There's an additional problem with III's Scheduler product in that it
can basically only run statically created lists for you, there is no
functionality for including date ranges or other variable items
programatically.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of
> Matt Polcyn
> Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 5:54 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Life after Expect
>
> To some extent, they have.  Specifically, they have built their own
> feature for automating creating lists (and record loading and output):
>  Millennium Load Scheduler.  And they'll be happy to sell that to you
> ... for tens of thousands of dollars.
>
> We too rely heavily on Expect-created lists, so we're hoping to move
> ahead with Scheduler despite its steep cost.
>
> As far as tools for automating other functions are concerned, I
> haven't seen any indication that Innovative is doing anything.  But I
> certainly could have missed something.
>
> Matt
>
> On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 7:02 PM, Ken Irwin <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> > Is their any hope for those of us who rely on our Expect-monkeys in
> III?
> > My most important Expect scripts use the create-list function, and I
> > hope that'll stay around for a while. But I'm sure they'll
eventually
> go
> > away too.
> >
> > Has III shown any interest in building in their own
macros/automation
> > features to do the sorts of tasks for which we rely on Expect?
> >
> > Ken
> >
> > Kyle Banerjee wrote:
> >>
> >> Last week, III announced that they are removing a number of
> >> circulation functions from the telnet menus in a software update
> that
> >> became generally available this month. From what I've been able to
> >> surmise, functions that will be removed include placing holds and
> >> checking things in or or out. Removing these menu options will
break
> >> scripts that have been in use for years at institutions in our
> >> consortium, and lots more staff time will be required to perform
> >> certain tasks after some systems are upgraded.
> >>
> >> Apparently, III recently discovered that a bug involving holds was
> >> caused by the character-based system, but it is also related to a
> >> desire to port everything to Millennium. Based on the reasoning
> behind
> >> the announcement, future updates are likely result in other mission
> >> critical scripts breaking as other character-based functionality is
> >> deprecated.
> >>
> >> Just a reminder of the risks of relying on automation that depend
on
> >> interfaces that are losing vendor support.
> >>
> >> kyle
> >>
> >
> > --
> > Ken Irwin
> > Reference Librarian
> > Thomas Library, Wittenberg University
> >