Batch Runner

The Batch Runner application was designed to be a small program that enables you to run lots of other programs, in one big batch.

While originally designed for running test suites on in-development applications, Batch Runner has proven useful for all sorts of jobs where you need to run two or more programs one after another, or the same program over and over with different parameters or switches.

Batch Runner's operation is very simple. The main GUI/window is a list of commands in the current batch, and a few controls for you to switch between different batches, run the batch, and so on.

Batch jobs are stored in Batch Runner's ini (configuration) file, and can be created, edited and deleted there, or from within the main GUI. You simply select a batch, and which commands you would like to run (all, by default), and then click Run batch!.

You can configure and store any number of different batch jobs, with any number (well, thousands) of commands within each batch. Commands (program paths, with any optional switches and parameters) run consecutively; when the first completes, Batch Runner starts the next, and so on, until all the selected commands have completed.

A log of each batch is created at the end of the job, recording the name of the batch processed, status of each command; success, fail, exit code, error code, time taken, etc.

Click the New command button to add a new command to the current batch. The add new command.. dialog appears for you to enter whatever commands and parameters you need, as many as you need.

You can drag and drop applications, folders, and files onto this dialog to have their paths pasted automatically into the input - building complex commands with switches and optional parameters is quite painless. You can even drag in multiple items (Batch Runner will put spaces between the items, so you don't have to).

The command list has a context menu; you can right-click it and do stuff, edit selected commands, delete commands, and so on. Between all these controls, you should be able to do pretty much everything you need.

Apart from delete batches, that is. To do that, hold down the SHIFT key when Batch Runner is active, and the New batch button will switch to a Delete batch button, which will do exactly that. Careful now.

Note: the edit dialog behaves exactly like the add new command.. dialog; you can drag and drop stuff onto it, etc. It also shares the same dimensions and position, so wherever you put one, the other will also be, the next time you use it.

All the dialogs remember their size and positions (except minor prompts), and along with a few other preferences, this information is stored in Batch Runner.ini, which lives next to Batch Runner itself. In there, you can also change some of Batch Runner's behaviours..