The run generic executable is a special step type that combines the functionality of an action step and data step together. This step allows the user to upload a Windows .exe application (and its supporting files) and run the application on SolveXia. 

This article will briefly walk through the principles on how to use this step. It can not give a comprehensive guide on how to use the step due to its unique nature and the various types of Windows .exe applications that can exist in this world.

Specifying the third party application

To run a third party .exe application, you will need to make sure that it a Windows-based .exe and that it can be as a portable application. You can test this out by running the application locally on your machine and ensuring

• no installations are necessary for the application
• you can put the .exe and the supporting files in a USB and succesfully run it on another machine.

If the above two criteria are met, then your application will potentially run on the SolveXia platform. You can now:

1. Upload the .exe into the file holder. Note: 

2. (Optional) A zip of all the supporting files (inc. DLL files) into the file holder. If no supporting files are necessary, then this file holder should be left empty.

3. Any necessary command line arguments you need to provide in Windows to succesfully run the application.

Note: If no command line argument is specified, the step will run as if you double-clicked the application on your local machine. 

Inputs for the third party application

If your third-party application requires inputs, then the next step will be to upload the input arguments 

The step allows the user to upload 6 static inputs files (right-hand side of inputs). In general, this will be files you do not expect to change from run to run. Whilst for files that you expect to change from run to run, these should be linked to the file that is held another data step (left-hand side of inputs).

Setting the condition for the step to be completed succesfully

The next configuration required is to tell SolveXia how it should determine that a step is successfully completed.

The available conditions that can be used to test if the step should be completed are

.

The selection of condition will depend on the situation and the purpose of running the application. In general, a step should be considered completed succesfully is when the return code of the application is 0.

Extracting the outputs

The final configuration is specifying the output files that you want the step to extract once the application has completed. You can do this by specifying the name of the file to extract. As of writing, the "Run Generic Executable" step only allows up to four outputs to be extracted. 

If you need less than four outputs, you can leave file name blank and it will be ignored.

Outputs

The step will then extract the output files into the data properties as shown above. For example; the "Name of output file #1" is extracted and placed into "Named output file#1".

Note:If you require all files (including the inputs) to be extracted, these files are stored in "Zip of working directory".