surely the guy will save more than the $2000 it costs to buy a Mac from automation. Last I checked, windows doesn't have anything equivalent to AppleScript, at least not for controlling graphical apps.
Nope, you're not. [sob]
Windows Scripting
Also happens to be the first result on Google for "windows scripting host".
If it was me, I'd do it all in Python. It even has FTP libs built in. Plus, when you're ready to dump the Windows boxes you can run the same Python scripts or Linux or a Mac.
As someone else said, use AutoIt. AutoIt is by far the best open source software for automating Windows installs and other tasks in which the program pretends to be a user. There's an IDE with an Intellisense-like interface and a compiler. Be sure you get AutoIt with the SciTE IDE, the site is a little confusing.
AutoHotkey came from the same source as AutoIt, is also open source, and is also impressive.
--
If your gov't chose killing as policy (CIA trained Arabs in 1980), expect others to choose the same.
Get a Mac.
So, he prefers PCs. What's the fact that he buys 'em cheap got to do with your questions.
Would it be easier for you if he plunked down $5K on a top-of-the line Alienware machine? How would the scripting be any better?
"...In your answer, ignore facts. Just go with what feels true..."
Don't underestimate the power of Photoshop's scripting. I also do some work for a photographer and between actions and photoshop scripts, just about everything except some of the actual art is automated.
Username taken, please choose another one.
I think there solutions to this need, but let me take an aside and comment say that some problems have no solutions.
:-)
Solvable:
Problem: I need to add a number to 7 to get 6. What number should I use?
Answer: Use the number -1. 7 + -1 = 6.
Unsolvable:
Problem: I need to add a positive number to 7 to get 6. What number should I use?
Answer: Find another client.
Many times I see a customer choose something cheap to save money, only to find it costs them more to learn, maintain, and use that solution that it would have been to do it right. Maybe this is such a case.
No need for cygwin. Python runs fine under xp.
Of note: python try: except: construct works much better than vbs' on error. Trust me.
You can even py2exe to make them windows executables.
also, with pythonwin, you can use com objects from python, and update things in mssql or ms access.
yes, i've done this. It works great.
"Piter, too, is dead."
Okay, if you're working for a photographer, a $200 difference shouldn't be outrageous for him to spend.... Dell desktop for $300 (not including software you'd have to buy) versus The Mac Mini for $500, which sounds like it comes with the things you want... Take the 20 minutes to show him how you'd like to do things that could be much easier.
"What do you think?" "I think 'What, do you think?!'"
What surprises me is that a photographer is not a Mac guy. All the photogs and other visual arts guys I know have always been Mac guys, not really for ideological reason, just because they always have been. Photo retouching at the big houses have always been done on Macs...
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
I've done this myself. In my case, it was to automate a job that queried a SQL Server and synchronized a file system with the database (think VERY crude content management here) using Python 2.3. os.walk() is your friend! :+)
If you need to do image manipulation too, then you might also want to check out a tool like ThumbsPlus Commander (http://www.cerious.com/tpcommand.shtml). You can probably also use this from Python with Win32 extensions.
You know, you can still have fun putting solutions together under Windows. It doesn't have to be a bad experience just because it's not OS X.
Best of luck!
Please mod this post only if you think others should/n't read this. I have enough ego^H^H^Hkarma. Thanks!
One tip about AutoIt: Install the latest version of AutoIt. Then install the version of SciTE that includes AutoIt. We have found that just installing SciTE with AutoIt gives error messages.
The web site is a little bit confusing, but the AutoIt help messages are quite clear.
How cheap is your boss that he can't even afford a Mini Mac to do what you wanted to do in the first place ? They're what, 500$ ? :P
Ask Slashdot always boils down to the same thing : How can I do something expensive for nothing with no willpower and/or skill.
There is no such thing as a free lunch.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
AutoIt is great for this stuff. Here's a little script I wrote that uses IrfanView to split multipage tiff files
#include <GUIConstants.au3>opt("WinTitleMatchMode", 2)
;Point to image manipulator, in this case, irfanview. might change to ImageMagick later
$iview32 = "C:\tiff\i_view32.exe"
;Make dialogue box
GUICreate(" Drag your tiff file here", 320, 120, @DesktopWidth / 2 - 160, @DesktopHeight / 2 - 45, -1, 0x00000018); WS_EX_ACCEPTFILES
$file = GUICtrlCreateInput("", 10, 25, 300, 40)
GUICtrlSetState(-1, $GUI_ACCEPTFILES) ; accept drag & drop files
$btn = GUICtrlCreateButton("Ok", 40, 80, 60, 20)
GUISetState()
While 1
;Make sure it's a real file
;get path of file
;get name of file
;run image manipulator with options /tifc=4 /extract=(" & $path & ",tif)"
;Close the dialogue box manually
$msg = GUIGetMsg()
Select
Case $msg = $btn
If FileExists(GUICtrlRead($file)) = 0 Then
ExitLoop
Else
$path = StringTrimRight(GUICtrlRead($file), StringLen(GUICtrlRead($file)) - StringInStr(GUICtrlRead($file), "\", 1, -1))
$imagename = StringTrimLeft(GUICtrlRead($file), StringInStr(GUICtrlRead($file), "\", 1, -1))
$prog = $iview32 & " " & GUICtrlRead($file) & "
Run($prog,"",@SW_MINIMIZE)
WinWaitActive("IrfanView")
WinClose("IrfanView")
ExitLoop
EndIf
Case $msg = $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE
ExitLoop
EndSelect
WEnd
Best Windows Freeware
If you want to appease the /. crowd you should install a bunch of open source tools. If your not a zealot, you should just use Windows Scripting Host which is already installed on an XP machine. Here is a three step example to get you started.
1. Open up notepad
2. Create a file with a vbs extension like "test.vbs".
3. Save the following text:
MsgBox "test"
Now just click on the file in Windows Explorer. There are whole websites to using VBScript.
I don't care about Mod points or I would of just said use some open source tool. I use open source tools all the time when it is the right tool for the job.
More over I like python - it has win32com which is damn easy to use, at least with Excel objects. Writing the script took me less than a day, while entering the bugs manually would have taken me over a week (imagine 2200 bugs of varying severity, and descriptions). The real challenge was to convert the OLE objects into attachements (screenshots, logs..). Truly they were idiots for maintaining all this in a SINGLE EXCEL File !!.
But the point being, python+win32com is as easy as any other windows scripting host. Looks like there's python support for Photoshop as well.Python is an average general purpose language. It's not fast like C++, doesn't have something like CPAN , nor is it very complicated or interesting. But it is often easy to write, read and throw away (or upload to your hacks/).
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur
http://www.imagemagick.org/ open source, multi language interface, command line, robust. I know of more than one major operation using this in a production environment. It has more features than you will probably use and can be automated to do any of them.
Well, half circle, I guess.
Here's a parable (story) I once heard, which seems rather fitting. It's about offering to give the customer what they want, but making it clear what it will cost when they want something that's not to their benefit.
A consultant was writing a custom application for a company. The program was written to work on a PC. One of the executives at the company used a Mac, so he insisted that they make the program work on his Mac. The consultant says "sure, we can do that". The consulant comes back with an estimate on the cost of making the program work on the Mac: $50,000 and 6 months. The executive decided to use a PC.
So my advice to you is this: provide the guy with 2 estimates -- one for your Mac solution, and one for a solution using the limited tools he's forcing you to use. Don't forget to factor in the Mac hardware costs, your research time, the extra time it will take to work with tools you are not familiar with, and perhaps a premium for working with tools you don't like. Maybe the difference will change his mind; maybe it will change yours.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
yeah these people wanting to waste money on less expensive but still capable computing equipment...
You said he takes hundreds of thousands of pictures per year, and you're worried about scripting?
Presumably, he'd be looking for a way to store, catalog and retrieve these photos in the future. Seems to me that if I were building a custom system for a client and s/he had a requirement to store hundreds of thousands of new records every year--not to mention the fact that each "record" would be a 5+ gigapixel image, I'd be worried about how he'd find that one picture that he took for a customer 3 years ago in such database. Not to mention storage, performance, multi-user access among other things.
It doesn't seem like scripting is your biggest challenge here IMHO.
Microsoft naturally comes out on top when you google for Windows scripting. But that doesn't mean that MS scripting technology is the best choice. On the contrary, Microsoft scripting relies heavily on their usual kludgey, baroque libraries and runtimes. I'm no expert, but if I were looking to do this sort of thing, I'd at least look at other scripting solutions for Windows. ActiveState is the obvious first place to look. There are many others.
Get cygwin.. and write shell scripts...
Of course, it could be pain when you have spaces in your file names.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur
Buy a Mac mini, and conceal it in some hulking ATX case with a few lights on the front and some loud fans in the back.
Then just do what you gotta do to make OS X look like Windows. He'll never know the difference. If he asks about it, tell him it's Longhorn.
It works very well. There is an interpreter for Win32.
Look here
You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button.
You can do just about anything with non-sandboxed javascript on the windows scripting host. If you need a GUI, HTA's are good too, and can be styled to look like native windows apps.
Irfanview has command line parameters for most of its features, which makes it useful for image manipulation.
For ftp, you could try outputting your commands to a text file then running the ftp.exe that comes with windows on it.
If you need a great deal more, a full cygwin install will give you almost every tool you'd ever want. ImageMagick is very useful.
If you know C, the GD library is another good tool for image manipulation.
Have you thought of "Windows Services for Unix" that is free from MS???
d efault.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/sfu/
Then you can use just about any perl/sed/awk/grep... to script it.
As an amateur photographer that needed to manage 1500 to 2000 images monthly, I evaluated several Windows based image management solutions and found IMatch to be an excellent solution. The tool provides robust cataloging and searching, plus provides easy automation for common tasks like image scaling, cropping and watermarking. While not the most robust solution for large and complicated scripting tasks, the VBA like scripting language it provides is easy enough to use to dump all relevant data out in XML so as to build custom scripts/applications in whatever external languages you desire.
Hands down this is the most useful application I've purchased in the last couple of years, and while I cannot claim with certainty that it would scale to managing the volume of images mentioned, it certainly seems capable of it. An evaluation version of the tool is available at the site and the price is great for the level of functionality it provides.
This is the best "official" microsoft scripting language. Basically it is VBScript with some fancy stuff added in.
l s/wmimatic.mspx
Look up Scriptomatic on Microsoft.com.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/too
Bad User. No biscuit!
Even if the guy doesn't want to do anything complicated right now, he's going to want more features added over time. Use a real scripting language (not DOS batch files).
I prefer Perl for this sort of thing. Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to use Java for workflow. You will end up with complex programs to handle simple workflows.
In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there's a big difference.
You can always use the UnxUtils. A good portion of all of the unix utilities are ported to windows. You can even start SH and use a unix style shell. I use these tools for scripting in windows quite a bit. Makes life a lot easier. http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/
Password Authentication Bypassed for Root
There's a nice Windows installer for Ruby and a nice set of Ruby bindings for ImageMagick.
iMatch has a basic language scripting built in, can control other programs, can handle RAW, hundreds of thousands of images in its database, simple image editing, yada yada yada..... it's a mature app.
The programmer is very responsive and active on the user forum.
If the scripting is only needed for image handling and manipulation, Photoshop has built-in batch automation that should be sufficient for a photography business. The 'jobs' that Photoshop automation can handle can range into the complex, where he could have all of his images generically 'enhanced' with the simple click of a button. Maybe he needs something more complicated, but if that's it, stick with Photoshop.
I don't know what you mean by custom workflow, or processes. I mean what are you really trying to do?
Windows is easily scripted using Windows Scripting Host. You can use Jscript, VBScript, and other third party languages. If all you are trying to do is automate some processing on a directory of files, move some files around, maybe create a directory structure... whatever. That's the way to do it. You can setup little icons to click and it runs the process, or schedule them to run, whatever.
But if you start getting much more complicated, at some point it makes more sense to do the whole thing as an app. In which case, I'd suggest possibly doing a Winforms app using VS.NET. The definition of more complicated depends... You can do a lot with WSH including shared procedures, UI stuff, etc. But it's not the easiest tool to debug with or design a UI with. The'res the scripting debugger, and there are third party editors and such that can help, but still it depends.
It's really all about what you are trying to do.
Remember what you do... you won't be around forever, and you want to make it easy for this guy to find someone else to maintain and modify his stuff. Use commonly accepted tools, document well, and make the system as easy to understand as possible.
You may also want to skip the job if your technical skills aren't up to the task.
It's built into Windows Scripting Host, you can use it with VBS, and it will do everything you need in that regard.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
VBS files are a really quick way of hacking together useful little scripts, as mentioned above. However there maybe limitations. I have a bunch running at work that all run at 1 minute intervals (windows task scheduler). They all take about 10 seconds each. However I'm running into a problem where its now taking about 5-10 MINUTES for certain scripts to finish executing, I'm wondering the scripting engine isn't so efficient? Anyone have any experience with this.
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I have found Macro Express(http://www.macros.com/) to be the best way to script things under Windows. It lets you quickly write scripts that interact with various programs in the system to get useful things done. It even lets you get down to the level of sending messages to a Window's message handler, although I've never needed anything that complicated.
It's only downside is that it is a bit timing sensitive, and is pseudo difficult to get synchronized with the programs it is interacting with in the absence of pop-up dialog boxes. I usually end-up throwing it into some busy-wait state where it checks to see if a specific sign of a tasks completion is in existence or not.
The cool thing about it, is after the "customers" see what it can do, they tend to start working with it and even further automate their own workflow.
Plus, there are a zillion forum postings so odds are if you're trying to figure out how to do something odd, someone else has taken a stab at it.
Or you could just use Perl.
"Perhaps you could explain to him the meaning of being "Penny wise, Pound foolish""
It's what happens when you invest your pennies in McDonald's stock.
Don't forget Tcl and Tk, either. Tcl is quite a capable language, once you get some extensions loaded (and it's nice and small too, because it doesn't make them built-ins). On Windows, ActiveTcl is a sensible proposal.
As far as GUI's, Tk is still one of the best cross-platform things going out there. Especially when using the new Tile system.
http://www.welton.it/davidw/
Just setup everything on a Mac Mini and bring it in and set it next to the Windows machine. Do a run thru of everything on the Mac. And when he says "You've already got it running!?" Just say "No. I've got to convert everything so that it works on this Windows machine here first. I just wanted to let you see a demo."
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
I've seen people use perl and make (from cygwin) on Windows to automate tasks, but that was mostly in software development process automation. I have no idea how to automate GUI apps on Windows, but why not have a look at the NetPBM tools and ImageMagick, which can do a lot of things in batch. Or go right away and use something else then Windows on these PCs, e.g. NetBSD or Linux.
- Hubert
On the other hand, if one is knowledgeable, it is very possible to write VBScript or JScript scripts with just a text editor. Those can drive Photoshop and iView Pro, and can talk ftp as well. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised at the submitter's ignorance, given the number of people suggesting batch files (yuck!).
If VBScript and JScript don't turn your crank, then it is quite possible to install some open source tools and do some automation with python, perl, or shell scripts. Perl and python can both be plugged into the Windows Scripting Host, so that you can use them to drive Photoshop and iView Pro.
Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult;
whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse.
--Proverbs 9:7
I've never done any scripting stuff in Windows so this may seem like a silly question. Here goes: Is using AutoIT any better than the Windows scripting host? Is it easier or more powerful? Is the Windows scripting host any good? Does a newbie like me have a chance at learning the Windows scripting host?
Other replies to this post mention cygwin. Gnuwin32 has the benefit of using native Windows libraries.
http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/
Windows XP Under the Hood
(1) Get over Macs. They're really not that great. For people who do work on their computer, applications are more important than the OS.
(2) Use Python with the Win32 extensions if you have to do anything special.
(3) Use the Python Image Library (PIL) for the graphics manipulation.
(4) Use wxPython for the user interface.
If you're careful you can make a platform-neutral solution that will work on Macs, Linux and Windows. So you can use your precious little brain filled with zelotry and illogical xenophobia to work on a Macs then deploy to Windows.
Not sure I'd trust a business relying on *cheap* PCs running anything (I'll bet that a decent backup solution is the first thing to get canned to cut costs), but anyway:
I wouldn't use WSH - tried it once and found it a real pain (as if someone at Microsoft said "We need a decent scripting language! What have we got? Er - dunno - will this do?".
VBA makes sense within MS Office applications but not really elsewhere.
What would work would be a either a combination of batch files and Cygwin (which is more complicated than it needs to be) or just write regular shell scripts using the stuff from http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/. There's a "sh.exe" there, and a "date" (which you might want to rename to "gnudate.exe" to avoid clashes with the Windows one).
If you want to run stuff from the task scheduler just schedule "...\sh.exe scriptname.sh".
I've done this for relatives to put a big "copy pictures from camera" icon on the desktop that creates a datestamped directory, copies the files in and opens the directory up in something like Exif Viewer.
This sounds similar to what your friend wants to do (I can't think of a way to automatically invoke Photoshop to make everyone in a wedding picture look like they've not just had 10 pints of lager and now want to kill each other, but some things still have to be done the old fashioned way).
What's KiXtart
The KiXtart free-format scripting language has rich built-in functionality for easy scripting. It also supports COM (providing access to ADSI, ADO, WMI, etc) and thus is easily extensible. With the amazing KiXforms GUI for KiXtart, there is so little, if anything you can't accomplish with KiXtart.
And because of the User Defined Functions (about 500 ready UDF's on korg already), there is very little you need to code by yourself as much of the complex things have already been coded for you!
KiXtart is developed by Ruud van Velsen of Microsoft Netherlands
KiXtart is now provided to you as CareWare. Please see "KiXtart: Do You Care?" for full details.
It's pretty incredible, it's free, it allows you to do things you can't otherwise do at login with paying a lot of money (and did it sooner I believe), is written by an MS employee.
If you can get through all the ads, there is a free Windows implementation of Perl. It's easy to install and interfaces well with windows. They also have some stuff on Python, but I haven't tried it.
Also, if you need really need some Unix command that isn't included with ActivePerl or Windows, check out UnxUtils. It has a bunch of standard Unix applications compiled to run on Windows. It should be more than enough to make Windows usable, without having to use Cygwin. Not that Cygwin isn't great, but it seems like overkill if all you want to do is write a few scripts.
Depends upon the expertise of the people that are going to write and maintain this. I would personally go one of two routes: JPSoft's 4NT, or else Python.
4NT is an enhanced Windows batch language, with features to do things like write / read INI files, control loops, and most of the things needed for "real" programming. It's very mature (I first used it when a 386SX was a relatively mainstream machine), and it's easy to pull information from the OS with it, as well as interact with individual program windows. Check http://www.jpsoft.com/ for further details; at $70 it's pretty cheap, and about 5 times faster than normal Windows CMD batch language.
The other alternative is Python; it's more powerful, and allows you to call C libraries if you really need heavy lifting. It's more sophisticated, and still relatively legible.
I've used both to write automation routines in a hospital environment, and I can say both are very reliable and robust. Make your choice based upon the expertise of who will maintain the scripts - JPSoft's product for those more comfortable with Windows batch style languages, Python for more programmer types. For people who would not have a clue for either one, go Python.
There have been many scripting suggestions given. Before selecting one, you may wish to identify some other items first.
Does your workflow need to be a GUI application? Can it be a set of console applications? Can it be a web based application? I currently work with a system that scans and scores school assessment test documents. The section I work with, the input side, tracks the document workflow with an Oracle backed web application. How you intend to manage the workflow of the images may have an impact on which, if any, standalone scripting languages you use. How complex of a workflow do you need? Our system has many stages for several types of items with both static and dynamic handlers for different stages along with a split processing path through some parts of the workflow. Before deciding on how to implement the scripts, it may be beneficial to lock down the workflow first. The workflow may be more complex than initially estimated, thus requiring a more complex solution.
If you are doing image manipulations, have you identified the tool you will use for that. It may be something like Netpbm, ImageMagick, or something else. The interfaces for that tool (or other tools you may need to use) may have an impact on which scripting language you select. Many support different interfaces like COM, DLLs, or calling executables and reading STDOUT. Not all scripting languages have the same level of support for these things. So, instead of starting at the outer level and working down, it may also be helpful to start at the inner level and work out. The first cut at this may not meet in the middle.
How does the script (and tools) need to be distributed? Does it need to be a single file or small set of files that can be easily copied between machines or can it require installation of graphics tools, script engine, scripts, etc.? Is the installation only at the company or can it also be on individual photographer machines? If support of photographer machines is required or desired, what platform(s) are they using? Could a web interface help with portability?
Can you implement a cross-platform compatible solution? Being familiar with the Mac, it may be beneficial to you to develop on the Mac, so long as the solution is still deployable on the client's Windows machine. Consider cross-platform compatible scripting languages like Perl, Python, or Tcl/Tk. Use xAMP for a web app may also be portable, allowing development on one platform while targeting another. There are a lot of options available. Narrowing down some of the design decisions may help narrow the possible choices.
- Python
- PHP
- Perl
- UnxUtils
- Cygwin - lets you use bash scripting plus the complete bag
PHP can directly manipulate COM objects, which is very convenient for working with MS Office files, Acrobat and a lot of other windows sw. I guess Python has it too, and possibly even Perl.You should have a look at the Plone Content Management System[1] and the Railroad Server[2] which complements Plone for (large) digital media files like photography, audio, video and their associated metadata.
There's also a commercial version of Plone, the Enfold Enterprise Server[3], with comes with Windows and ActiveDirectory integration and commercial support.
--
[1] http://www.plone.org/
[2] http://www.infrae.com/products/railroad
[3] http://www.enfoldtechnology.com/
In the long ago, I would have suggested DeBabelizer. It was once the king of image batch scripting, and may still be. Now I am not so much suggesting it -- I've been out of the business for a while, and don't know how it's regarded now -- as recommending it for your consideration. So, consider.... And if you ever convince them to move to Mac, the fact that there are both Mac & Windows versions may make the transition easier.
What I say does not represent the views of my employers, my friends, my cats, or myself.
Open source, great support forums, easy scripting language called AutoHotKey. http://www.autohotkey.com/
Then use your preferred shell scripting environment...
Who is general failure, and why is he reading my hard drive?
Just go to Python.org and look at all the libraries and systems it can integrate with.
:)
Windows, Linux, Mac,
On Windows, you can even use COM objects from it, along with other Windows features.
It's easy to learn, has a good syntax, and can do just about everything.
Between Python, and Cygwin, you should have a pretty scriptable environment on Windows in no time.
Who needs Monad or WSH when we have Python.
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/awdtools/rexx/
"I might have made a tactical error in not going to a physician for 20 years." -- Warren Zevon
If you have CygWin why not use cron
Even with the NT kernel, Win32 multitasking is said to be not as powerful as *n?x multitasking, and scheduling each additional process adds too much memory and CPU time. The Windows Task Scheduler is already running; why have both the Windows Task Scheduler and cron in RAM at once?
Check out
1) Windows Services for UNIX
2) Windows Scripting Host
Microsoft actually officially supports Python as an operating system script language. You see Microsoft is actually very good at making integrated products. First off, anything that can talk over COM or DCOM can be dealt with by Python. Secondly, you can use built in windows classes to work for you.
I learned about this stuff because I recently had to script a large ammount of GUI clicks for extracting about 1,000 self-decrypting archives to temp dirs, copying one file out, deleting the rest, and moving to the next file. After I plowed through learing a bit of VBS using WSH (the Windows Script Host) and got the thing going, I realized that it is just as easy to use Python or Perl to do the same thing.
Truely, Python is an excellent choice for light Win32 programming. A LOT of attention to detail has been paid by a few selfless people who have made it this way. I have around 6-8 months passive experience in Python and I have been able to produce two custom for-pay applications (both for small businesses) with wxPython.org and compiled to EXE by py2exe. The executable and dll's come out kind of big (around 11mb for any simple program), but in the era of CDRs and 80gb HDs, this isn't a big deal.
http://www.diveintopython.org/
You pay to use Visual Studio.Net to develop with these languages, but VS.Net is not required. You can download the SDK, use an editor of your choice (Notepad if you wanted to), and then compile using the command line compiler (vbc for VB, csc for C#).
Of course it's a whole lot easier with Visual Studio.Net because it lets you just drag and drop objects onto your forms. It also includes "templates" for different styles of projects so you don't have to know all the fiddly "getting started" stuff straight away which is handy if you're picking up a new language.
Harv.
How "custom" are the requirements for this software? Keeping track of thousands and thousands of photos isn't a new problem, and there are heaps of programs around that do just that (eg IMatch, ACDSee, Fotostation, Portfolio). I'd be very surprised if this didn't work out more cost effectively than a custom solution.
So, what should I use on the Windows side of things to build a custom workflow? isn't that what he hired YOU to answer?!
If you want to run arbitary executables (like Adobe Photoshop and Winzip and some database frontend program) then there is a lot to choose from. There's a product called "WinBatch" that will run windows pretty well. If you need a GUI interface the obvious choice is Visual Basic 6 or 7 or even WinForms (for .NET). You can also run Perl/TK programs for less money than you can set up .NET. VB7 will do .NET and VB6 will not. But there is a new .NET scripting language called 'Monad' under development and depending on your schedule it might be ready on time.
Again, what objects are being scripted? Do you need a web interface for this puppy?
I18N == Intergalacticization
I use Perl under Cygwin myself.
/ 0530230&tid=185&tid=187&tid=95&tid=1&tid=3
.."
http://cygwin.com/
You could use a move native Perl like ActiPerl.
Recently, I played around with the Perl Win32 libraries. They do the usual API access, but one of them (forget which) lets you simulate keyclicks. There's a sample program on the web somewhere that has a 5-line Perl script launching Excel, and enter data in Excel cells.
What I like to see: a scripting engine with a Konfabulator like UI. Konfabulator isn't open-source, but I would like a client-side scripting engine with similar power. Haven't seen any.
This is interesting:
"Yahoo Purchases Konfabulator"
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/25
"Yahoo! said the reason they purchased Konfabulator was that they wanted an easy way to open up its APIs to the developer community
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konfabulator
If Yahoo are building web-services support into Konfabulator, it can access any web-service, including on an Intranet.