IBIS Archive

Here is a sneak-peek of the InfoBurst® Shell to be presented in the Report Bursting, Scheduling, Delivery & Administration talk at the InfoBurst User Conference – IBIS 2013.

Welcome back to the second part of my sneak peak for the my InfoBurst API and Shell talk.  We last talked a little about the InfoBust API and how it’s leveraged in our product user interface.  Well, there’s another interface that was build for more administrative, debugging, and management purposes.  This is the IBShell, or sometimes referred to as just “the Shell”.  This utility was actually born with the function of simply testing each new API function as they came out.  But then it became apparent that we needed to blow away and rebuild our name times over during our initial alpha phase.  It was then that IBShell scripting was born.  We build scripts that enabled us to quickly reset our repository.  And actually, I still use those same scripts regularly.  So, What can be done with InfoBurst Enterprise‘s IBShell utility?  I’ll go over some of the things that you can do in this sneak-peak.

Commonly the shell is used for debugging purposes and adjusting InfoBurst settings.  But you can do other things too like modify objects in InfoBurst, adjust processing queues to increase the simultaneous workload InfoBurst can perform, and even manage users’ logon sessions.  To start IBShell you’ll need to open a command prompt in the InfoBurst Enterprise program files directory.  Then, just  type “ibshell” and it will start up. Now that we have that running, how about we get into some examples?

First thing you’ll always need to do is connect to the InfoBurst Enterprise Server.  This is done with the “connect” command.  Executing just the “connect” command will use it’s default values.  So it will connect using the local machine name and use the default soap port.  You can adjust the port by using the “port” parameter.

> connect port=8080

You can also target other InfoBurst Enterprise environments, say a development or production environment, by using the “server” parameter.

> connect server=full.server.name"

Once you’ve connected then you’ll need to get a token.  As you may have remembered from the InfoBurst API sneak peek an authentication token is always needed so the commands you execute fall into a security context.  To do this we will need to use the “get token” command.  The shell does support some interactivity when required parameters are not provided.  Here’s an example of what it could look like for the get token command.

> get token
Enter Value for 'user' : admin
Enter Value for 'password' : *****
* OK
>

Now that we have a token we can do a whole lot of different things.  Commonly a support technician might as for your configuration options, to get those simply type “list config” (example output has been truncated).

> list config
  # Items = 80
  AccessTokenTimeout             : 20
  AddEmailDisclaimer             : False
  AdminPassword                  : *****
  AdminServicePort               : 8552
  ADSyncEvery                    : 15
  ADSyncGroup                    :
  AllowRepoSwitchWhileRunning    : False
  AndroidPackagePrefix           : com.mycompany
  AuthMode                       : AuthIB
  ...

You can list other things as well using the “list” command, like folders, users, groups, etc.  Now that you see the options you can set the configuration options by using the “set config” command.

> set config MaxBursts=22
* maxbursts = '22' OK

Next up, you will probably be asked to get around in the system and display the details of a burst object.  You’ll have to use two different commands “dir” and “cd”.  The “dir” command is used to list the contents of a directory.  Since upon logon you are placed in your home folder, the “dir” command will display the objects inside your home folder.

> dir
  2 Item(s) sorted by Name
  ID      Rdy Name      Type              Created    Changed    #CH
  -----------------------------------------------------------------
  2076    Y   AdminNote Text              4/11/2012  5/15/2013  1
  9626    Y   MyFolder  Folder            5/15/2013             0
>

If you have directories you’d use the “cd” command to change directory.  Just type “cd” and the name of the folder.

> cd MyFolder
*OK

And now you can use the “disp” command to display the details of an object.  In this example we are going to display a simple text object.

> disp "A Little Note"
                Object: Text
                    ID: 9627
                  Name: A Little Note
                  Path: \users\ADMIN\MyFolder\A Little Note
                  Text: Here is my little note.

At this point you should be able to look around in your environment and see what’s there.  Like I mentioned earlier there’s even more that you can do.  Like create users and group.  Modify bursts, XDCs, schedules and other objects.  You can even get into scripting to automate your environment a little and potentially control it from another process running on the server.

Well, that’s it for now on this sneak-peek.  Obviously, I’ll be going into much more detail during my talk and I’d hope to see you there.  I’m very excited for our first ever InfoBurst User Conference.  Not only will this topic be discussed, but many more in a very open format.  Check it out on our InfoBurst User Conference webpage.  I’ll be looking forward to seeing you there!  You can register for the InfoBurst User Conference online just by clicking on the “Register” button at limitlessbi.com.