AssistEdge CE AutomationStudioUserGuide

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AssistEdge RPA Community Edition 17.5.

Automation Studio User Manual

1 Public
AE-RPA-Automation Studio User Manual

Copyright Notice
©2018 EdgeVerve Systems Limited (a fully owned Infosys subsidiary), Bangalore, India. All Rights
Reserved. This documentation is the sole property of EdgeVerve Systems Limited (“EdgeVerve”).
EdgeVerve believes the information in this document or page is accurate as of its publication date;
such information is subject to change without notice. EdgeVerve acknowledges the proprietary rights
of other companies to the trademarks, product names and such other intellectual property rights
mentioned in this document. This document is not for general distribution and is meant for use solely
by the person or entity that it has been specifically issued to and can be used for the sole purpose it is
intended to be used for as communicated by EdgeVerve in writing. Except as expressly permitted by
EdgeVerve in writing, neither this documentation nor any part of it may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, printing,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of EdgeVerve and/ or any
named intellectual property rights holders under this document.

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AE-RPA-Automation Studio User Manual

Table of C
Contents
ontents
Copyright Notice 01
1.. Auto Automation Studio 08
1.1 Pre-Requisites, Installation and Login into Studio 08
2.0 Home Tab 09
3.0 Admin Tab 10
3.1 Applications Sub-tab 10
3.2 Deployment Sub-tab 11
3.3 Migration Sub-tab 11
3.3.1 Export 11
3.3.2 Import 13
3.4 Bots Sub-tab 14
3.4.1 Processbots 14
3.4.2 Microbots 15
4.0 Studio Tab 19
4.1 Automation Studio Help 19
4.2 Studio Menu Options 20
4.3 Create New Process 20
4.4 Create Sign-In Process / Reset Process 21
4.4.1 Configuration of Additional Controls 21
4.5 Advanced use of Sign-In and Reset activities within automation process 21
4.6 Edit Process 23
4.7 Outline View 25
4.8 Save Process 25
4.9 Publish Process 25
4.10 Deploy Process 26
5.0 Automation Studio Tools 28
5.1 Process Components 29
Application 29
How to Configure Web Applications 31
Java application 40
Custom Application 44
Reuse Process 46
Microbot 46
Code Editor 48
Popup Handler-Activity to automate windows popups in web and excel applications. 50
API Activity 52

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Execute DB Query 52
Focus Window 53
Dock Window 53
Print Screen 53
54
54
Image Control 54
Text Extractor 57
5.3 SAP Think Client 60
5.4 Files 62
Write to Excel 62
Excel Loop 62
62
63
64
Output 67
70
5.5 Flow Controls 71
IF 72
Parallel 72
DoWhile 72
Sequence 72
While 72
Delay 72
5.6 Assign and Write 73
Assign 73
WriteLine 73
Write to Log File 73
73
5.7.1 File Create 72
5.7.2 File Copy 74
5.7.3 File Move 75
5.7.4 File Rename 76
5.7.5 File Open 77
5.7.6 File Save As 78
5.7.7 File Close 79
5.7.8 File Delete 79

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5.7.9 Zip File 80


5.7.10 Unzip Files 81
5.7.11 File Search 82
5.7.12 File Merge 83
5.7.13 File Split 84
85
5.8 E-Mail 86
5.8.1 SMTP Mail 87
5.8.1.1 SMTP E-Mail: Send E-mail 88
5.8.1.2 SMTP E-mail: Get Entry ID 89
90
5.8.2.1 Send E-Mail 91
5.8.2.2 Search E-Mail 93
5.8.2.3 Read E-Mail 95
5.8.2.4 Reply E-Mail 97
5.8.2.5 Forward E-Mail 99
5.8.2.6 Delete E-Mail 100
5.8.2.7 Move E-Mail 101
5.8.2.8 Follow up E-Mail 102
104
105
106
108
109
110
5.10 Pop-up Handler 111

115
117
5.11 Send Keys 119
119
5.11.2 Send Keys web element Control 122

124
5.12.1 Launch an Oracle EBS form through web navigator 124

125
126
5.12.4 Launch an Oracle EBS form using Java based navigator 128

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5.12.5 Close, Minimize or Maximize the form 130
5.12.6 Restore form 131
5.12.7 Set Text 132
5.12.8 Get Text 133
5.12.9 Select value from the Choicebox/Drop-down 134
5.12.10 Read selected Choice-box value 135
136
5.12.12 Click 137
5.12.13 Select Toolbar item by value 138
5.12.14 Select Toolbar item by index 138
5.12.15 Select Tab by value 139
5.12.16 Read selected tab name 140
5.12.17 Set Check-box 141
5.12.18 Get Check-box Status 141
5.12.19 Get Check-box Text 142
143
144
145
5.12.23 Check Component state 146
5.12.24 Read Status Bar message 147
5.12.25 Select List-view item by index 148
149
5.12.27 Select Grid Row 151
5.12.28 Get/Set Grid Cell Data 152
153
5.13 Peoplesoft 154
5.14 Tool Based Automation of Siebel High Interactivity Application 154
155
158
5.14.3 Drilldown 161
5.14.4 Set Field Value 163
5.14.5 Get Field Value 168
5.14.6 Fetch Grid Data 169
5.14.7 Open Task 170

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171
Create Data Table 172
Add Row 173
Remove Row 174
Update Data 174
Clear Data Table 175
Get Data 175
Sort DataTable 176
Count Row Column 177
Import DataTable 177
Export DataTable 179
180
5.16 Exce Handling 181

5.16.1 TryCatch Component 181

5.16.2 Throw Component 181

5.16.3 Ignore Error Support 184

5.17 Codeless configur for Windows thick client applic n 185

5.17.1 Create new process / Add new applica type 185

5.17.2 Process configura n 186

5.17.3 Default configura 187

5.17.4 Advance configura ree 189

5.17.5 Windows Plugin Interac 189

5.17.6 Window Control Proper es 194

5.17.7 Parametriza control proper 196


6.0 Excel Recorder 197
6.1 Using the Excel recorder 197
6.2 How to check parameters 199
6.3 How to edit scripts 200
6.4 Tips for usage 200
6.5 Test run, Tips on how to build a complete use case 201
6.6 201
203
7.1 Setup Environment 204
7.2 Run Test Environment 204
7.3 Reset Environment 204
7.4 205

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AE-RPA-Automation Studio User Manual

1.0
About Automation Studio
The Automation Studio is
designed to enable users to
create and configure
process automations. The
Automation Studio includes
automation configuration
capabilities for varied and
heterogeneous technology
applications.

1.1 Pre-Requisites, Installation and Login into Studio

Before installing Automation Studio, a user should have the .Net framework 4.6 installed on it’s machine. The product
works on Window 7 and above OS (Windows 7/8/8.1/10. The clickable installation utility, ensures a smooth and quick
installation.

After installation, a desktop shortcut ‘AssistEdge RPA CE’ will be created using which a user can open the Automation
Studio.

On first use, the user is prompted to provide a license file. Providing a valid license file will successfully launch the
Automation Studio. The user can obtain this license file from the same folder where the AssistEdge RPA Community
Edition installer has been downloaded.

The user is shown a ‘Automation Studio - `Quick Start Guide’ which guides the user with useful tips of information and
various links where the user can look out for help.

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2.0
Home Tab
In the Home tab, users can access automations created by them. An automation once created, can be saved, published
and deployed, thus enabling users to maintain their versions, track changes and run the latest process automations.

Users can also view whether a process has dependencies on other processes and applications.

Processes and Applications, which have other processes dependent on them, cannot be deleted.

Users can also rename or delete processes from this page.

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3.0
Admin Tab
The Admin tab displays
applications, processes
and configuration details.

3.1 Applications Sub-tab

The first sub-tab displays the Applications view. On the left hand side, a user can view the applications mapped to
its profile. On the right hand side, applications are categorized by technology.

Users can remove or rename an

application by performing a right-


click on the application. They can
also add a new application by a
right-click on the technology type.

Upon clicking on an application,


they can also view or update the
application property details, from
the properties pane on the right side.

Community Edition has only a single


default profile.

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3.2 Deployment Sub-tab

The Deployment sub-tab, displays the Processes view. It lists all processes, their status, version details, deployment
status and that whether it is available as a main process in Assisted Automation.

3.3 Migration Sub-tab

Migration tab is used to migrate processes from one environment to another. This tab further has two sub-tabs viz.
Export and Import

3.3.1 Export

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Processes in Deployed state can be exported as a zip package by clicking on the ‘Create New Package’ button on the
export tab. This, then opens up a screen listing all the deployed processes for selection. On selecting the process (es)
and clicking on ‘EXPORT’ button, the user is prompted to provide the Package name and description along with the
contents of the Package viz. the Processes and their dependencies.

On clicking on Export, the user is prompted with an information message with a link to open the path where the
package was created. This package can then be imported into the target environment.

The list of packages exported, along with it’s details, from an environment, is shown in the Export tab with the latest
being shown on top.

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3.3.2 Import

One or more Processes can be imported from an environment using the ‘Import’ tab. User can click the ‘Browse’
button on the Import tab to browse and select the package to be imported. On selection of the zip file, user can
validate and reads it’s contents i.e. process (es) and the user is prompted to select 1 or more processes to import into
the environment. While importing, system checks the following and helps resolve conflicts with the target environ-
ment (if any). If process with the same name and profile exists in the target system, user is prompted with different
ways to resolve the conflict. Import happens as one process at a time.

User can edit and update the properties of the underlying application in the process by clicking on the Edit / Pencil icon
shown in front of the application properties.

If the application with same name already exists in the target environment, the user is prompted to select and map the
application to the one that is already existing in the target environment.

After proceeding further, user is shown the summary of the Import transaction. Audit for all the imported packages are
shown on the Import screen with latest on top.

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3.4 Bots Sub-tab

This tab has 2 subtabs viz. Processbots and Microbots, which allows a user to configure different features used in SE for
a process namely Reset Process Mapping, Process Feature Mapping and Landing Tab for a process in SE.

3.4.1 Processbots

A Processbot is a process
created in Automation
Studio packaged along with
it’s metadata like the Name,
Author, Tags, Description,
Readme file details and an
image identifying the
Processbot. This is one of
the ways of migrating a
process from one environ-
Processbots tab shows all the process bots created as above along with the ones
ment to another. Packaging
which have been imported
a process along with it’s
metadata, helps user to
know the utility and other
usage details of the process.

Processbots can be created


from Admin -> Deployment
tab by clicking on the
vertical Ellipses shown in
front of the Processes in
Deployed state.

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User can Export a processbot or Edit / Delete a processbot’s metadata or view Dependencies of the underlying process
in the process bot, by hovering on the Processbot on the screen.

A Processbot can be imported in another environment by clicking on the IMPORT button. On selecting the Processbot to
be imported, user goes to a process similar to what he/ she does while importing a Process using the environment
Migration capability as described above.

3.4.2 Microbots

A Microbot is a micro process or a micro automation which can be reused in the Automation Studio.

The Microbots page lists all the existing Microbots,


which are available for reuse. The user can use the
Search functionality on the page to look up the
existing Microbots.

A user can add a microbot in two ways,


either by creating a new Microbot or
importing an existing Microbot and
reusing it.

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For creating a new Microbot,


select the first radio button for
‘Create microbot’.

The user needs to fill out all details for creating a new
Microbot such as Microbot name, description, Micro-
bot path, readme file path, tags and add an image.

Alternatively, to import an existing Microbot in order to


reuse it, a user needs to select the second radio button
for ‘Import microbot’.

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Upon selecting the import option, the


user is presented with the above screen.
Clicking on the Microbot name field will
open a window where the user needs to
select the DLL file for the Microbot to be
imported. Once the user selects a valid
Microbot file to be imported, all the
meta data fields are imported as
demonstrated in the below screenshot.

All the metadata associated with the selected Microbot will be populated on the screen. Upon clicking on the ‘Save’
button, the Microbot is imported into Studio.

Similarly, for exporting a Microbot, click on the export icon listed beside that Microbot.is imported into Studio.

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By default, the selected Microbot is exported into the ‘Package Downloads’ folder within the build location.

The exported Microbot package


contains files with details such
as the DLLs including the core
DLL in which the Microbot has
been implemented, the
Microbot image, the readme
file and it’s auto-created meta
data file in XML format.

The user can also edit or


delete a Microbot. If a
Microbot is being used in
one or more processes, it
cannot be deleted.

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AE-RPA-Automation Studio User Manual

4.0
Studio Tab
The Studio tab provides
an open canvas for users
to design and test
process automations. It
has an intuitive user
interface with simple
drag and drop workflow
activities and user
friendly menus / tools to
create automations

4.1 Automation Studio Help

The Help tab in the Studio, provides users with useful reference documents to begin the automation configuration. It
includes a presentation and a step by step guided video that demonstrates how to automate a sample use case.

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4.2 Studio Menu Options

The Studio ribbon consists of quick icons to perform various actions such as viewing an application and process
dependency, undo action, redo action, edit process, add annotation, save process, test run, search criteria
configuration and others.

4.3 Create New Process

Users can click on the ‘Create New’ button and select the option of ‘Process’ to create a new process. This will open a
new flowchart on the Studio canvas where the user can create a new process.

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4.4 Create Sign-In Process / Reset Process


Users can also create a new sign-in process or reset process in the Studio. Please note that a sign-in and reset process once
created, cannot be renamed. A sign-in process should include only the application which requires sign-in (i.e. one sign-in
application per sign-in process).

Similarly, for a reset process, the user can add the application and the login, to reset the state of the application. Please note
that the save button will be disabled if user adds any additional activities on the canvas.

4.4.1 Configuration of Additional Controls

This section describes how additional controls on


a login screen of an application, can be config-
ured as a part of a Sign-In process creation for
the sign in process. When a new sign-in process
is created, two arguments viz. LoginId and
Password are created by default and can be used
to set values in the typical User Id and Password
boxes on the application login screen. If there
are additional controls than these two on the
login screen, then those can be configured as
dynamic controls in a sign-in process.

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Below are the steps to configure dynamic controls –

In the application opened for field configuration in the Studio tab, click on Start Field Configuration and select
the additional control to be configured. e.g. The Role drop down is being configured in the below screenshot.

In the Field Properties section on the right hand side, check the “Is Dynamic” checkbox to mark it as an additional
control.

After checking the checkbox, user can decide the control type to be configured for the selected control from the four
available types viz. combo box, textbox, radio button and checkbox.

a. If ComboBox control type is selected, the user can configure the values to

be shown in the dynamic drop down control on Credential Manager in CT


or in the Sign In Manager in SE. The Display Name configured for the field
will be used as a label for the control.

b. If textbox control type is selected, the user can configure the default

value to be shown in the textbox control.

c. For radio button and checkbox control type, the default value can be true

or false.

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For every dynamic control that is configured, an in argument will be created. Value of this argument will be set in the
configured control when the sign-in process is executed. Please note that in Automation Studio, a sign-in process can
be tested using the “Setup Environment”. Test Run is not enabled for the sign in processes.

On closing the application tab in Studio, the field configuration can be seen inside the Application activity by double
clicking on it.

4.5 Advanced use of Sign-In and Reset activities within automation process

The user can use Sign-In and Reset, as activities within a process while configuration of an automation. User can re (call)
sign-in for applications where it is required in between a process or if a sign out behavior is eminent in the business process.

Similarly, the user can also reset the state of an application in between a particular application automation / process, if
required.

User has a drag and drop activity box for each of the “Sign-In” and “Reset” activities under “Process components

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“Sign-In” activity can be


called/ placed inside the
process. Please note that
it is dependent on the
original sign-in process
created and will call the
same in between the
automation. e.g. if an
application session has
timed out and on a new
automation request, the
process itself should
re-trigger the sign in flow
of the application.

“Reset” activity can be


called/ placed inside the
process. Please note that it
is dependent on the
original Reset process
created and will call the
same in between the
automation. It can also be
used inside the application
activity only (similar to
sign-in activity).

Both these activities can be used inside the Application activity only.

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4.6 Edit Process

Users can edit processes in studio


using the edit icon in theStudio
Menu. They can edit any process
which is in a Saved or Published state.

4.7 Outline View

For ease in viewing complex workflows, users can utilize the outline view in Studio. The outline view displays all the
nodes of a process including the workflow tools and activities used. This view also enables users to quickly navigate to
the desired section of the automation.

4.8 Save Process

Users can save a process that they have created. They can also edit any process which is in ‘Saved’ or ‘Published’
status. An updated process can be saved as an updated version of the previous process.

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4.9 Publish Process

Once a user has created a process, it can be published. Open the process in the Studio view and then select the ‘Publish’
button from the Studio menu options.

While publishing a process, the user needs to select the Profile within which the process needs to be published.

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4.10 Deploy Process

A user can also deploy a process once it is published. This can be done from the Deployment sub-tab
within the Admin page.

The user needs to select the version of the process that needs to be deployed. Note that once a process has been
deployed, it cannot be deleted.

The user also needs to provide the average time taken, if a request in a particular process gets executed manually.
This information can be put in Manual Process Time in HH:MM:SS format. This Manual Process Time information,
would be consumed by a reporting platform, as a base line to gauge the saving on process execution time due to
automation. It is not a mandatory field.

Apart from Manual Process Time, the user can also provide the SLA information during deployment of a process.
SLA refers to the expected process execution time, when a request in a particular process, gets executed by a robot.
This information can be put in SLA in HH:MM:SS format. This SLA information would be used to calculate the service
level (proportion of automation qualified requests, which gets executed within the SLA duration limit) of each
process.

The values in Hour (s) column should be in range of


0 – 99, and the values in Min (s) and Sec (s) columns
should be in the range of
0 – 59 for both Manual Process Time and SLA.

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5.0
Automation Studio Tools

The Toolbox panel on the left, consists of a wide


range of canvas tools for designing automations –
such as Application Automation, MS Excel Looping,
Pdf template tool and several validation tools.
Additionally, it also includes the PDF template
creator and Excel Recorder. Let us look at each of
these in further detail.

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5.1 Process Components

Process components, consists of the following activity tools for automating applications:

Application
The Application activity automates an application
using field configuration. The user can add /
configure applications here. The Studio enables
users to add web, excel, mainframe, windows,
java, SAP, SMTP email, DB and Sharepoint
applications.

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If an application has already been added, the user can


select it for further automation, else he/she can add a
new application.

For adding a new web application, the user needs to select the type of application, name the application, specify
the login and search URLs and the preferred browser.

For adding a new excel or windows application, the user needs to provide the application name and path.

For adding a new Mainframe application, the user needs to provide the application name, emulator, host and
port details.

For adding a SAP application, name and SAP connection name needs to be provided along with checking the
checkbox ‘Is startup launch’, if user needs to launch the application and not attach it to an already launched
application.

For adding a SMTP application, user needs to provide the domain, SMTP server IP address, port number, size of
attachment, max size of all attachments together. By default, the parameters, SSLEnabled and Validate Channel
are set to false.

For adding a DB Application, user needs to select the DB Type as SQL or Oracle, Authentication type in case of SQL
DB, DB Server, Port and DB Name details. SID needs to be entered in case of Oracle DB.

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How to Configure Web Applications

a. Users can add applications to be automated and then define the automation. For instance, if a web application
needs to be automated, the user can use the ‘Start Field Configuration’ button to define automations within
the application.

b. Let us look at an example where the user wants to configure a search process. The process comprises of
looking up for information on a web application and updating the search result.

c. To begin with, the user can click on the ‘Start Field Configuration’ button and then click on the search textbox.
The property grid on the right hand side, will appear with field properties for the application. The user needs
to update the properties and save them. For example, the Action field is selected as ‘Set Value’ and the Input
source is set as ‘Company’.

New selenium based plugin for Internet Explorer called “InternetExplorerSelenium” has been added. It uses
the IE Web driver,to automate the web applications, in Internet Explorer.

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In the next step, the user once again clicks on the ‘Start Field Configuration’ button and selects the search button.
The property grid is populated with appropriate details such as the Action as ‘Click’ since the search is triggered
by a button click.

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At last, the automation needs to read the search result, hence the user clicks on the ‘Start Field Configuration’ button
and selects the search result. This time, the property grid is updated with information for the search result such as
Action as ‘Get Text’. Variable Name and Data Types need to be defined by the user.

Following interactions have been newly added / enhanced in the Internet Explorer plugin.

a. Click and SetValue interactions has been enhanced.

b. ScrollIntoView interaction has been added. It can be used to auto scroll any element to top Start/Center/End of the page.
[Note: Configuring “center” for ScrollTo, will throw an exception at runtime as IE doesn't support center option]

c. ScrollBy interaction has been added. It can be used to scroll page, by the configured amount in pixels, in horizontal or
vertical direction.

d. IE applications with document mode 5/7/8 are now supported from the IE plugin.

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Following enhancements have been made to the selenium based plugins for web automation viz. Chrome,
Firefox & Internet ExplorerSelenium

a. ScrollIntoView interaction has been added. It can be used to auto scroll any element to top Start/Center/End of
the page. [Note: Configuring “center” for ScrollTo will give exception at runtime as IE doesn't support center
option]

b. ScrollBy interaction, has been added. It can be used to scroll page by the configured amount in pixels, in horizon-
tal or vertical direction.

c. ScrollBy interaction, has been added. It can be used to scroll page by the configured amount in pixels, in horizontal
or vertical direction.

d. ContextClick interaction has been added. It can be used to perform a right click interaction. Any further interaction
on the opened popup, should be achieved using send keys activity like down arrow, followed by enter key. The
application is required to be in focus.

e. A new flag "IsNotTopMost" has been introduced for click interaction. In certain scenarios, Webdriver throws an
exception when performing a click on any element with a message that the element is overlapped by another
element and the other element will instead receive the click. Turning on the "IsNotTopMost" flag will resolve this
error message and click will be performed even if overlaid element receives the click.

Automating tables / Grids in Web Applications – Studio supports automation of Tables or items in tabular format in a Web
page. Automating of Web grids, involves following steps.

a. Indicating to the system that user wants to automate the table.

b. User captures and sets Action for one field as ControlExists.

c. Capturing all the fields in the table that the user wants to automate.

d. Repeating step ‘c.’ for all the rows / columns in the table by looping over the table.

e. Incrementing the row / column counter in the loop.

f. Repeating steps ‘c, d, e’, till the last row /column.

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Let us view these steps in further detail:


a. Indicating the system that user wants to automate the table –

Setting the first field as ‘Control Exists’.


a. On performing step a, the control gets identified and is shown in the property Grid.

b. For the first Row / Column captured as above, the ‘Action’ selected should be ‘Control Exists’. For
this, add a variable of type, Boolean.

Note: Selection of interaction as ‘Control Exists’ is done only for the first column / row in the table.

For capturing all the fields in the table that the user wants to automate:
a. Repeat step a for all the rows / columns for which the user wants to extract / set the data including
the first column / row.

b. This time, the interaction selected in the ‘Action’ field in the property grid, should be the actual action, the
user wants to perform on the column. E.g. ‘Get text’, ‘Get attribute’, ‘Set text’ and ‘Click’ as relevant to the field.

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Repeating step ‘c.’ for all the rows / columns in the table by looping over the table.
a. This can be done by adding all the above activities in the Studio canvas, in a ‘while’ loop control flow.

b. Add an argument of type ‘numeric’ in studio, which will be used as a loop counter.

c. Condition for running the while loop should be set, so that it runs till the Control exists in the row / column.

Make sure that ‘Item Index’ field in property grid for the ControlExists and all other
captured controls, is set to the loop counter variable Incrementing the row / column
counter in the loop.
a. At the end of the while loop, increment the loop Counter using the ‘assign’ activity.

b. Repeating steps ‘c, d, e’ till the last row /column. Vhecking for ControlExists condition in the while loop,
will take care of this

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The user can manually specify a selector that matches all elements i.e. Executing document.querySelectorAll("<man-
ual selector>") in browser’s developer console returns all the desired elements. This selector does not require a
placeholder for an index. It is elaborated in the below example:

a. Configure a process for https://www.amazon.in

b. Search for “Xbox one” and press search button.

c. If the user will now try to extract all the search results in a loop by extracting two of the product labels in search
result, the user will get a selector similar to: "#result_{0} > :nth-child(1) > :nth-child(1) > :nth-child(1) > :nth-child(2) >
:nth-child(1) > :nth-child(1) > :nth-child(1) > :nth-child(1)"

d. The user can also observe that only a few of the search results are highlighted once extraction is complete and even
after the user configures the loop and runs the process, not all elements will be extracted.

e. By using the manual selector, the user can correct the above amazon process by replacing the selector with "h2.s-in-
line.s-access-title" . Index should stay bound to loop variable and Offset should be set to 0 unless the user wants to
skip few elements.

Find control using ‘innertext’ selector


Selector of type “innertext” can be used in the “Find By” property of the configured control when the elements that
have a dynamic id/name/selector but it’s innerText property has a value that is deterministic.
It can be used to select an element, by tag and it’s inner text combination. The user can configure the criteria to
match the innertext value viz. equal, startswith, endswith or contains.

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Let us view an example:


a. Configure a process for https://www.booking.com/

b. Extract the search button.

c. While the css3 selector is generated and works just fine, the user now has an
option to find this element using innertext as an alternative.

d. Select innertext for findby dropdown.

e. The user can provide “Search”,” *Search”,” *Search*”,” Search*” as innertext


values for equals, startswith, contains, endswith criteria respectively.

To check innerText property of an element, the user needs to find the control in the developer console and check it’s
innerText property. e.g. To see the innerText property of span extracted above, one can type document.querySelec-
tor(“css3selector that was captured”).innerText in the browser developer console.

Automating Smart GWT based applications


If a user tries to extract any application controls based on Smart GWT platform, he/she will view an additional option for
find by -"sclocator" in dropdown. Controls should be configured to use find by - "sclocator" instead of id/name/css3se-
lector. Support for “sclocator” is available in the Selenium based plugins viz. InternetExplorerSelenium, Chrome and
Firefox.

For looping over a table in a Smart GWT based application, "sclocator" should be created manually as shown in
below example:

a. Visit https://www.smartclient.com/smartclient/showcase/?id=adaptiveFilterFS

b. The user will see a table with columns SKU|Item|Description|Category.

c. Let’s assume the user wants to loop over this table and extract SKU for each row.

d. Extract the SKU column from first row and paste the generated sclocator in notepad.

e. Extract the SKU column from second row and paste the generated sclocator below the first one in notepad.

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The below will be displayed.

[Row - 1] //testRoot[]/child[Class=ListGrid||index=0||length=2||class-
Index=0||classLength=1||roleIndex=0||roleLength=1||scRole=list]/body/row[itemID=1||itemName=Adding%20Mach
ine%20Roll%2057x57mm%20Standard||SKU=45300||0]/col[fieldName=SKU||0]

[Row -2] //testRoot[]/child[Class=ListGrid||index=0||length=2||class-


Index=0||classLength=1||roleIndex=0||roleLength=1||scRole=list]/body/row[itemID=2||itemName=Adding%20Mach
ine%20Roll%2057x64mm%20Standard||SKU=90600||1]/col[fieldName=SKU||0]"

Notice that the generated sclocator contains row specific details for the row part, while other details are same for
both:

[Row - 1] row[itemID=1||itemName=Adding%20Machine%20Roll%2057x57mm%20Standard||SKU=45300||0]

[Row -2] row[itemID=2||itemName=Adding%20Machine%20Roll%2057x64mm%20Standard||SKU=90600||1]

To make it a generic sclocator which can be used for looping, one needs to get rid of these specific details and add a
place holder for loop index.

In the above example, itemName and SKU fields contain specific information for row here and should be removed.
itemID field as well as row identifier after SKU seems to be a good candidate for making it a placeholder for loop index.

To get rid of these fields, either of the following as sclocator can be used in loop:

[Version - 1] //testRoot[]/child[Class=ListGrid||index=0||length=2||class-
Index=0||classLength=1||roleIndex=0||roleLength=1||scRole=list]/body/row[itemID={0}]/col[fieldName=SKU||0] --
using itemID column

[Version - 2] //testRoot[]/child[Class=ListGrid||index=0||length=2||class-
Index=0||classLength=1||roleIndex=0||roleLength=1||scRole=list]/body/row[{0}]/col[fieldName=SKU||0] --
using row identifier

Also, note that for version 1, loop index should start from 1 or offset should be 1 while for version 2, loop index should
start from 0.

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Automating Web applications containing Shadow-DOM


To automate any application having a Shadow-DOM, an additional option for find by -"shadow-path" in dropdown
has been introduced. Rest of the automation experience will be the same as that of a normal Web application.

Automating a control on a web page using Javascript:

For certain controls on Webpage that do not get automated using normal
web application automation method as seen above, Sometimes a javascript
is present on a web page which needs to be executed on a certain control.
This can be automated using the ‘Execute JavaScript’ activity in the Process
Components in the studio.

User can drag drop this activity in an Application activity at the step when the Javascript needs to be executed. Click
the ‘Edit Script’ button on the activity to open the ‘Script Editor’. Write the script to be executed in the Editor and click
on confirm. Output from javascript can be captured in the Out variable, when the user selects on the ‘Select Output’
parameter of the Activity.

User can pass parameters to the script, by clicking at the place where the parameter is to be written. Right click on
the mouse and select the parameters from the list displayed.

Java Application – The Studio supports the automation of Java applications.


Within Java automation, Studio supports three types of Java files, namely – JAR, JNLP and JavaApps – Applet files.

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A Java application in Studio can be


added by selecting the ‘Application’
activity within the Process Components
canvas tool. Within the application
type, the user needs to select the
appropriate Java application. Thereaf-
ter the application name and file path
needs to be provided.

The environment type can be either


windows class based or event based.
After loading the required Java app, the
user can proceed with automating the
application similar to any other
application automation in the Studio.

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Mainframe Application
The Studio supports the automation of Mainframe applications. In addition to the Mainframe emulators (Attach-
mate Extra Xtreme and Passport), the Studio additionally also supports Attachmate Reflection emulator as well.

Once the user has added the mainframe emulator, he can click on the settings icon to launch the emulator and the
mainframe application, similar to launching any other application in Studio. The selected Mainframe application will
get launched and docked as a tab within the Studio.

To automate the Mainframe application, the user needs to use the ‘Start Field Configuration’ button. Please note
that in the property grid, the user has one of three selections to make for a Mainframe application – Set text, get
text and fire event. The user can use these configuration options to either set a value to the application, fetch a
value from the application or execute an action in the application respectively.

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For instance, in the screenshot below, the user wishes to fire the event of clicking the Enter button to trigger a
search into the application. Hence, the user selects the Event name as ‘Transmit’ which is equivalent to the Enter
key in Mainframe apps.

Once the desired configurations are setup, the user can run the test automation to validate the configured automa-
tion for the mainframe application.

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Custom Application – Custom application tool is used for coded automation of an application. Users can use custom
applications for creating automations.

Custom Applications are coded automations for the applications for which an automation cannot be configured
using Automation Studio directly. The Custom Application can be added as a part of the process by adding the
Custom Application activity onto the process canvas.

A custom application can be added from the process canvas itself by clicking on Add New Application link.

Following properties are required to add the custom application:

1. Application Name,
2. Path of the DLL that has the custom code,
3. Main Class Name: Classes from the selected DLL are listed, select the class that implements the product interface.

Note that, the Custom Application’s DLL has to be build targeting the .Net Framework 4.6.

After selecting the application, click on the Settings icon in the activity to configure the input and output
parameters.

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Input Parameters screen will let the


user, add the input parameters required
for the custom application and map
them to the available arguments in the
current process as shown below.

Output Parameters screen will let


the user, create the out arguments
that will be set using the custom
application automation. One can
set their data type and also, if it is a
C-View or not.

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Reuse Process – This useful


capability enables users to reuse
any previously created piece of
automation, workflow or
activity. The user simply needs
to search for the profile and the
process to be reused. The
selected process can be easily
reused in any new workflow.

The reused process can be


opened and viewed from the
process in which it is reused by
simply clicking on the icon
shown on the bottom right
corner of the Reuse activity.

Microbot – Once a Microbot is


available in the Studio, it can be
used for creating an automation.
The user can access the ‘Micro-
bot’ option within the canvas
tools section under Process
Components. The user can simply
drag and drop the Microbot tool
to the canvas.

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Select the Microbot by searching for the bot to be reused. Click on the settings icon to set the input and output
parameters.

Once the input and output parameters are set, the Microbot will be configured in the Studio, ready to be used in an
automation. The user can thereafter run a test automation to test the Microbot.

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The functionality of the Microbot exposes it’s input and output parameters. When it is used in the Studio, the user can
enter the input and output parameters.

Code Editor – A code Editor can be used for the following:

a. To automate certain fields in an application that are not configurable using Studio.

b. To perform certain operations on the fields extracted from application automations.

The code editor can be added only inside an Application activity.

The Code Editor activity will list the existing code editors. Select any code editor to
view the list of classes in the selected DLL that implement the ICodeEditor interface.

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Clicking on the Output button will open the Output Parameters screen which will let the user create the out arguments
that will be set using the automation done in the code editor. It allows a user to set their data type and if it is a C-View
or not also.

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If the required DLL is not found in the list, upload a new one
by clicking on the Add DLL link in the activity.

Popup Handler – Activity to automate windows popups in web and excel applications.
Popup Handler activity is used to handle the windows popups that appear in web and excel applications e.g. a
uthentication pop up, confirmation alerts etc.

This activity can be added inside an Application activity only. Click on the Settings icon to configure the
controls of the popup.

If used in IE based app or in an Excel application


a Popup Window Caption: Window Caption of the popup needs to be entered.

b Control Type: type of control to be automated. In this release, only textbox and buttons are supported.

c Control Id: Control search path (e.g. ffnf) that identifies the selected control in the popup.

d Field To Map: This will be available only for a Textbox control. It will list the available arguments in the workflow

whose value needs to be set in the textbox. For the Button control, this dropdown will be disabled.

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If used in Chrome and Firefox based app


a. Popup Window Caption: It is not used but a dummy value needs to be set.

b. Control Type: Type of control to be automated. In this release, only textbox and buttons are supported.

c. Control Id: For Textbox control, it will be disabled. For Button, two possible values viz. Accept and
Cancel are listed.

d. Field To Map: This will be available only for a Textbox control. It will list the available arguments in
the workflow whose value needs to be set in the textbox. For the Button control, this dropdown will be disabled.

In case of a popup that asks for credentials to be configured when creating a Sign In Process, just drag and drop the
popup handler activity in the Application activity of the application whose sign in is being configured.

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API Activity –
Helps make the web services calls that includes REST APIs calls or calls to SAP APIs which are BAPI.

Execute DB Query –
This activity is used within an application activity where the application type is a data base application of type
DBApps. It is used to perform ‘Select’ query operation on the database.

The activity takes following fields as inputs:


a. Database Operation: Value selected is ‘SelectQuery'.
Currently, the activity supports only the select operation.

b. Query: The actual SQL query which can be set as default


value or passed as a parameter.

c. Output: Result of query execution is stored in the variable of type


DataTable selected in this field. By default, the output is stored in
the DataTable variable named ‘ResultSet’.

d. Success Status: The status of query execution i.e. success or failure


is returned and stored as True or false in this field. By default, it is
set to the variable ‘SuccessStatus’.

e. Count of Rows in result: Row count of the query result is set in the
variable assigned to this field. Row count is stored in the ‘RowCount’
variable by default.

d. Count of Columns in result: Column count of the query result is set


in the variable assigned to this field. Column count is stored in the
‘ColumnCount’ variable by default.

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Focus Window –

This activity is used to bring an application window in


focus. This activity should be used before all the
automation activities in Studio, which require the
application to be in focus in order to perform the
action it is configured for. E.g. of the activities
requiring focus are: Print Screen, Image Control, Text
Extractor and Key Events.

This activity takes, Window Title as an input and


search for same according to the set criteria for
comparison like Equals, Starts with, Contains
etc. and brings the application window to focus.

Dock Window –
When a process containing ‘Focus Window’ activity is executed in the Assisted Automation platform i.e. SE, the Applica-
tion window gets undocked from SE. To dock the application window back, ‘Dock Window’ activity is used. This activity
needs to be used within an Application activity. There is no effect of this activity when executed in RPA or a Robot.
Just like ‘Focus Window’ activity, it takes the Window Title and matching criteria as input.

Print Screen –
This activity is used to take a screen shot of the application in focus
during Process execution. It takes ‘Destination Path’ as an input. The path
and name of the image file as specified in this parameter, will be used to
store the screenshot image. If image with the same name already exists,
the image will be overwritten.

This activity requires focus and should be preceded by the ‘Focus Window’ activity to ensure that the screenshot
of the right application in context is taken.

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Sign-In activity and Reset activity: Please refer to section 4.6

5.2 Image Based Automation


Image based automation is supported in the Studio through the ‘Image based automation’ Tool in the toolbox.

There are 2 activities available in Image based automation for capturing an image, performing an action on the same
and reading or extracting text data from a text based image.

These activities can be used anywhere within an application or outside an application within a process.

Image Control –
Image control helps capture the image on the screen in focus and looks for the image as part of the
process automation.
User drags and drops the Image control activity on the Process canvas, where required, in the process. Click on the
Capture Image area on the activity and select a rectangular image area from the application screen in focus and an
offset point within or outside the image with reference to the selected image area.

Browsing and attaching an already captured image or re-capturing or deleting an image, is also possible.

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Clicking on Settings button, shows the image properties as follows:

a. The actual captured image and the offset pointer.

b. Offset co-ordinates of the reference point selected during image


capture w.r.t. the image. The offset co-ordinates can be altered and
saved from this screen if required.

c. Error Tolerance – Maximum acceptable error tolerance in image


matching while performing the image search during execution.

d. SAVE and CANCEL buttons to save or cancel any changes done on


this screen.

To configure an action after finding the image, user double clicks to drill down the Image Control activity and adds the
Interactions using the ADD button.

An Interaction activity supports the actions as listed in the screenshot. Some key actions being:

a. Wait Until Exists – Will look for the image in the screen in focus and wait until a specified duration set in the
‘Timeout’ field and within that check for the image at a frequency set in the ‘Poll Frequency’ field.

Using this action for every image, can avoid usage of delays in between activity to address page loading time. This
interaction returns a Boolean value of TRUE or FALSE on success or failure of finding the image. The Boolean value can
be set to a variable and checked in a conditional statement to perform appropriate action after finding the image.

b. Click and Type – Will perform a ‘Left Click’ interaction where the user can then Type at the clicked location on the
screen. The text to be typed can be set to a default value or can be fetched from a process variable / argument.

c. Type Text – Will allow the user to type a text where ever the cursor is present on the screen. Again, a default value
can be set or the value to type, can be fetched from a process variable / argument.

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d. Left Click, Right Click, Left Double Click, Right Double Click, Mouse Over – Will perform the action specified at the
offset point.

e. Horizontal Scroll - The Horizontal scroll action will look for the image towards the ‘Scroll Direction’ which could be Right
or Left side, as specified, and perform a scroll by a specified ‘Scroll Amount’.

f. Vertical Scroll - The vertical scroll action will look for the image towards the ‘Scroll Direction’ which could be Up or
Down, as specified, and perform a scroll by a specified ‘Scroll Amount’.The scroll actions could be very handy and used
to perform scroll so as to bring the application area viewable on screen after performing the scroll.

g. Key Press – Will perform key press action for the key specified in ‘Key’ field. Two modifiers like Control, Shift, Alt etc.,
can be applied before the key press, as specified in fields ‘Modifier One’ and ‘Modifier Two’.

h. Key Down – Can be used to perform press event of a singular key on the key board as specified in the ‘Key’ field.

Note: A ‘Key Up’ action needs to be performed after every ‘Key Down’ action in order to release the key after
the Key Down action.

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i. Key Up – This action needs to be performed after the ‘Key Down’ action in order to release the key
specified in the ‘Key’ field.

A combination of ‘Wait Until Exists’ and ‘Horizontal Scroll’ / ‘Vertical Scroll’ in a loop can be used to dynamically look for
an image of interest on the application screen.

Any action selected to be performed on the image will be performed at the selected offset point w.r.t. the image.

Multiple Interactions can be performed on an image control capture. Conditional statements or looping can also be
used as required to perform the desired action.

Text Extractor
Used to extract text from an Image on the application screen.

Drag the Text Extractor activity on the process canvas. Similar to Control Image Activity, an image can be captured,
using capture image button.

This activity provides two usage modes:


a. Fixed
in Fixed mode , when the user will capture an
image, he/ she selects only a rectangular area.Al-
so, the first setting button should be either
disabled or hidden for fixed mode.

b. Reference
In Reference mode , when the user will capture an
image, he/ she selects two rectangular areas.
The first selected region is stored as a template
image which will be searced on screen during
runtime. The second selected region is the area
from where text will be extracted using OCR. For
the second region, only the coordinates are stored
similar to Fixed mode.
The first setting button will open the image
configuration editor, similar to the “Control Image
Activity”.

No image is captured when we are trying to capture the area here, only the coordinates of selected area will be
stored. Hence, the grey area which acts as an image placeholder, will be empty.

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Clicking on Setting button, will open the window with the options as displayed below.

a. Template Image:
Displays the captured image from which the text is
to be read. It is similar to the Control Image activity.

b. Configure Engine:
User can configure the OCR engine used for text extraction. Following settings can be configured:

Language: Indicates the language of the target text. It can be


changed or combined. For e.g. eng + Rus. However, language
data will have to be placed in target data folder for any
additional language for tesseract engine. Please refer to the
tesseract documentation for further details.

Blacklisted Chars: It can have values like abcd, 0123456789,


ab023yz etc. The characters or digits that appear in the
provided word will be ignored during match and the closest
match will be found.

For e.g. If the user is aware that only characters are going to
appear, one can blacklist 0123456789 so that O is not
mistaken as 0.

Whitelisted chars: can be configured in a similar way as


blacklisted chars. This works the other way round. For exam-
ple: If a user is aware that only digits are going to appear in
text, one can specify 0123456789 as whitelisted chars so that 0
is not mistaken as O.

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c. Configure Filters:
On this screen, the user can apply image pre-processing filters and
test out the OCR output correctness. In most of the cases, applying
some pre-processing will improve the accuracy of the text extraction
drastically. In addition to the default captured sample, the user can
add upto two more temporary samples to test the OCR output
correctness.

Commonly used filters found to improve accuracy and provide good result are Scale, Exponential and Sharpen.

Both ‘Image Control’ and


‘Text Extractor’ activities are
preceded by a yellow dot,
indicating that these activities
require the relevant applica-
tion screen to be in focus to
perform the configured
automation step; which
means, that a ‘Focus
Window’ Activity should
always be used before the
Image automation related
activities.

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5.3 SAP Thick Client


The Studio supports the automation of SAP Thick Client applications through the ‘SAP Thick Client’ Tool in the toolbox.

Activities are available for recording the automations, fetching or reading values from SAP applications and for
performing automations on an already open SAP application.

Addition of SAP Application -


Addition of SAP application requires giving an application name and SAP Connection name.

SAP Recorder –
This activity is used for recording the steps performed in a SAP thick client application like entering the
transaction code, navigating through the application, setting data in the applications, clicking on different
controls and searching the data.

User adds the Application activity selects a SAP application. He then adds a SAP Recorder activity to the
application activity. User opens the SAP Application and takes it to a state from where the automation steps are
to be performed. User clicks on ‘Start Recording’ button on the SAP recorder activity and performs the actions
on SAP application. On completing the steps, user clicks on ‘Stop Recording’ icon on the activity. User can click
on Re-record icon in case the recording of the steps has to be re-done.

A script is captured as a result of recording which can be viewed and edited if required, clicking on the ‘Edit
Script’ icon on the activity.

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GUI Field Extractor-


Data from SAP application can be fetched using this activity. For fetching data from Grid, ‘Extract Cell
Value’ action is selected. Data from the grid can be fetched repeatedly using the While construct in the
Automation Studio along with the controls captured with ‘Control Exists’ and ‘Extract Cell Value’ Action on
the SAP controls.

Attach Application –
This activity can be used when as a part of the process automation, the SAP application is expected to be already
launched and in specific state.

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5.4 Files

Files, consists of the following activities that can be used to work with different files like Excel, PDF etc.

Write to Excel – This tool is used to write values into Microsoft Excel. It can be used within the Excel Loop activity
to update specified variables into an excel sheet. For instance, in the below example, the automation will update the
‘StockValue’ column of the defined excel sheet with the value of ‘CompanyStockPrice’ read in the automation.

Automation

Excel Loop-The excel loop tool is used to


perform automations by reading values from
within an excel sheet. Drag and drop the excel
loop onto the canvas. Specify the location path,
the worksheet to be worked on and whether it has
any headers present. Next, click on the settings
icon in the excel loop to specify the data type for
each of the columns. The excel loop is now ready
for automation.

PDF Automation
User can automate data extraction from a PDF using the
PDF Template Creator under Recording tools in Studio.

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Once a PDF template is created, save and


export the configuration to the Studio
canvas as a PDF extractor activity, under
Files in Canvas tools. An existing template
can be reused, using the same activity.

Reference Configuration

Once the user clicks on PDF Template Creator, a proprietary product pdf tool
launches. Open the pdf, for which the template needs to be created. (Tip: The
higher the zoom in, the better is the data extraction)

To create a new template, click on Template configuration.

Field Description:

Template Configuration: User can choose to create a new template or load the existing template.

Save Template: User can save the created template in the proprietary format.

Export to Studio: User can export to the Studio to create the pdf extractor activity.

Configuration Type: User can choose to configure one or many references or one or many fields (tables) using the 2
options.

Select Reference Operation: Any new reference or existing reference/ field can be accessed by choosing one of the two
options to add new or view existing reference.

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Once a new reference is added, search for a particular string and add it’s occurrence number, in the pdf. The same can
be highlighted for usability. Updating a reference is also possible.

Table/Field Configuration
Field configuration can be used to extract table data from
a pdf where there are one or more tables over one or
more pages in the pdf. One can also create a table of
separate rows instead of extracting the entire table data.
For this, edit the template in a notepad and change the
parameter "ExtractPagewise" as true. This can be found
in the end of the template.

When the user selects Field Configuration as the


Configuration Type, a new field can be created. There are
3 areas, a user can define for a Tabular Field – Selection
Area, Excluded Area and Column Configuration.

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Selection Area:

Field Description:
Name: User can define a name for the string or tabular field.

Is Tabular Field: User can select this checkbox if the data extract-
ed is tabular.

Remove Newline characters: User can select this checkbox if there


is a need to remove any newline characters while data extraction.
This will reflect in the output excel (csv).

Output new file per page: If the user prefers output as a new file
per page of pdf data, then this checkbox can be selected.

Area Selection type: User can choose the type of area from fixed
(static) or corners (dynamic). Three corners would be the ideal
way to extract. User can also define the boundary using just one
or 2 corners (rest will be static positions).

Corners: Three corners are enough to define a tabular field


boundary (rectangle). One can define a corner location as Left
Top/ Right Top/ Left Bottom/ Right Bottom.

Is Absolute reference/ Select reference: User can choose an


absolute reference or a search string reference defined earlier. A
search string reference helps to identify a particular string and
then define the table using that string in a dynamic manner.

Use End of string/Top of string: User can choose to use the string
as part of the table using top of string or start /stop extraction
with the end of string.

Select point for offset: Once a corner location is selected, user can zoom in the actual pdf and choose a point from where the table
can be drawn for that corner. (Tip: For the extractor to extract data, please ensure that table boundaries and columns are defined
in a manner where the string is not cut off as this may affect data extraction.)

Quick overview on how an end to end process works from configuration to robot

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Excluded Areas: Column Configuration:

If the table spans over multiple pages or if at times


there is certain information (image, etc) which
need not be extracted, then the user can define an
excluded area which will be repeated page over
page (for footer, header). This data will not be
extracted.
User can also define the columns which
helps the product to understand the
column wise data in the excel output.

In the below example, a table is extracted


over multiple pages in between two string
values. Clicking the highlight button,
highlights the table with blue lines (incl of
columns) and excluded areas with red lines.

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Output:
User can export the pdf template and then test run it to check the extracted data. As of now, a csv excel file is created
in the ACE folder. Further processing can be done on this file and then it can be deleted if required.

Implementation Tips:
1. The product team found few special configuration scenarios during the product development.
These are listed below:

There are certain config flags in the template file which are for advanced operations and can be changed only by editing
the template in a text editor. These are:

"ExtractPagewise": Can be set as true/false.


This field can be used when we want to append multiple tabular output to a single csv file.

“AutoAddSpaces”, “Space Width”:

What appears as a space, may not be a space character in the file, but could be two sequential characters placed at a
distance to give an illusion of space. By default, if there is no space character in the file, the extractor will not output
any spaces. As an enhancement, the AutoAddSpaces flag can be set to true and “Space Width” can be set. This
instructs the extractor to add a space character whenever the distance between two characters exceeds the space
width value in the pdf units. To get a rough estimate of the space width, use the one corner draw area button.

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be set. This instructs the extractor to add a space character whenever the distance between two characters exceeds the

“IsNewRowNewField”:

This can be set to true when a table has to be extracted which has just one column and the data flows from top to

2. Where does the template file get stored and how can it be edited when brought to studio?
- On clicking on “Save Template”, the

To edit or vi the user can launch the


-
on Template choose the “ template
file pop-up.

3. Password related configuration:


Extraction of password protected PDF files, is supported. Whenever a template is exported to studio, an

argument with the name “PDFPassword” is created.

Do not assign any hardcoded value to the argument as it will otherwise get stored in the process file.

The recommended way is to create a small process with just a PDF Extraction activity and use it as a “re-use

process” where the parameter is configured.

4. Troubleshooting steps for few scenarios have been listed below. These can be of much help to the

user if these scenarios are faced.

One must validate the file path provided for the PDF.

Check if the template being used is relevant.

Load the file and template and check if the intended area is correctly highlighted.

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5. Quick overview on how an end to end process works from configuration to robot
Launch the PDF Template creator from Automation Studio.

Select a PDF file for which the extraction template needs to be created.

Click on Template Configuration and then, create a new template.

Configure the search reference strings and add search strings and index.

Configure the fields using suitable options.

Add the new field. Go to view existing fields and then click on highlight selected field.

a. Verify if the area to be extracted is correctly highlighted.

Export to Studio. A new process with a PDF activity will be created. An argument will be created for
every configured field.

6. Boundary conditions:
a. PDF extraction should be used for searchable (text based) PDF files. Note that it does not support scanned
documents.

b. Extraction algorithm works on how the text is indexed in the file. However, in few PDF files, what appears
to be a part of one string, may not be it’s index order.

So what appears as:

Shipping Methods:

FedEx 706797210999

FedEx 706797211002

Can be actually indexed as:


Shipping Methods: FedEx FedEx 706797210999 706797211002

And not as:

Shipping Methods: FedEx 706797210999 FedEx 706797211002

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PDF Extraction
Once a user defines a PDF template, then the Studio automatically opens the PDF Extractor for the configured
template to perform PDF extraction.

In the above example, the PDF Extractor has opened the configured PDF template. Observe the arguments section
which displays the variable names and the data types configured.

‘WriteLine’ tool is used to extract desired information from this PDF. VB script is written to fetch the Name and Fares
from the PDF. Once can then setup and test run the environment.

Once the test run is complete, Studio fetches the desired information from the PDF document.

In the above screenshot, the output section is updated with the Assetts table details.

Finally, the user can save the PDF template in a .dtmp format.

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Previously saved PDF templates may be loaded within the Studio and reused. These can also be edited, updated and
overwritten.

5.5 Flow Controls

Flow Controls provide constructs to control the process flows.


The flow control tools provide several business validation tools.

IF – The IF activity tool can be


used for defining a conditional
If-Then-Else validation

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Parallel – Parallel tool can be used to process more than


one workflow in parallel.

DoWhile – This tool can be used to execute an activity once

and loop while the condition evaluates to true.

Sequence – The Sequence activity can be used to define the


steps of a workflow in the sequence in which they
should be executed.

While – While activity is used to loop while the condition


evaluates to true.

Delay – The Delay tool can be used to add a time delay, in a


process at the end of an activity.

Apart from the Delay tool, which can be dragged and dropped in a process for usage, pre and post activity delays can
also be set in most of the activities in the Properties panel of the activity in Studio tab.
‘Wait After’ can be used to set the Post activity delay while ‘Wait Before’ can be used to set the delay before the
execution of the activity. Delays in these properties, can also be set using variables.

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For a few activities like the Flow Control or some basic activities,
delays cannot be set on an activity. In this case, Delay tool can
be used.

5.6 Assign and Write

Assign -This tool is used to assign values to a variable, based on a workflow automation.

WriteLine-This activity can be used to write the output to the console.

Write to Log File - Additional log statements can be added to the application log
file using this activity.

5.7 File Operations

AssistEdge studio enables the user to automate various file operations. Following operations
are currently available for automation. These are discussed further in detail.

File Create Save As Convert file

File Copy File Close

File Move File Delete

File Rename Zip files

File Open Unzip files

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5.7.1 File Create

User can automate the creation of a new file with a desired extension with the help of Create file operation type under
the file operations activity.

Field Description:
File Path: The input to this field is the file path along with the file name and Vxtension.

For example:“D:\Data\newfile.txt”.

Override File: This checkbox needs to be selected in case the user wants to override the existing file.

5.7.2 File Copy


User can automate the copying of a file (s), from one location to another with the
help of Copy file operation type under the file operations activity.

Field Description:

Source Path: This is a mandatory field and defines the location of the file (s) to be
copied. The input to this field can either be the file path or the file path along with the
file name and extension.

If a specific file from one location has to be copied to another location, the input will be
the file path along with file name and file extension. For example: “D:\Data\newfile.txt”.

If one or more files have to be copied from one location to another, the input to this
field will be the file path. For example: “D:\Data”

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Destination Path: This is a mandatory field and defines the location where the selected file (s) have to copied. The
input to this field is the file path along with file name and file extension. For example: “D:\Updated Data”

File Extension: This is a non-mandatory field. The input to this field can be the file name along with file extension.
Following three combinations can be used:
a. “*.*” can be used when all the files from source location have to be copied.

b. “*.file extension” can be used when all the files of specific extension has to be copied.
For example: “*.xlsx” can be used for copying all the excel files from the source location.

c. “File name.File extension” can be used to copy a file with a specific name and extension.
For example: “Results.xlsx”.

Appended Parameters: This is a non-mandatory field. The input to this field can be the text that has to be appended
to the name of a file(s) that is getting copied.

Copy from Sub Directories?: This is a non-mandatory field. By default, the input to this field is considered as True,
which means while copying the data from a particular folder/directory, the process would also look into all the sub
folders/sub directories for the required files. If the input to this field is False, the process would ignore all the sub
folders/sub directories and only consider the files present in the specified source location.

5.7.3 File Move

User can automate moving of a file(s) from one location to another with the
help of Move file operation type under file operations activity.

Field Description:

Source Path: This is a mandatory field and defines the location of the file(s)
that has to be moved. The input to this field is the either the file path or the file
path along with file name and file extension.

If a specific file from one location has to be moved to another location, the
input is the file path along with file name and file extension.
For example: “D:\Data\newfile.txt”.

If one or more files have to be moved from one location to another, the input to
this field is just the file path. For example: “D:\Data”

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Destination Path: This is a mandatory field and defines the location where the selected file(s) have to be moved.
The input to this field is the file path along with file name and file extension. For example: “D:\Updated Data”

File Extension: This is a non-mandatory field. The input to this field can be the file name along with file extension.

Following three combinations can be used:

a. “*.*” can be used when all the files from source location have to be moved.

b. “*.file extension” can be used when all the files of specific extension has to be moved. For example:

“*.xlsx” can be used for moving all the excel files from the source location.

c. “File name.File extension” can be used to move a file with a specific name and extension. For example:

“Results.xlsx”.

Appended Parameters: This is a non-mandatory field. The input to this field is the text that has to be appended to
the name of a file(s) that is getting moved.

Move from Sub Directories?: This is a non-mandatory field. By default, the input to this field is considered as True,
which means while moving the data from a particular folder/directory, the process would also look into all the sub
folders/sub directories for the required files. If the input to this field is False, the process would ignore all the sub
folders/sub directories and only consider the files present in the specified source location.

5.7.4 File Rename

User can automate the renaming of a file or a folder at a


particular location with the help of Rename file operation type
under the file operations activity.

Field Description:
Source location: This field defines the location of the file or
the folder that has to be renamed.

File new name: The input to this field is the new name of
the file or the folder to be renamed.

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5.7.5 File Open

User can automate the opening of a file at a particular location with the help of Open file operation type under the file
operations activity.

Field Description:
File Path: The input to this field is the file path along with the file name and extension. For example:
“D:\Data\newfile.txt”.

File Type: The input to this field can be “Excel”, “Word” or “Others”. If the input is either “Excel” or “Word”, then
an additional option would be enabled i.e. to open a password protected file. Currently, only excel and word type
files are supported from opening password protected files perspective. The input can be “Others” for any other
type of file.

Password: The input to this field is the password for opening the word or excel of file in case the file is password
protected.

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5.7.6 Save As

User can automate the saving of an already open file with a specific name and file extension at a particular location
with the help of Save As file operation type under the file operations activity.

Field Description:
File Type: The input to this field is either “Excel” or “Word”. This field indicates the type of file which is being
saved as, with a new name and file extension.

Open Type: The input to this field is either “existing” or “new”. The “existing” value indicates that the file is
already saved at a certain location.

Source location: This field is applicable to the files with open type as “existing”. The input to this field is the
location of the file along with it’s existing name and extension.

File Name: This field is applicable to the files with open type as “new”. The input to this field is the default file
name and extension.

Destination Path: The input to this field is the location at which the file has to be saved along with a specific
name and file extension. The new name of the file can’t be the same as the earlier name.

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5.7.7 File Close

User can automate the closing of an already opened file with the
help of Close file operation type under the file operations activity.

Field Description:
File Type: The input to this field is either “Excel” or “Word”. This field indicates the type of file which has to be
closed. Currently, automation for closing a file is possible only for “Excel” and “Word” file type.

File Path: The input to this field has to be the file path along with file name and extension.
For example: “D:\Data\newfile.txt”.

5.7.8 File Delete

User can automate the deletion of a file with the help of Delete
file operation type under the file operations activity.

Field Description:
File Path: The input to this field is the file path of the file that has to be deleted along with file name and
extension. For example: “D:\Data\newfile.txt”.

Force Delete?: This checkbox needs to be selected in case a user wants the process to force delete a file if it’s in
an open state.

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5.7.9 Zip Files


User can automate the zipping of a file (s) with
the help of Zip file operation type under the file
operations activity.

Field Description:
Source Path: This field defines the path of the file (s) that has to zipped. The input to this field is either the file path or
the file path along with the file name and extension.

In case, a specific file is zipped, the input is the file path along with the file name and extension. For example:
“D:\Data\newfile.txt”.

In case, all the files have to be zipped from a particular folder, the input to this field is just the file path. For example:
“D:\Data”

Destination Path: This field defines the path where the selected file (s) have to be zipped. The input to this field is the
file path along with the file name and extension. For example: “D:\Updated Data”.

File Name: The input to this field is the name of the zipped folder that is to be created.

Zip format: Currently, the only possible format is “.zip”.

Password: This option can be checked, if the zipped file has to be password protected. The password has to
be provided through an argument.

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5.7.10 Unzip Files


User can automate the unzipping of a file (s) with the help
of Unzip file operation type under the file operations
activity.

Field Description:
Source Path: This field defines the path of the zipped file that needs to be unzipped. The input to this field is the
file path along with file name and extension. For example: “D:\Data\DLLComponents.zip”.

Destination Path: This field defines the path where the selected file has to be unzipped. The input to this field
has to be the file path where the unzipped files would be placed. For example: “D:\Updated Data”.

Password: This option can be checked, if the zipped files are password protected. The password has to be
provided through an argument.

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5.7.11 File Search

User can automate the searching of a file(s) with the help of file
search activity.

Field Description:
Search Path: This field defines the path in which the file (s) has
to be searched. The input to this field is just the file path where
search activity has to be performed. For example: “D:\Data”.

Search Pattern: The input to this field is in the “file name.file


extension” format. There could be three primary cases which can
arise while entering a search pattern.

If all the files from a particular folder need to be captured, user can
provide the pattern as “*.*”.

If files with a particular file extension have to be searched and


captured, then user can provide the input as “*.file extension”. For
example: “*.pdf”

If a particular file needs to be searched, then user can provide the


input as “file name.file extension”. For example: “output.xlsx”.

There could be few more advanced search patterns depending


upon the use case. If user wants to search all the pdf files where
file name starts with “A”, then user can provide the search pattern
as “A*.pdf”.

Output Excel File Path: The input to this field is the path and file name of the excel file where the search results would
be captured.

File Size in KB: The input to this field is the upper limit of the file size in KB. While searching the files, the process
would only consider the files lesser than the size specified in this field.

Recursive Search: The default input to this field is “false”, which means that the process would not search in the sub
directories/sub folders of the source path. The value can be set to “true” if the user would like the process to search
in the sub directories/sub folders of the source path as well.

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Creation Start Date and Creation End Date: This field defines the range for creation dates for the files to be searched.
For example, if the input to these fields is 06/21/2017 and 08/21/2017 respectively, then the process would look for the
files created between 21st June 2017 and 21st August 2017.

Modified From Date and Modified To Date: This field defines the range for modified dates for the files to be searched.
For example, if the input to these fields is 11/15/2017 and 12/15/2017 respectively, then the process would look for the
files modified between 15th of November 2017 and 15th of December 2017.

5.7.12 File Merge


User can automate merging two or more files using the File Merger
file operation type under the Files activity.

Field Description:

File Type: User can choose the type of the file to be merged from pdf (up to 1.6), excel or word.

File Paths: User can add the paths of different file types which need to be merged. The path needs to have the
complete file name with the extension type. These will have to be fed as arguements.

Output file path: User can define the file path and name of the new merged file.

Override File: This checkbox can be selected in case the user wants the existing file to be overridden while a
new file with the same name is being created.

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5.7.13 File Split


User can automate splitting of a file in two or more files using
the File Splitter file operation type under the Files activity.

Field Description:
File Type: User can choose the type of the file to be split from pdf (up to 1.6), excel or word.

Input File Path: User can add the paths of the file which needs to be splitted. The path needs to have the complete
file name with the extension type. These will have to be fed as arguments.

Output file path: User can define the file path and name of the newly merged file.

Page Range or SheetNames: User can provide the page numbers for word and pdf files and sheet names for the
excel files. The provided pages or sheets will be copied and new files with those pages, sheets will be created.

Override File: This checkbox can be selected in case the user wants the existing file to be overridden while a new file
with the same name is being created.

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5.7.14 FTP Activity


User can automate upload and download of a file from FTP server
using the FTP Activity operation type present under the Process
components in Canvas tools.

Field Description:

Operation Type: User can choose the type of operation as push for upload and pull for download.

Source File Path: User can add the paths of the file which needs to be uploaded or downloaded. The path needs to
have the complete file name with the extension type. These will have to be fed as arguments.

Destination folder path: User can define the destination folder where the file needs to be uploaded or saved.

Output mapping: User can use output mapping to map the output to another variable of type Boolean or String.

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5.8 E-Mail

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5.8.1 SMTP Mail

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5.8.1.1 SMTP E-Mail: Send E-mail -

This activity is used to send an email without using the SMTP


client protocol. This activity is used within the application activity
after selecting an application of type SMTPApps.

The activity takes following inputs:

a. E-Mail module: ‘Send Email’ is selected heret. Currently there


are two available options viz. send email and get entry ID.

b. From E-Mail ID: The email id from which the email will be
sent.

c. To, CC and BCC E-Mail ID: The email ids’ to which the email
needs to be sent need to be set in these fields. At least one of
these fields is mandatory and needs to be populated.

d. Subject Line: Subject of the email needs to be set here.

e. Priority: Priority to be set on the email can be set in this field.


Values of this field could be NORMAL, HIGH or LOW
Attachment file path: Path of the file which needs to be attached in the
email.

f. Content Type: The type of content of the email body could either be
Html or PlainText.

g. E-Mail Body Content: The email body content needs to be set in accor-
dance with the Content Type selected above. The content could be of
dynamic nature and this can be achieved by using variables and append-
ing to or in between the static content, as required.

h. Output Mapping: The result of the execution of the Send email activity,
can be captured in a variable set in this field.

This activity could be very handy where an email needs to be sent without the need of the Outlook email
client. It can be effectively used in exceptional scenarios to send an email.

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5.8.1.2 SMTP E-mail: Get Entry ID:

This activity can be used to convert E-mail Trigger ID received from an E-mail Trigger to an entry ID, which is
understood by the Outlook Application. This activity needs outlook as a pre-requisite on the machine, where the
conversion needs to happen.

Trigger ID: This is the unique ID of an e-mail on an SMTP server which has triggered the load creation.

Profile Name: This is the name of the profile in which outlook is running. User can give “outlook” in case, the default
profile has to be utilized.

User E-mail: This is the E-mail ID on which E-mail has been received.

Result Mapping:
1. Output Mapping: This is the converted Entry ID which is the format that can be understood by outlook.

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5.8.2 Outlook Operations

These activities try to encompass outlook operations related to


email. User can create emails and send them, search for emails
based on a search criteria, read emails and download attachments,
and reply, forward or delete them.

Currently for connecting to outlook, the current logged-in user’s


credentials are used. However, the outlook itself may have mail
boxes of multiple users or multiple accounts.

Pre-requisite: Outlook 2013 or higher version must be installed on


the local machine. First Input field is Operation Type which defines
the operation to be performed. Currently following operations are
present:

1. Send E-Mail
2. Search E-Mail
3. Read E-Mail
4. Reply E-Mail
5. Forward E-Mail
6. Delete E-Mail
7. Follow Up E-Mail
8. Move E-Mail

For a lot of outlook activities, email entryid is used as it is a unique key to


identify emails in outlook.
However, an email entryid may change if the email is moved between
folders. Users are advised to keep this in mind.

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5.8.2.1 Send E-Mail:

Description and Limitation:

This activity is used to create a new mail, attach any attachments


if needed, set the priority of the mail if needed, and then send
the email to the intended recipients.

One can keep multiple recipients in To, CC and Bcc fields separat-
ed by a semi-colon (;).

The upper limit of the attachment file size is limited by a configu-


ration present in the “OutlookAutomationProps.xml” file.

Output:
1. An e-mail is sent to the intended users.

2. A Variable with the output value as true if sending the mail was
successful and the file was uploaded and false if the operation
failed due to any errors.

Input Field Description:

1. Profile Name:
the profile is “Outlook”.

a.
given profile name will be used.

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b.
opened profile else if profile name is provided, then current outlook will be closed and the given profile will be
used to open the outlook again.

2. Sender E-mail ID: One of the configured E-mail IDs’ from which the e-mail has to be sent.

3. To MailId (Mandatory): The list of email ids’ to whom the email needs to be sent. The email ids’ should be
separated with a semi-colon (;) and can contain internal as well as external mail ids’.

4. CC MailId: The list of email ids’ to be kept in CC for this Mail Item. The email ids’ should be separated with a semi-co
lon (;) and can contain internal as well as external mail ids’.

5. BCC MailId: The list of email ids’ to be kept in BCC for this Mail Item. The email ids’ should be semi-colon (;) separat
ed and can contain internal as well as external mail ids.

6. Priority: The Importance of the mail can be set to High, Normal or Low. By default, it is set to Normal.

7. Subject Line: The subject for the mail item in plain text.

8. Attachment File Path: The list of files to be attached with the email separated by semi-colon (;). Apart from the file
size, upper limit as per the configuration file and other outlook based restrictions like file size and type apply. The
full path of all the files to be attached needs to be mentioned. Ensure that these are available and accessible.

9. Mail Body Content: The body of the email. It can be in plain text or html format. Images can be embedded in the
HTML only if they are present online and are available and accessible to the intended recipient. Any automatic
signature will be automatically added if it is configured in outlook.

Result Mapping:
1. Output Mapping: Map it to any Out Variable if needed. Both Boolean and String types are supported. Returns true if
the email was sent successfully or false if it failed due to errors.

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5.8.2.2 Search E-Mail

Description and Limitation:


This activity can search for one or more mails based on the search criteria in any of the outlook folder under any
account.

If outlook is opened manually or by any other means in the Administrator mode, then this search functionality will
not work.

One can mention any of the filter criteria’s. All the selected criteria will be applied in a logical “AND” manner.

One can search any folder present at any level in outlook apart from root level as long as the level is a folder which
can contain mail items. If a parent folder is selected, then all it’s child folders will be searched.

In case of duplicate folder names, the first occurring folder will be searched. Hence it is advisable, not to have
duplicate folders in outlook.

One can perform a search in any account which is added in outlook.

At least one search criteria must be selected.

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Output:

1. An output excel file containing the list of searched mails (if any) is found, with the details of the mails along with it’s
“email entry id”

2. A Variable with output value as true, if the mail was successfully searched and yielded at least one result, or false, if

1. Profile Name:

a.
else the given profile name is used.

b.
opened profile else if profile name is provided then current outlook will be closed and the given profile will be used
to open the outlook again.

2. Root Folder Name (Mandatory): The name of the root folder in the outlook. E.g. [email protected] or
Archives in which one wants to search.

3. E-Mail Search Folder (Mandatory): The folder in which the target mail(s) is/are present. This folder has to be inside
the selected Root Folder. E.g. Inbox or Inbox\CustomFolder. All inner sub folders will be searched.

4. Keyword:

5. Last N Days: Fetches the mails received in the last ‘N’ number of days.

6. E-Mail Read Status: Status of the email in outlook, can be - read, unread or All.

7.

8. Received Start Date and Received End Date: Defines the range in which the mail was received. Both fields must be
selected together. The format of the date is mm/dd/yyyy.

9. Last N E-Mails: Fetches the last n number of emails. This can only be used with other filter items.

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10. To E-MailId: The complete mail id of the receiver who has received the mail (s).

11. From E-MailId: The complete mail id of the sender who has sent the mail (s).

12. Body Content: The Content of the Body of the Mail.

13. Subject Line: The pattern of words which are present in subject field of the target mail (s). This is a ‘Like’ type
search.

14. Attachment Name: The name of the attachment attached to the mail.

15. Attachment Content: The Content inside the attachment attached to the mail.

16. Search Result Output Path (Mandatory): The Output file path in which search results will be written. The file must
be of the type .xls or .xlsx. If the file is not present at the target location, it will be created.

Result Mapping:
1. Output Mapping: Maps to an output variable whose value will be true, if the mail was successfully searched and
yielded at least one result, or false; if no mail was found matching the search criteria or if the operation failed due
to any errors.

5.8.2.3 Read E-Mail:

Description and Limitation:


This activity reads a mail based on it’s “email entry id” field, present in the outlook
and downloads it in a user defined format.

The Activity can save the message as a folder containing subject, mail body and
attachments in separate files or as a “.msg” format.

In case of folder mode, it will create the folder with name as it’s email entry id.

In case of .msg format, it saves the mail with Subject line as it’s name. In case the
file already exists at the target location with the same name, it will append the
received date time stamp to the name of the file.

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Output:

1.
downloaded in the folder or a file in .msg format containing the mail item.

2.
unsuccess ful.

1. Profile Name:

a.
the given profile name is used.

b.
profile else if the profile name is provided then current outlook will be closed and the given profile will be used to
open the outlook again.

2. Mail Entry Id (Mandatory):

3. Download Path (Mandatory):


present and user has permissions, then the directory will be created.

4. Mark Read: Is the mail being read, to be marked as read in outlook as well.

5. Save Mail As (Mandatory):


msg or All.

Result Mapping:

1. Output Mapping:

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5.8.2.4 Reply E-Mail:

Description and Limitation:

This activity replies to an email based on it’s “email entry id” field,
present in the outlook for the given profile.

Mail can be replied to or replied all. Attachments can be added.


Multiple recipients can be added in cc and bcc.

Priority can be set while replying.

“RE” will automatically be appended in the subject.

Upper limit of the attachment file size is limited by a configuration


present in the “OutlookAutomationProps.xml” file.

Output:
1. Mail is replied (sent) to the intended recipients.

2. A Variable with output value as true, if activity was successful and


false otherwise.

Input Field Description:


1. Profile Name:

a.
else given profile name is used.

b.
opened profile else if profile name is provided, then current outlook will be closed and the given profile will be used
to open the outlook again.

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2. Mail Entry Id (Mandatory): The unique mail entry id for selecting the mail to be replied.

3. CC MailId: The list of emails ids’ to be kept in CC for this Mail Item. The ids’ should be separated by a semi-colon (;)
and can contain internal as well as external mail ids.

4. BCC MailId: The list of emails ids’ to be kept in BCC for this Mail Item. The ids’ should be semi-colon (;) separated
and can contain internal as well as external mail ids’.

5. Priority: The Importance of the mail can be set to High Normal or Low. By default, it is set to Normal.

6. Attachment File Path: The list of files to be attached with the mail separated by a semi-colon (;). Apart from the
upper limit of the file size as per the configuration file, other outlook based restrictions like file size and type apply.
One must mention the full path of all the files to be attached. These must be available and accessible.

7. Mail Body: The body of the mail can be plain text or html. Images can be embedded in the HTML only if these are
present online and are available and accessible to the intended recipient. Any automatic signature will be automati
cally added if it is configured in outlook.

8. Reply All ? : Select as true if user wants to reply to all.

Result Mapping:

1. Output Mapping: Maps to an output variable whose value will be true, if the reply operation was successful and false
otherwise.

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5.8.2.5 Forward E-Mail:

Description and Limitation:


This activity forwards a mail based on it’s “email entry id” field
present in the outlook for the mentioned Profile.

Additional attachments can be added. Existing attachments will be


automatically added.

“FW” will be automatically appended in the subject.

Upper limit of the attachment file size is limited by a configuration


present in the “OutlookAutomationProps.xml” file.

Output:
1. Mail is forwarded to the intended recipients.

2. A Variable with output value as true, if activity was successful and false otherwise.

Input Field Description:


1. Profile Name:
The default value of profile is “Outlook”.

a.
given profile name is used.

b.

opened profile else if profile name is provided then current outlook will be closed and the given profile will be
used to open the outlook again.

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2. Mail Entry Id (Mandatory): The unique mail entry id for selecting the mail to be forwarded.

3. Forward To MailId (Mandatory): The list of email id’s to which the mail needs to be sent. The ids’ should be semi-co
lon (;) separated and can contain internal as well as external mail ids’.

4. CC MailId: The list of emails ids’ to be kept in CC for this Mail Item. The ids’ should be semi-colon (;) separated and
can contain internal as well as external mail ids’.

5. BCC MailId: The list of emails id’s to be kept in BCC for this Mail Item. The ids’ should be semi-colon (;) separated and
can contain internal as well as external mail ids.

6 . Priority: The Importance of the mail can be set to High Normal or Low. By default, it is set to Normal.

7. Attachment File Path: The list of files to be attached with the mail separated by semi-colon (;). Apart from the upper
limit of the file size as per the configuration file, other outlook based restrictions like file size and type, apply. One
must mention the full path of all the files to be attached. These must be available and accessible.

8. Mail Body: The body of th e mail can be plain text or html. Images can be embedded in the HTML only if they are
present online and are available and accessible to the intended recipient. Any automatic signature will be automati
cally added if it is configured in outlook.

Result Mapping:

1. Output Mapping: Maps to an output variable whose value will be true, if the forward operation was successful and
false otherwise.

5.8.2.6 Delete E-Mail:

Description and Limitation:


This activity deletes the mail selected by its email entry id. Only one
mail will be deleted at a time.

The mail can be soft deleted (Moved to deleted items) or hard


deleted (Deleted Permanently).

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Output:

1. Selected Mail is deleted.

2. A Variable with output value as true, if activity was successful and false otherwise.

Input Field Description:

1. Profile Name:
performed on the opened profile else if profile name is provided then current outlook will be closed and the given
profile will be used to open the outlook again.

a.
given profile name is used.

b.
opened profile else if profile name is provided then current outlook will be closed and the given profile will be used
to open the outlook again.

2. Mail Entry Id (Mandatory):

3. Delete Permanently: Is the mail to be deleted permanently.

Result Mapping:
1. Output Mapping: Maps to an output variable whose value will be true, if the delete operation was successful and
false otherwise.

5.8.2.7 Move E-Mail

Description and Limitation:


This activity moves mail selected by its email entry id to the
mentioned folder.

Only one mail will be moved at a time.

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Output:
1. Selected Mail is moved

2. A Variable with output value as true, if activity was successful and false otherwise.

Input Field Description:

1. Profile Name:
performed on the opened profile else if profile name is provided then current outlook will be closed and the given
profile will be used to open the outlook again.

a.
given profile name is used.

b.
opened profile else if profile name is provided then current outlook will be closed and the given profile will be used
to open the outlook again.

2. Mail Entry Id (Mandatory):

3. Destination Folder: Folder destination where the mail has to be moved.

Result Mapping:
1. Output Mapping: Maps to an output variable whose value will be true, if the move operation was successful and
false otherwise.

5.8.2.8 Follow up E-Mail

Description and Limitation:


This activity adds a follow up flag (Today, Tomorrow , This Week ,
Next Week , No Date , Mark as Complete) on the mail selected by its
email entry id.

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Output:
1. Selected Mail is Flagged.

2. A Variable with output value as true, if activity was successful and false otherwise.

Input Field Description:


1. Profile Name:
on the opened profile else if profile name is provided then current outlook will be closed and the given profile will be
used to open the outlook again.

a.
given profile name is used.

b.
opened profile else if profile name is provided then current outlook will be closed and the given profile will be used
to open the outlook again.

2. Mail Entry Id (Mandatory):

3. Follow up Flag: Reminder Flag - Today , Tomorrow , This Week , Next Week , No Date , Mark as .

Result Mapping:

1. Output Mapping: Maps to an output variable whose value will be true, if the Follow up operation was successful
and false otherwise.

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5.9 SharePoint Activities

Includes various activities which can be used to automate general operations like create, upload, download of file etc.

For accessing SharePoint, the system’s current logged-in user credentials will be used.

First Input field is Operation Type. It defines the operation that will be done. Currently the below operations are
supported.

1. Upload a file/files to SharePoint 4. Copy a file/files in SharePoint.

2. Download a file/files from SharePoint 5. Move a file/files in SharePoint.

3. Delete a file/files from SharePoint

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5.9.1 Upload File Activity

Description and Limitations:


Used to upload files in SharePoint. .

SharePoint does not allow .exe, .cs, .log etc. type of files.

The operation can create folders if they are not already present
inside a predefined base folder.

Following features are explicitly controlled by the configurations


present in “SharepointAutomationProps.xml” file.

The depth of number of folders which can be created


recursively, if they are not present.

Output

1. A Variable with output value as true if the upload activity was


successful and the file was uploaded, false if the operation
failed due to any errors.

Input Field Description:


1. SharePoint BaseUrl (Mandatory): The base site URL till the site name where the starting folder is located. Do not
add the pagename.aspx. In case of an incorrect URL, the Activity will try to find the correct URL and Log that URL in
the logs file, however the accuracy is not guaranteed. The process will fail with a wrong URL.

2. SharePoint Folder Path (Mandatory): The Path of the folder in SharePoint to upload the file. One can give a path
which does not exist, the activity will try to create the folders in the mentioned path, provided it has proper rights
to do so. The depth of folders which can be created recursively, is limited by configuration settings.

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3. Upload File Path (Mandatory): The file to be uploaded and the Location of the file (s).

4. File Names: File names should be separated by a semicolon (;). File names can be absolute or in a pattern.
E.g.: Demo.pdf;*.docx

5. Comments: The Comments which you want to add when uploading the file.

6. Force To Overwrite? : Incase the file already exists at the given location, shall the activity overwrite it? If yes, it will first
check-out the file and then overwrite, hence creating version of the file. If no, the file will not be uploaded.

Result Mapping:
1. Output Mapping: Map it to any Out Variable of the type Boolean or String. Returns true if the upload was successful,
false if it failed due to any errors.

5.9.2 Download File Activity

Description and Limitations:


Used to download files from SharePoint provided the user
has rights to download it.

Downloaded file can be stored on local or shared drive


locations.

Following features are explicitly controlled by the configura-


tions present in “SharepointAutomationProps.xml” file.

The depth of number of folders which can be created


recursively if they are not present

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Output:
1. A Variable with output value as true if the download activity was successful and the file was downloaded,
false if the operation failed due to any errors.

Input Field Description:


1. Base Url (Mandatory): The base site URL till the site name where the starting folder is located. Do not
add the pagename.aspx. In case of a wrong URL, the Activity will try to find the correct URL and
Log that URL in the logs file, however the accuracy is not guaranteed. The process will fail with a wrong URL.

2. SharePoint Folder Path (Mandatory): The Path of the file to be downloaded from SharePoint.

3. SharePoint File Name (Mandatory): Filenames should be separated by a semicolon (;). Filenames can be absolute or
a pattern. E.g.: Demo.pdf;*.docx

4. Download File Path (Mandatory): The folder location in local or shared drive to save the downloaded file.
Force To Overwrite? : Incase the file already exists at the given location, shall the activity overwrite it? If yes, it will
be overwritten else, the file will be downloaded by appending an integer at the end of the file.

5. Force To Overwrite? : Incase the file already exists at the given location, shall the activity overwrite it? If yes, it will
be overwritten else, the file will be downloaded by appending an integer at the end of the file.

Result Mapping:
1. Output Mapping: Map it to any Out Variable of type Boolean or String. Returns true if the upload was successful,
false if it failed due to any errors.

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5.9.3 Delete File Activity

Description and Limitations:


Used to delete files from SharePoint provided the
user has rights to delete it.

Output:

1. A Variable with output value as true if the delete activity was successful and the file was deleted, false if the
operation failed due to any errors.

Input Field Description:

1. SharePoint Base URL (Mandatory): The base site URL, till the site name where the starting folder is located. Do not
add the pagename.aspx. In case of a wrong URL, the Activity will try to find the correct URL and Log that URL in the
logs file, however the accuracy is not guaranteed. The process will fail with a wrong URL.

2. SharePoint Folder Path (Mandatory): The Path of the file to be deleted in SharePoint.

3. SharePoint File Name (Mandatory): Filenames should be separated by a semicolon (;). Filenames can be absolute or
a pattern. E.g.: Demo.pdf;*.docx

Result Mapping:

Output Mapping: Map it to any Out Variable of the type Boolean or String. Returns true if the upload was
successful, false if it failed due to any errors.

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5.9.4 Copy File Activity

Description and Limitations:


Used to copy files in SharePoint from one location to another
provided the user has read/write access to those folders.

Output:

1. A Variable with output value as true if the copy activity was successful and the file was copied, false if the operation
failed due to any errors.

Input Field Description:

1. SharePoint Base URL (Mandatory): The base site URL till the site name where the starting folder is located. Do not
add the pagename.aspx. In case of a wrong URL, the Activity will try to find the correct URL and Log that URL in the
logs file, however the accuracy is not guaranteed. The process will fail with a wrong URL.

2. SharePoint Source Folder Path (Mandatory): The Source Path of the file to be copied.

4. SharePoint Destination Folder Path (Mandatory): The Destination Path of the folder in SharePoint, where files will
be copied.

5. SharePoint File Name (Mandatory): Filenames should be separated by a semicolon (;). Filenames can be absolute or
a pattern. E.g.: Demo.pdf;*.docx

Result Mapping:
Output Mapping: Map it to an Out Variable of the type Boolean or String. Returns true if the upload was success-
ful, false if it failed due to any errors.

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5.9.5 Move File Activity

Description and Limitations:

Used to Move files in SharePoint from one location to another


provided the user has read/ write rights or access to those folders.

Output:

1. A Variable with output value as true if the move activity was


successful and the file was moved, false if the operation failed
due to any errors.

Input Field Description:

1. SharePoint Base URL (Mandatory): The base site URL till the site
name where the starting folder is located. Do not add the
pagename.aspx. In case of a wrong URL, the Activity will try to
find the correct URL and Log that URL in the logs file, however
the accuracy is not guaranteed. The process will fail with a wrong
URL.

2. SharePoint Source Folder Path (Mandatory): The Source Path of the folder in SharePoint, in which the file to be
moved is present.

3. SharePoint Destination Folder Path (Mandatory): The Destination Path of the folder in SharePoint, in which the files
have to be moved.

4. SharePoint File Name (Mandatory): Filenames should be separated by a semicolon (;). Filenames can be absolute or
a pattern. E.g.: Demo.pdf;*.docx

Result Mapping:
Output Mapping: Map it to an Out Variable of the type Boolean and String. Returns true if the upload was successful,
false if it failed due to any errors.

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5.10 Pop-up Handler

This is a user friendly version of the popup handler to handle popups


that appear in a process to be automated. This feature can be accessed
by using the “Windows Popup Handler” activity. Most popups except
the ones related to security, can be automated using this feature.

This activity needs to be introduced after the fields in an application, have been configured. Once the fields are
configured, the popup handler needs to be placed in parallel (using the Parallel flow control) with the action that
triggers the popup window.

For example, let us consider a website where once a loan amount of more than 1000 is entered and the button
“Approve” is clicked, then a confirmation popup comes up, which needs to be acted upon.

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In order to handle the above popup, one of the elements, either “OK” or “Cancel”, needs to be selected and then
clicked upon. In order to do that, the elements for the text box “Loan Amount” and the button “Approve” needs to be
configured, as given below.

Next, the popup needs to


be triggered within the
docked webpage as given
below.

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Next, the configured sub-activity of clicking on the “Approve” button needs to be executed in parallel with the popup
handler activity as given below.

Double clicking on the “Win


Popup Handler” activity, will
undock the docked webpage
and the “Win Popup Handler”
activity is now ready for
configuration.

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Clicking on the “Settings” option will open a configuration UI in which the name of the popup window needs to be
entered. Since the popup window in the current example starts with the word “Message”, the same is provided in the
below image.

After entering the popup name in the above window,


one can add the “Application Control” sub-activity, to
handle the various fields using the “Add” button in
the popup handler.

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In the “Application Control” sub-activity, there are two ways


through which the fields in the popup window can be configured,
either by using:

1. Basic Field Configuration, or

2. Advanced Field Configuration

5.10.1 Basic Field Configuration

Selecting the “Basic Field Configuration” will bring the undocked webpage into focus.

The field to be configured on the webpage can be selected by pressing the Ctrl key on the keyboard and hovering the
mouse on the field to be selected.

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After selecting the field, click on the Select the action to be taken and enter
field while pressing Ctrl key, to bring the display name for the action.
up the screen to configure the action
to be taken on the selected field.

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Once the control is taken back to the main process window, the webpage gets docked once again. Now, the popup
is configured to be handled and the main process can be run. Whenever, the process triggers the configured popup;
the popup handler which is in parallel with the action that triggers the popup will handle it according to the
configured action.

5.10.2 Advanced Field Configuration

The “Advance Field


Configuration” comes
into play in webpages
where the “Basic Field
Configuration” fails to
select the fields on
the webpage for
configuration. On
clicking the
“Advanced Field
Configuration”, a
screen appears with a
tree structure
containing all the
fields on the
Webpage. Clicking on After selecting the field, press the Ctrl key on the keyboard and click on the
the desired field selected field, to bring up the screen for configuring the action to be taken on
name, selects the the selected field.
corresponding field.

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Select the action to be taken and enter


the display name for the action.

Once the control is taken back to the main process window, the
webpage gets docked once again. Now, the popup is configured
to be handled and the main process can be run. Whenever, the
process triggers the configured popup, the popup handler which
is in parallel to the action that triggers the popup, will handle it
according to the configured action.

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5.11 Send Keys


This feature allows automation of any keyboard related activity. A single keystroke or a combination of key strokes can
now be automated. This can be achieved either by using “Key Events” activity or the “Send Key” option in the Action
Selector from the Properties Grid, as required.

5.11.1 Key Events Activity

This activity allows a user to automate any keystroke in an


application. However, this activity works only if the application is
brought in focus using the “Focus Window” activity. The effect of
this activity will not work on any security related popups and will
also not work when used in an IE browser of version 9 and above.
The below image shows the location of the Key Events activity in
the left hand side panel:

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Once this activity is dragged and dropped inside an


application, there are 3 fields to be noted, namely “Select
Function Keys(Max3)”, “Keystroke Count” and “Input Key
(optional)”. These fields are discussed further in detail.

5.11.1.1 The “Select Function Keys (Max 3)” option

This option allows selection of any of the below keys (to be called Function Keys hereafter) that are available on a
standard QWERTY keyboard.

a. Modifier keys (Ctrl, Alt, Shift)

b. Function keys (F1 till F12)

c. Enter

d. Space

e. Backspace

f. Tab

g. Capslock

h. Escape

i. Insert

j. Print Screen

k. Delete

l. Page traversal keys (Page up, Page Down, Arrow Keys, Home, End)

At any given point, a maximum of three Function Keys can be selected.

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5.11.1.2 The “Keystroke Count” option

This option can be used when a single Function Key (from


the list above) needs to be repeatedly used multiple times.
For example, if the Keystroke “Tab” needs to be used seven
times, this option can be used to specify the number 7, as
displayed below:

The “Keystroke Count” option is hidden by default and gets highlighted only when one of the Function Keys is selected.
This works only with one Function Key and gets hidden when multiple Function Keys are selected or when an Input Key
option is used.

Also, this option of “Keystroke Count” is currently not supported in the Internet Explorer browser.

5.11.1.3 The “Input Key” option

This option is used to send an alphanumeric or special


character key as an input to a process. This option can
either be used in combination with a Function Key or a
standalone keystroke.

For example, if a user wants to automate the pressing


of the character “Y” in a process, it can be done using
this key as displayed below:

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Alternatively, if a user wants to automate pressing


of the combination Ctrl+P, then that can be
achieved by selecting the Function Key “Control”
and the Input Key “P”, as displayed below:

The “Input Key” option will get disabled when


either 3 Function Keys are selected or when
the “Keystroke Count” option is used.

5.11.2 Send Keys web element Control

When a keystroke needs to be automated on a specific web element and not on the overall application, then the “Key
Events” activity cannot be used. To achieve the “Send Keys”, option from the action selector in the property grid needs
to be selected.

This option can be chosen while configuring the fields in a web application. The below image displays the location of this
option:

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Once this option is selected, a user can configure the keys to be


sent by clicking on configure Keys as displayed below:

Clicking on the configure button, will pop up the option to send the keys, as displayed below:

This field in this window is similar to the field in the “Key Events” activity discussed above. Unlike the “Key Events”
activity, this option works in a non-focused mode also.

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5.12 Oracle EBS Codeless Configuration

AssistEdge RPA studio enables the user to automate the Java based Oracle Forms in a codeless manner through out of
the box adapters. Let’s now look at the available configurations.

5.12.1 Launch an Oracle EBS form through web navigator

User can automate the opening of an Oracle form through Oracle EBS web navigator. Following are the step that
user has to follow:

Add an application specific to the Oracle form in the Admin>>Applications section of AssistEdge design studio. URL
of a specific form can be extracted from the properties of the form from the web navigator.

While defining the properties of the application, look


for “Misc Java” properties.

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Check “Has Java Component” Check-box.

Select correct value for environment type from the drop-down.

Save the application.

The saved application can be used as part of the process. The specific form would be launched while

environment is getting set up.

5.12.2 Application Host - Setting up the Oracle EBS window for automation

User can use the “Application Host” activity in the Process Components section to set up the form for automation. The
Application Host activity has to be inside the “Application” Activity.

Select Oracle EBS from the dropdown.

Click on the setting options of the Application.

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Attach Behavior would be set to “Default” initially. User can change that to a different option such as “Equals”,
“Contains”, “Starts with”, or “Ends with” for improved accuracy. For example, in the form below, the window
name is Oracle Applications – AUTOSC. So, as an example, user can select Attach behavior as “Starts with” and
window title as “Oracle”.

The Automation Mode can be selected as


Dynamic or static depending upon which type of
component ID user wants to extract while
performing automation.

5.12.3 Application Control – Basics

The “Application Control” activity can be used to automate the actions on Oracle EBS forms. Following are few
key points on using this activity:

The “Application Control” activity has to be inside the


“Application Host” activity.

The “Application Control” activity can be added by using “Add”


button inside the “Application Host” activity.

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The “Application Control” activity can also be dragged and


dropped from “Process Components” section in case it has to be
used within other components like “Excel loop”..

The user can click on “Field Configuration” button to start


extracting the component to be automated.

After clicking on Field configuration button, point the cursor to the component to be automated. The component
would be highlighted in blue while it is being pointed at. For example, Password field in below form is being
pointed at.

Once user clicks on the highlighted component, the ID of the


component is extracted and the settings pop-up opens over the
“Application Control” activity.

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The user can now select one of the available actions from the drop down.

Once the action button is selected, user can fill in rest of the fields which would appear as per the selected action.

5.12.4 Launch an Oracle EBS form using Java based navigator


User can automate the opening of an Oracle form through Oracle EBS Java based navigator. Following are the step
that user has to follow

Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.


Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.
As an example, let’s assume user wants to open Payroll >> Payment Methods
Select the navigator area

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Once the component ID is captured, select the action as “Select Navigator Item by Index”.

Enter 5 as value in the index field since the


index for “Payroll” option is “5”.

Enter appropriate “Display Name” for the activity.

Configure automation for clicking of open button.

Configure selecting “Payment Methods” option


from navigator in the way similar to “Payroll” option.

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Configure automation for clicking of open button.


The execution of above steps would result in opening of relevant form:

5.12.5 Close, Minimize or Maximize the form

User can automate the minimizing, maximizing and closing of an Oracle EBS form by following below mentioned steps:

Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

Point the mouse to the window on which the action has to be taken to extract its component ID.

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Select the relevant action to be taken and an appropriate display name.

The execution of the above steps would result in closing the window.

5.12.6 Restore form

User can automate the restoring of a minimized Oracle EBS form by following below mentioned steps:

Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

Point the mouse to the window on which the action has to be taken to extract its component ID.

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Select the relevant action to be taken and an appropriate display name.

5.12.7 Set Text


User can automate the setting the text in an Oracle EBS form by following below mentioned steps:

Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

Point the mouse to the component on which the action has to be taken to extract its component ID.

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Select the relevant action to be taken and an appropriate display name.

The execution of the above steps would result in setting the text in the corresponding text box.

5.12.8 Get Text

User can automate the reading of text in an Oracle EBS form by following below mentioned steps
Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

Point the mouse to the component on which the action has to be taken to extract its
component ID.

Select the relevant action to be taken, variable name, variable type and an appropriate display name.

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The execution of the above steps would result in reading of text from corresponding field.

5.12.9 Select value from the Choicebox/Drop-down

User can automate the selecting a value from choice-box/dropdown in an Oracle EBS form by following
below mentioned steps:

Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

Point the mouse to the component on which the action has to be taken to extract its component ID.

Select the relevant action to be taken and an appropriate display name.

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The execution of the above steps would result in selecting a value from corresponding choice-box/dropdown.

5.12.10 Read selected Choice-box value


User can automate the reading the text or index of selected option in a choice-box in an Oracle EBS form by
following below mentioned steps:

Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

Point the mouse to the component on which the action has to

be taken to extract its component ID.

Select the relevant action to be taken and an appropriate

display name.

The execution of the above steps would result in reading the text or the index of the corresponding checkbox value.

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5.12.11 Activate an Oracle form

User can automate the activating of an Oracle EBS form by following below mentioned steps:

Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

Point the mouse to the window on which the action has to be taken to extract its component ID.

Select the relevant action to be taken and an appropriate display name.

The execution of the above steps would result in activating of an oracle form/window. This capability is useful in cases
where an action has to be taken on a form which is not in focus currently.

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5.12.12 Click
User can automate the clicking of a component such as buttons in an Oracle EBS form by following
below mentioned steps:

Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

Point the mouse to the component on which the action has to be taken to extract its component ID.

Select the relevant action to be taken and an appropriate display name.

The execution of the above steps would result in clicking of the corresponding component.

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5.12.13 Select Toolbar item by value

User can automate the selecting a toolbar item by value in an Oracle EBS form by following below mentioned steps:

Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

Point the mouse to the component on which the action has to be taken to extract its component ID.

Select the relevant action to be taken and an appropriate display name. In the value field, exact text on tooltip has to be
provided as input.

The execution of the above steps would result in clicking of corresponding toolbar item.

5.12.14 Select Toolbar item by index


User can automate the selecting a toolbar item by index in an Oracle EBS form by following below mentioned steps:

Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

Point the mouse to the component on which the action has to be taken to extract its component ID.

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Select the relevant action to be taken and an appropriate display name. In the value field, the index of the relevant item
has to be provided as input. For example, if user wants to click Find… icon, then user has to provide the input as 1.

The execution of the above steps would result in clicking of corresponding toolbar item.

5.12.15 Select Tab by value

User can automate the switching of tabs in an Oracle EBS form by following below mentioned steps:

Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

Point the mouse to the component on which the action has to be taken to extract its component ID.

Select the relevant action to be taken


and an appropriate display name.
Provide tab name as input to value field.

The execution of the above steps would


result in clicking of the corresponding tab.

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5.12.16 Read selected tab name

User can automate the reading the name of selected tab in an Oracle EBS form by following below mentioned steps:

Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

Point the mouse to the component on which the action has to be taken to extract its component ID.

Select the relevant action to be taken, variable name, variable type and an appropriate display name.

The execution of the above steps would result in reading the name of the corresponding tab.

5.12.17 Set Check-box

User can automate the setting/checking a check-box in an Oracle EBS form by following below mentioned steps:

Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

Point the mouse to the component on which the action has to be taken to extract its component ID.

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Select the relevant action to be taken and an appropriate display name. Provide relevant value in the “IsSelected” field.

The execution of the above steps would result in setting/checking the corresponding check-box.

5.12.18 Get Check-box Status

User can automate the reading the status of a check-box in an Oracle EBS form by following below mentioned steps:

Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

Point the mouse to the component on which the action has to be taken to extract its component ID.

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Select the relevant action to be taken, variable name, variable type and an appropriate display name.

The execution of the above steps would result in getting the status of the corresponding check-box.

5.12.19 Get Check-box Text


User can automate the reading the text part of the check-box in an Oracle EBS form by following below mentioned steps:

Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

Point the mouse to the component on which the action has to be taken to extract its component ID.

Select the relevant action to be taken, variable name, variable type and an appropriate display name.

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The execution of the above steps would result in getting the text part of the corresponding check-box.

5.12.20 Click Menu options


User can automate the clicking of menu options in an Oracle EBS form by following below mentioned steps:

Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

Point the mouse to the component on which the action has to be taken to extract its component ID.

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Select the relevant action to be taken, an appropriate display name. Menu and Sub Menu values have to be provided as
input. Menu field would have Main Menu value as input. Sub-Menu would have values of multiple sub menu levels
separated by forward slash. For example for View>>Query By Example>>Enter, the input would be Menu: View,
Sub-Menu: Query By Example/Enter .

The execution of the above steps would result in clicking of corresponding Menu options.

5.12.21 Set Radio Button


User can automate the setting of a radio button in an Oracle EBS form by following below mentioned steps:

Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

Point the mouse to any one of the radio buttons in the radio button set on which the action has to be taken to
extract its component ID.

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Select the relevant action to be taken an appropriate display name.

The execution of the above steps would result in setting of the corresponding radio button in the radio button set.

5.12.22 Get selected Radio Button text

User can automate the reading the text of a selected radio button in the radio button set in an Oracle EBS form by
following below mentioned steps:

Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

Point the mouse to any one of the radio buttons in the radio button set on which the action has to be
taken to extract its component ID.

Select the relevant action to be taken, variable name, variable type and an appropriate display name.

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The execution of the above steps would result in getting the text of a selected radio button i
the radio button set.

5.12.23 Check Component state


User can automate the checking the current state of an Oracle EBS form. User can check for the following conditions:

a. Is Exists

b. Is Enabled

c. Is Focused

d. Is Visible

User can perform the automation by following below mentioned steps:

Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

Point the mouse to the window on which the action has to be taken to extract its component ID.

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Select the relevant action to be taken, variable name, variable type and an appropriate display name.

The execution of the above steps would result in getting the current state of the extracted component. For
Eg, If user selects Is Visible as action, then response would be True if the component is visible on the form
otherwise it will be False.

5.12.24 Read Status Bar message


A user can automate the reading of message on status bar in an Oracle form by following below mentioned steps:

Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

Point the mouse to the component on which the action has to be taken to extract its component ID.

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Select the relevant action to be taken, variable name, variable type and an appropriate display name.

The index has to be selected as “0” to read the message.

The execution of the above steps would result in reading of status bar message.

5.12.25 Select List-view item by index


User can automate the selection of a list-view item by its index in an Oracle form by following below mentioned steps:

Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

Point the mouse to the component on which the action has to be taken to extract its component ID.

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Select the relevant action to be taken and an appropriate display name. Provide index of item to
be selected as input to Item index field. For example, index of item “Employee” is 2.

The execution of the above steps would result in selecting of corresponding item in list-view.

5.12.26 Scroll Operations

A user can automate different actions on a scroll in an Oracle EBS form. These actions are:

a. Get Scroll Bar Value – gets the current position of the scroll bar in the table

b. Set Scroll Bar Value – sets the position of the scroll bar at the desired position.

c. Increment Scroll Bar – increment the scroll bar by value x which can be provided as input

d. Decrement Scroll Bar– decrement the scroll bar by x value which can be provided as input

User can perform the automation by following below mentioned steps:

a. Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

b. Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

c. Point the mouse to the component on which the action has to be taken to extract its component ID.

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d. Select the relevant action to be taken and an appropriate display name.

The execution of the above steps


would result in corresponding
action on scroll bar.

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5.12.27 Select Grid Row

User can automate the selecting a grid row in an Oracle form by following below mentioned steps:

Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

Point the mouse to the component on which the action has to be taken to extract its component ID.

Select the relevant action to be taken, row number and an appropriate display name.

The execution of the above steps would result in clicking of the corresponding row in the grid.

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5.12.28 Get/Set Grid Cell Data


User can automate the get or set the value of a grid cell in an Oracle form by following below mentioned steps:

Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

Point the mouse to the component on which the action has to be taken to extract its component ID.

Select the relevant action to be taken, row number, column number, input value and an appropriate display name.

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The execution of the above steps would result in getting or setting of data of the corresponding cell.

5.12.29 Other Grid Operations


User can automate the following grid operations in an Oracle form:

a. Get Row Count – get the count of total number of rows in the grid

b. Get Visible Row Count – get the count of visible rows in the grid

c. Get Column Count – get the count of total number of columns in the grid

d. Get Visible Column Count – get the count of visible columns in the grid

User can perform the automation by following below mentioned steps:


Add an “Application Control” Activity to the flow.

Click on Field Extraction button to extract the ID of the navigator.

Point the mouse to the component on which the action has to be taken to extract its component ID.

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5.13 Peoplesoft
It is now possible to automate tasks on Peoplesoft 9.2 on its FluidUI.

Automation on Peoplesoft can be treated in the same way as any web page.

A web application needs an activity to be created on Assistedge RPA with the Peoplesoft URL with a preferred browser
and used as a regular web application.

5.14 Tool Based Automation of Siebel High Interactivity Application


Oracle’s Siebel CRM tool comes in two variants – High Interactivity, and Open UI. The high interactivity renders the
user interface as a collection of HTML frames and uses ActiveX.

Launch and signing in to Siebel application can be done using the existing Studio’s SignIn Process functionality with
Siebel HI web application.

The AssistEdge RPA 17.4 release provides capability to


support tool based automation of Siebel CRM High Interactiv-
ity application to configure business flow. Following version
of Siebel HI is supported:

Base Release Version: Siebel CRM 8.1.x / 8.2.x


Application Version: 15.8.0.0 SIA
Schema Version: 50.13.13.0

The web enhancements in AssistEdge RPA 17.3 release has


already provided capability to support tool based automation
of Siebel CRM Open UI application to configure business
flow.

The following components in Automation Studio’s Canvas


Tools have been provided to support Siebel HI tool based
automation:

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5.14.1 Navigation

The Navigation component helps user to navigate to any screen tabs, link bars, group of views, and group
of detail views (please refer to the following image for terminologies).

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The Navigation requires the View Name as an input to reach to a particular view / tab. There are two
ways a user can put the view name in the below box:

1. Use Get View Name utility to get the corresponding Siebel view name.

The Get View Name utility helps in consuming the view name automatically. The user needs to go to the
desired view in the docked Siebel application in Studio.

Then, click on the Get View Name button as shown below. The view name will automatically get captured.

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1. Put the view name manually.

The user can put the view name manually if Get View Name is not able to capture the desired view name successfully
and get the below error:

In such cases, the view name to be put manually. The view name can be extracted by following below steps:

a. Reach at the desired view in Siebel.

b. Click on Help Menu.

c. Click on About View.

d. Copy the View, or Applet, or Business Component information available there. Please refer to
the below image for details.

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Then this view name can be copied as above, and put in the Navigation component.

5.14.2 Siebel Operations

The Siebel Operations component helps user to automate clicking on buttons and most frequent operations in the
desired applet of any tab.

So, the user needs to move to a particular tab / link-bar / view using Siebel Navigation component, then use the
Siebel Operations component to select the desired applet in that tab and do further operations.

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The Applet Name can be provided in two ways.

1. Use Get Applet Name utility to get the corresponding Siebel view name.

The Get Applet Name utility helps in consuming the applet name automatically. The user needs to go to the
desired applet in the chosen view of docked Siebel application in Studio.

Click near the desired applet. Then go back to design tab, and click on the Get Applet Name utility as shown below. The
applet name will automatically get captured.

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2. Put the applet name manually.

The user can put the applet name manually if Get Applet Name is not able to capture the name successfully of
the desired applet.
The applet name can be extracted by following below steps:
a. Reach at the desired applet in Siebel.

b. Click on Help Menu.

c. Click on About View.

d. Copy the Applet information available there.

Please refer to the below image for details.

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Following options are available in Select Operation dropdown at present:

a. Go: To click on Go button in the present grid / applet.

b. New: To click on New button in the present applet.

c. Copy: To copy a particular selected record in the grid.

d. Add: To add a record (row) in the selected grid.

e. Ok: To click on OK button in the selected applet.

f. Cancel: To click on Cancel button in the selected applet.

g. Delete: To delete a particular selected record in the selected grid.

h. Next_Task: To click on Next button in the present applet.

i. Previous_Task: To click on Previous button in the selected applet.

j. MoveNextRow: To move (select) to the next record in the set of records filtered in grid.

Expand_Tree: To perform the tree expansion activity. Once the tree is expanded, user can use Get Field Value or
Set Field Value components to read and write the value of columns available there.

5.14.3 Drilldown

The Drilldown component helps user to automate clicking on a link of a particular variable in selected grid
of any tab.

So, the user needs to move to a particular tab / link-bar / view using Siebel Navigation component, then use
the Drilldown component to select the desired applet in that tab, and select the appropriate field name
which value (link) needs to be clicked.

This utility will perform the click activity only on the top row of the grid. Hence, user needs to use proper
filtering operation to narrow down the resulting grid to one row, and then use the Drilldown utility to click on
appropriate field.

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There are three inputs required for Drilldown component: View Name, Applet Name, and Field Name. Field Name is the
variable on which drilldown activity (clicking on links in grid) needs to be performed.

The View Name, and the Applet Name can be provided as discussed in Navigation, and Siebel Operations sections.

The user can get the Field Name by clicking on Get Field Name utility as shown below.

Clicking on Get Field Name utility will show all the available fields in that grid. The user needs to select the desired
Field Display Name (where the click on link is required), and click on CONFIRM button.

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The field name will get captured in the Drilldown component.

This Drilldown component can be combined with other Siebel components like Navigation etc. to configure end
to end business process flows.

5.14.4 Set Field Value

The Set Field Value component helps user to automate writing operations into desired field of the selected applet
(grids or web-dialog).

So, the user needs to move to a particular tab / link-bar / view using Siebel Navigation component, then use the
Set Field Value component to select the applet, the required field name (which needs to be updated), and the desired
field value.

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The Applet Name can be provided as mentioned in Siebel Operations component. The Field Name can be provided as
mentioned in Drilldown component. Around 90% of the field names can correctly be obtained with the help of Get Field
Name utility as mentioned in Drilldown component. For the other, following error might be displayed:

For getting the field names of such parameters, please follow the below steps:

1. Go to the desired applet of the Siebel application.

2. Click on Query button.

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3. Press F12 button, and open Console tab.

4. Put any value in the desired field (for which the field name needs to be known), and click on Go button.

5. Go to the Console tab opened in Step-3, and run the below script:
TheApplication().ActiveApplet().BusComp().GetSearchExpr()

6. It will return the field name in the square brackets, as shown below:

7. It also shows the accepted format for the Field Value, which needs to be input in Set Field Value component.

There may still be a few field names which could not be retrieved using the above methods and
steps (mostly the radio buttons). One of the example is shown below:

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Such field names can either be obtained in Siebel backend, or through Application Host utility from
Process Components in Canvas Tools of Design Studio.

Below are the steps that can be followed to get the field names in such cases:

1. Drag Application Host from


Process Components in Canvas Tools.

2. Select Windows application in the dropdown,


and Click on gear button in Application Host component.

3. Select Contains in Attach Behavior drop-down, and put


Siebel Sales in Window Title. Close the window now.

4. Double click on this Application Host utility. The following


window will appear for adding the Control.

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5. Click on ADD button in the above utility.


The following screen will appear.

6. Click on the Configure Fields icon in the above utility.

7. Go to the Siebel Sales web window, and click


on the desired radio button while keeping the
CTRL button throughout this process.

8. Click on the gear button in the ConfigureFields utility.

Lore

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9. Set up the field properties as per business


flow requirement.

Once the Field Name is obtained, the desired Field Value is


set as per the business requirement. The field value should
be in the accepted format of the chosen field.

5.14.5 Get Field Value

The Get Field Value component helps user to automate reading value of desired parameter of the selected applet (grids
or web-dialog).

So, the user needs to move to a particular tab / link-bar / view using Siebel Navigation component, then use the
Get Field Value component to select the applet, the required field name (which needs to be updated), and the argument
where the read field value can be stored.

The Applet Name can be provided as mentioned in Siebel Operations component. The Field Name can be provided as mentioned
in Set Field Value component.

The Argument drop down will show all the field names added in Search Criteria Configuration. The user selects a particular field
name which can consume the read value of required parameter.

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5.14.6 Fetch Grid Data

The Fetch Grid Data component helps user to automate reading value of
desired grid of the selected applet (with or without filtering operations on
grid using other components mentioned above).

So, the user needs to move to the desired grid of a particular tab / link-bar /
view using Siebel Navigation component, get the required field names
(which need to be fetched), and number of rows to be fetched from that
grid. The result can be saved in a parameter of type data table.

Contrary to the Set Field Value,


and Get Field Value; the user can
select multiple fields in Fetch Grid
Date component.

All the field names will get stored in a comma separated manner as shown below:

The user can get the field name as suggested in Get Field Value
component.

The user has the choice to retrieve a particular number of rows in the
grid. If all the rows need to be retrieved, user needs to check the
Select All checkbox.

The Argument will consume variable name which will hold the
retrieved grid rows. The type of this variable should be data table.

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5.14.7 Open Task

The Open Task component helps user to automate the task activity. It requires the Task Name as an input to reach
to that particular task.

The further activities like selecting desired options, clicking on Next_Task, Previous_Task buttons etc. can be
automat-ed using the other Siebel components.

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5.15 Collection Support in Studio - Data Tables

Data table support has been introduced in Automation studio. Following operations would be possible using the built-
in activities:

Creating a Data table

Adding a row in a Data table Removing a row

from a Data table Updating a value in a Data

table Clearing a Data table

Fetching value from a Data table Export a Data

table to an Excel file

The following components in Automation Studio’s Canvas Tools have been

provided to support collections in Studio:

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a. Create Data Table


In order to define a data table in a process, one needs to drag drop ‘Create DataTable’ Activity onto the canvas.

Provide a DataTable name which will create a Data Table with the name provided in the process.

Next, the user needs to define columns in the Data Table. In order to define columns in the Data Table, click
on the Settings button. A screen will pop up as displayed below.

Columns and its type can be defined in this window.

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b. Add Row
In order to add a row in a Data Table in a process, drag and drop the Add Row activity onto the canvas.

Select Data Table from the drop down list in which one wants to add the row.

Click on settings button to map the columns to the variables in the process. The below screen will pop up as displayed

below. One can either set a default value for a column or select a variable from the dropdown list.

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c. Remove Row
In order to remove a row from a Data Table, drag and drop the
‘Remove Row’ activity onto the canvas.

Select the Data Table from which the row has to be removed.

Provide row index of the row that needs to be removed.

d. Update Data
If one wants to update a value in a Data Table, drag and drop

‘Update Data’ activity onto the canvas.

Select the Data Table in which the value is required to be


updated

Enter the Row Index at which value is required to be updated.

Select the Column name.

Select the argument or enter a default value.

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e. Clear Data Table

In order to clear a Data Table, drag and drop ‘Clear Data Table’ activity onto the canvas.

Select the Data Table to be cleared.

f. Get Data

In order to get value from a Data Table, drag and drop ‘Get Data’
Activity onto the canvas.

Select the Data Table name from which the value has to be
fetched.

Provide the row index from which the value has to be fetched.

Select the column name.

Select or provide the argument name in which value will be set.

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g. Sort DataTable
This activity helps a user to sort the data in a user created DataTable, based on the values of
the specified columns.

Select the DataTable to be sorted.

Configure the columns to be sorted by clicking on the Settings button on the activity.

Select the columns on which the sorting is to be performed by clicking the Add button on the Settings screen.

Direction of sorting can be set to ‘Ascending’ or ‘Descending’ from the drop down.

Columns should be added in the order in which the sorting is required.

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h. Count Row Column

This activity can be used to get the row and column count of the data in
the DataTable which could be handy for further use in a process.

Parameters of this activity are listed below:

Datatable Name - DataTable of which the Row and Column count needs
to be fetched.

Row Count – Variable to store the Row count of the Datatable.

Column Count – Variable to store the Column count of the Datatable.

i. Import DataTable

A user can use this activity to import data from an Excel file or a csv file into a Data table.

Parameters of this activity are listed below:

File Location – Complete file path of the excel or csv file along with the file name, from which data has to be imported

Datatable Name – A Datatable with the provided name will be created as a part of this activity. Data from the selected
file will be imported to this Datatable.

Has Headers – The checkbox should be selected if headers of the file are to be imported to the datatable.

Excel Name – Excel sheet name from which the data is to be fetched. This is shown only in case of an Excel file

OR
Delimiters – In case of a csv file, a delimiter can be entered in this field. More than one delimiter can be provided using
a semi colon “;” as the separator.

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The following are the steps to use this activity:

Drag and drop the ‘Import DataTable’ activity onto the canvas.

Click on the ‘File Location’ field to browse an excel or csv file to be read.

In case of an Excel file, select the sheet name by clicking on ‘Excel Sheet’ field or Select ‘Delimiters’ in
case of a csv file.

Provide the Datatable name. Datatable with the specified name will be created as a part of this activity.

Add the Datatable columns by clicking on the Settings -> Configure Headers on the activity.

By default, all the Excel/ csv columns Names will be shown in the Header Names when the “Has Headers”
checkbox is selected.

If “Has Headers” checkbox is not selected, the activity creates its own header names can be edited from
the ‘Configure Headers’ window.

A user can update the column names and Select the columns to be imported in the data table.

Update the configurations (if any) from Settings -> Configure Reader.

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Note: In case a user uses an already created Datatable name, the data from the file will be written into
that datatable and user will be able to fetch the data from the datatable using the columns of the
already created data table and may not get the expected result. A caution against using the existing
datatable name has to be followed unless used very diligently.

j. Export DataTable

A user can use this activity to write the data from a Data table
to an Excel or a csv file.

Parameters of this activity are mentioned as follows:

Datatable Name – Source Datatable from which the data needs to


be written to an excel or csv file.

Export File Path – File path along with the name of the file and
extension (.xlsx, .csv)

File Type – Excel or CSV

Include Headers? – Select the checkbox if headers of the Data table


are to be written to the file.

Overwrite File? – The checkbox provides an option whether to


overwrite the file if file with the same name exists in the export file
path. If this option is not selected, the file present in the path will
not be overwritten.

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k. Boundary Conditions

Data Table Data Table


Activity/places Remarks
As Input as Output

Not supported as Data Table type input cannot be


Process Inputs No NA passed either in a Robot or in SE.

CView NA No

Microbot Yes Yes

As code Editor output could be marked as C-View, Data


Code Editor Yes No Table as output from Code Editor is not supported.

Custom Not supported as in a Custom app interface, only


No No strings can be passed.
Application

Data Table as an input can be reused in a process, but the same process
Reuse Yes Yes cannot be used separately either in Robot or in SE as Data Table type
input cannot be passed.

Process Data Table can be created as an In / Out parameter and used


Yes Yes
parameters within a process. It can also be set as an Out parameter.

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5.16 Exception Handling

While executing an automation request, the user can detect potential errors
as they happen, and may want to perform various actions (for example:
running a sequence of activities, or ending the process gracefully, or even
ignoring the error) as and when the errors occur.

To support this in AssistEdge, a special component Exception Handling has


been added in Automation Studio’s Canvas Tool, and it consists of Throw,
and TryCatch blocks.

5.16.1 TryCatch Component

The TryCatch component helps a user to define steps which can


potentially raise an exception, and decide the action to be
performed when those exceptions occur.

There are three blocks (activities) available in a TryCatch component:

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a. Try
The Try block allows a user to define activities / steps which can potentially raise
exceptions during execution of a particular automation request. Whenever an
exception occurs, it will move the control to the Catch block.

b. Catch
The Catch block allows a user to define activities / steps to handle a particular
exception (raised according to the steps defined in the Try block). The
exception message can be stored in the Define Exception variable.

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c. Finally
The steps defined in this block are executed irrespective of the occurrence of an
exception. It contains the activities to be executed when activities in the Try and
Catch block are executed successfully. The steps defined in Finally block would not
be executed if another exception occurs in the Catch block.

Note that: Nesting is allowed inside the TryCatch component.

5.16.2 Throw Component

Throw block is used to abruptly end the execution of the current


automation transaction. It can be used within or without the Try-Catch
block. The exception text entered in Throw block is getting captured in
the transaction logs.

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5.16.3 Ignore Error Support

Provision has been provided in Studio to set Ignore Error property in activities. The user may also choose to Ignore Error
at a particular step / component. A utility has been provided for the same with default value of Ignore Error = “No”.
Refer to the following image. The Ignore Error can be set at an activity level or a field level as well.

Activities with ignored error will not alter the process state even if it fails.

If the activity fails, the Step/Activity status will be set to "ErrorIgnored", Ignore Error will be set to “Yes”, and same will
be shown in the Kibana reporting tool.

Subsequent activities under the same parent block will be executed if Ignore Error is set to “Yes”, and if the activity fails.
If an error occurs in an activity where Ignore Error is set to "No", then an error will be thrown for this activity, and
subsequent activities under the same parent block will not be executed.

Ignore error property


1. Is available for all custom activities including container activities like Application, Excel loop etc.

2. Is available for built-in activities like WriteLine, Delay etc.

Parent (a custom container activity, for example an application block) of the activity will have an option to consume the
error by setting its Ignore Error property to "Yes". Workflow process will be terminated if an activity/parent block at
workflow root level does not consume the error.

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5.17 Codeless configuration for Windows thick client application


AssistEdge studio enables the user to automate Windows thick client applications in a codeless manner. Windows
automation configuration involves numerous steps such as: creating a new process, process configuration, using default
configuration method, using advance configuration method and parameterization of control properties etc. Let us now
visit each of these steps one by one.

5.17.1 Create new process / Add new application type

Users can click on the ‘Create New’ button and select the option for
‘Process’ to create a new process. This will open a new flowchart in the
Studio canvas where the user can create the new process by dragging
an application from the Process Components of canvas tools.

Next, select ‘WindowsApps’ from the Application Type dropdown. Once the user selects this value, studio will populate
the applications in the Application dropdown from which an application can be selected.

If the user does not find the desired application in the drop down list, click on Add New Application link on the bottom
of the dropdown to add a new type of windows application. Add new Application popup form will appear with the
fields:

1. Application Type: This field has to be WindowsApps for


windows thick client applications.

2. Application Name: The user can enter an application


name.

3. Path: The user has to provide the path of the application


executable.

4. Additional Parameters: This field is not a mandatory field.


User can use this parameter to open an existing file
within the application. User should specify the file name
within double quotes if there are spaces in the file name string.

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5.17.2 Process configuration

Once the new WindowsApps process is created, click on the Settings button to navigate to the process configuration
mode in studio.

A new tab will open in Studio and the target application will open in undocked mode. User can now click on Start Field
Configuration button over the tab and start configuring the process.

There are two ways to configure a process: the default way by hovering the mouse icon over the application or by using
the advanced configuration Tree.

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5.17.3 Default configuration


Once the user has clicked Start Field Configuration button, user can highlight any control of the target application by
hovering the mouse over the control and pressing the ctrl key from the keyboard simultaneously. After identifying the
desired control, select the control by pressing the ctrl key from the keyboard and mouse click simultaneously. This will
populate the property grid with the selected control properties.

User can now select the desired action from the action dropdown and enter the display name for the configured control
properties. User can also modify the values of the properties with the help of filter dropdown against each field which
can be helpful for parametrization.

One can read more on parameterization in subsequent sections.

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After providing all the mandatory values, the user can click on save icon and save the configuration.

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5.17.4 Advance configuration Tree

Once the user has clicked Start Field Configuration button, a new popup window opens showing all the controls of
application under automation in a hierarchical manner. By clicking on the control name inside the popup, studio will
highlight the corresponding control of the application. This way, the user can identify the control required for the
automation. Once the control is identified, it can be selected by pressing the select button on the popup window. This
will populate the property grid with the selected control properties. User can then provide the necessary values for
configuration and click on save.

5.17.5 Windows Plugin Interactions


This section will provide details of all the interactions available with the Windows plugin. Once the user selects a control
for configuration, studio will auto populate the applicable interactions for the selected control. User can select one of the
applicable interactions:

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1. Click: This interaction will click on the selected control.

2. Set Text: This interaction will set user provided text input to the selected control.

3. Get Text: This interaction will read text from the selected control.

4. Select Radio Button: This interaction will select the radio button control.

5. Get Radio Button Status: This interaction fetches the radio button status. It will return either true or false.

6. Toggle Checkbox Action: This interaction toggles the current state of the checkbox.

7. Get Checkbox Status: This interaction returns the current selection status of the checkbox.

8. Perform ComboBox Select Value: This interaction selects the specified value from the dropdown.

9. Get ComboBox Value: This interaction reads the currently selected combo box value.

10. Perform ComboBox Set Text: This interaction sets a user specified value on the selected ComboBox. Note that all
ComboBox controls do not support this interaction.

11. Scroll Horizontal: User can perform a horizontal scroll based on the input provided on the percentage scale
from 0 to 100.

12. Scroll Vertical: User can perform a vertical scroll based on the input provided on the percentage scale
from 0 to 100.

13. Select Tree Node: User can select a node of Tree control using this interaction. User has to specify input in a
specific format. Example: For selecting the node “1.1”, user has to provide the input value as “Number/1/1.1”.

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14. Expand Tree Node: User can expand a node of Tree control, using this interaction.

15. If Control Exist: This interaction can be used for working with dynamic controls. User can use this interaction to
check if a given control exists or not.

16. Keyboard Input: This interaction can be used to perform keyboard simulation on a selected control. It requires
application to be in focus. This interaction provides a user to perform different keyboard input combinations with
the help of Single Key, Double Keys, Triple Keys and Text entry options.

17. Mouse Click: This interaction allows the user to perform mouse simulation and it requires the application to be in
focus. User can perform Left Click, Right Click and Double Click actions.

18. Expand/Collapse: This interaction is used to expand/collapse a control.

19. Select: This interaction is used to select a particular control.

20. Get DataGrid Value by Index: This interaction is used to get data grid value by its index. User has to specify the cell
index from which the input is needed.

21. Focus Data Grid Cell by Index: This interaction is used to focus a data grid cell based on the input cell index.

22. Set DataGrid Value by Index: This interaction is used to set value to a DataGrid cell based on its index.

23. Get Data from Table: This interaction can be used to read complete data of a DataGrid Table control to a Data Table
and then if required to an excel or csv file. Steps involved are as follows:
Create an argument of type System.Data.DataTable before extracting the control.

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Start field configuration and extract the DataGrid Table control.

Select Get Data from Table Interaction from the dropdown.

Select the variable name to the output variable created in the first step.

Save the configuration.

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Use the Export Data Table activity to write data to an excel.

24. Set Focus: This interaction can be used to bring any control to focus before performing any interaction on it.

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5.17.6 Window Control Properties

A typical window application control can have many properties.

These can be broadly classified as: Control Behavior, Field Properties and Miscellaneous Properties.

Control Behavior Properties:

1. Action: This property lists down all the applicable


actions for the configured control. A user can select an
appropriate value as per the use case.

2. Interaction: Based on the selected value from the


Action dropdown, Studio will auto populate the
respective interaction class name.

Field Properties:
1. Display Name: User can give any name for the configuration as required.

2. Automation Id: This property uniquely identifies automation element in the automation tree.

3. Class Name: Specifies the class name of the element as defined by the control developer.

4. Container Class Name: Specifies the class name of the container of the element as defined by the control developer.

5. Container Control Id: This property specifies the type of control represented by the container of the element under
automation.

6. Container Name: Specifies the name of the element as defined by the control developer.

7. Control Id: This property specifies the type of control represented by the element under automation.

8. Control Index: Specifies the index of the current element within the entire set of elements with same values of automa-
tion Id, class name and control name as that of the current element.

9. Control Name: Specifies the class name of the element as defined by the control developer.

10. Control Order Number: Specifies the index of the current element within the entire set of elements with the same value
of control Id as that of the current element.

11. Search by Control: If this checkbox is selected, the windows plugin will find the element based on the control order
number.

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Miscellaneous Properties:
1. Max wait for input idle: This property value specifies the maximum time interval in milliseconds for which a
plugin can wait on launch before it starts executing the configured interactions.

2. Retry count: Retry count value specifies the number of times, a plugin will retry to find a control, if not
found.

3. Retry Interval: Retry interval value specifies the time interval in millisecond for which a plugin will wait
before it will attempt for a retry.

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5.17.7 Parametrization of control properties

A user can find a filter dropdown against some of the Field properties (AutomationId, Class Name, Container Class
Name, Container Name, Control Name) values. This can be used for handling dynamic controls and parameterization.

1. Handling Dynamic controls: For few controls, few of the field properties are dynamic. For such controls, a user can
remove the dynamic part of the string and use an appropriate value from the dropdown. For
example: Class Name value string ‘AssistEdge_Studio_20180205083009’ can be reconfigured as ‘AssistEdge_Studio’
and Starts with filter. Here, the latter part of the string is a timestamp is not fixed/ statis, hence we have removed the
dynamic part and kept only the static part of string.

A user can use various other types of filters (Equals, Contains, StartsWith, EndsWith, Regex) also as per the require-
ment.

2. Parameterization: A user can make use of a Variable type from the filter dropdown to parameterize a value. With
parameterization, a user can use windows controls with looping and assignment activities.

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6.0
Excel Recorder
1. The Automation Studio has an advanced excel automation recorder which can automate operations in Microsoft \
Excel. Let us view how to record automations in an excel.

6.1 Using the Excel recorder

a. How to open a file and save it:

Click on the ‘Excel Recorder’ from the Canvas Tools in Studio.

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Before opening an excel file, recording needs to be started. The user can then open a file or save it by accessing “File”
from the menu of the xlsm that is launched as part of the Excel recorder.

How to work with formulas:


Once recording is in progress, just input the formula in a cell or access the formula from the Formulas section.

How to use formatting


Perform the formatting options similar to the formula.

Once the recording is complete, stop the recorder and click on ‘Open in Studio’ button. This will close the recorder and
the xlsm file.

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6.2 How to check parameters

Once the steps are captured, access the activity and rename it as required.

Clicking on the settings button or the arguments will display the parameters with the default values which were
captured by the Excel recorder.

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6.3 How to edit scripts


A technical user who would configure the dynamic part of a static recording, can do so using the Edit script option.

While recording, if the static fields were captured by cell value and not by action, then Edit script can change those steps
into generic dynamic functions. While recording, user can also capture using activate cells, rather than selecting these to
make it dynamic there itself.

A user can open and edit the script which will reflect during the automation.

6.4 Tips for usage


a. How to find last row, column
There are multiple ways to achieve this by offsetting the cell value and making the selection of the cell as a comment
using “Edit Script”. Following is the example of finding the last row.

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b.How to input large script formulas


If large text based formulas like Vlookup are not captured during the recording, then input them in Edit script area as shown
above.

6.5 Test run, Tips on how to build a complete use case


One can record small steps and then combine them. After that, stitch these separate excel recorded activities one by one
by using the Reuse process for published processes.

6.6 Automations that can be performed using the Excel recorder


The following items have been proved and tested.
Excel recorder is a powerful excel automation tool as it captures everything that the Excel itself can offer through
its own Marco recorder.

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Excel 2010 Test for Excel 2010

Extract Extract a cell value and provide to other applications

One time extraction of entire column, deletion of columns and


insertion of columns

Extract cell value for a column till blank cell

Copy Copy a cell value from one sheet to another sheet

Copy a column in a similar fashion

Copy entire sheet and paste in a new sheet or a new excel file

Copy a selected range of cells (column + rows)

Formulae Vlookup: Vlookup formula is given to paste it in a particular cell


Concatenate: 2 columns can be concatenated and value can be
pasted in a new column
Sum: For entire column or selected range inside the column

Count: Similar to the Sum formula

Paste formula in a blank cell or selected range of cells

Macro Invoking existing Macro

Sort Date wise sorting for the entire column

New sheet Creation of a new sheet (tab)

Filter Enable filter for all columns

Filter and select one or multiple labels. Extract that entire range

Clear all filters

Create new excel Create a new excel file and name it

Naming convention where the name is appended with date

Save Normal save

Save as, in a specific location after downloading from SAP

Paste Normal text paste

Special paste: Right click on paste and 'paste values'

Paste in selected range

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7.0
Test Automation

7.1 Setup Environment


This step launches all the pre-requisite applications for testing an automation. For instance, if the automation includes a
web application process, then the setup will launch and open the application to begin testing the automation.

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7.2 Run Test Environment


Running the test environment executes all the steps of the automation one by one. Once the automation has been
executed completely, a user can view the automation result.

7.3 Reset Environment


This step resets all the applications and set ups to their previous state as before running the automation
For example, if the automation consists of a search process within an application, then the reset step will clear the
search value, search results and reset the application to its previous state. A user can use the reset environment step
before running the automation once again.

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7.4 Debug automation

This feature can be used to debug a workflow automation so that the user can identify the result for each step of the
automation.

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Thank You

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