Nintex Connect

ok so this isn't very nifty or very challenging.. But for those eco minded office spaces here's one for you..

We have a ping sweep setup that logs back all PCs and associated users to a txt file.. This txt file is sent to our ECO Office reps.. Anyway,, until now they sort of sat on this data, and every now and then they would send out a please explain to the users in question.. At our office we have a 100% turn off desktops after workhours, unless you state you need to leave it on for some reason. Amazingly they have seen some quite good energy reducion from the the practice.. Anyway.. I digress...

What the eco office staff do now is enter in the amount of PCs left on over night into a SP list.. A nintex Workflow calculates the amount of black balloons it is (approx PCs times 34 - I'm unsure of the source of the information, it is what I was told)

In a content editor webpart, using the source window copy and paste the following (edit to suit) 

<TABLE style='WIDTH: 100%' summary=''>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD style='WIDTH: 145px'><IMG style='BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px solid; BORDER-LEFT: 0px solid; BORDER-TOP: 0px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px solid' border=0 alt='Black Balloons' src='http://<server>/PublishingImages/43099.jpg'></TD>
<TD>
<DIV style='BORDER-BOTTOM: 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: left; BORDER-LEFT: 1px solid; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #efefef; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; WIDTH: 180px; PADDING-RIGHT: 5px; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; HEIGHT: 167px; COLOR: #006666; BORDER-TOP: 1px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: 1px solid;' id=blackballoons1>
<DIV>
<P>
<CENTER><B>Number of computers left on overnight:</B><BR>
<SPAN id=blackballoons><IMG src="http://<server>/Image%20Library/62.gif"></SPAN>
<P align=center><A title="Black Balloon Program" href="http://<server>/Resources/IntPrograms/ecooffice/Pages/BlackBalloonProgram.aspx" target=""><U>
<FONT color=#065077 style='font-size: xx-small'>Click here for more info</FONT></U></A></P>
<SCRIPT language=javascript type=text/javascript>
var BBListID = "{02340083-E51B-4E2A-9511-F7583B43F27E}";
var BBServerURL = "http://<server>/";
var BBSiteURL = "http://<server>/Resources/IntPrograms/ecooffice";
var URLprotocolURL = BBSiteURL + "/_vti_bin/owssvr.dll?Cmd=Display&XMLDATA=TRUE&List=" + BBListID;
var BBxmlhttp = null;
try
{
BBxmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
}
catch (e)
{
try
{
BBxmlhttp = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
}
catch (e)
{
try
{
BBxmlhttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
catch (e)
{
alert("Your browser does not support XMLHTTP.");
}
}
}
BBxmlhttp.onreadystatechange = StateChange;
BBxmlhttp.open("GET", URLprotocolURL, true);
BBxmlhttp.send(null);
function StateChange() {
if (BBxmlhttp.readyState == 4) {
if (BBxmlhttp.status == 200) {
setInterval("DisplayBB()", 8000);
}
else {
alert("Problem retrieving XML data");
}
}
}
function DisplayBB() {
    var BBxmlDoc = BBxmlhttp.responseXML;
    var BBListItems = BBxmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("z:row") || xmlDoc.getElementsByTagNameNS("*", "row");
    if (BBListItems.length > 0) {
        var BBSelectedItem = BBListItems[0];
        var BBNumber = BBSelectedItem.getAttribute("ows_LinkTitle");
        var BBBalloons = BBSelectedItem.getAttribute("ows_Approx_x0020_Black_x0020_Balloon");
        document.getElementById("blackballoons").innerHTML = '<h3>' + BBNumber + '</h3>approximately <b>' + BBBalloons + '</b> black balloons';
    } else {
        alert('No List Items were returned');
    }
}
</SCRIPT>
</CENTER></DIV></DIV>
<P align=center><A title="Black Balloon Program" href="http://<server>/Resources/IntPrograms/ecooffice/Pages/BlackBalloonProgram.aspx" target=""></A>&nbsp;</P></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

oh just to mention.. The reason I didn't use a calculating column was.. Well it didn't work... Sure I got the right value, but the xml was rendered different.. it came out like : float#476.00000   instead of 476 :)  Nintex to the rescue

to see the XML structure of your list

http://<server>/<path to site>/_vti_bin/owssvr.dll?Cmd=Display&XMLDATA=TRUE&List={LIST GUID}

Hi DanS,

It's awesome that Nintex Workflow is being used to help with being environmentally friendly.  I hope other companies follow your lead.

I wonder if someone has made a Ping action.  That way you could have your workflow do all the work, rather than just part of it. hmmm better look at how busy I am :)

Hi DanS,

I found some time and decided to write a simple Ping action : Nintex Workflow - Ping the Environmentally Friendly Custom Action.

I believe what this means, is that I really should find a life :)

Again, well done to your company for taking the environmentally friendly initiative.

following on from your blog..

One way you could do it (concecptual) :) is your action scans an ip range and stores anything with a positive result into a collection variable. on this collection, run for each some sort of DNS resolution.. if you could some how then get the user name :) or use the the old net send command to send a msg prompt to the desktop.

You would also need to count the amount of entries int he collection you could then use to create the frontpage panel, eg PCs left on..  times 34 = XX black balloons.

I'm just thinking to do a scan would be a whole easier.. We have around 600 client computers, so we would need to have all hostnames / ip addresses in a list and then once a day a WF would have to be run over the entire list.... the list would need to be maintained for for new PCs, deleted PCs etc etc..

Further to this.. I wonder could you use your solution to create a Server Monitor Dashboard ?  eg have a list , Server Hostname, Ipaddress, Ping time.    Using KPI functions or some jScript   have indicators if the server isn't returning a ping or different colours if it is below a certain speed :)  Would be handy to monitor Externally hosted Websites that you manage

I think this is a really interesting idea!

I had the thought of simply counting how many users are on the network using some network command or script, iterating through the list and counting the number of users. You could send the offending users emails.

If the workflow could be run at various times during the day, you could get a cool graph of how many people were logged in during the day, see who was working on the weekends and holidays, if people were lying on their timesheets, etc. :)

If you could remotely determine if a person was actually using their computer (keyboard/mouse active), you could determine when the person was actually working - LOOK OUT BIG BROTHER!

Here is a possiblity:

Hey JCOONS,

many moons ago, I wrote a background service that I sneakilly (sp?) installed on my Development Managers (pre Nintex days) computer.  It logged how long he spent on each window (logged the title of the window.  eg. if it was IE), and how much time was spent in idle mode.

After a couple of weeks, I showed it to him.  We were good friends, so he wasn't upset.  But he did find it interesting how much time he actually spent during the day on google or IE in general.

Not sure how you could do with this via a workflow running on a server and monitoring other pc's, but it would definitely be an interesting task.  Not sure how much employees would be impressed with it... like you said Big Brother.

A black balloon is a great way to show the impact our power use has on the environment. The Victorian Government was the first to use the black balloon concept and many states are adopting the idea because it helps us to visualise something we can't see - carbon pollution.

if you didn't know about it you can read at :http://www.savepower.nsw.gov.au/about/about-save-power/whats-a-black-balloon-.aspx to know it

And I think this is a interested this topic !!!!

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