Here is a task that will get a value from an INI file in the following format given the Filename, Section and Key.

[Section1]
Key1=Value1
Key2=Value2
[Section2]
Key1=Value3
Key3=Value4

This script could probably be more efficient or more straight-forward, but I think it gets the job done.

To be clear, this will only get an INI file value. It is not written to set an INI value. Hopefully, this will help anyone that needs to get this type of task done until the AutoMate folks add this to the next version.


Task Steps: (Right click, Select All, Copy to copy to the clipboard. Steps can then be pasted into the AutoMate Task Builder)
<AMVARIABLE NAME="INIFile" ISPARAMETER="YES">C:\AutoMate\TestINIFile.ini</AMVARIABLE> <AMVARIABLE NAME="Section" ISPARAMETER="YES">Section2</AMVARIABLE> <AMVARIABLE NAME="LocalSection" ISPARAMETER="YES">[%Section%]</AMVARIABLE> <AMVARIABLE NAME="Key" ISPARAMETER="YES">Key1</AMVARIABLE> <AMVARIABLE NAME="Value" ISPARAMETER="YES"></AMVARIABLE> <AMVARIABLE NAME="FileContents"></AMVARIABLE> <AMVARIABLE NAME="SectionStartPosition">0</AMVARIABLE> <AMVARIABLE NAME="SectionText"></AMVARIABLE> <AMVARIABLE NAME="KeyStartPosition">0</AMVARIABLE> <AMVARIABLE NAME="KeyEndPosition">0</AMVARIABLE> <AMVARIABLE NAME="KeyText"></AMVARIABLE> <AMVARIABLE NAME="ValueStartPosition">0</AMVARIABLE> <AMFILEREAD FILE="%INIFile%" RESULTVARIABLE="FileContents"> <AMVARIABLE NAME="FileLength"></AMVARIABLE> <AMFINDTEXT TEXT="%FileContents%" FIND="%LocalSection%" RESULTVARIABLE="SectionStartPosition"> <AMIF EXPRESSION="%SectionStartPosition% = 0"> <AMSTOPTASK STATUSTYPE="ERROR" ERRORNUMBER="-1" ERRORTEXT="A section named &quot;%Section%&quot; not found."> </AMIF> <AMINCREMENTVARIABLE RESULTVARIABLE="SectionStartPosition" AMOUNT="%Len(LocalSection)%"> <AMTEXTGETSUBTEXT TEXT="%FileContents%" STARTPOSITION="%SectionStartPosition%" LENGTH="%Len(FileContents) - InStr(SectionStartPosition + 1, FileContents, &quot;[&quot;) + 1%" RESULTVARIABLE="SectionText"> <AMFINDTEXT TEXT="%SectionText%" FIND="%Key%" RESULTVARIABLE="KeyStartPosition"> <AMIF EXPRESSION="%KeyStartPosition% = 0"> <AMSTOPTASK STATUSTYPE="ERROR" ERRORNUMBER="-1" ERRORTEXT="A key named &quot;%Key%&quot; not found in section named &quot;%Section%&quot;."> </AMIF> <AMTEXTGETSUBTEXT TEXT="%SectionText%" STARTPOSITION="%KeyStartPosition%" RESULTVARIABLE="KeyText"> <AMFINDTEXT TEXT="%KeyText%" FIND="%vbCrLf%" RESULTVARIABLE="KeyEndPosition"> <AMIF EXPRESSION="%KeyEndPosition% = 0"> <AMSET VARIABLENAME="KeyEndPosition">%Len(KeyText)%</AMSET> </AMIF> <AMTEXTGETSUBTEXT TEXT="%KeyText%" STARTPOSITION="1" LENGTH="%KeyEndPosition%" RESULTVARIABLE="KeyText"> <AMFINDTEXT TEXT="%KeyText%" FIND="=" RESULTVARIABLE="ValueStartPosition"> <AMTEXTGETSUBTEXT TEXT="%KeyText%" STARTPOSITION="%ValueStartPosition + 1%" RESULTVARIABLE="Value"> <AMTEXTREMOVE TEXT="%Value%" RESULTVARIABLE="Value">

-------------------------
Thanks,

Noel Scheaffer

Edited: 11/14/2005 at 11:07 AM by Noel

Here is a task that calls my previous posted task to show how it could be used.


Task Steps: (Right click, Select All, Copy to copy to the clipboard. Steps can then be pasted into the AutoMate Task Builder)
<AMVARIABLE NAME="INIFile" ISPARAMETER="YES"></AMVARIABLE> <AMCOMMONDIALOG WINDOWTITLE="Choose INI file..." FILTER="*.ini" RESULTVARIABLE="INIFile" DEFAULTFOLDER=""> <AMVARIABLE NAME="Section" ISPARAMETER="YES"></AMVARIABLE> <AMVARIABLE NAME="Key" ISPARAMETER="YES"></AMVARIABLE> <AMVARIABLE NAME="Value" ISPARAMETER="YES"></AMVARIABLE> <AMINPUTBOX RESULTVARIABLE="Section">Enter Section</AMINPUTBOX> <AMINPUTBOX RESULTVARIABLE="Key">Enter Key</AMINPUTBOX> <AMSTARTTASK MANAGEDTASK="Forum\INI File Parser" TASKID="{9D5B3E41-9D34-4DC6-87E6-7ABC04EFED56}"> <AMMESSAGEBOX>Section = %Section% Key = %Key% Value = %Value%</AMMESSAGEBOX>

-------------------------
Thanks,

Noel Scheaffer

I know this is a thread from the dinosaur era. EVen though I think the topic can be a present-day topic. For me it is. And yes, I'm a Automate newbie.

So I am looking for a way to read from INI (not to write).

Copy-paste? Copy of course is possible, but to paste? Where? I Cannot find a place to do that. Searching for a solution I figured out that paste the code into a .aml file should be possible and than importing that file....

I read this (about importing aml).

But than.... first a warning that this task was created in a prvious version of AutoMate, followed by a question if I would like to convert. In think so... (as if I have a choice): yes. Then an error: file not found (the one I was importing).

Another attempt - which seemed logic to me: File >> Tools >> Expression Builder >> Paste (Ctrl-V) >> Button Insert. Unfortunately: Nothing happens.

So big question: how to import (or paste) this code. And more important: how to read from INI-file?

Edited: 02/01/2016 at 02:28 AM by WalterTiggeloven

Well ... I start wondering whether this forum is still active.  But there always is a chance that new users end upo with the same question as I had. So ... after a good evening puzzling I came up with this piece of working code (AutoMate 10.4.2.1).

Attached is an import file.



Task Steps: (Right click, Select All, Copy to copy to the clipboard. Steps can then be pasted into the AutoMate Task Builder)
<!-- Set %INIFile% to whatever you want. --> <AMVARIABLE NAME="INIFile" VALUE="C:\MyFile.ini" ISPARAMETER="YES" /> <!-- Set %Section% to whatever you want. --> <AMVARIABLE NAME="Section" VALUE="MySection" ISPARAMETER="YES" /> <!-- Set %Key% to whatever you want. --> <AMVARIABLE NAME="Key" VALUE="MyKey" ISPARAMETER="YES" /> <AMVARIABLE NAME="Value" ISPARAMETER="YES" /> <AMVARIABLE NAME="LocalSection" ISPARAMETER="YES">[%Section%]</AMVARIABLE> <AMVARIABLE NAME="FileContents" /> <AMVARIABLE NAME="SectionStartPosition" VALUE="0" /> <AMVARIABLE NAME="SectionText" /> <AMVARIABLE NAME="KeyStartPosition" VALUE="0" /> <AMVARIABLE NAME="KeyEndPosition" VALUE="0" /> <AMVARIABLE NAME="KeyText" /> <AMVARIABLE NAME="ValueStartPosition" VALUE="0" /> <AMFILESYSTEM ACTIVITY="read_file" FILE="%INIFile%" RESULTVARIABLE="FileContents" /> <AMVARIABLE NAME="FileLength" /> <AMTEXT TEXT="%FileContents%" FIND="%LocalSection%" RESULTVARIABLE="SectionStartPosition" /> <AMIF EXPRESSION="%SectionStartPosition% = 0">       <AMTASK ACTIVITY="stop" STATUSTYPE="ERROR" ERRORNUMBER="-1" ERRORTEXT="A section named "%Section%" not found." /> </AMIF> <AMVARIABLE ACTIVITY="increment" RESULTVARIABLE="SectionStartPosition" AMOUNT="%Len(LocalSection)%" /> <AMTEXT ACTIVITY="get_substring" TEXT="%FileContents%" RESULTVARIABLE="SectionText" STARTPOSITION="%SectionStartPosition%" LENGTH="%Len(FileContents) - InStr(SectionStartPosition + 1, FileContents, "[") + 1%" /> <AMTEXT TEXT="%SectionText%" FIND="%Key%" RESULTVARIABLE="KeyStartPosition" /> <AMIF EXPRESSION="%KeyStartPosition% = 0">       <AMTASK ACTIVITY="stop" STATUSTYPE="ERROR" ERRORNUMBER="-1" ERRORTEXT="A key named "%Key%" not found in section named "%Section%"." /> </AMIF> <AMTEXT ACTIVITY="get_substring" TEXT="%SectionText%" RESULTVARIABLE="KeyText" STARTPOSITION="%KeyStartPosition%" /> <AMTEXT TEXT="%KeyText%" FIND="%vbCrLf%" RESULTVARIABLE="KeyEndPosition" /> <AMIF EXPRESSION="%KeyEndPosition% = 0">    <AMVARIABLE ACTIVITY="set" VARIABLENAME="KeyEndPosition">%Len(KeyText)%</AMVARIABLE> </AMIF> <AMTEXT ACTIVITY="get_substring" TEXT="%KeyText%" RESULTVARIABLE="KeyText" STARTPOSITION="1" LENGTH="%KeyEndPosition%" /> <AMTEXT TEXT="%KeyText%" FIND="=" RESULTVARIABLE="ValueStartPosition" /> <AMTEXT ACTIVITY="get_substring" TEXT="%KeyText%" RESULTVARIABLE="ValueStartPosition" STARTPOSITION="%ValueStartPosition + 1%" /> <AMVARIABLE ACTIVITY="set" VARIABLENAME="Value">%ValueStartPosition%</AMVARIABLE> <AMTEXT ACTIVITY="trim" TEXT="%Value%" RESULTVARIABLE="Value" />    <!-- At this moment %Value% is what you're looking for. -->




Edited: 02/02/2016 at 06:38 AM by AutoMate Discussion Moderator

Hi Walter,

I apologize for the delay and thank you for posting your code.

-------------------------

Ricardo Castaneda | Principal Support Analyst
AutoMate | Division of HelpSystems
HelpSystems, LLC | T: +1.213.738.1700

No problem Ricardo.

Another lesson I'd like to share with future visitors of this thread: reading from the INI is very slow.  When you need to do this only once or twice, this might not be a problem at all. If you like to do this more often - like I do - you might find out it is too slow.

So I changed my method. I was storing and reading config details using that INI. Now I tried to do the same using XML. That really speed things up.

Just an advize......