Version 11.3.5 Release Notes

Review the new features, changed features, fixed features, security fixes, and known limitations in Version 11.3.5 for Automation Anywhere Control Room, Enterprise Client, and Bot Insight.

New features

Control Room
Export or import roles and users

Service Cloud case ID: 00353413

For roles management, you can export or import custom roles and users associated with the roles. You can use the already created roles and users in your Control Room without manually creating them.

Export or import roles and users

New columns for devices and device pools details

Zendesk ID: 223185

Use the columns to perform these actions:

  • View the work item ID and queue name that is currently processed by the device from the Devices table in the My Devices page.
  • View the work item ID, queue name, automation name, and bot name that is currently processed by the device from the Bot runners table in the View device pool page.
Edit Active Directory role mappings

Admin users can edit role mappings in the Control Room. You can only edit the mapping name and roles (add or remove roles).

Edit Active Directory role mappings

View history of deleted bots

View the history of bots from the Historical activity page even if the bots and the folder containing the bots are deleted. However, you cannot run the deleted bot from the Historical activity landing page and the View historical activity page. Additionally, the historical data of the deleted bot is exported in the CSV file.
Bot Insight
Retrieve information from the Bot Insight API, and generate and visualize data analytics on Microsoft Power BI

The Automation Anywhere custom connector enables you to establish a secure connection to Microsoft Power BI, and generate and visualize data analytics. You can select the Bot Insight APIs in Microsoft Power BI and apply specific parameters for each of the APIs. The custom connector transforms the Bot Insight API responses to data model visualizations in Microsoft Power BI.

Enterprise 11 data connector for Power BI

Enhanced deletetasklogdata API

The deletetasklogdata API enables you to delete bot data based on the RunId of the bot.

Bot Insight API details

Analyze and customize bot operational parameters

The customizable Operation dashboard provides analytical information about the performance of your Digital Workforce. You can analyze the performance of a bot, status of tasks, past and upcoming schedules of tasks, audit information, usage of various resources, workload status, and health of the machine on which the automation tasks are executed. The various data sources and visualization widgets enable you to customize the dashboard.

Operation dashboard

Visualize and analyze bot utilization information

The Bot Utilization Heat Map widget in the Devices dashboard provides information about the usage analysis of deployed on different Bot Runner machines.

Devices dashboard

Changed features

Control Room
Configure session timeout in the configuration settings

Zendesk ID: 189400

You can now configure the inactivity time in the range of 10-60 minutes in the Control Room configuration settings. The default value is 20 minutes. Depending on the time set, the user will be timed out after the specified minutes of inactivity.

Configuration settings

Run auto discovery as a cron job

Zendesk ID: 194840

You can now run auto discovery as a cron job in the Control Room to detect live domain controllers and update the LDAP URLs accordingly.

Run auto discovery as a cron job

New GUID created for bots with duplicate GUIDs

Zendesk ID: 159359

Duplicate GUID instances cause a data conflict in the Bot Insight dashboard. To avoid such conflicts, the Control Room now creates a new GUID for a copied bot when it is uploaded to the Control Room. Duplicate GUIDs are generated when Windows Explorer is used to copy and paste a bot.
New credential screen in Control Room installer for Elasticsearch

When you install Control Room in Express or Custom mode, a credential screen is now displayed for Elasticsearch authentication. This is to secure access to Elasticsearch data store in Control Room.

Configure Elasticsearch credentials | Enterprise 11: Installing Control Room using Express mode |Installing Control Room using scripts

High availability enhancement

Starting from this release, configure the required minimum three nodes in a Control Room data center cluster for high availability deployment.

Enterprise 11: High Availability deployment model

Enterprise Client
Define closebrowserbyhandle value in the AA.Settings.xml file for Close Browser command

Service Cloud case ID: 00480927

Define the closebrowserbyhandle value to True/true in the AA.Settings.xml file to support the Close Browser command. This setting is required in a scenario where the Open Browser command is used in a child task and commands such as Keystrokes and MWC are followed by Close Browser in the parent task.

Web Recorder command

Connect to EWS server with OAuth authentication

Service Cloud Case ID: 00350930

Microsoft has introduced a new authentication for Exchange Web Services (EWS) protocol with OAuth. You can use the EWS protocol with OAuth authentication for the following:
Configure retrycount or enableadvancedlegaldisclaimerbypass values for Auto Login to function properly

Zendesk ID: 205572

Perform one of these actions to support the Auto Login process:

  • Define the retrycount value as 3 in the AA.Settings.xml file
  • Define the enableadvancedlegaldisclaimerbypass value as True in the Automation.Autologin.Settings.xml file

Auto Login

Bot Insight

The row limit for data sources in the Bot Insight Operations dashboards is increased to 100000. Ensure that the row limit of the data viewer application can support the number of rows in the exported records.

Fixed features

Note: Typically no user action is required for fixed features. If an action is required, it will be included in the description.
Control Room
Zendesk ticket ID/Service Cloud Case ID Description
00453518 Devices that are unassigned from any schedule are now available in the device list on the Create device pool page. Users now have a proper list of devices to create device pools.
00354649 You can now successfully run the selected production version of bots using the Run bot with queue option.

00469758

 The scheduler now automatically corrects (auto-corrects) the state of the Quartz table, preventing the scheduler from stopping work. As a result, schedules no longer disappear and the scheduler properly triggers the schedules based on the next occurrence.
00447964, 00481888 The ampersand (&) special character is now supported for Windows and SQL Server authentication password. Previously, an installation failure message was displayed on the database screen during Control Room installation if ampersand was used in the password.
When the required signing option is enabled and the LDAP password for a Control Room user expires, users can now reset their password without appending the FQDN. Previously, users had to enter their domain name and the FQDN along with the username as a one-time activity to reset the LDAP password.
00634620 When you restart the Automation Anywhere Control Room Caching service and add new Work Items in the queue, newly added Work Items are now executed properly. Previously, the execution was not working.
Enterprise Client
Zendesk ticket ID/Service Cloud Case ID Description
00493296 The AAProxyServer.exe now does not crash when the AAPlayer is closed. In case the AAProxyServer application is not running, the AAPlayer starts the AAProxyServer service and the bot execution is not affected.
00473373 ABBYY FineReader Engine in the OCR command can now capture the entire text from any image file. Previously, only the last identified text was stored and the ABBYY FineReader Engine only captured a small portion of the text from the image file.
-- When you save a task in XML file format, the task is now exported line by line, and an unhandled exception error does not appear.
00388097 When the Terminal Emulator command is executed using Wait till screen contains text, the command now works properly in all terminal environments and does not time out if text is present on the screen.
00473752 When bots are exported in Enterprise Client, special characters are also exported without any error in the XML file format.
-- When Error Handling uses the Send Email command for MetaBot logic, the command now displays the default subject in the mail as Automation Anywhere finished executing the metabot logic even when you remove the subject from AA.Setting.xml file. Previously, the default subject was not displayed properly for MetaBot logic.
-- When the Automation Anywhere Control Room Service is stopped and a user performs an insert Work Item command operation, an error message now appears: unable to connect to the remote server.
-- In the Terminal Emulator, for TN5250 supporting DBCS B01 and C01 models, the Get Text > Lines With Column Range option now works properly. When the input text contains DBCS characters, the option works properly and does the following:
  • Displays the output line by line for the defined column range.
  • Retrieves the proper column range for half-width and full-width characters.
-- When OCR engine is used, the OCR command with the Capture Window option now works properly. The Player Runtime window data is not captured when the screenshot of the window or area is captured.
--

The email received using the Error Handling and the Send Email command, now correctly displays the error log message in the Error Message field and the task description in the Description field. Previously, the error log message was incorrectly displayed in the Description field.
-- The following error message is displayed when the From email ID in the Send Email command is different from the user-configured email in the Tools > Option > Email Settings: Username <Value> in email setting option and From Email <Value> within Send Email command should be same. Please ensure both emails are same and try again.
-- The Image Recognition command now works properly. When a user enters Image Occurrence and clicks the thumbnail of the image, the background image is now displayed.
-- The GetSelectedIndex for Java tree control now returns the correct index value when the selected text is hidden in the scroll up or down action. Previously, if the selected object was in a hidden position or if the scroll was in the middle, hiding some tree nodes in the upper portion of the scroll, then GetSelectedIndex returned either an empty value or incorrect index value.
-- If you configure an argument with an incorrect data type using the Run Excel Macro command, an error message is displayed indicating the argument with an incorrect data type and value. You no longer have to open the macro to verify which argument has the wrong data type and value.
-- A validation message now appears in order to restrict the user from exporting the system logs with the empty CSV filename.
-- A description is now sent in notification emails for reports that include Description/Notes. Previously, when Description/Notes was added in reports and Send Email Notification was enabled, the description was not sent in the notification emails.
-- In the Repository window, regardless of the number of clicks of the Compare option, only one Compare window now opens. Previously, for multiple clicks of the Compare option, an equal number of Compare windows were opened.
-- In MetaBot Logic, when a user edits the logic in the interface and enables the Show Object Properties option, the IsVisible option of the Object Search Criteria now appears.
00376589 Audit log entries in the Control Room are now displayed properly when the filter is set to Action Type. The General configuration setting value is no longer displayed in the Action Type drop-down list. Previously, duplicate entries of the general configuration settings were displayed in the drop-down list.
-- When the system is formatted and the OS and Enterprise Client are reinstalled, you can view all the triggers, including the Email trigger, in the Trigger Manager, but the Email trigger is not triggered.
00356190 Enterprise Client with Japanese language settings now displays the date in Japanese standard format, YYYY/MM/DD. Previously, the date format was not consistent.
Bot Insight
Zendesk ticket ID Description
The Import and Export functions in the Bot Insight CoE dashboard are now supported in Microsoft Internet Explorer.
When you install Automation Anywhere Control Room with Oracle Database, the Bot Device Utilization Pivot Table now displays the collateral data of all the bots that are run. You can rearrange the columns in the Bot Device Utilization Pivot Table to view the bot utilization information.
The following additional databases are no longer created when you install the Control Room using the SQL Server:
  • BIVisualization-keyset
  • BIVisualization-upload

Security fixes

Control Room
Zendesk ticket ID Description
160764 Implemented authentication and TLS encryption for Elasticsearch communications between nodes in a Control Room cluster.
00460759 Altered failed login messages do not return the user name.

Known limitations

Control Room
If you are upgrading from any Version 11.3.x to Version 11.3.5 with three or more than three nodes in a cluster, the Error Running OpenDistro Security error message appears. You must perform the additional steps before installing the Version 11.3.5. See the 11.3.5 Control Room upgrade section.
When a role is opened in edit mode and you add a subfolder to any of the Bots folders assigned to the role, all permissions on the newly added subfolder will be revoked. You have to edit the role again and provide the required permissions to the newly added subfolder.
  • Control Room restricts users from uploading, importing, or downloading a package that contains a protected bot with a duplicate GUID and the package fails.

    Workaround: You can disable this restriction by performing either of these actions:

    • Set the value of the repository.restrict.uploading.protected.bot flag to false in the repository.properties file in the Control Room installation path.
    • Delete all the affected existing bots from the Control Room repository.
  • The GUID of a bot downloaded from the Bot Store might be null.

    Workaround: You can generate a GUID by performing these steps:

    1. Download the bot to the Enterprise Client repository.
    2. Upload the bot back to the Control Room.
Enterprise Client
When emails are sent from Exchange Web Services (EWS) using OAuth, Send Email Notification does not work for reports.
  • You cannot upload a password-protected bot in Enterprise 11.

    Workaround: If you want to upload the password-protected bot in Enterprise 11, you can remove the password using these steps:

    1. Edit the bot in the Workbench.
    2. Remove the password.
    3. Save and then upload the bot.
  • When the GUID of a bot is changed in the Control Room, the changed GUID and the last modified time stamp are not reflected in the Enterprise Client if the Control Room is Version 11.3.5 and Enterprise Client is Version 11.3.4 or earlier.

    Workaround: Download the bot for the sync to take effect.
Bot Insight
The Control Room Bot Velocity widget in the Home dashboard displays incorrect information when the database is configured in French. This occurs due to incorrect date format generated by Zoomdata.
Bot Insight does not support the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) -12 time zone. When you install the Control Room, ensure that the time zone is not set to UTC−12:00 and that the time set is not ahead of the current UTC. If the time zone is not configured accordingly, Bot Insight displays an internal server error.

The Audit dashboard access privilege assigned to your role by the Bot Insight admin during Control Room installation can be modified at a later stage. However, the modification does not affect your access to the Audit dashboard.