qv-automation v0.0.16

QlikView Automate (Beta)

Why

The simple answer is "Because I need it".

On a daily basis I'm copying back and forth qvw and data files between our dev server and prod and test environments. This doesn't consume a lot of time to be honest but it's boring. Also I wanted to be able to deploy to both environments at the same time and also wanted to have the option to "test" the scripts (mine and my colleagues ones) for some basic stuff (local paths for example ths will be available in the next version)

Started with batch files but this have it's own disadvantages. And this is where Gulp came in the picture. With Gulp is much easier to set the workflow I've needed (and also was a good case to do something more bigger with Gulp)

Requirements

• Node JS
• Gulp 4
• Git

Install

To install it just open command prompt and run:

npm install -g qv-automate

After this qv-automate will be available to run from cwd.

How

qv-automate uses Gulp to run specific tasks.

Task can be started individually or one after another in the same run (check the Examples section).

The module is installed globally and can be started from anywhere in cmd.

The settings.json (file in the the current user documents folder) is used to define the qvw and data files, their prod/dev/test locations and git repository.

Tasks

build:dev

• Compоsite task running the following tasks (in this order):
  • clear:tempApp
  • clear:tempPrj
  • git:clone
  • create:xml
  • git:commit
  • git:push
  • deploy:dev
  • deploydata:dev

build:prod

• Same as build:dev but publish the qvw and the data in the prod folder

build:test

• Same as build:dev but publish the qvw and the data in the test folder

check:localPath

• Local and network paths. Like c:\data\qvd or \\data\qvd

check:logFile

• Document Properties --> Generate Logfile is checked

check:synthKeys

• Synthetic Keys in the data model

check:macro

• Macro module not empty

check:macroOnOpen

• Any macro modules on open

check:macroOnPost

• Any macro modules on post reload

clear:tempAll

• Remove the content of the root temp folder

clear:tempApp

• Remove the content of temp folder (based on the user input or --qvw argument)

clear:tempPrj

• Remove the content of prj folder (based on the user input or --qvw argument)

create:xml

• This task will create temp folder for specific qvw, open qvw file, remove the data, save it as a copy in the temp folder, open the copy and save it again. After this process the xml files will be in the prj folder

deploy:dev

• Copy the main qvw in the dev folder

deploy:prod

• Copy the main qvw in the prod folder

deploy:test

• Copy the main qvw in the test folder

deploydata:dev

• Copy all data files in the dev folder. Data files are specified in the settings.json. --data parameter must present as argument

deploydata:prod

• Same as deploydata:prod but deploy to prod folder

deploydata:test

• Same as deploydata:prod but deploy to test folder

git:add

• Add file contents to the index

git:clone

• Clone specific repository in the temp folder

git:commit

• Commit the changes. If --message is not provided then the default message is used - Commit from qv-automate

git:listFiles

• List all files that are changed

git:push

• Push the commit

list:qvw

• List all qvw files in settings.json

list:tasks

• List all available tasks

prompt

• Internal task that is used for user choices

settings.json

The install process will create example settings.json file in c:\Users\CURRENTUSER\Documents\qv-automate

The structure of the file is:

| apps                              -> root element (array)
|-- app1                            -> array member
    |-- qvw                         -> the path to the qvw (add `\\` in the path)
    |-- git                         -> git url of the repository (if git is used)
    |-- locations                   -> where the qvw should be copied. If there is no dev or test env just skip them 
        |-- prod                    
        |-- dev                      
        |-- test                     
    |-- datafiles                   -> array
        |-- indicator1              -> user defined. String. no spaces are allowed. For example: qvd or excel or csv etc.
            |-- dev                 -> path to the specific data files (add `\\` in the path)
            |-- filter              -> mask can be applied. For example: *_2016.qvd  
            |-- deployProd          -> prod location (add `\\` in the path)
            |-- deployDev           -> dev location (add `\\` in the path)
            |-- deployTest          -> test location (add `\\` in the path)
        |-- indicator2              
            |-- ...                    
        |-- indicator3              
            |-- ...                                                     
|-- app2                             
    |-- ...

Simple structure example:

{
    "apps": [
        {
            "qvw": "main\\qvw\\path",
            "git": "git repository url",
            "locations": {
                "prod": "prod\\folder\\location"
            },
            "datafiles": [
                {
                    "indicator": {
                        "dev": "local\\qvd\\files\\path",
                        "filter": "filter mask",
                        "deployProd": "prod\\folder\\location"
                    }
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Arguments

qv-automate accept few command line arguments based on the tasks

• --qvw

  • can be used to skip the initial qvw choices. For example: qv-automate create:xml --qvw="c:\MyFiles\MyQVApp.qvw" (c:\MyFiles\MyQVApp.qvw should exists in settings.json)

• --data

  • needed for deploydata:* tasks. Indicates which data files should be moved. For example: qv-automate deploydata:prod --data=qvd,excel,csv

• --message

  • user defined commit message for git:commit task. If git:commit is started and --message is not present the default commit message will be used: Commit from qv-automate

Examples

Tasks can be executed individually or one after another.

qv-automate create:xml

• generate only the xml qvw structure

qv-automate create:xml --qvw="c:\MyApps\MyQVApp.qvw"

• generate the xml qvw structure but provide the qvw as parameter. This is useful if the process is automated (batch file for example) and not user input is needed

qv-automate git:clone create:xml git:commit --message="my commit message" git:push

• clone the latest version of the repo, create the xml structure and commit the changes and push them to git

qv-automate git:clone create:xml git:commit --message="my commit message" git:push deploy:prod deploydata:prod --data=qvd,xml

• same as the previous example but after pushing the changes, copy the qvw and qvd files to prod environment

Future

Few more tasks should be added in the near future (woho! Holiday season :) )

• tasks based on the generated xml files. Like:
  • usage of local path in the script (C:\myapp\data.qvd)
  • macro module usage indicator
  • synth keys in the data model
  • generate log file should be checked
  • same font for all objects
  • etc.
• version checker - check for new version of qv-automate on run (based no settings. auto-update on start?)
• log process
• user defined tasks
• clear the prod/dev/test environments (still haven't decided if this is such a good idea)
• copy from prod/dev/test
• rename the qvw after deploying is done

License

Copyright © 2016, Stefan Stoichev. Released under the MIT license.

This file was generated by verb-generate-readme, v0.2.0, on December 11, 2016.