Hi Ben,

As I already indicated I do not know oracle and how to start it via the command line. You'll have to find out that yourself, possibly from the documentation. But alternatively you could look into the PIF file starting Oracle server, its shortcut, being started through Ctl+Alt+o as well, to see which program actually is started, what the additional command line arguments are and what optional batch file is run. Copy those to a batch file of your making and start it from the DOS window, possibly including the Windows START command. If that works you should be able to start it from SAS.

This means search for the elementary commands and forget about the Ctl+Alt+o feature from Windows; don't try to involve that keystroke in the automated process.

Good luck - Jim.

Y. (Jim) Groeneveld MSc Biostatistician Vitatron B.V. Meander 1051 6825 MJ Arnhem The Netherlands +31/0 26 376 7365; fax 7305 Jim.Groeneveld@Vitatron.com www.vitatron.com

-----Original Message----- From: Ben Powell [mailto:Ben.powell@cla.co.uk] Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2003 15:28 To: Groeneveld, Jim; SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: RE: Can SAS pass keystrokes to Windows?

Thanks Jim, I suppose you can guess my next question: how! I've set up oracle to boot from windows through the shortcut ctrl+alt+o, which always works irrespective of what the active window is. Oracle then becomes the active window and can accept keystrokes as below. What is the batch file syntax so that I could test this? I guess there may be a problem, once oracle become the active window, perhaps there would be a problem for the batch file to pass any more keystrokes..? As for programming this sort of thing myself, I've had a go with VBScript before, which could work through perhaps through WSH, but don't know about basic or C. AutoIT would do it I think, but I was wondering if there is another way through SAS (other than executing AutoIT) similar to the way I got the ftp script and batch files to work (listed below) as I thought that was rather neat.

//save as ftp_do.bat ftp -s:P:\SAS\PROJECTS\Ftp\ftp_do.ftp sun01 //end of ftp_do.bat

//save as ftp_do.ftp username password bin hash asc prompt cd "/u02/car/survey" lcd "c:\survey3" mput sasupdate.csv pause quit //end of ftp_do.ftp

And in SAS use the code: options noxwait; x 'P:\SAS\PROJECTS\Ftp\ftp_do.bat';

The reverse files ftp_undo.bat/ftp are straightforward with mget instead of mput.

Any help appreciated!

-----Original Message----- From: Groeneveld, Jim [mailto:jim.groeneveld@vitatron.com] Sent: 11 September 2003 13:58 To: Ben Powell; SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: RE: Can SAS pass keystrokes to Windows?

Hi Ben,

IF !!! it is possible to start the Oracle server from the (DOS) command line, using command line parameters of a command file (so including a password) (possibly via standard input) as well, it certainly would be possible to create a batch file doing that, even with variable arguments. That batch file could be directly started from SAS (X, CALL SYSTEM or %SYSEXEC) without the use of an intermediate program, such as AutoIT.

If it is not possible to start the Oracle server that way, SAS always can (create and) start a batch file to run something, which in this case might be a script, started from AutoIT. But I don't know AutoIT (yet), I only read some characteristics and it seems to be possible to start it from batch as well, especialy some compiled EXE program. I do have some previous experience in writing software reading and filling the (15 byte) keyboard buffer from DOS (both with BASIC and with C), simulating keystrokes (and reading the screen with ANSI.SYS support loaded and thus reacting conditionally to what was written on the screen, just like a human).

So the answer to your Q, whether SAS would be able to pass keystrokes to Windows, if interpreted as to the keyboard buffer, is Yes. And I think, what you would want, very likely is possible with some programming, but, as said, I don't know AutoIT, nor Oracle server.

Regards - Jim.

Y. (Jim) Groeneveld MSc Biostatistician Vitatron B.V. Meander 1051 6825 MJ Arnhem The Netherlands +31/0 26 376 7365; fax 7305 Jim.Groeneveld@Vitatron.com www.vitatron.com

-----Original Message----- From: Ben Powell [mailto:ben.powell@CLA.CO.UK] Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2003 14:04 To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Can SAS pass keystrokes to Windows?

I've finally got the X command to run some ftp scripts that import and export data to our sun server where oracle can pick up the file and validate it. I wonder if there is a means for SAS to run a sequence of keystrokes as a batch file (?) again through X or whether this requires a nonwindows (XP Pro) app such as AutoIT http://www.hiddensoft.com/AutoIt/ that could be executed by SAS?

Its lazy I know but since I've got the ftp automated its pretty boring manually booting the oracle client to run the validation by hand.

The sequence is:

ctrl+alt+o username tab password enter down arrow enter enter tab F9 down arrow down arrow enter sasupdate.csv enter alt+b alt+a w alt+h v

Any suggestions appreciated.