You can analyze the report generated by the Bot Scanner to get information about the bots (Task Bots and MetaBots) and processes that can be migrated. Use the Bot Scanner to decide if you are ready to start migration now or prefer to wait until more commands are supported.

The Bot Scanner report provides the following information:

  • Bots: In the Bot Scanner report, a bot is an individual Task Bot (.atmx) or MetaBot (.mbot) that is used in other bots.

    The Bots tab provides detailed information about bots that can be migrated, those that require action or review, and those that cannot be migrated.

  • Processes: In the Bot Scanner report, a process is a bot that is not used in any other bots and can include one or more child bots.

    The Processes tab provides detailed information about processes that can be migrated, those that require action or review, and those that cannot be migrated.

The Bot Scanner provides the following important information about the bots and processes:
  • Number of bots and processes analyzed
  • A high-level summary in the form of boards to indicate the migration status of bots and processes
  • Number of bots and processes that you can and cannot migrate to Automation 360
  • Commands that are used in the bots and the frequency of usage
  • Reasons why bots and processes cannot be currently migrated and frequency of such occurrences
  • Actions and reviews required by the users after migration due to change in the behavior of the commands
  • Bots and processes that cannot be migrated and their corresponding error messages
  • Number of lines in bots, and total number of lines of each bots associated with a process
  • Line number for individual bots and processes that need review or action
Important: Automation 360 is updated frequently in order to achieve 100% functional equivalency with Enterprise 10 or Enterprise 11 versions. The percentage of bots, commands, and variables that are supported for migration in Automation 360 will increase until it reaches 100% over the next upcoming releases. That is, for every function you do in Enterprise 10 or Enterprise 11, an equivalent capability is in Automation 360.

Most of the Enterprise 10 or Enterprise 11 features are available as is; however, some features are implemented differently to support web (without a client) operations. For these features, you have to change the way bots are written.

The Bot Scanner is designed to scan bots (Task Bots and MetaBots) created using both Enterprise 10 and Enterprise 11 versions of Enterprise Client. The total file count includes the number of files that were skipped and not scanned.

The reports are available at the output location you specified in the Select destination folder field in the Automation Anywhere Bot Scanner dialog box. The Bot Scanner generates a summary report (summary.html) and a separate XML for each bot that it scanned. It creates a separate report for each logic available in a MetaBot.

A raw-data folder is created that contains the reports (in XML format) for each bot scanned. It helps our engineers to further analyze the migration process and take corrective actions, if required. No personally identifiable information (PII) is included in the summary report or the individual reports of the scanned bots.

If you choose to share the reports with us to help improve the product, compress the files in the raw-data folder and coordinate with your Customer Success Manager (CSM) or Partner Enablement Manager (PEM). No data is automatically shared with Automation Anywhere.

Summary report for all bots

The Bot Scanner utility provides an option to scan for either bots or processes, or bots and processes. Depending on what you choose, the summary report will contain information about the bots, processes, or bots and processes. Most of the sections seen in these summary reports will be the same except that in the bots and processes summary report you will also see an additional All tab that lists all the bots or processes that are flagged and sorted as Action required, Review required, No review required, and Non Migratable.
Note: For generating processes summary report, the maximum repository size that is supported is up to 10 GB.
The summary report provides information about the following:
  • whether you can migrate to Automation 360
  • the total number of bots scanned
  • bots only report that provides information about the bots supported for migration to Automation 360 (in percentage)
  • processes only report that provides information about the processes supported for migration to Automation 360
  • bots and processes combined report that provides information about the bots and processes supported for migration to Automation 360

For example, consider the Bot Scanner has scanned 10 bots. Of the 10 bots, if 8 bots are ready for migration to Automation 360, then percentage of bots that can be migrated is 80% and the percentage of bots that cannot be migrated now is 20%.

Reviewing the Bot Scanner report for bots
Consider a scenario where you have scanned a total of 1618 bots, of which 98% (1614 bots) can be migrated to Automation 360. However, 5% of bots require action after migration, and 2% (4 bots) cannot be currently migrated due to certain reasons. In such a scenario, the Bot Scanner report enables you to perform the following actions:
  • Identity the actions and reviews for the remaining 5% of bots so that you can successfully migrate a majority of your bots and run them in Automation 360 after migration.
  • Identify bots that can be migrated to Automation 360 without any manual intervention.
  • Identify the reason why 2% of bots cannot be currently migrated and the estimated time for when you can migrate them later. The reason might be due to commands and variables not yet supported in Automation 360.
Reviewing the Bot Scanner report for processes
To review a process message, perform these steps:
  1. Click the Processes tab.
  2. Click the messages tab that you want to review.
  3. In the Master Task Reference column, click the expand icon (expand icon for processes) to view the process.
  4. Click a process name to view the message.
Consider a scenario where you have a total of 100 processes, of which 99 processes can be migrated to Automation 360. However, 5 processes require action after migration, 10 processes require review after migration, and 1 processes cannot be currently migrated due to certain reasons. In such a scenario, the Bot Scanner report enables you to perform the following actions:
  • Identity the actions and reviews for the remaining 15 processes so that you can successfully migrate a majority of your processes and use them in Automation 360 after migration.
  • Identify processes that can be migrated to Automation 360 without any manual intervention.
  • Identify the reason why that 1 process cannot be currently migrated and the estimated time for when you can migrate them later.

    The reason might be due to commands and variables not yet supported in Automation 360.

The following image is a sample report from the Bot Scanner:

A sample Bot Scanner report

The following table describes the various fields in the sample Bot Scanner report (as numbered in the previous image):

Field/option Description
1 Provides a summary and status of the migration readiness of your bots. Review the status of migrated based on the following:
  • Green: You can proceed with migration provided that you review the report for any action or review required for your bots.
  • Amber: You have to wait for migrating your bots as the percentage of bots that are qualified for migration do not meet the migration requirements.
2 Provides a summary of the following information for bots:
  • Migratable Bots: Provides a summary of the total number of bots that can be migrated.
  • Total Bots: Provides a summary of the total number of bots that were scanned.
  • Action Required: Provides a summary of the total number of bots that require action after migration to Automation 360.
  • Review Required: Provides a summary of the total number of bots that require review after migration to Automation 360.
  • No Review Required: Provides a summary of the total number of bots that can be migrated to Automation 360 without any manual intervention.
  • Non Migratable: Provides a summary of the total number of bots that cannot be currently migrated to Automation 360.
3 Provides additional resources to ease the migration process.
4 Provides a summary of the following information for processes:
  • Migratable Processes: Provides a summary of the total number of processes that can be migrated.
  • Total Processes: Provides a summary of the total number of processes that were scanned.
  • Action Required: Provides a summary of the total number of processes that require action after migration to Automation 360. Even if a child bot in a process requires action, the process is flagged as Action Required.
    Note: If a process contains bots where some of them require review and some others require action, then the process is flagged as Action Required. The Action Required status takes precedence over the Review Required status.
  • Review Required: Provides a summary of the total number of processes that require review after migration to Automation 360. Even if a child bot in a process requires review, the process is flagged as Review Required.
  • No Review Required: Provides a summary of the total number of processes that can be migrated to Automation 360 without any manual intervention. All the bots in the process can be migrated.
  • Non Migratable: Provides a summary of the total number of processes that cannot be currently migrated to Automation 360. All the bots in the process cannot migrated.
5
  • Bots > All > Bots or Processes > All > Bots: Go to this view for a list of all the bots or processes that are flagged and sorted as Action required, Review required, No review required, and Non Migratable.
  • To view the message for a specific bot that require action or review, click the bot name.
  • To view the message for a specific process that require action or review, click the expand icon (expand icon for processes), and then click the task reference name.
Click the message code to view the information about changes in Automation 360 behavior for the command compared with the Enterprise 11 or Enterprise 10 behavior.
Note: Each message includes information you have to review after migration. For a list of these messages, see Review required messages. Use the message code (for example R102) to view the specific message quickly.
6 Bots > Action required > Bots or Processes > Action required > Bots: Go to this view for the list of bots or processes that require action after migration to Automation 360.
  • To view the message for a specific bot that require action, click the bot name.
  • To view the message for a specific process that require action, click the expand icon (expand icon for processes), and then click the task reference name.
Click the message code to view the information about changes in Automation 360 behavior for the command compared with the Enterprise 11 or Enterprise 10 behavior.
Note: Each message includes information you have to review after migration. For a list of these messages, see Review required messages. Use the message code (for example R102) to view the specific message quickly.
7
  • Bots > Review required > Bots or Processes > Review required > Bots: Go this view for a list of the bots or processes that require review after migration to Automation 360.
  • To view the review required message for a specific bot, click the bot name.
  • To view the review required message for a specific process, click the expand icon (expand icon for processes), and then click the task reference name.

Click the message code to view the information about changes in Automation 360 behavior for the command compared with the Enterprise 11 or Enterprise 10 behavior.

Note: Each message includes information you have to review after migration. For a list of these messages, see Review required messages. Use the message code (for example R102) to view the specific message quickly.
8 Bots > No review required > Bots or Processes > No review required > Bots: Go to this view for a list of bots or processes that can be migrated to Automation 360 without any manual intervention.
9 Bots > Non Migratable > Bots or Processes > Non Migratable > Bots: Go to this view for a list of bots or processes that cannot be currently migrated to Automation 360.
10 Bots > Commands : Go to this view for a list of the commands that can be migrated and the number of times the commands are used across all your scanned bots.
11
  • Bot name: In the Bots tab, click a bot name to view the action required message of a specific bot, click the bot name.
  • Master Task Reference: In the Processes tab, to view the action required message of a specific process, click the expand icon (expand icon for processes), and then click a task reference name.

Click the message code to view the manual steps you must perform to run the migrated process successfully in Automation 360.

You can also view the commands that the bot contains and the frequency or the number of times the command is used in the bot.

Note: Each message includes the cause and the action you have to perform after migration. For a list of these messages, see Action required messages. Use the message code (for example A101) to view a specific message quickly.
12 Provides the location of the bot.
13 Provides the status of the bot or process.
14
  • For bots, this field displays the number of lines used in a bot. This information will help you understand the complexity of the bot.
  • For processes, this field displays the sum of the total number of lines used in the parent and child bots within a process. This information will help you understand the complexity of the process.
15 For processes, this field displays the number of bots in a process that requires action after migration to Automation 360.. Click the expand icon (expand icon for processes) and then click a task reference name that is flagged as Action Required.

Click the message code to view the information about changes in Automation 360 behavior for the command compared with the Enterprise 11 or Enterprise 10 behavior.

Note: This field is available only for processes.
16 For processes, this field displays the number of bots in a process that requires review after migration to Automation 360. Click the expand icon (expand icon for processes) and then click a task reference name that is flagged as Review Required.

Click the message code to view the information about changes in Automation 360 behavior for the command compared with the Enterprise 11 or Enterprise 10 behavior.

Note: This field is available only for processes.
17 Download (as a CSV file) the list of bots, processes, or commands that can or cannot be migrated so that you can share the file with others.
18
  • For bots, this field displays the number of times a bot is used as a child bot.
  • For processes, this field displays the sum of the total number of dependencies used in the parent and child bots within a process.

The report is valid until the next version of Bot Scanner is available. When the next version of Bot Scanner is available, a report expiry message is displayed. You must download the latest version of Bot Scanner and scan the bots again.

Verifications and actions required after migration

Some commands in the bots might be marked as review required in the Bot Scanner report. For these items, you need perform certain validation or update the bots after they are migrated.

The following Bot Scanner messages require verification or some actions:

  • Child bot path is completely variablized and is resolved at runtime. Bot would fail upon execution if the path specified in the variable is not valid. Please review the migrate bot.

    Ensure that the child bot is available at the location specified in the variablized path. If the path in the parent bot is not correct, update the path to point to the correct child bot.

  • Value returned by system variable "Error Description" might be different w.r.t. legacy versions. Please review the migrated bot.

    Description of some of the error messages in Automation 360 might be different than Enterprise 11 or Enterprise 10 for the same error. If an Enterprise 11 or Enterprise 10 bot is configured to take decisions based on the description of the error messages, you might have to update the migrated bot based on the new description of error messages.

  • Migration of "Database - Connect" command is completed but additional configuration required for "Windows authentication". Please refer the database package documentation for more details.

    Complete the steps specified to connect to a Microsoft SQL Server with Windows authentication. See Connect to Microsoft SQL Server with Windows authentication.

  • Migration of "IF" with variable condition is completed. However, could not determine the date format of the user variable, hence migrated with default date format mm/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss. Please review and change the format if required.

    Update the date format in the migrated bot to the same format used in Enterprise 11 for that bot.

  • Could not determine if a variable used as position is index or column name. Index position starts from 0 instead of 1 hence take necessary actions if needed.

    If you have used the FileData Column[$variable$] or Excel Column[$variable$] system variables in the Enterprise 11 or Enterprise 10 bot, we assume that you have used the column name in the $variable$. In such cases, the migrated bot contains the FileData Column{$variable$} expression. If the $variable$ in the Enterprise 11 or Enterprise 10 bot contains the column number, you must update the expression in the migrated bot to FileDataColumn[$var.String:toNumber()$].

  • The Run Logic command that uses credential variables as input for a logic of a MetaBot

    Bots that use the Run Logic command that passes Credential Vault attributes from a Task Bot to a MetaBot logic can be migrated to Automation 360. The credential name and attribute name are displayed in the fields in the corresponding line of the migrated bot.

    If you have migrated using the restored Enterprise 11 database, an equivalent locker is created in Automation 360 for the credential variables used in the Enterprise 11 bot.

    Choose one of the following options to run the migrated bots successfully:
    • Option 1: Pass the credential type variables.
      1. Create a credential type variable in the child bots as input variables.
      2. In the Run action of the Task Bot package of the parent bot, update the input value fields to use the Credential Vault attributes for the credential type variable created for the child bot (corresponding to MetaBot logic).
    • Option 2: Pass the credential values as a global value.
      1. Create the Global value in Automation 360 for the credentials use in the Run Logic command in Enterprise 11.
      2. In the Run action of the Task Bot package of the parent bot, update the Input value fields to use the Global values for the credential type variable created for the child bot (corresponding to MetaBot logic).
    If you have not used the restored Enterprise 11 database when installing Automation 360, you must first create the required locker for the credential variables used in the Enterprise 11 bot, before performing the preceding steps.
    Note: Automation 360 provides enhanced security by allowing you to assign Credential Vault attributes only to the credential type variables. This restricts any nonsecure handling of Credential Vault attributes where they might have been assigned to non-credential type variables.

Report for an individual bot

The report for each bot provides information about its dependencies, variables, and commands used.

The individual bot report looks similar to the following code:


            <analysis version="1.3.0">
                <stat>
                    <dependencies ucount="0" count="0"/>
                    <errors ucount="6" count="12">
                        <error count="1">System variable $AAApplicationPath
lt;/error>
                        <error count="1">Command [If FolderNotExist] 
                        is not supported</error>
                        <error count="3">System variable $CurrentDirectory
lt;/error>
                        <error count="3">System variable $Extension
lt;/error>
                    </errors>
                </stat>
                <commands>
                    <command target-action="assign" name="VariableOperation" line="1" 
                    grp="VariableOperation" api="VarOpe">
                        <msg type="error" review="true" category="variable">System 
                        variable $AAApplicationPath
lt;/msg>
                        <msg type="info" review="false" category="default">Command 
                        parameter [Option] of type [String] is not required.</msg>
                    </command>
                    <command target-action="createFolder" name="createFolder" line="3" 
                    grp="FilesFolders" api="CreateFolder"/>
                    <command target-action="copyFiles" name="CopyFiles" line="5" 
                    grp="FilesFolders" api="CreateFolder"/>
                    <command target-action="connect" name="Connect" line="3" 
                    grp="Database" api="Connect"/>
                    <command target-action="OpenCSVTXT" name="ReadFrom" line="9" 
                    grp="CsvText" api="Csv"
                        <msg tpye="info" review="false" category="command">Line 
                        in 11.x client, there is no separate option given for CSV 
                        and TEXT in Automation 360</msg>
                            <msg type="error" review="true" category="variable">System 
                            variable $CurrentDirectory
lt;/msg>
                            <msg type="error" review="true" category="variable">System 
                            variable $Extension
lt;/msg>
                            <msg type="error" review="true" category="variable">System 
                            variable $FileName
lt;/msg>
                        </command>
                    </commands>
                    <variables>
                        <variable name="$CSV-TXT-Default-DATA
quot; 
                        type="TABLE" value-type=""/>
                    </varaibles>
                </analysis>
The following table describes the various attributes available in the XML report shown in the previous image:
Node Attribute Description
Stat -- Provides information about the number of dependencies, error, and warnings.
-- dependencies Specifies the number of dependencies for the bot. The ucount indicates the number of unique dependencies and the count indicates the total number of dependencies.
-- error Specifies the number of errors for the bot. The ucount indicates the number of unique errors and the count indicates the total number of errors.
Command -- Provides information about the various commands and actions used in the bot.
-- command target-action Specifies the action being performed for the command.
-- name Specifies the name of the command.
-- line Specifies the line number where the command is available in the bot.
-- grp Specifies the command group the command belongs to.
-- api Specifies the name of the API the command uses.
-- msg type Provides information about the message type. The error type indicates that the command cannot be migrated to Automation 360, and an info type indicates that the command can be migrated but some of its attributes will be changed during migration.
-- review Provides information about whether the command has to be reviewed.

This attribute is always true for error type messages, which indicates that migration of that command to Automation 360 is not yet supported. For info type messages, if the attribute is true, you must review the value in the category attribute. You can decide whether you want to take any action on the migrated bot based on the value available in the category attribute.
-- category Provides information about the command or variable for which the message is displayed.
Variables Provides information about the system variables used by the bot.
-- variable name Specifies the name of the variable.
-- type Specifies the type of variable.
-- value type Specifies the type of value provided for that variable.

See the following video on how to analyze the scanner report