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How to Start Elliott and Bypass User ID and Password for Automation

Release Date: 02/21/2019

Elliott supports deferred processing to allow for automation of routine Elliott tasks. But there are certain routine tasks that cannot be  completed through deferred processing.  This includes, but is not limited to:
  • Elliott Internal Macro Tasks
  • Elliott PDF PostOffice - PostOffice documents are not supported by deferred processing at this moment.
  • Elliott Mass Email and Export Processor 
So many users asked how they can start up Elliott and bypass the Elliott login screen so they can automate a particular Elliott task.  This document is intended to address that issue.

Solution 1 - Ask User to Leave an Elliott Session Open

If a user is already logged in to Elliott, then any additional sessions started up by this user will not be prompted with login info. So to automate these non-deferred processing tasks, you can simply ask the user to login to Elliott first before running these tasks. This is the easiest method to make it work.

Solution 2 - Use NWSMDLOG Environment Variables

You can supply the user name and password by using the SET statement (prior to starting a process) to set the following variable in this way:

        SET NWSMDLOG=$<username>$<password>$<2-digit-Company-number>$

The common method is create a BATCH file with this SET command before launching the Elliott task.  However, this method may have potential security issues since any users who have access to this BAT file will be able to see the password. Use this method at your own discretion. Alternatively, you could follow solution 1 above and ask the user who wishes to use this function to start up an Elliott session first. Then the BAT file will be run as the second session, which will never prompt for user ID and password. If you choose to go with this way, there’s no risk of exposing the password.

Example 1 - Bypass User ID and Password with Command Prompt Macro

A Command Prompt Macro can be a great way to automate certain routine tasks for daily, weekly or monthly processes. If you wish to bypass the Elliott login User ID and Password, you could use the environmental variable NWSMDLOG for this purpose. Please refer to this manual under the “Installation,” “Special Startup Option,” “Bypass Username, Password and Company Selection” section for more details. For example, you could create a batch file as follows:
  M:
  CD \Elliott8\Bin85
  SET NWSMDLOG=$JOHN$123456$01$
  EL850P 02 0101 05 “000100” “000200” {enter} {enter} %S {enter} {close}
  SET NWSMDLOG=
For Elliott V7, substitute EL700 for EL850P and run from <ElliottRoot> folder.  For Elliott 8.0 - 8.2, use EL800P and run from <ElliottRoot>\Bin folder.  To find out more information on Elliott internal macros through command prompts, see the following KB article:

Example 2 - Bypass User ID and Password with Export Processor or Mass Email

Elliott Export Processor and Mass Email can be automatic through a command prompt.  To find out the supporting command, you can go to command prompt, and from <ElliottRoot>\Bin85 folder, type EL850ME /? to see a list of command prompt parameters:


To automate EL850ME tasks without the Elliott password screen, you can either have an Elliott session running, or create a BATCH file like the following:
  M:
  CD \Elliott8\Bin85
  SET NWSMDLOG=$JOHN$123456$01$
  EL850ME -T:86 -OM
  SET NWSMDLOG=
The above task will bring up template 86 to perform the mass email process in silent mode (without needing a user interface).  When complete, close the Mass Email program. 

For Elliott V7, substitute EL700ME for EL850ME and run from <ElliottRoot> folder. For Elliott 8.0 - 8.2, use EL800ME and run from <ElliottRoot>\Bin folder.    


EMK


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