Creating and Checking in Offline Libraries from the Command Line

Creating and Checking in Offline libraries from the command line, enables you to automate the process in a batch or as part of a scripted or scheduled process.

Let's use a scenario when you have contributors that connect remotely in a permanent situation. Low bandwidth can mean that creating an offline library and/or checking it in will take a long time, and leaves your contributors unable to proceed in Author-it until the process is complete. By automating the process, it can be run locally overnight enabling everyone to work more efficiently.

In these circumstances, you could use the following batch process:

FTP or copy all offline libraries from remote location(s) to a local working location.
Check them all in from the local location using the command line functionality.
Create new offline libraries to the local location using the command line functionality.
FTP or copy new offline libraries back to the remote location(s).

You may also choose to include zip/unzip as part of the batch if required.

Tip

Tip: An offline library is still a multi-user library, so many people at the same remote site can login and share the same offline library.

Syntax

AuthorIT[.exe] libraryname [ /user /pwd ] [ /offlinelibrary] [/createoffline] [/checkinoffline] [/exit] [/returncode]

The parts of the command line switch syntax are:

Argument	Description

Author-it	The path to the Author-it program.
libraryname	The type, name and path of your Author-it Library (.adl) file. Author-it will open this library when found. For example: `/jet"C:\Program Files\AuthorIT V4\Data\Libraries\Sample.adl"` -OR- `/sql"AuthorIT2\|server1"`
user	User account to sign into the Author-it Library database.
pwd	Password used to sign into the Author-it Library database.
offlinelibrary	Specifies a full path and filename of the offline library. This may be different to the one defined by the user as you will probably create and checkin libraries to a local working location. If this parameter is specified it overrides the offline library path and filename specified by the logged on user's options. Example: `/offlinelibrary"Offline library.adl"`
createoffline	Tells Author-it to create an offline library for the logged on user at the path and filename specified by the logged on user's options, or by the offlinelibrary parameter.
checkinoffline	Tells Author-it to checkin the offline library for the logged on user at the path and filename specified by the logged on user's options, or by the offlinelibrary parameter. If used in conjunction with the createoffline parameter, checkin happens first, then checkout regardless of the order in the command line.
/returncode	cause the Author-it to return a "return code", as follows:
	0	if the task was successful.
	1	if an error or warning occurred while the task was being performed.
	This allows task to be performed unattended using a batch file and the success or failure can be used to branch in a batch file, as follows: `TASK.BAT` `@echo off` `echo Checkin my offline library` `"C:\Program Files\AuthorIT V4\AuthorIT.exe" /jet"C:\Program Files\AuthorIT V4\Data\Libraries\MyLibrary.adl" /checkinoffline /exit /returncode` `If ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO RET1` `echo Checkin has worked` `GOTO END` `:RET1` `echo Checkin has failed` `GOTO END`
/exit	Tells Author-it to close and exit after the process is complete.

Example:

To check in an existing and create a new Offline Library:

c:\Program Files\AuthorIT V4\AuthorIT.exe /jet"c:\Program
Files\AuthorIT V4\Data\Libraries\Sample.adl" /user"(supervisor)"
/pwd"password" /offlinelibrary"offline.adl" /createoffline
/checkinoffline /exit