Package Importer: WDK Strategy payoff

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You may be aware that the DTM’s packaging features allow you to take a job from one controller and move it to another controller. This allows you to create jobs once then copy them to all of your controllers. Up to now the process of importing jobs onto your controllers has been manual. With the latest CTP release you can now script this process via PackageImporter.exe.

Here is what you need…

  1. Package Importer: PackageImporter.exe is installed in the Program Files\Microsoft Driver Test Manager\Controller directory on your controller.
  2. Jobquery.xml is also located in the controller directory.
  3. A package with the jobs you want to import.

Here is the command line…

Packageimporter.exe sqlservername:%controllername% dbname:%dtmdatabasename% package:%packagefilename% query:%path to jobquery.xml% -import

Note: the default name for the DTM database is “dtmjobs.”

This is a great example of our WDK strategies paying off. Those two strategies were:

  • Shipping to our customers the same tools we use to test Windows every day.
  • Building close relationships with key partners who are adopting the kit early in the product development cycle.

Here’s the first strategy: we’re using packages to get jobs into the kit. Windows device teams create their jobs on their production controllers, copy them into a package then check those packages into the Windows code tree. During WDK setup we install these jobs by copying them out of the packages on the WDK DVD.

We didn’t originally plan a scriptable job importer. Here’s the second strategy: during our November hands-on lab customers made it clear that we needed to provide a scriptable job importer. Because we’re using the same technology internally that is being shipped in the kit all we had to do was validate that the package importer would work for our customers and add it to the WDK controller install.