How to Use RPA Recorder

Transcription

1 How to Use RPA Recorder This section explains general operations with the recording, such as creation, editing and publishing; using functions of RPA Recorder. Descriptions illustrate how to use a typical robotic automation workflow. Level of experience required basic knowledge of macro recording in Word and Excel understanding of simple algorithmization concepts: loops, variables, conditions How to Use RPA Recorder Start RPA Recorder Step 1: Recording Process Recommendations during Recording Process Step 2: Playing a Recording Playing from Current Step Disabling Steps Recorder Variables Log Step 3: Editing a Recording Working with Images Delays between Actions Using Variables Using Loops Step 4: Publishing a Recording to Control Tower Step 5: Importing a Recording from Control Tower RPA Recorder Actions Application Excel Exception Handling Wait Clipboard Files and Folders Mouse Keyboard Conditions Loops Web Variables Text OCR Custom Actions - Script Start RPA Recorder To start the RPA Recorder, open WorkFusion tray menu and select the Open RPA Recorder item: RPA Express Recorder main window opens.

2 Step 1: Recording Process 1. To start recording your workflow, click the following button (or press CTRL + 6): Enter a file name for the recording: 3. In the bottom-right corner, you will see the recorder panel with a running timer: Perform the actions of your workflow in a natural way, remember to follow our recommendations. ( Optional action) You can pause and resume the recording if needed by clicking the appropriate buttons: 6. When you have finished the recording process, click the Stop button (CTRL + ALT + S) or close the RPA Recorder window. As a result, you will see all the steps in the Actions Flow panel:

3 Recommendations during Recording Process Don't be fast during recording, do some pause after each action. The Mouse Move event (hover) will be recorded after the cursor is not moving for 1s and more. This can be used to automate naviga tion through dynamic menus that are collapsed on hovering. If one mouse action is located near another (two buttons close to each other), then, after clicking the first button, move cursor aside and then click the second button. Do not perform unnecessary mouse moves, clicks, and scrolls. Use keyboard hotkeys where possible. Step 2: Playing a Recording After finishing the recording, you can test it and play the recorded flow: 1. Clicking the Play recording button: Afterwards, you will see the progress indication with a number executed steps and overall status, and the bot performing the recorded actions: 3. You can optionally pause, resume, or stop the execution:

4 4. If a step cannot be executed, you will see a red progress bar with "Error occurred" message, and the step number (#4 on the screenshot): You can fix the recording by editing this step. See the Editing section. 5. After the bot execution is finished or stopped, each step result status is shown in the Actions Flow panel. You can record your workflow in chunks by appending each new recording to an existing file: Create a new Recording. Perform a bunch of actions. Stop the recording.

5 4. 5. (Optionally) test the recorded chunk by playing it and fixing steps if needed. Click the Insert Recording button: 6. repeat steps 2-5 as many times as needed. Playing from Current Step When creating complex automation flows, it may be useful to run bot execution not from the beginning, but from the current step and thus save time and effort: select some action in the Actions Flow (#9 in the example) click the arrow near the Play recording button click Play from current step Disabling Steps When you test different actions, it might be useful to temporary disable some steps thus excluding them from the execution flow but not completely deleting them. To disable a step, uncheck the respective checkbox in the Active column this step will be grayed out. To enable a step, check the respective checkbox again.

6 Recorder Variables Log You can check the last values of the Recorder Variables, when the playback is finished. See more information about in Recorder Variables Log. Step 3: Editing a Recording Working with Images Currently, the Recorder uses surface-based (image-based) automation approach where the bot captures images of active elements while recording and tries to find the same images and click (hover, drag, scroll) on them while script execution.

7 In some cases, the screenshots taken by a bot can be too large or small, not unique, or can have some unnecessary elements: tooltips, popup windows from other applications, etc. Bad screenshot example This situation can be easily solved by capturing a new image manually, or by editing image offsets. Capturing New Images 1. Click the Capture new image button under the action screenshot. Afterwards, you will see a countdown in the bottom-right corner allowing you to get prepared for the screen capturing: switch to another app, open menu items, etc. 3. An overlay with help text appears: 4. Select the required region by dragging:

8 5. Finally, the captured screenshot is applied to the active action. The delay before screen capturing can be set in Window > Preferences > RPA Recorder > Image Settings. Editing Image Offsets By default, robot clicks (hovers, scrolls, drags) directly into the center of the captured image. You can set the crosshair to a custom place by clicking the image:

9 A pop-up dialog with 100% zoom on image is shown where you have an option to set the offsets: by clicking on the image crosshair will be moved to this position Or by editing the Offset X and Offset Y fields Choosing Another Image There is also an option to choose any image located in the project folder for an active action:

10 This image can be copied from any folder on your computer using drag'n'drop or copy-paste. Delays between Actions In automation workflows, most actions are executed quite quickly, but some actions require a pause before their execution: page loading, document saving, opening new applications, etc. To set action delays: 1. click the Advanced... link set a delay type: 1. Retry 1. Wait up to XX ms Bot will retry executing the current action during this time period if the action fails (image not found, no window present). As soon as the action is successfully executed, bot proceeds to the next one. Polling interval XX ms Interval between bot retries. Wait XX ms before performing this action. Bot will wait during a defined time period and will execute the current action. No retries are done if action fails. It is preferred to use Retries rather than Delays before action.

11 Using Variables You can use variables to store initial or run-time values that need to be entered from keyboard or copied to clipboard. See full description here: Recorder Variables All variables need to be defined in the Recorder Variables table and can be used in actions' parameters.

12 Attention As the workflow completes, the variables, which values have been changed during the execution, are reset to their defaults. Using Loops Loops can be used: to repeat a sequence of actions until some condition is met (While, Retry) or a defined number of times (Repeat) to iterate through lists and tables (For Each) and contain other actions (clicks, drags, keystrokes) as their children. See full description here: Loops

13 Step 4: Publishing a Recording to Control Tower When the robotics automation is tested and runs smoothly, you can publish it to Control Tower: Click the Publish to Control Tower button. Enter the Business Process Step Name. Click the Finish button. The exported recording is automatically packed into a Bot step of a Business Process and can be accessed by the following URL: Control Tower Credentials user: workfusion password: workfusion

14 Afterwards, you can run this process and watch its execution on your local computer. Step 5: Importing a Recording from Control Tower RPA Express also allows you to import recordings from Control Tower by right-clicking an appropriate bot step: Recorder will automatically show the import dialog where you can select a project folder name:

15 Finally, the recording will be shown with the Actions Flow opened.