Automation
Automation
Automation is the use of technology to accomplish a task with as little human interaction as possible. In computing, automation is usually accomplished by a program, a script, or batch processing.
For example, a website operator may write a script to parse the logs of the website traffic and generate a report. If done manually by a human, this process might take hours or days. However, a computer might complete these tasks in a matter of seconds, and can be programmed to repeat them several times a day.
When should you automate?
Any task that's performed more than once should be automated, even if it's a simple task that takes a few seconds. If a task takes five seconds to complete but is something done ten or more times a day, it can save you over four hours a year if it was automated only to take one second.
If you run a company with ten employees whom all perform that same five-second task every day, with it automated, it would save the company 40 hours a year.
How to automate?
The answer to this question depends on the type of task you want to automate. Below is a listing of different methods and tools for automating a task from the most simple method to the more complex methods.
Keyboard shortcuts
Computer keyboard shortcuts are a form of automation in that they allow you to complete an operating system or program task. For example, when you copy and paste text, you can duplicate text in multiple places without having to type the text.
Online services like IFTTT (if this then that) help automate online tasks. For example, you could automate the job of automatically uploading any photo you post on Instagram to a Facebook album automatically.
Use the if this then that online service to perform online automation.
Macros
A macro is a small segment of code created in a program to perform a series of commands. Although some programs allow you to record the actions you perform to create a macro, most require you to know some code or commands.
AutoHotkey
AutoHotkey is a fantastic free Microsoft Windows program that can be used to automate almost anything in Windows. Using this tool, you can automate anything done with a keyboard or mouse on a computer. The scripts the program create does require that AutoHotkey be running on the computer but also supports the ability to make self-running scripts.
Automate your work with AutoHotkey.
Command line automation
For any tasks done through a command line, there are many different options available to the users. For users using the Microsoft Windows command line or MS-DOS batch files can be
created to automatically perform a series of commands. Linux users can use any of the scripting languages mentioned below and also use cron to schedule tasks.
Scripts
Several scripting languages can create scripts to automate almost any task on a computer or the Internet. These languages do require you to learn how to program but give you the most options when compared to other solutions. Scripting languages include: JavaScript, Perl, PHP, and Python and require the language to be installed on the computer so that it can be interpreted.
Creating a program
Creating a software program to automate a task can take longer than any of the above options.
However, for more complex tasks and improved speed may be the only option. To create a program, you'll need to learn how to program and a compiler to compile the program for the platform running the program.
When Should you not Automate?
Although automation can help with many tasks, there is still the following reason why you may not want to automate a task.
The task is not repeated frequently enough.
Task requires some human intelligence that cannot be programmed.
There are too many unknown variables that make automation impossible.
Protection (e.g., CAPTCHA) prevents automation.
Cannot justify the time or money required to program the automation.
Tip
For easy to do tasks that require a human and cannot be automated (e.g., identifying what's in a picture), consider services like Amazon's Mechanical Turk.
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