Manual Deployment Steps and Tasks

Modified on July 26, 2024

While OtterScript and PowerShell will allow you to automate just about anything, there are times when it’s simpler to do things manually. For example:

• Updating a version number on a WordPress page as a new release is being published
• Enabling a VPN to a customer site for a short time during a deployment
• Running an ancient GUI-based deployment for part of an application

This is where the Manual Operations comes in: when executed in a deployment script, the execution will halt until an assigned person indicates that a specified task has been completed.

Using in a Deployment Script

You can add the Manual Operation to your plan just like you would any other operation, by dragging-and-dropping it from the statement list, or directly in OtterScript.

Text Mode (OtterScript)

Perform-ManualOperation
(
    Name: Run HDARS-Deployer,
    Description: "Log onto HDARS server, run the desktop hdars-deployer.exe app and follow instructions",
    AssignedTo: Deployer,
    SendEmail: true
);

When this statement is encountered, the execution engine will first send an email (if specified) to the user and/or groups specified with a link to their My Tasks page in BuildMaster. You can also specify additional email addresses in the Advanced tab.

From the My Tasks page, a user can see all pending manual tasks and mark them complete as needed. After marking a manual task complete, the execution can continue.

Debugging with Manual Tasks

Manual tasks can also help you debug a deployment plan.

• Inspect working directory; if an operation is failing, indicating that files are missing from the current working directory, or are otherwise different than expected, you can simply put a manual operation immediately before the failing operation to investigate the state of the working directory
• Manual error handling; you can place a manual operation in the error handler of a Try/Catch statement to allow for manual intervention