Download Dash.exe
Download sample Dash.exe.ini
12/25/2010: Updated to support the new Windows Phone 7 dashboard. Version 1.2 now.
6/10/2010: Dash broke because of underlying Dashboard HTML changes, updated to v1.1.
This utility is intended for the automation of the Microsoft Mobile Marketplace Dashboard, specifically, for requesting and downloading of the fulfillment report.
When run, the utility creates a browser control window. Within that window, it would navigate to the Dashboard report request page, and request a copy of the fulfillment report with all parameters at their default values. Then it would wait for a specified amount of time (1 minute by default), navigate to the report list page and download the last report in the list. The file is then saved as report.zip in the current folder. Finally, the utility would invoke a handler file (by refault "report.cmd" in the current folder) - the handler can be an executable, a batch (.BAT/.CMD) file, a Windows Scripting Host file (.JS/.VBS) - basically, any file for which Windows shell has a default action.
Important! The utility assumes that the current computer and user already has a persistent logon session with the Dashboard in the Internet Explorer. It would not try and log on with a LiveID for you. So if you run Dash and see the LiveID logon page, please run MSIE and log on to the Dashboard with a "Save password" checkbox checked.
Windows 2000 or higher, Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 or higher.
Download the Dash.exe file and place it in some folder. If you want, place a copy of Dash.exe.ini in the same folder, but it will work fine without.
It's up to you to run the Dash at the right time. There's no internal scheduling or polling there; the Dash is a one-time deal. You can have it execute on timely basis with Windows Task Scheduler, or you could roll some kind of an asynchronous notification handler (that's what I do).
Also, it's completely up to you what to do with the report once it's downloaded. It would make sense to unarchive it and parse/process the XML somehow, but that's way outside of the Dash's scope.
For unarchiving zip archives from a batch file, I use WinRAR.
Dash supports reading some parameters from a configuration file. The file is called "Dash.exe.ini", and the utility looks for it in the current directory (not necessarily the one where the executable is). The file supports the following sections and values:
E-mail me at sevaa@sprynet.com