HOW TO DO AUTOMATION (Basics...)

Hi dear Readers

This is Anik again with some more information about automation.

As last week we have discussed about the basic concept of automation. This time we are going to learn about several ways of automation and their basic concept. This topics will be discussed in a broader way in upcoming blogs.

Now there are several ways to do automation. Some of the things, that I prefer, I have mentioned below:

1.    Orchestration

2.    Programming in Application Level

3.    Scripting in Operating System Level

Now here I am going to explain about the above mentioned points.

1. Orchestration:

 

  

    So here the first questions comes is what is orchestration and how do we use that for automating IT processes. Orchestration is all about designing work flow and executing that with some proper guide lines. a work flow defines the process flow on any operation in a flow-chart format. 

    To explain in normal terms let me continue with an example. How do you write a mail? First you login to the account, then click on compose, then type the recipient name. Next put the subject and then type the body. At last you will send the mail. Now this whole thing can be designed in a flow as follows:

    Whatever tasks we do, all can be designed using a work flow. Once the workflow is designed, by deploying that in a Orchestrator, the whole thing can be automated.

    There are some very famous orchestrators in market like HPOO, SNOW etc.

2. Programming in Application Level:

  The programming languages are some high level language that communicate directly with the application core codes. Once the program is executed, it starts interacting with the main target application code and gets the work done.

    That was a technical explanation. Now let’s make it easier. Let’s go with an example. We all use Microsoft Office. When someone clicks on word or excel, what actually we do is, we execute a background code that has been already deployed by the time of MS Office installation. Programming languages interact with that background code and make the work done. But the difference is, normally we have to operate the whole operation by ourselves manually but if we use a piece of code, then that will have the AI(Artificial Intelligence) to identify the status of the application and do the next step to fulfil our requirement.

    There are some very good programming languages available in market but the most I like is Autoit. That is mainly a GUI automation language. We will discuss the languages in the upcoming blogs. Other than that a very well-known language is SAP ABAP.

3. Scripting in Operating System Level:

    Scripting languages are also similar as programming languages but the main difference is these languages can also interact with the Operating System directly. We can automate OS (Operating System) level operations by scripting languages.

    Again it is the example time. Let’s think about a feature of windows that we all have used. Yes, Notepad. So what happens when we launch notepad. The OS generates a backend command and executes the same. That commands finds the notepad.exe file in the system and triggers that. Now with the help of scripting languages, we can automate this kind of OS level jobs as well.

   Some good scripting languages are Python, autoit (can work as both scripting and programming language), javascript, vbscript etc.

These are the most suitable ways to do automation. But there are many other ways too. We will discuss about the same as the day progress.

Keep reading the blogs for more information and please do post comments for any query or feedback.

You can drop mail in anik.raj004@gmail.com.

The next blog will be coming soon (Wednesday, Friday and Sunday).  Thanks for reading.