Actions to build bots

Use actions to build an automation workflow and to instruct a bot what to do. The available actions are located in the Actions palette of the Bot editor in the Control Room.

Actions, packages, and dependencies

Actions are grouped into packages based on the technology they automate. For example, the Excel advanced package contains Excel-related actions, such as Open workbook, Go to cell, and Delete cell, which you can insert in the Bot editor to automate a spreadsheet process.

Each package is updated and enabled individually to support new functionality. New bots are built with the default version. Existing bots are not automatically updated. They run using the same package version that they were built with until the Bot Creator manually updates to the new version.

When the Control Room deploys a bot, the packages used to create the automation are collected and sent to the Bot Agent on the destination device. The Bot Agent caches the packages so that it does not require updates each time the bot runs.

To shorten the runtime the first time a bot runs on a device, preload the packages using the Preload packages option in the Bot editor. The system loads the packages to \ProgramData\AutomationAnywhere\GlobalCache on the local machine for quick access at runtime.

After an action from a package is used in a bot, that package becomes a dependent file of that bot.

Learn more about managing packages in Packages.
Developers can learn more about creating packages in Package SDK.
Learn more about managing bots and package dependencies in Bot dependencies.

Packages and exe files


Packages	exe process files
DLL	Automation.CSharpDLLWrapper.exe
Database	Automation.DatabasePlayer.exe

Working with actions

Important: Each action in a package provides minimum compatible Control Room and Bot Agent version information when you create bots. So you can update your bots and reduce runtime errors caused by an incompatible Control Room or Bot Agent version.

You can configure actions in the Bot editor. Double-click the action to view the fields and features that you can configure, and double-click or drag an action to insert it into the automation.

Move the mouse over the vertical ellipsis at the top right of an action icon to access the following features:

Copy action: Duplicate the action.
Cut action: Copy the action and remove it from the bot code.
Paste after action: Paste the copied action below the selected action.; Note: This option only appears when there is an action in the clipboard.
Delete action: Remove the action from the bot code.
Disable action: At run time, bot ignores the action until you enable it.
Enable breakpoint: Pauses the bot for debugging purposes.; Debugging your automations
Step over: Use the Step over icon to go to the next action in debug mode. By default, it starts from the first action in debug mode.

You can edit multiple actions at a time, using the toolbar at the top of the Bot editor.

Find in this bot (Search box)

Search for any text or action such as a package name, actions name, string name, or variable name in the Flow, List, or Dual view of the Task Bot. You can search text across multiple pages of the bot and do not require the pages to be loaded manually. This feature is useful for viewing or editing a bot with longer code lines to determine where the searched text, such as variables, strings, or actions is used and in which line.

You can search only within the lines of the code in the Bot editor.
The search is not case-sensitive.

Run from here

Use the Run from here option to execute the bot from a specific line in the Bot editor by skipping all the lines of code before it. This feature helps to execute a particular code block quickly and easily without running the complete bot.

Note: When you use an action within the conditional packages such as If, Loop, or Error handler in the bot, the Run from here option is not available from that action. However, you can use the Run from here option from If, Loop, or Error handler actions.

Copy items

Copy actions to a clipboard so they can be duplicated within the bot.

Cut items

Copy the actions and remove them from the bot code.

Paste items

Paste one or more actions after the highlighted action. If you have not highlighted an action, the actions are appended to the end of the automation sequence.

Note: This icon is only enabled when there are actions in the clipboard.

Copy to shared clipboard

Copy actions, triggers, and metadata to a clipboard that is shared between bots.

Paste from shared clipboard

Paste actions, triggers, and metadata from another bot.

Note: This icon is only enabled when there are actions in the shared clipboard.

Note: The Copy to shared clipboard and Paste from shared clipboard options are enabled only for users with Bot Creator privileges.

The Copy to shared clipboard option is not displayed if the bot is in Debug mode and you have selected only one line of code. However, this option appears when you select multiple lines of a code.

Auto-save functionality of events in Bot editor

In the Bot editor, when you use actions to build an automation, when a bot is not manually saved, an auto-save is performed and the bot now automatically saves the changes for specific events.

Note: The auto-save functionality is currently available only for specific events.

Some of the events that support auto-save functionality are as follows:

Recorder: When you create a bot with certain actions and click Recorder, the event is saved, and when the recording is complete, the event is automatically saved.
Variable manager: When you create or edit a variable to insert it in an action, the changes are saved.
Note: The auto-save functionality is not supported when you delete a variable or insert it by pressing F2 to open the variable list.
Actions menu (vertical ellipsis): When you select any action from this menu, for example Packages, the event is saved automatically. When you make any change to the Packages page and return to the Bot editor, the event is saved.
Find a file: When you click the Find a file icon, the bot is saved if it is not manually saved. Also, after you click the Add option, the bot is automatically saved.
Dialog boxes: When a dialog box is opened, it is automatically saved if any changes are made.
Note: Auto-save is triggered only for top-level dialog boxes and not for nested dialog boxes.
Deleting variables: When you delete unused variables, the event is saved.
Bot name change: If you edit the name of a bot, the event is saved.

Resources

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