Version 4.1 User's Guide
AppleEvent Sentry	Previous | Next Contents

The AppleEvent Sentry type makes it possible for you to script your own Sentries using AppleScript or any other development system that accepts AppleEvents. When the AppleEvent Sentry runs, it will launch a helper application (if it is not already running), send an AppleEvent to it, and wait for a response. The response is then checked to determine the success or failure of the test, and Notifiers are triggered as needed.

Figure 19: Configuring a new AppleEvent Sentry.

To configure the Sentry, fill in the appropriate fields. In addition to the common configuration options, the AppleEvent Sentry has the following options:

Application

Specify the name of the helper application PageSentry will send the AppleEvent to here. We strongly recommend that compiled AppleScripts and other programs that will be used for testing be placed directly in the PageSentry folder. In this case, simply type the name of the helper application into this field. Placing helper applications in other folders is allowed, but appropriate path information will need to be entered as well.

Extra

The Extra field is simply a text string that will be passed to the helper application as part of the AppleEvent. This provides your application with a configurable parameter, allowing you to use a single application to perform multiple tests. For example, you might write an AppleScript applet to test a custom-developed application which is deployed on 3 different computers. In this case, you could create 3 different sentries, each of which would execute the same applet but would send the machine name in the "Extra" field so that the script could test the appropriate server.

Expected Result

The helper application must return a response to PageSentry that specifies whether or not the test was successful. If the response from the application matches the "Expected Result", PageSentry recognizes the test as a success. If it does not, the response from the helper application is treated as an error and Notifiers are triggered accordingly.

An AppleScript shell is included in the PageSentry package that demonstrates how to accept the AppleEvent from PageSentry, extract the Extra parameter, and return a response. See the script for additional information, including compilation instructions and other details.

Copyright © 1995-2002 Maxum Development Corporation http://www.maxum.com/ Rev. 7/10/02	Previous | Next Contents