What are the file formats supported?

[Saleh Alobaid]

Hello everyone,

My question might seem a bit broad but I would like to know what file formats are exactly supported that can be edited and monitored? For example a Microsoft Office file, PDF's, and/or Solidworks and AutoCAD files? Of course Ansible can't obviously edit them itself but will it recognize them at least and open the associated software?

[Brian Coca]

Ansible does not really open files (except text files with
lineinfile/replace), I'm not sure what you are trying to do.


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Brian Coca

[J Hawkesworth]

In the windows world you can use powershell scripting to invoke whatever the default action is for a file:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/hh849794.aspx

Not really sure what you mean by edited and monitored though.  Can you be more specific about what you need to do?

[Saleh Alobaid]

Thanks for the reply! So basically what I'm trying to say, for example, I have an excel file that has a table of data in it. After a period of time, the data in the file needs updating. Another example is if I had an AutoCAD or SolidWorks design that after a period of time, the design needs modifications. Is it possible to make these changes through Ansible? Meaning can Ansible launch the necessary software to run these formats.  My other question was can Ansible detect these changes to these types of files? And are there formats that Ansible can't detect changes that happen to them? 

I hope this clarifies my question.

Best,

Saleh

[Brian Coca]

So ansible detects changes on a file by doing checksums, so format
does not matter. Ansible does not edit files (with the exceptions i
noted above), but it can overwrite a file with a newer copy (it does
not need to open Excel to overwrite a spreadsheet).

As for making changes to the files, Ansible is a batch system, not
designed for interactive applications, so if you need to open Autocad
to manually make a change, that is something you need to do manually.
If on the other hand you want to run against an applications API a set
of programmatic changes, then yes use Ansible, still it really does
nothing itself to detect file type, it normally does not care.
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Brian Coca

[Saleh Alobaid]

Thanks for the reply! It makes sense really but for some reason my supervisor asked if these files can be edited directly but that really does't make any sense unless if I created like some sort of class or database within the tool to recognize different formats and open its associated software. I have another question though. Does ansible produce reports that show who and when did a change happen to a specific file?
Best,

Saleh

[Brian Coca]

ansible reports it when it runs, but if you want historical reports
and stuff like that you might want to look into tower.


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Brian Coca