Automation 360 v.28 Community Edition Release Notes

Release date: 22 March 2023

Review what's new in the Community Edition of the Automation 360 v.28 (Build 17566) release. Build 17566 replaces Build 17557.

Important: This release includes an optional Bot Agent update. You can continue to run your existing bots without updating the Bot Agent. However, if you want to use the new features in Automation 360 v.28, you must update the Bot Agent available with this release.
For more information on updating to this release, see these resources:

Automation Workspace

What's new
Workday package

You can use the new Workday package from Automation 360 to automate your Workday processes such as reporting, data upload/download, or triggering workflows with our new point-and-click experience. The package provides deep API-level integration with Workday that enables you to build automations easily, without having to code.

Workday package

Apigee package

You can use the new Disconnect and Resume Integration features in the Apigee package. You can disconnect from your Apigee instance and clear the session using the Apigee Disconnect action. You can resume an integration that is suspended in Apigee using the Apigee Resume Integration action.

Apigee Disconnect | Apigee Resume Integration

Extended attributes supported in the Terminal Emulator Package (Service Cloud case ID: 01870633, 01928396, 01809815)

The TN3270E terminal type supports extended attributes. To enable extended attributes for TN3270E terminals, select the Extended Attribute check box in the Connect action.
Enhanced error messages display errors from the child bots (Service Cloud case ID: 01264352)
When you create a bot where the parent bot calls a child bot, and if an error occurs in the child bot, the error message provides the following details:
  • Line number of the parent bot which ran the child bot.
  • Line number of the child bot where the error occurred.
  • Error message details, such as what went wrong with that line number and the corresponding corrective action.

Using Bot editor

Timeout option in Database Connect action (Service Cloud case ID: 00753858)

We added a timeout option in the Connect action of the Database Package. When you connect with Microsoft SQL Server to automate database-related tasks, and if the database is down or experiences any network issues, the automation will time out and fail if the database connection is not established in the specified time.

Using Connect action for database

Improved readability with new formatting capabilities in XML document (Service Cloud case ID: 01886455, 01925386)
When you insert, update, or delete nodes, the XML package does not remove carriage return characters between nodes but does remove all blank text nodes from the XML document. By using Prettyprint to format XML files, developers can easily improve the readability of a document. Developers can save time by using the following new options that have been added to the XML Package:
  • Use Prettyprint: The Save session data action supports the Prettyprint format in the XML document. When you select the Use Prettyprint check box and use the Insert node, Update node, or Delete node actions and then save the XML document, the code is formatted with proper indentation as per Prettyprint.
  • Remove text nodes that contain only white space: The Start Session action provides an option to remove blank text nodes when you parse the XML document.

Save session data action in XML | Start session action in XML

New features added to the Email Package (Service Cloud case ID: 01835214, 01846425, 01756713, 01882482)
To support extensive process automation, we added the following action-related features to the Email Package:
  • Ability to use the Reply All action.
  • Enhanced the Delete all action to delete all emails from a specific folder. Additionally, you can apply filter parameters to emails such as:
    • All, Read, and Unread
    • Subject
    • From a specific sender
    • Before, on, or after a received date
  • The dictionary variable for email properties includes a new variable, emailNoOfAttachments, used to retrieve the attachment count.

Reply All action | Example using Email actions in a bot | Delete all action

Automate controls using Microsoft UI Automation (COM) technology
You can use the Microsoft UI Automation (COM) technology to automate the following scenarios:
  • Capture and automate link controls
  • Capture and automate tree controls

Capture using specific technology | Actions performed on objects captured with Universal Recorder

Insert Custom column in Data Table

A new Custom column option has been added to the Data Table > Insert column action that enables you to insert a new column at a specified index in a data table. When you read an Excel spreadsheet and assign it to a data table, you can modify the table by adding a new column and entering any required data.

Insert column action

New Label option in Loop package

A new Label option has been added to the Loop package that enables you to break or continue a specific loop from the nested loops.

Loop package

Add and configure If action conditions

You can add and configure a maximum of 32 conditions in a single If action.
Improved automation reliability for web applications
When you use the Recorder > Capture action to automate web pages running on Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers, the Recorder > Capture action no longer scrolls down the web page if the target object is visible on the screen. This feature improves the user experience and reliability of automation when there is a fixed top pane on the web page and if some physical actions such as mouse clicks do not work as expected.
Note: Ensure that you install the browser extension (version 3.0.8.0) and use the Recorder package (version 2.10.2) to capture the control.
Preferred view retained as default view in the Bot editor

As a bot developer, you no longer have to manually select the preferred view when you open the Bot editor. To improve the developer's productivity and user experience, when creating bots in the Bot editor, your preferred view (List, Flow, or Dual) in the Bot editor will persist across user sessions and browsers. When you navigate in the Control Room or after your next log in, the Bot editor will retain your last used or selected view.

Using Bot editor

Line markers for collapsible sections of code in the Bot editor

When you create bots using Loop, If/If-else, Step, Trigger-loop, Try, Catch, and Finally statements, the Bot editor clearly shows the collapsible sections. When building automations, developers can use these visual indicator line markers at the beginning and end of the collapsible section to improve their productivity.

Note: The visual indicator line marker for the collapsible section applies only to the List view in the Bot editor.

Using Bot editor

What's changed
Improved secure registration for Community Edition or Automation 360 users

When a user registers for the Community Edition or Automation 360 account, the registration email sent to the user contains a temporary registration link used to create the user credentials. This registration method is more secure than sending the user their password in plain text.

Automation Co-Pilot for Business Users

What's new
Stationary action buttons

While completing forms in Automation Co-Pilot, action buttons are positioned in the fixed footer of the form. The footer and its contents are responsive to the size of your window and adjust to fit buttons and minimize the footprint.

Add Form Task to a process automation

Forms have improved responsiveness due to this next generation of form rendering technology.

Document Automation

What's changed
Important: New Community Edition users will have access to Document Automation but not IQ Bot

As of Automation 360 v.27 release and later, only Document Automation will be provisioned to new Community Edition users. New users will not have IQ Bot permissions, however, IQ Bot will be available for existing, registered users.