Enterprise A2019.12 Release Notes

Release date: 18 May 2020

Review the new features, supported packages, changed features, fixed features, and known limitations in the Enterprise A2019.12 (Build 4111) release. IQ Bot Build 4088 is compatible with Enterprise A2019.12 Build 4111. There are no security fixes in this release.

Enterprise A2019

Important: This release includes a required update to your Bot Agent. Ensure that you complete the update to continue with your automation activities when upgrading from a previous release to this release.

Automatically update the Bot Agent | Manually update the Bot Agent

To verify which Bot Agent version is compatible with this release, see Compatibility with release builds.

New features
Migration from Enterprise 11 and Enterprise 10 Task Bots and MetaBots to Enterprise A2019 (currently available only to those in the Migration Early Adopter Program)

Enterprise A2019

Migration to Enterprise A2019 is currently only available to select customers through our Migration Early Adopter Program. If you are interested in learning more about this program and requirements, contact your Automation Anywhere representative.
Integrate Control Room with a remote Git repository

Enterprise A2019

Integrate the Control Room with remote Git repositories to manage bot version controls, and back up and restore bots and the dependent files. The integration ensures one-to-one mapping of bots between the Control Room and the remote Git file structure. When you perform a bot check-in, a Git commit is performed at the remote Git host.

Integrating Control Room with Git repositories

Additional actions in the Interactive forms package

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

The Interactive forms package includes the following actions:
  • Set focus: Sets the focus on the selected form element.
  • Highlight: Highlights the selected element of a form.
  • Unhighlight: Removes the highlight from the selected element of a form.

Interactive forms package

Form builder enhancements for interactive forms

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

The form builder includes the following elements:

  • Document: Use this element to render an image (.jpg) or PDF file along with the form.
  • Password: Use this element for a field that requires masking of the input data.

Create a form

Run Task Bot option for attended Bot Runner (Service Cloud case ID: 00453797)

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

If the default device is mapped to the Bot Agent, a user with an attended Bot Runner license in the Control Room can now use the Run Task Bot option from the bot context menu (vertical ellipsis) to run the bot.

Considerations for running a bot

New features in Universal Recorder and actions that use the recorder feature

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

  • Secure recording mode ensures that sensitive data is not stored in the bots. When secure recording mode is enabled, the bots do not capture application images or values.

    Actions in the Image Recognition, Mouse, OCR, Screen, and Recorder packages support this feature.

  • JRE 6 is supported on both 32-bit and 64-bit systems.
  • After you capture an object, you are returned to the window containing the Bot editor.

    Actions in the Image Recognition, Mouse, OCR, Screen, and Recorder packages support this feature.

Recording tasks in applications that run on JRE | Secure recording mode

Insert a work item action

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

The Insert work item action provides you the flexibility to insert a work item from an existing queue to another queue as part of the bot execution. You can orchestrate multiple bots, enabling optimal device utilization through the queueing mechanism of workload management.

Workload package

View error details of a work item

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

You can view the reason for a workload automation failure in the new Error section on the View work item details page.

View work items

Extract text from windows

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

Use the Capture text of window action to extract text from a window and save it to a string variable. You can capture text from UNIX shells and Windows applications.

App Integration package

Store string values securely in a credential variable

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

Configure a credential variable to hold a user-provided value or a credential from the Credential Vault. A credential variable cannot be converted to another data type, and the value cannot be displayed in a message box or written to a file.

User-defined variables: Credential

Preload packages for improved bot performance

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

Preload packages on your local device to shorten the bot runtime. When you preload packages used in a bot, the system skips the package download process at bot runtime, thereby improving the bot performance.

Preload packages

New features in the If and Loop packages

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

  • Execute actions based on whether the value of the source datetime variable is Equal to or Not Equal to, or is Greater than or Equal to, or is Lesser than or Equal to the value of the target datetime variable.
  • Execute actions on migrated bots based on whether Web control exists or is active.
  • Configure a Loop action with multiple conditions.

    Specify whether all or either of the conditions must be met.

If package | Loop package

Run a bot by inserting a file variable in the Run action

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

The Task Bot > Run action now supports a file variable input in the Task Bot to run field.
Configure a table variable using the Assign action in Data Table package

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

You can use this action to manually enter values, assign column names, specify the column data type (string, number, datetime, or Boolean), and move columns and rows.

Data Table package

Configure Wait package actions to terminate a running bot if a condition is unsatisfied

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

Select the Throw an exception option in the Wait for screen change and Wait for window actions to show an error message and terminate a bot if the screen does not change or the window does not open or close within the specified amount of time.

Using Wait for screen change action | Using Wait for window action

Email trigger for new emails

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

Use email triggers to start a bot when a new email message is received in the specified email service. Supported email services are:
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Email Server
  • EWS Server

Add an email trigger

Generate a random integer from a user-specified range and assign it to a number variable

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

Use the Random action from the Number package to generate an integer in the range of -9,223,372,036,854,775,808 through 9,223,372,036,854,775,807.

Random number action

Enterprise A2019 Bot Agent OS support

Enterprise A2019

Enterprise A2019 Bot Agent is now supported for single users on Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012, Windows 8, and Windows 7 SP1.

Bot Agent compatibility

Return the Bot Agent installation path using the system variable AAInstallationPath

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

Copy and paste actions and triggers between bots (Service Cloud case ID: 00455116)

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

Use the Copy to shared clipboard and Paste from shared clipboard icons at the top of the Bot editor to duplicate actions, triggers, and metadata at a time.
GDPR self-reporting

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

General Data Protection Regulation self-reporting enables the Control Room administrator to run reports that include the following data elements (sensitive data will be masked in the output):
  • User Bot Runner device access.
  • User data in associated credential vault.
  • Devices registered by the user.
  • All documents (artifacts) uploaded or updated to public or private repositories by the user.
  • All bots associated to the user.
  • Bot Insight dashboard report includes a list of all dashboards associated to this user ID.
Supported packages
Package Version
Node Manager 6.5.4738
Application 2.0.0-20200418-005328
App Integration 1.0.0-20200418-005326
Analyze 2.2.1-20200314-193039
Boolean 2.0.0-20200418-005329
Bot Migration 2.3.0-20200424-015945
Browser 2.0.0-20200418-005330
Clipboard 2.0.0-20200418-005342
Comment 2.0.0-20200418-005342
CSV/TXT 2.0.0-20200418-005342
Database 2.0.0-20200418-005345
Data Table 2.0.0-20200418-005637
Datetime 2.0.0-20200418-005348
Delay 2.1.0-20200418-005348
Dictionary 2.0.0-20200418-005349
Run DLL 2.0.0-20200418-005620
Email 2.0.0-20200418-005352
Error handler 2.0.0-20200418-005357
Excel basic 2.0.0-20200422-000204
Excel advanced 2.0.0-20200422-000103
File 2.0.0-20200418-005358
File & folders 2.0.0-20200317-030352
Folder 2.0.0-20200418-005400
FTP / SFTP 2.0.0-20200418-005404
IF/ELSE 2.0.0-20200418-005406
Image Recognition 2.0.0-20200420-104210
Interactive forms 2.12.0-20200420-084203
IQ Bot 2.0.0-20191031-150538
JavaScript 2.0.0-20200418-005413
Simulate keystrokes 2.0.0-20200418-005415
Legacy Automation 1.0.0-20200422-075546

1.0.0-20200422-075549
List 2.0.0-20200418-005422
Log To File 2.0.0-20200418-005423
Loop 2.0.0-20200418-005424
Message Box 2.0.0-20200418-005424
Mouse 2.0.0-20200418-005428
Number 2.0.0-20200418-005433
OCR 2.1.0-20200418-005434
Microsoft 365 Excel 2.0.0-20200418-005517
Microsoft 365 Calendar 2.0.0-20200418-005338
Microsoft 365 OneDrive 2.0.0-20200418-005523
PDF 2.1.0-20200418-005526
PGP 2.1.0-20200418-005528
Ping 2.0.0-20200418-005529
Printer 2.0.0-20200418-005535
Play Sound 2.0.0-20200418-005530
Prompt 2.0.0-20200418-005536
Python Script 2.0.0-20200418-005537
Recorder 2.0.0-20200318-020414
REST Web Service 2.0.0-20200418-005619
SAP 2.1.0-20200418-005622
Screen 2.0.0-20200418-005625
SNMP 2.0.0-20200418-005627
SOAP Web Service 3.0.0-20200418-005630
String 3.0.0-20200418-005635
System 2.0.0-20200418-005636
Task 2.0.0-20200417.230104-1256
Terminal Emulator 2.0.0-20200418-005641
Trigger Email 1.1.0-20200418-005652
VBScript 2.0.0-20200418-005643
Wait 3.0.0-20200418-005645
Window 2.0.0-20200418-005700
Workload 2.0.0-20200422-054201
XML 2.0.0-20200418-005650
Changed features
Build 4105 replaced with Build 4111

Build 4105 has been deprecated and replaced with Build 4111. If you have installed Build 4105 on Windows, perform a regular upgrade to get the new build. If you have installed Build 4105 on Linux, you must uninstall it and reinstall Build 4111. After you are on Build 4111, an update to Bot Agent 7.0.4789 is also required.

Update Automation 360 to latest version

User interface changes in Excel basic and Excel advanced packages

The text field titled Cell name is now Cell address in the actions from the Excel basic and Excel advanced packages.
Specify the column title in the Get cell address action in the Excel advanced package

The Specific cell option is now the Based on header option, which accepts the column title as either the column heading or the default column title.

Using the Get cell address action

Edit a work item without changing its status

You no longer have to change the status of a new work item for editing. You can now edit work items that are in New status. Previously, you were allowed to edit the work item attribute values after changing the state of the attributes so that the edits to the work item could be saved.

Edit work items

Mark work items for reprocessing

The Ready to run action is now updated to Re-process so that you can mark work items that are in Failed, Data error, or On hold state to New status for reprocessing.

View work items | Edit queues

Fixed features
Service Cloud case ID Description
00560339 You can now do a second checkout of the same bot, make updates (for example delete a command) , and check it back in. The "File Not Found" error that prevented subsequent checkouts of the same bot and data deletion not actually getting deleted has been fixed.
--

Devices running an older version of the Bot Agent can now connect to A2019.12 Control Room.
-- Secure Data Store (SDS) installation on Enterprise A2019.12 is now working.
00530388 Multiple bot updates and check-ins succeed irrespective of the Enterprise A2019 version used to import the bot.

Bot check-in on Cloud deployments used to fail when the bot was imported multiple times and overwritten. This issue is now fixed.

00521691 After Excel files are extracted from a .zip file, common tasks such as renaming and deleting the Excel files failed. This issue is now fixed.
00519528 Bot Scanner version 2.0.0 now works as expected. The crash issue is now fixed.
00517040 When the Email package is used in Exchange Web Services, the action loop exited after processing 10 emails. This early exit is fixed. Now all specified emails are processed before the loop exits.
00504163 When bots are run using the Open and Close actions from the DLL package in a loop, the Bot Agent window now functions correctly. The Bot Agent service does not require a manual restart after a bot is run.
00494267 Actions from the DLL package can now be run inside and outside a loop.
00494273 The Create worksheet action in the Excel advanced package now supports default sheet names for all the supported languages in Enterprise A2019.
00492554 The Sort table action in the Excel advanced package now supports OS setting for the Swedish region.
00446956 The Open action in the CSV/TXT package can now read values from files encoded with UTF-8.
00503230 The SOAP Web Service action now supports responses with non-English characters.
00522147 The $StringVar.String:trim$ shorthand now trims leading and trailing spaces in a string when used in the Message box package.
-- You can now deploy bots on selected Bot Runner devices with the Run as option from the My bots page in an Control Room configured on Microsoft Azure.
-- Scheduled bots now run as expected and do not get stuck in the queue in an Control Room configured on Microsoft Azure.
-- After you capture an object in a browser or application window, the browser window containing the Bot editor is now reactivated. Previously, users had to manually return to the Bot editor.

Actions in the Image Recognition, Mouse, OCR, Screen, and Recorder packages support this feature.

00475070 Exporting a report to CSV from Activity > Historical now correctly outputs the data.
00516331 You can now build a bot that contains more than one Database > Read from action that is followed by a Loop action, within the same database session. Each time the bot runs the Read from action, the query results are refreshed, and the loop will only iterate on the current results.
00509735 Auto Login now works when you deploy a bot as an unattended Bot Runner on a Horizon Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) session.
00509831 Prompt package actions now support long inputs. The user interface displays up to 512 characters. If the input is longer than 512 characters, the rest appear as a tooltip when the user hovers over the prompt box.
00518566 You can now use the recorder feature within actions to select window titles and file paths on a device that has proxy authentication enabled. Previously, users had to manually enter this information because they could not access the device through actions while building a bot.
00475107 The Japanese language now supports column names when using CSV-related actions.
00532894

00532253

00539241

 When you reimport a bot using exported files from a different Control Room of the same version (from version A2019.12 onward) and choose to overwrite the bot, you can now check-in that bot. The error generated when you choose the overwrite option that prevented check-in of the reimported bot is now fixed only for version A2019.12 onward. Reimporting bots on A2019.11 and older releases are not supported at this time.
00521222, 00525635, 00529274, 00526613, 00526489, 00530609, 00530787, 00533445, 00535366, 00530900, 00538070 The progress of a Task Bot is not stalled at line 0 and does not remain in queue to run when you deploy the bot on a Bot Runner. The status of the device reflects Yet to Be Determined until the device is available to process the items.
00421195 You can now create a work queue by providing details such as the queue name, queue owners, participants, consumers, and work item structure. This feature is available from Workload > Queues > Create Queue.
00533465 When you delete any action from an existing bot, the corresponding metadata for the deleted action is now removed from the bot.
Known limitations
If you are running A2019.12 Enterprise On-Premises with build 4105 on Linux and want to use Build 4111, then you must uninstall Build 4105 and do a fresh installation of Build 4111. You cannot perform an upgrade to get Build 4111. See Uninstall Automation 360 On-Premises from Linux server. A2019.12 Enterprise On-Premises on Windows can be upgraded as normal.
The Send reset password email functionality (from the Administration > User page) to help users reset their password is not working and returns a 401 error. Users should use the "Forgot password?" flow to reset their password.
Folders created using the Folder > Create action cannot have names that contain system actions or device references such as AUX, CON, LPT, NUL, and PRN.
Mouse click with key combo for preset triggers in SAP application is currently not supported.
The following are known limitations in the form builder:
  • If the character limit is set to 0 and the field is marked necessary for the Password element in a form, an error message is displayed when you run the bot.
  • An invalid file path associated with the Document element in a form displays an error message when the Get and Set actions of the interactive forms are used.
  • A blank page is displayed on the form builder when you paste content into any of the existing form elements.
  • A form that is linked to a bot through the Display action of interactive forms is displayed in front of all other windows, even when the Always display form window in front option is not selected.
  • Work items might be queued on the View queues page as the number of devices in the device pool increase. This should not affect the bot execution because the queues are cleared when the work items are processed.
  • You cannot simultaneously insert work items from multiple devices in a queue.
  • You cannot create a draft queue.
  • When you insert a number value using the Insert work item to a queue, the system shows an incorrect value. For example, if you insert 023456789, the system shows 2.3456789E7.
  • When you add more devices to a device pool that is processing workload management automations, the newly added devices might not immediately pick up the pending work items.

    Workaround: Pause and resume the workload management automation.
If a device goes idle while processing workload management work items in a device pool, it will not process the work items. However, those work items can be processed by other devices in the pool.
When you create a form with using the Document element and provide an incomplete file path, your bot will not run successfully.
When you create a form and specify that a password is required, the password length can be set to 0.

IQ Bot (Build 4088)

Enterprise A2019.12 Build 4111 is compatible with IQ Bot A2019 (Build 4088).

The IQ Bot On-Premises version supports all the features and functionality available in IQ Bot Version 6.5.2.

IQ Bot feature comparison matrix

Review the compatibility of the IQ Bot On-Premises version with the corresponding Automation Anywhere Control Room On-Premises version.

Automation 360 IQ Bot version compatibility

The IQ Bot Cloud version is available for this release and supports all features and functionality available in IQ Bot Version 6.5.2. This version provides users with automatic provisioning for up to three environments such as Development, Test, and Production. Users can migrate learning instances between environments using APIs.

The IQ Bot Community Edition and the free trial version are available for this release. Both versions have feature parity and are based on IQ Bot Version 6.5.2.

Bot Insight

New features
View filtered data of the dashboard widgets

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

The Bot Insight dashboard widget filter enables you to apply filters across the widgets in the dashboard to display filtered data. While the dashboard filters enable you to view different combinations of information from a single dashboard, the widget filters enable you to drill down to information from the already filtered data. You can also save and publish the custom dashboards with the preset widget filters.

Bot Insight dashboard filter

Retrieve information from the Bot Insight API, and generate and visualize data analytics on Microsoft Power BI

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

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.

Data connector for Power BI

Preview and analyze business information in the default business dashboard

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

The Data Preview menu in the Bot Insight default business dashboard displays information that is logged for multiple Analyze Open and Close commands used in the bot. The Preview Data menu does not appear when you perform a comparison between the default dashboards.
API enhancements

Enterprise A2019

The deletetasklogdata API is updated to include the runId parameter. The getbotrundata API retrieves information about the vital statistics of the bot. The getaudittraildata API retrieves information about the audit data that is logged for all users.

Bot Insight API