Tips & Tricks Tuesday: Using TextExpander to generate large sets of tasks

Some projects require a large set of tasks in sequence but specific to each project. Wouldn’t it be nice to quickly create a customized set of tasks for each project? This week, pszaro shares a tip using TextExpander to generate a custom sequence of tasks that can be emailed in to your tasks.

I am currently involved in a major project where we are building out 400+ servers. Each build requires multiple tasks from start to finish, so I came up with a list of things that would be needed for every build and created a snippet in TextExpander. Once the snippet is executed, a popup menu prompts for the server name, location of server and due date. Once that is populated in the body of the email message, I email my RTM email address and within seconds, all my tasks are available. I then drag SubTask 0-10 into the main task (line 1).

Here is an example:

Server Build: %filltext:name=hostname% (%filltext:name=location%) #serverbuild !1 ^%filltext:name=date% %key:enter%
%filltext:name=hostname% SubTask 0: Assign initial ticket created by App Team for build #serverbuild !1 ^%filltext:name=date% %key:enter%
%filltext:name=hostname% SubTask 1: Request new IP's and DNS entries #serverbuild !1 ^%filltext:name=date% %key:enter%
%filltext:name=hostname% SubTask 2: Create CMDB CI asset (build) #serverbuild !1 ^%filltext:name=date% %key:enter%
%filltext:name=hostname% SubTask 3: Carve out LPAR via Tool Kit #serverbuild !1 ^%filltext:name=date% %key:enter%
%filltext:name=hostname% SubTask 3a: Request boot LUNs #serverbuild !1 ^%filltext:name=date% %key:enter%
%filltext:name=hostname% SubTask 3b: Confirm boot LUNs #serverbuild !1 ^%filltext:name=date% %key:enter%
%filltext:name=hostname% SubTask 3c: Complete logout via Tool Kit #serverbuild !1 ^%filltext:name=date% %key:enter%
%filltext:name=hostname% SubTask 4: AIX OS Installation via GI (mksysb) #serverbuild !1 ^%filltext:name=date% %key:enter%
%filltext:name=hostname% SubTask 5: AIX OS Customization via workbook #serverbuild !1 ^%filltext:name=date% %key:enter%
%filltext:name=hostname% SubTask 5a: Configure EPV #serverbuild !1 ^%filltext:name=date% %key:enter%
%filltext:name=hostname% SubTask 5c: Add accounts to new Centrify dzdo group #serverbuild !1 ^%filltext:name=date% %key:enter%
%filltext:name=hostname% SubTask 5d: Configure flat txt Networker Backups #serverbuild !1 ^%filltext:name=date% %key:enter%
%filltext:name=hostname% SubTask 6: Request SWAP LUNs, 64gb (if needed) #serverbuild !1 ^%filltext:name=date% %key:enter%
%filltext:name=hostname% SubTask 7: Request App LUNs (if needed) #serverbuild !1 ^%filltext:name=date% %key:enter%
%filltext:name=hostname% SubTask 7a: Configure App LUNs/File Systems (if needed) #serverbuild !1 ^%filltext:name=date% %key:enter%
%filltext:name=hostname% SubTask 8: Copy over SOURCE server host keys (/etc/ssh) #serverbuild !1 ^%filltext:name=date% %key:enter%
%filltext:name=hostname% SubTask 8: Copy over SOURCE user specific keys (.ssh) #serverbuild !1 ^%filltext:name=date% %key:enter%
%filltext:name=hostname% SubTask 8: Copy over SOURCE server user home directories (/home) #serverbuild !1 ^%filltext:name=date% %key:enter%
%filltext:name=hostname% SubTask 9: Turnover to App Team #serverbuild !1 ^%filltext:name=date% %key:enter%
%filltext:name=hostname% SubTask 10: Harden Server, Move CI to RUN status in CMDB via RFC #serverbuild !1 ^%filltext:name=date% %key:enter%

Hope this helps anyone that needs to perform high level tasks for a project with multiple subtasks. Made my life much easier and I was always organized!

Thanks for sharing this tip, pszaro! You’re our Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner this week.

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