# \[Automation\] External Batch File & Variables - Not working **URL:** \ **Category:** Toad Data Point & Toad Intelligence Central\ **Created:** [February 5, 2013, 8:27pm UTC](https://forums.toadworld.com/t/automation-external-batch-file-variables-not-working/7546 "2013-02-05T20:27:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![N.B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc8723/32.png) [@N.B](https://forums.toadworld.com/u/N.B)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 8:27pm UTC](https://forums.toadworld.com/t/automation-external-batch-file-variables-not-working/7546/1 "2013-02-05T20:27:48Z")
For some reason, I cannot seem to get an external batch file to “take” variables that I’m passing to it from the “Run Program” automation activity. Here’s the setup: Program: …\BSR\BSRXH\West\_SP\_Copy.bat Arguments: #Yr# “#Mth#” #Date# #Date-15# #Mth# is surrounded by quotes because it resolves to 02 FEB, and Windows doesn’t allow a space in the file name path that isn’t surrounded by quotes. And here’s the batch file: XCOPY “\FILESERVER\IS\REPORTS”%1"\XH"%2"\05 D PND NO XFER “%3”.xlsx" “\SHAREPOINT\REGION\IS\DSR\XH\West”%1""%2"" /I /Y XCOPY “\FILESERVER\IS\REPORTS”%1"\XH"%2"\05 D PND XFER “%3”.xlsx" “\SHAREPOINT\REGION\IS\DSR\XH\West”%1""%2"" /I /Y XCOPY “\FILESERVER\IS\REPORTS”%1"\XH"%2"\05 D CMP “%4”.xlsx" “\SHAREPOINT\REGION\IS\DSR\XH\West”%1""%2"" /I /Y XCOPY “\FILESERVER\IS\REPORTS”%1"\XH"%2"\32 D PND NO XFER “%3”.xlsx" “\SHAREPOINT\REGION\IS\DSR\XH\West”%1""%2"" /I /Y XCOPY “\FILESERVER\IS\REPORTS”%1"\XH"%2"\32 D PND XFER “%3”.xlsx" “\SHAREPOINT\REGION\IS\DSR\XH\West”%1""%2"" /I /Y XCOPY “\FILESERVER\IS\REPORTS”%1"\XH"%2"\32 D CMP “%4”.xlsx" “\SHAREPOINT\REGION\IS\DSR\XH\West”%1""%2"" /I /Y XCOPY “\FILESERVER\IS\REPORTS”%1"\XH"%2"\09 D PND NO XFER “%3”.xlsx" “\SHAREPOINT\REGION\IS\DSR\XH\West”%1""%2"" /I /Y XCOPY “\FILESERVER\IS\REPORTS”%1"\XH"%2"\09 D PND XFER “%3”.xlsx" “\SHAREPOINT\REGION\IS\DSR\XH\West”%1""%2"" /I /Y XCOPY “\FILESERVER\IS\REPORTS”%1"\XH"%2"\09 D CMP “%4”.xlsx" “\SHAREPOINT\REGION\IS\DSR\XH\West”%1""%2"" /I /Y %1 is mapped to #Yr# %2 is mapped to #Mth# %3 is mapped to #Date# %4 is mapped to #Date-15# When I run this manually from the command line, passing the real values to the batch file, it works perfectly. But when run from the “Run Program” activity - nothing happens. TDA reports that the program exited successfully, but no files are actually copied to the remote directory. Is there something I’m just missing? ---
**Author:** ![N.B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc8723/32.png) [@N.B](https://forums.toadworld.com/u/N.B)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 6:13pm UTC](https://forums.toadworld.com/t/automation-external-batch-file-variables-not-working/7546/2 "2013-02-11T18:13:39Z")
I’ve both simplified this a bit and made it slightly more complicated - again, it runs just fine when calling from the command line and passing the data that would be in the variables: Program: C:\Automation\West\_SP\_Copy.bat Arguments: #Yr# #b\_mm# #b\_mon# #Date# #Date-15# And here’s the batch file: XCOPY “\FILESERVER\IS\REPORTS”%1"\XH"%2" “%3”\05 D PND NO XFER “%4”.xlsx" “\SHAREPOINT\REGION\IS\DSR\XH\West”%1""%2" “%3"” /I /Y XCOPY “\FILESERVER\IS\REPORTS”%1"\XH"%2" “%3”\05 D PND XFER “%4”.xlsx" “\SHAREPOINT\REGION\IS\DSR\XH\West”%1""%2" “%3"” /I /Y XCOPY “\FILESERVER\IS\REPORTS”%1"\XH"%2" “%3”\05 D CMP “%5”.xlsx" “\SHAREPOINT\REGION\IS\DSR\XH\West”%1""%2" “%3"” /I /Y XCOPY “\FILESERVER\IS\REPORTS”%1"\XH"%2" “%3”\32 D PND NO XFER “%4”.xlsx" “\SHAREPOINT\REGION\IS\DSR\XH\West”%1""%2" “%3"” /I /Y XCOPY “\FILESERVER\IS\REPORTS”%1"\XH"%2" “%3”\32 D PND XFER “%4”.xlsx" “\SHAREPOINT\REGION\IS\DSR\XH\West”%1""%2" “%3"” /I /Y XCOPY “\FILESERVER\IS\REPORTS”%1"\XH"%2" “%3”\32 D CMP “%5”.xlsx" “\SHAREPOINT\REGION\IS\DSR\XH\West”%1""%2" “%3"” /I /Y XCOPY “\FILESERVER\IS\REPORTS”%1"\XH"%2" “%3”\09 D PND NO XFER “%4”.xlsx" “\SHAREPOINT\REGION\IS\DSR\XH\West”%1""%2" “%3"” /I /Y XCOPY “\FILESERVER\IS\REPORTS”%1"\XH"%2" “%3”\09 D PND XFER “%4”.xlsx" “\SHAREPOINT\REGION\IS\DSR\XH\West”%1""%2" “%3"” /I /Y XCOPY “\FILESERVER\IS\REPORTS”%1"\XH"%2" “%3”\09 D CMP “%5”.xlsx" “\SHAREPOINT\REGION\IS\DSR\XH\West”%1""%2" “%3"” /I /Y %1 is mapped to #Yr# %2 is mapped to #b\_mm# %3 is mapped to #b\_mon# %4 is mapped to #Date# %5 is mapped to #Date-15% This is getting quite frustrating - I don’t get any error messages from Toad, but yet this will not work in the “Run Program” activity. ---
**Author:** ![N.B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc8723/32.png) [@N.B](https://forums.toadworld.com/u/N.B)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 2:28pm UTC](https://forums.toadworld.com/t/automation-external-batch-file-variables-not-working/7546/3 "2013-02-14T14:28:14Z")
Further testing yielded a log file that shows that the XCOPY command is being issued from the batch file - however, it appears as though it’s not actually being run - I’m not sure if this is because of how TDA executes the batch file or what. I know that the batch file is good, because if I run it by hand and pass the parameters along, it works perfectly. What am I missing? ---
**Author:** ![mercier104\_000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@mercier104\_000](https://forums.toadworld.com/u/mercier104_000)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 8:19am UTC](https://forums.toadworld.com/t/automation-external-batch-file-variables-not-working/7546/4 "2013-02-18T08:19:03Z")
hi, You should try to use “find and replace” automation module to write variables directly in the batch file before running it… Regards. ---
**Author:** ![IgorM](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/quest/user_avatar/forums.toadworld.com/igorm/32/116_2.png) [@IgorM](https://forums.toadworld.com/u/IgorM)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 1:22pm UTC](https://forums.toadworld.com/t/automation-external-batch-file-variables-not-working/7546/5 "2013-02-18T13:22:02Z")
For some reason variables in a Run activity are working fine in development build but are not in release/beta build. We’re investigating it. Suggested using of Find&Replace activity to substitute values in batch file might be a possible workaround. Igor.