c# - Running multiple commands in a command line utility using cmd.exe from .Net win form

Question

I want to run tabcmd.exe utility to publish views in tableau server. Manual step to do this is as follows, log file will be updated for every step in the location

"C:\Users[UserName]\AppData\Roaming\Tableau\tabcmd.log"

In the same session I have to perform this steps manually one by one order

1. Run cmd.exe
2. log in by using the command tabcmd login -s "http:/sales-server:8000" -t Sales -u administrator -p p@ssw0rd!
3. Create Project Name using the command tabcmd createproject -n "Quarterly_Reports" -d "Workbooks showing quarterly sales reports."
4. Publish views by using the command tabcmd publish "analysis.twbx" -n "Sales_Analysis" --db-user "jsmith" --db-password "p@ssw0rd"
5. Refresh by using the command tabcmd refreshextracts --workbook "My Workbook"
6. Log out by using the command tabcmd logout

Now I am trying to automate this steps from my .Net win form, so I used below code as a try and It is not working.

String path = @"C:\Program Files (x86)\Tableau\Tableau Server\7.0\bin\tabcmd.exe"
ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo ();
startInfo.FileName = "\""+path+ "\"";
startInfo.Arguments = String.Format("login -s http://Server1:8000 --db-user "jsmith" --db-password "p@ssw0rd");
startInfo.UseShellExecute = false ;
startInfo.CreateNoWindow = false;
startInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Normal;
startInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
startInfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;
startInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;
Process p = new Process();
p.StartInfo = startInfo;
p.Start();      


using (StreamWriter sw = p.StandardInput)
        {
            if (sw.BaseStream.CanWrite)
            {
                sw.WriteLine("createproject -n \"MyProject\" -d \"MyProjectWorkbook\"");
                //sw.WriteLine("My next Command");
                //sw.WriteLine("My next Command");
            }
        }  

I am able to log in successfully and I am not able to proceed consequent steps further, I have no clue how to proceed on this further, so I am looking forward some help on this. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

I'm unsure if this is of use to you or not but you could try creating a batch file with all of those commands and the execute the batch file from command prompt like this :-

  //Build Commands - You may have to play with the syntax

    string[] cmdBuilder = new string[5] 
      { 
       @"tabcmd login -s 'http:/sales-server:8000' -t Sales -u administrator -p p@ssw0rd!",
       @"tabcmd createproject -n 'Quarterly_Reports' -d 'Workbooks showing quarterly sales reports.'",
       @"abcmd publish 'analysis.twbx' -n 'Sales_Analysis' --db-user 'jsmith' --db-password 'p@ssw0rd'", 
       @"tabcmd refreshextracts workbook 'My Workbook'",
       @"tabcmd logout"

      };


     //Create a File Path

    string BatFile = @"\YourLocation\tabcmd.bat";

    //Create Stream to write to file.

    StreamWriter sWriter = new StreamWriter(BatFile);

     foreach (string cmd in cmdBuilder) 
        { 
          sWriter.WriteLine(cmd); 
        }

       sWriter.Close();

    //Run your Batch File & Remove it when finished.


   Process p = new Process();
   p.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
   p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
   p.StartInfo.FileName = "C:\\cmd.exe";
   p.StartInfo.Arguments = @"\YourLocation\tabcmd.bat";
   p.Start();
   p.WaitForExit();
   File.Delete(@"\YourLocation\tabcmd.bat")

I'll leave the output section to yourself. You could try this, it is not exactly clean but will automate the main steps. It's either this, or opening a process for each command as the last process exits?

Hope this is of help.