Tutorial: Execute script using a parameter file as input

This page guide you through creating executing a script while defining a parameter file to use at the start. We will make use of the option paramfile which is part of the script launcher. In that way it will be possible to increase the reusability factor of the automation design.

In this tutorial we will create a script parameters.3 that will make use of a parameter list that is provided when executing the script.

Pre-requisites

• The tutorial environment has been created. See the tutorial create tutorial environment for more information.

Create script

First, we will create the script that makes use of a parameter in its action design. Parameters are defined using the # symbol before and after its name: #variable#. you can get more information about this as part of the design page.

• Open a text editor and create a new file parameters.3.yml
• Edit the configuration file and add the configuration for this script:

---
type: "script"
data:
  name: "parameters.3"
  description: "use a parameter defined from the command line using the parameter list option"
  parameters: []
  actions:
  - number: 1
    type: "fwk.outputMessage"
    name: "outputParameter"
    description: "View the parameter value"
    component: ""
    condition: ""
    iteration: ""
    errorExpected: "N"
    errorStop: "N"
    parameters:
    - name: "message"
      value : "param1: #param1#"
    - name: "onScreen"
      value : "Y"

Have a look at the action that we have defined in the above script:

• We make use of the fwk.outputMessage action that allows us to print any message. We set the parameter onScreen: "Y" so that we can immediately verify the output in the console after execution.
• We define a message that is composed of a fixed string combined with our parameter param1 that we enclose using the # symbol.

Reference file name: parameters.3.yml

Load and execute the script

Now, load the configuration into the configuration repository and execute the script.

bin/iesi-launch.sh -script parameters.3 -env tutorial

You will notice the following output:

2019-04-05 07:39:44,806 INFO  [iesi] - action.message=param1:  

The fixed string is displayed but no value is displayed for the parameter. We did not pass any values to the execution. This can be done through the -paramfile <arg> option of the command. But before we do this, we need to create a file that contains the parameter values. To do this,

• create a new file paramfile.3.conf and edit it
• add one line for each key=value parameter pair

param1=value1

Reference file name: paramfile.3.yml

Now, let’s run the following command:

bin/iesi-launch.sh -script parameters.3 -env tutorial -paramfile /path/paramfile.3.conf

Now, the output reflects the value of the parameter that we provided:

2019-04-05 07:43:26,360 INFO  [iesi] - action.message=param1: value1

Update the script and add an additional parameter

In order to add additional parameters the same approach is repeated. We can provide additional key=value pairs to the -paramfile option by adding new lines:

param1=value1
param2=value2

Reference file name: paramfile.3.1.yml

Update the script to display also a second parameter:

    - name: "message"
      value : "param1: #param1# and param2: #param2#"

Reference file name: parameters.3.1.yml

Load the configuration into the configuration repository and execute the script.

bin/iesi-launch.sh -script parameters.3.1 -env tutorial -paramlist param1=value1,param2=value2

This leads to the following output on the screen:

2019-04-05 07:49:35,663 INFO  [iesi] - action.message=param1: value1 and param2: value2

Recap

We have now created a script that makes use of several parameters that come from a parameter list and executed it on the tutorial environment. We can now start making use of parameterized actions to create better reusable automation designs.