Hi TDP'ers! We are creating a Toad Data Point webinar to go over your top questions about how to use Toad Data Point automation. So we are collecting your all of your top questions pertaining to automation in the the app. Reply to this thread to let us know what you would like us to cover!
I recently started using Automations in TDP and have hit some issues trying to maintain a Test and Production set of Automations. I created a folder hierarchy on my server so I have a directory for each system I create automations for. Under the system folders I created a UAT (Test) folder and a PRD (Production) folder. My desire was to initially build the workflow and all associated files in the UAT folder, put the UAT and PRD paths in the ROOT_PATH of the Settings block, and select Test as my environment. Once all was working I would copy all the needed files to the PRD folder, open the .tas file and flip the environment to Production, then save the Automation script and upon re-opening everything would now be working in the Production Path. The automations I created so far are fairly simple, but I had to manually tweak almost everything that interacted with the file system as everything still attempted to access the UAT directory. If you could include a section on best practices for maintaining a Test and Production set of automations and how to move changes from Test to Product that would be great. Since we have a full blown Test environment, I need to have the Test and Production automations run nightly to keep both environments updated, so I can't use a single .tas, set it to Test when making a change then flip it to Production and schedule it if that makes sense. Let me know if you need and additional details.
The other thing that would be nice is a list of Activities that do not respect the ROOT_PATH/Environment Connection or use relative paths from the Settings Block. I discovered (unless I am doing it incorrectly) that I had to basically re-create the Toad Import Templates in the PRD folders as they have the file path and destination connection hard coded. I believe the .tct (Transform) files are the same. I changed my approach and did the data transformation on the CSV prior to import via a .bat file that could be copied from the UAT dir to the PRD dir without requiring any changes because everything it does is based on the path the script is in. I even found the Run Program block did not seem to switch paths when I copied everything from UAT to PRD then flipped the Environment from Test to Production.
If you have any suggestions on how best to address my situation before the webinar is available, I would be grateful as the basic documentation in the Users Guide is not very detailed.
Looking forward to your suggestions and seeing the Webinar series once produced. I did just watch the Automation portion of the TDP General Overview, but as expected it was more high level than what I was looking for.
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Hi TDP’ers! This session is happening soon! Make sure you get your questions in so you can learn how Toad Data Point provides a user-friendly, “no code” approach to creating automations that you can run on your desktop as well as publish to a server through Toad Intelligence Central.
And, don’t forget to register now: Nov. 12, at 11:00 am ET for, “Answering Your Top Five Questions About Toad Data Point Automation"