Salamander Document Exporter
Installation and Usage Instructions
Prerequisites
In order for the utility to work correctly you must be working on a machine with Sims workstation installed and connected to the Sims Server you wish to export the data from.
To use the utility with a license (and enable the full functionality) you will need to request a license and provide us with the hostname of the server you wish to run the utility on.
Installation and use
1) Download the utility
The utility can be downloaded here: Document Exporter
2) Check that the utilities zip file is not ‘blocked’ and extract it to a folder on the machine you are working on
This is important, as without the code inside the utility will not be able to execute correctly.
** The following steps should all be done from an administrative command prompt or PowerShell session scoped to the folder the utility is in.
3) Check that ‘GenerateConfigFile.bat’ is pointing to the correct location
This cmd file calls a Sims executable with defined parameters that setup the connection ready for the utility to use.
In order for this to work, the cmd file must be pointing at the correct location for the SIMs installation on this machine. The GenerateSIMSConfigFile.exe should exist in the SIMS folder. If you are unable to find the GenerateSIMSConfigFile.exe, please copy it from your SIMS Server or contact our Support Team.
By default, this is set to ‘c:\program files (x86)\SIMS\SIMS .Net\’ and so if Sims is installed in a different location, this must be updated inside ‘GenerateConfigFile.bat’ before proceeding.
4) Run the ‘GenerateConfigFile.bat’ process
If it’s successful, it should look like this:
5) Copy the connect.ini for the Sims instance into the folder you’re working with
This will be used by the utility to know which sims server to connect to.
6) Run the utility
Running the utility requires a minimum of 3 param’s, with additional options added as params and switches on the end.
The minimum is:
| Username | Sims username for the account to connect with |
| Password | Sims password for the above account |
| OutputFolder | Relative or absolute path to the folder to export the files. This folder must exist |
i.e. (where my username is salamanderExportUser, the password is ‘abc123’ and the output folder is a folder called ‘output’ in the folder I’m working in)
.\DocumentExtract.exe salamanderExportUser abc123 output
If this works correctly, you’ll see reporting like this:
DocumentExtract.exe
by SalamanderSoft Ltd Copyright 2010-2011
https://www.salamandersoft.co.uk
SAL-TRAIN\training
Logged in as Blacker Adrian
% : %
Processing 004986
Processing 004987
Processing 004988
Processed 3 Pupils
Additional Configuration Options
Outside of the default settings, there are a number of options you can use to adjust how data is exported.
** Note, these options only work when the utility is licensed.
There are 2 sets of options
Parameters
These 2 options should be added after the mandatory parameters, but before any switches.
| Number to export | The number of students to export documents for i.e. export some and then stop. |
| Index to start from | The index to start exporting from (within the number to export param). This and the [Number to export] parameter allow you to do the export in batches. |
For example, to get 100 users worth of data, you would use a command like this:
.\DocumentExtract.exe <username> <password> <outputFolder> <numberToExport>
.\DocumentExtract.exe salamanderExportUser abc123 output 100
To get 100 users worth of data, but start at the 50th user in that block you would use something like this:
.\DocumentExtract.exe <username> <password> <outputFolder> <numberToExport>
.\DocumentExtract.exe salamanderExportUser abc123 output 100 50
Switches
The optional switches should be added after the NumberToExport and IndexToStartFrom options if these are used
For example, to use the /leavers switch (with no other options) you would use a command like this:
.\DocumentExtract.exe <username> <password> /leavers
To use the /leavers switch with the numberToExport set to 100 and IndexToStartFrom set to 50, you would use
.\DocumentExtract.exe <username> <password> <outputFolder> 100 50 /leavers
| /splitByDocType | If present the extract will save documents in sub folders based on the document type. |
| /allPupilTypes | If present, all pupil types will be processed. *Only one of allPupilTypes, leavers, future and guest should be used. |
| /leavers | If present, only leavers will be processed. *Only one of allPupilTypes, leavers, future and guest should be used. |
| /future | If present, only future pupils will be processed. *Only one of allPupilTypes, leavers, future and guest should be used. |
| /guest | If present, only guest pupils will be processed. *Only one of allPupilTypes, leavers, future and guest should be used. |
| /convertWordToPdf | If present, all Word documents are converted to pdf. NOTE. This requires an additional file. See details in the utilities documentation. |
| /reportFile | The file to save a csv report to. This can be relative or absolute. This should in the format /reportFile:<path to file> e.g. /reportfile:myCsvFileInSameFolder.csv |
| /documentType | Limit to extract to documents of a particular type. This should in the format /documentType:type |
| /studentCsv | A CSV containing the students to extract documents for. In format /studentCsv:pathToCsv.csv. The CSV should contain a header and the two fields of ID,admissionNumber. |
| /startDate | Only documents with a last modified date greater than or equal to this value will be output. The date should be in the format yyyy-MM-dd e.g. /startDate:2017-01-01 |
| /feesReferenceInDocumentName | Put the fees reference in the document name |
| /pupilInDocumentName | Put the pupil number in the document name. |
| /loadByYears | Load the students by years. Useful if getting timeout errors when loading all users |
| /loadBySurname | Loads the students by surname. Useful if receiving an OutOfMemory error |