The Problem
Working at OnFarm Data, at one point we had a new web service with some a minority of users on the service. We also had one full time employee doing both development and maintenance of this service.
Resources were stretched thin. So when I needed to perform a task such at sending commands to all the devices on a network, or capturing the status of all devices on the network, I was limited to the tools available on the web platform.
Thinking outside of ‘the box’
Using Selenium, a web driver, I was able to use python and google sheets to create either a list of commands, or a list of information that needed to be extracted. This was a way of finding a solution to a problem without creating additional work for the sole developer.
The software was loaded with a list of URLs, and at the destination website, the web driver could extract information about the device. One of the activities was a simple auditor, it would send a message and wait for a web element to change, which was the result of the physical device reacting to the command.
All of this was recorded and repeatable with minimal time required outside of developing the web agent.
Saving time, and saving face.
Working in such a small company means you don’t have the same resources available. Whilst we all know what something should look like, or be capable of doing, this isn’t always feasible.
Using my web agents, I was able to offer services to the customers I was dealing with, without having to create work load for the product engineers, or web developers.
The best example of saving time and saving face, was when a customer needed to switch their irrigation schedule to align with cheaper power. Traditionally this would be done by sending somebody on site. Another way is manually send commands over the network, confirm changes had occurred, and deal with devices which were harder to communicate with. With my scripts I could create an action table, run the software, and resume my other tasks.
