Apple Autoingestion class: username and password "deprecated", properties file?

Question

I want to collect daily sales summaries from iTunes Connect and store them in my database. A step on this path is to use Apple's iTunes Connect Autoingestion java class to download the report data.

When I run the tool from my Windows XP command line, I get a curious error message.

C:\iTunes sales reports>java -cp Autoingestion Autoingestion  myuser
"myP@ssw0rd" 80000000 Sales Daily Summary 20130707
The username and password parameters have been deprecated. Please use the 
properties file for user credentials.
S_D_80000000_20130707.txt.gz
File Downloaded Successfully

I'm curious about how to resolve the error message, ''The username and password parameters have been deprecated. Please use the properties file for user credentials.'' I don't see anything about this message in Apple's documentation, ''iTunes Connect Sales and Trends Guide: App Store v8''.

In the directory next to Autoingestion.class is a file autoingestion.properties. This file contains the two lines:

userID = <UserID>
password = <Password>

An obvious guess is that the Autoingestion class wants me to put my userID and password in this file. There's no indication of the values need to be quoted or not. When I put my user ID and password in the file (unquoted), and then leave the userID and password out of the commend line, I get the following error message:

C:\iTunes sales reports\Autoingestion>java -cp . Autoingestion  
80000000 Daily Summary 20130707
The username and password parameters have been deprecated. Please use the
properties file for user credentials.
Please enter all the required parameters.  For help, please download the 
latest User Guide from the Sales and Trends module in iTunes Connect.

So, I don't know how to supply the user credentials in a way that resolves this error message. Does anybody know how? Is there maybe a commonly-known convention for properties files which java novices like me haven't heard of?

Answer 1

jemeshu is correct, they updated the Autoingest tool and the document reflects the old usage. It still works to download, but gives you the deprecation message. The new format is:

java Autoingestion autoingestion.properties 80000000 Sales Daily Summary 20130707

The properties file name needs to be supplied in place of the old username and password. I believe it also has to end with .properties.

Further info: the values work unquoted in the properties file.