Enterprise A2019.14 Release Notes

Release date: 9 July 2020

Review the new features, supported packages, changed features, fixed features, and known limitations in the Enterprise A2019.14 (Build 5322) release. There are no security fixes in this release.

Enterprise A2019

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 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 or a timeline for when migration will be available to all customers, contact your Automation Anywhere representative.
Bypass legal disclaimer

Enterprise A2019

When you allocate a device license to a user, the Bypass legal disclaimer option is automatically enabled to allow the user to run bots on the device without having to manually acknowledge a disclaimer.

Create a user

Choose to automatically update Bot Agent (Service Cloud case ID: 00497873)

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

An Control Room administrator can now choose to automatically update the Bot Agent to a later version (Administration > Devices) using the auto-update capability. In the earlier version, each Bot Agent had to be updated manually after logging in to a device, resulting in more downtime.
Note: In this release, Bot Agent users have to update each Bot Agent manually. From subsequent releases, the auto-update setting will be applied and each Bot Agent will be updated automatically.
  • For Cloud and Community Edition, the auto-update option is enabled by default.
  • For On-Premises, the default update option is set to manual.

Automatically update the Bot Agent

Universal Recorder new features

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

  • The Universal Recorder can now capture objects in SAP versions 730, 740, and 760 patch 5.
  • You can build automations in an SAP application using multiple connections (user accounts) and several sessions per connection at one time.
  • You can now record and run bots to capture objects from a Google Chrome browser that does not have a zoom level setting of 100%.
Capture active text, passive text, image button, and scroll in combo box in AISense Recorder

Enterprise A2019

You can now capture active text, passive text, image button, and scroll in a combo box from a remote application when recording a task with AISense Recorder.

Record a task with AISense Recorder

New Database package features (Service Cloud case ID: 00537047)

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

  • The Connect action now enables you to connect to an Excel database.
  • Use the Export to data table action to retrieve records from the database and store the retrieved data in a table variable.
  • You can now store the output of the Run stored procedure action in a dictionary variable.

Using Connect action for database | Using the Export to data table action | Using the Run stored procedure action

New Active Directory package available

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

Use actions from the Active Directory package to manage users across a group or organization. You can perform operations such as create, modify, and delete users, groups, or organizational units with centralized control.

Active Directory package

Log in securely when connecting to Active Directory server

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

You can use the Connect action from the Active Directory to enter your credentials (username and password). You can either insert the credentials from the Credential Vault or insert a variable that holds a credential type value.

Using Connect action for Active Directory | Credentials and credential variables in the Bot editor | Your variables (user-defined)

Support for Excel cell formats, including Number, Percentage, Currency, Scientific, and Date

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

Use the Get single cell and Get multiple cell actions from the Excel basic package and the For each row in worksheet Loop iterator to retrieve values in the format set in the Excel worksheet. For example, a value from a cell of Currency formatting retains the currency symbol when passed to a table or record variable.

Excel basic package | Loop package

Automate a task on a range of cells in an Excel worksheet

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

Specify a cell range in the Delete cells action to perform the operation on the cells in the range.

Excel advanced cell operations

New PDF package action

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

Merge multiple PDF files into a single PDF file using the Merge documents action.

Using the Merge documents action

Support for Czech and United States 2 code pages in Terminal Emulator package

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

The TN3270E and TN5250E terminal types support the Czech and United States 2 code pages. Use the Connect action to select the terminal type and code page.

Using Connect action for Terminal Emulator

Proxy support for packages

Enterprise A2019

If a device is configured with a proxy, all outbound requests from the following packages are routed through the proxy server:

  • Recorder
  • REST Web Service
  • SOAP Web Service
Form builder enhancements

Enterprise A2019

The form builder now includes the following new elements:
  • Dynamic - Enables dynamic rendering of the selected area.
  • Snapshot - Enables you to take a snapshot of the form.
Enhancements to actions in Interactive forms

Enterprise A2019

  • Enhanced highlight action

    The Highlight action in the Interactive forms includes a Highlight type drop-down menu. You can use Warning or Error to highlight the selected form element during the bot runtime.

  • New Change label action

    Use this action to change the label or title of the selected element of a specific form.

  • Dynamic area action
    • The Add row in Dynamic area action enables you to append or overwrite a dynamic element of a form.
    • The Clear action enables you to remove the dynamic elements.

Interactive forms package

Retrieve trigger event data

Enterprise A2019

You can now retrieve the trigger event data during bot runtime by defining a variable as the input type.

Add a file and folder trigger

Record variable support for schema

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

You can create a new record variable with a schema to set the order of the fields and the type of data that can be entered into each field.

Record variable

Product interface now available in Russian language

Enterprise A2019

Enterprise A2019 is now available in Russian.

Internationalization, localization, and language support

Clone and view content in Control Room

Enterprise A2019

The Control Room now includes the following new permissions:

  • View content: This permission allows you to view the contents of a cloned bot. This permission applies to both public and private workspaces.
  • Clone: This permission allows you to create a read-only copy of the bot from the public workspace. The same bot can be cloned by multiple users. This permission applies only to the public workspace.

Bot permissions for a role

New condition in the If and Loop packages

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

Use the Dictionary > Check key condition to execute actions based on whether the value of the specified key is Equal to or Not equal to, or Contains or Does not contain the target value.

If package | Loop package

New encoding type in CSV/TXT and Log To File packages

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

The UTF-16LE encoding option provides support for files that contain the byte order mark (BOM) Unicode character. In the CSV/TEXT > Open action, selecting this option causes the BOM character to be ignored when data is retrieved from the file using a subsequent Read or Loop action. In the Log to file action, this option inserts a BOM character at the beginning of the file.

Using the Open action for CSV/TXT file | Using Log text to file action

Retrieve a list of available users using Device API

Enterprise A2019

Use the Device API to identify all available users with unattended Bot Runner licenses, or to filter for users by name. This API returns details of each user, including the user ID, username, and device name.

Device API

Manually configure time interval value of database connection retries property (Service Cloud case ID: 00573167)

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

You can manually configure the time interval value of the database connection retries in the cluster.properties file. If the database is reconnected within the time specified in the cluster.properties file, the Apache Ignite cache node in the cluster setup will not restart the Apache Ignite server, keeping the device and the Control Room user connected. The default value of the time property ignite.max.duration.db.connection.retries in the cluster.properties file is 10000. The recommended maximum time for this property is up to 5 minutes (300000 msec).

Note: Restart the Control Room services on each node for the manually configured value of the time property to work effectively. Also, set the time in milliseconds.
Run as user to default device mapping in Workload automation (Service Cloud case ID: 00563115)

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

Workload automation now allows one-to-one (1:1) mapping of the Run As user with default devices when these devices are part of a device pool. Therefore, you can select default devices that are mapped to a Bot Runner to avoid auto-login failures in environments where the security policy does not allow a user to log in to any other device or devices.

Add queue, Bot Runner, and device pool

Authentication proxy support

Support is now available for proxy authentication servers where any application going through the proxy is authenticated and authorized before accessing the internet.
Supported packages
Package Version
Node Manager 12.1.6000
Application 2.0.0-20200624-041608
App Integration 1.0.0-20200624-041607
Analyze 2.2.3-20200624-011702
Active Directory 2.0.1-20200624-041605
Boolean 2.0.0-20200624-041610
Bot Migration 2.4.0-20200604-174031
Browser 2.0.0-20200624-041611
Clipboard 2.0.0-20200624-041619
Comment 2.0.0-20200624-041619
CSV/TXT 2.0.0-20200624-041620
Database 2.0.0-20200624-041623
Data Table 2.0.0-20200624-042148
Datetime 2.0.0-20200624-041628
Delay 2.1.0-20200624-041629
Dictionary 2.0.0-20200624-041629
Run DLL 2.0.0-20200630-062222
Email 2.0.0-20200624-041631
Error handler 2.0.0-20200624-041636
Excel basic 2.0.0-20200630-062144
Excel advanced 4.0.0-20200630-062063
File 2.1.0-20200624-041638
File & folders 1.1.0-20200627-151822
Folder 2.1.0-20200624-041640
FTP / SFTP 2.0.0-20200624-041644
IF/ELSE 2.0.0-20200624-041646
Image Recognition 2.0.0-20200624-041747
Interactive forms 2.14.0-20200629-185534
IQ Bot 2.0.0-20200415-125005
JavaScript 2.0.0-20200630-062021
Simulate keystrokes 2.0.0-20200624-041915
Legacy Automation 2.0.0-20200624-041919

1.0.0-20200515-133334
List 2.0.0-20200624-041923
Log To File 2.0.0-20200624-041923
Loop 2.0.0-20200624-041924
Message Box 2.0.0-20200624-041925
Mouse 2.0.0-20200624-041929
Number 2.0.0-20200624-041934
OCR 2.1.0-20200630-062040
Microsoft 365 Excel 2.0.0-20200630-062127
Microsoft 365 Calendar 2.0.0-20200630-061819
Microsoft 365 OneDrive 2.0.0-20200630-062133
PDF 2.1.0-20200624-042032
PGP 2.1.0-20200630-062139
Ping 2.0.0-20200624-042035
Printer 2.0.0-20200624-042042
Play Sound 2.0.0-20200624-042037
Prompt 2.0.0-20200624-042043
Python Script 2.0.0-20200624-042044
Recorder 2.0.6-20200626-193519
REST Web Service 2.0.0-20200624-042128
SAP 2.1.0-20200624-042131
Screen 2.0.0-20200624-042134
SNMP 2.0.0-20200624-042137
SOAP Web Service 3.0.0-20200624-042140
String 3.0.0-20200624-042145
System 2.0.0-20200624-042146
Task 2.0.0-20200624-103759
Terminal Emulator 3.2.0-20200625-032209
Trigger Email 1.1.0-20200624-042201
VBScript 2.0.0-20200630-062305
Wait 3.0.0-20200624-042156
Window 2.0.0-20200624-042224
Workload 2.0.0-20200624-042158
XML 2.0.0-20200624-042200
Changed features
Changes in the Database > Run stored procedure action
  • It is now optional to enter an input or output parameter name.
  • You must specify the data type of an input parameter. Choose from Boolean, date, number, or string date type.
The terminal screen for ANSI and VT100 terminals now displays 24 rows, instead of 25 rows as in earlier versions.
Email > Send action interface changes

For the Use secure connection (SSL/TLS) and My server requires authentication fields, you must now select True or False, or insert a Boolean variable. Previously, the fields were activated by selecting a check box.
Import bots in public or private workspace

Service Cloud case ID: 00456712

Users can now import bots into the public workspace if they have the required permissions, regardless of their licenses. Additionally, users with a Bot Creator license can now import the bots either into the public or private workspace.

Import bots

Fixed features
Service Cloud case ID Description
00554068 In the Community Edition, when you upgrade your Bot Agent to a later compatible version, Task Bots created with system variables of numeric type now run successfully. The Control Room does not show a preprocessing error when you deploy the Task Bots.
00443421 The Run stored procedure action in the Database package runs as expected with Oracle Database when you use input and output parameters.
00557374 The Universal Recorder now consistently captures objects from an SAP application and identifies the technology for those objects as SAP when all prerequisites are met.
00611874 An error is no longer encountered when a variable containing Japanese characters is used in the Write to file action of the Data Table package.
00564534 A modified dependency file with the same name as the original file and a new size is now successfully checked in from the private to the public repository. The old file that was previously checked in is no longer referenced after the modified file is checked in to the public repository, thereby preventing a bot execution failure.
00570537 When you clone a bot with or without dependency files, the cloned bot now displays the actual file size for the bot and its dependency files.
00577247, 00587976 Fixed an issue where the Email > Move all action did not move emails when a bot ran the action on an OS configured with the Japanese language setting.
00552729 The PGP > Decrypt action now works for PDF files.
00487805 You can now access the TN3270 terminal without the terminal screen displaying all text with strike lines. Before using any type of terminal to execute terminal commands, install the latest VC ++ package.

Latest supported Visual C++ downloads

00584051 Python 3 script now supports using Unicode characters in input variables. Bot error messages are no longer displayed when Python 3 is used to pass Japanese characters to a variable.
00540651, 00587963, 00593302 You can now use the Assign, Join, Merge, and Sort actions from the Data Table package when you change the default language from English to Simplified Chinese.

You can also use the Assign action when you change the default language from English to Japanese, Korean, and other non-English languages.
00577284 The Split document action in the PDF package now executes correctly for a horizontal PDF file, and the large-width output file is not cut off from the sides.
00595357 You can now export and import two different bots (with the same name) in different folders from a staging environment into a production environment.
00569527 You can now perform a check-in and check-out of bots with dependencies.
00574309 You can now update or remove Cluster ip addresses from the Elastic search disaster recovery backup cluster setting from the Control Room Administration page.
00525854 When a file type variable is used to open an Excel, CSV, or Java script file, bots can now be executed successfully when the file variable is used as an input.
00609184 After the existing license expires, the admin user can now successfully install a new Control Room license for a Control Room hosted on Linux CentOS.
00576202 You can now insert a user-defined string variable in a message box display when the string variable is included in the expression for multi-line values.
00560706 You can now view the actions menu (vertical ellipsis) to edit or delete the variable string name when the character length is more than 35 characters.
- For the Checkbox element, changes made to the check box names in the Checkbox content field are now updated when you enable Advance behaviors > Make default selections.
- You can now set the default selection in Advance behaviors for the Radio button element in a form.
00557395 You can now check in bots that use the variable $prompt-assignment$ without receiving an error message. Previously, when you opened the bot in List view, an error icon was displayed next to the actions that contain the variable.
00560356 Previously, when a task that consisted of one or more subtasks was run, the In Progress entry for the task was moved into a historical report with the completion of the first subtask, not the entire governing task. Now, the In Progress tasks are not moved to historical status until the completion of the entire task.
00556113 In Community Edition opened in Google Chrome, you can now select the device icon in a non-English language, and the [link] and [icon] tags are no longer displayed.
00559360 You can now re-import a bot that has failed previous imports. The query did not return a unique result: 2 displayed during re-import attempts is now fixed.
00443590 Fixed an issue where after a bot is deployed on a Bot Runner device, that device is in a different state compared to the state before the bot deployment. For example, if a Bot Runner device is locked before bot deployment, after it is unlocked to deploy the bot, it will now be moved back to lock status.
00559507, 00594149 Support for scheduling bots with Internet Explorer version 11 is now improved. Users in the Control Room can scroll through multiple pages of scheduled bots without issues with scrolling through the interface.
Known limitations
In Enterprise A2019 On-Premises, a security scan might report the Recorder package as malware because the check.exe file is missing the root identification certificate.

You can contact Automation Anywhere Support to get an updated package with the signature fix and upload it to your Control Room.

Add packages to the Control Room

Version Enterprise 10 or Enterprise 11 bots containing commands that have white space in the credential attributes cannot be migrated to Enterprise A2019. The migration process stores some credential attributes in global values in Enterprise A2019. Global values do not support white spaces.

To migrate bots that use credential attributes, you can remove the white spaces or replace them with characters.
If you use the Get action for an empty dynamic element of a form, errors are displayed during bot runtime.
If you use Trigger loop: Handle within a bot, link it to a form with Select File element, and set the Select action trigger > Lost focus, the next event is not triggered when you click Browse.
The Set focus action in Interactive forms does not work when you use it to link the fields between two different forms.
In the form builder screen, text is displayed in English even when you change the display to non-English language.
You might see the schedule automation name instead of the Workload automation name in the Workload > Queue > View Activity in progress and Run bot with queue > View pages when Work Items are processed for automation in the Bot Agent. This occurs if the Workload automation ID and schedule automation ID are the same in the Control Room database.
The Task bot > Run action only supports files selected from the Control Room repository. Also, this action only supports file type variables with a set default value and the input option disabled. You cannot modify the file variable value using the File > Assign action.
When you edit a bot using a previous package version (for example, an Enterprise A2019.13 version) and the Desktop session automatically starts, if you exit the Bot editor while the Desktop session is trying to launch, the previous package version will be displayed when you open a new Bot editor instance. However, you should see the Enterprise A2019.14 package version associated with the new Bot editor instance. If you close and reopen the new Bot editor instance, the Enterprise A2019.14 package version will be displayed.
There is an issue for a specific, manually generated license key file supplied by Automation Anywhere to upgrade from Enterprise A2109.13 to Enterprise A2019.14.
This issue applies only to customers who are in the following specific category (all must be true):
  1. Control Room is at the customer premises
  2. Control Room is running Enterprise A2019.13 or earlier
  3. Installed a license file that was provided to them in July 2020 (not self-generated through the customer self-service license portal)
  4. User has upgraded the On-Premises Control Room to Enterprise A2019.14.

For this issue, contact Automation Anywhere for updated license files.

Important: Users who self-generated their license files through the A-People License portal are not affected by this issue. Cloud customers are also not affected by this issue.
A bot that contains the Capture action from the Recorder package fails when both the HTML InnerText and InnerHTML object properties are selected.

Workaround: Select only one of the object properties.
The Universal Recorder fails to perform a click, set text, or append text action on the correct control when a debug window or download bar is open. This occurs only in the Google Chrome browser with the device display set to 100%.

Workaround: Disable the Google Chrome download bar.
When you create, edit, or run a bot from the Bot editor window, close the Bot editor window when the socket connection has just been established, and then navigate to the My bots page, the Recorder window opens for a moment and then closes.
Known limitation

IQ Bot

The IQ Bot A2019 On-Premises version supports all the features and functionality available in IQ Bot Version 11.3.4.2.

Automation 360 IQ Bot feature comparison matrix

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

Automation 360 IQ Bot version compatibility

The IQ Bot A2019 Cloud version is available for this release and supports all features and functionality available in IQ Bot Version 11.3.4.2. 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.

New features
Delete bot option in IQ Bot Designer (Service Cloud case ID: 00096258, 00595526)

IQ Bot On-Premises and Cloud

Users with Edit bot permission can view and use the Delete bot option in the Designer. After a bot is deleted from the system, it will not be displayed in the Learning Instance or Bots listing pages.

IQ Bot removes all document details from staging, and all unprocessed production documents are moved to the Validator.
Note: The Migration Utility > Import/Export functionality is not affected in any way by the Delete bot feature.

Bots

Extract data from a table that spans across multiple pages (Service Cloud case ID: 00371795)

IQ Bot On-Premises and Cloud

IQ Bot can now extract data successfully from an entire table that spans across multiple pages and has a table header only on the first page.
Add fields and field alias to custom domain (Service Cloud case ID: 00471075)

IQ Bot On-Premises and Cloud

You can now add additional fields (form or table) and field aliases to a custom domain for an existing learning instance.
Alert for successful or pending document validations

IQ Bot On-Premises and Cloud

Document validation status is now displayed on the Learning instances page. A green icon is used for all successful document validations, and a red icon shows any pending validations.

Changed features
Import custom domains from the staging to the production server in any order (Service Cloud case ID 00472445)

You can now edit and update an existing custom domain multiple times and import them to the production server multiple times, and in any order, before importing the learning instances. After importing the learning instances, the system classifies all documents in the production server correctly, allowing for successful processing of documents.

Custom domains in IQ Bot

Validator enhancements (Service Cloud case ID: 00470258)
Some of the Validator enhancements are as follows:
  • You can now hide the Skip to next file and Mark as Invalid options using configuration settings. The options are currently enabled by default.

    To enable the option to hide them, contact Automation Anywhere Support.

  • You can now hide the Hide successful fields and Hide optional fields options using configuration settings. The options are enabled by default.

    To enable the option to hide them, contact Automation Anywhere Support.

    Note: Selecting the Hide successful fields and Hide optional fields check boxes hides all the valid fields and reduces the display of a large number of fields, thus making correction easier. However, if there is an invalid field, it continues to be displayed because the invalid field requires correction.
  • Clicking in any column field expands the column width to accommodate the text entry. The Validator shows the value of the field that is being validated, in the document.
  • Draw an area around single or multiple values in the document image to automatically populate a field in the Validator. This function is similar to the Designer.
Fixed features
Service Cloud case ID Description
00552830 You can now use the unique validation link to access the documents without any errors.
- When you use table extraction from a document with multiple tables, the data from the specified table is now extracted correctly.
00551886 Unicode issue with table validation for Asian languages is now resolved.
00538480 The Options method is now disabled for HTTP requests.
00538480 Cross origin resource sharing is now restricted in IQ Bot.
00421067 The activities time stamp is now captured correctly in the Control Room Audit Logs tab.
00522817 The TestRun output of a custom logic now displays the characters without any distortion, irrespective of the language you select.
00605420, 00605741, 00606561 After upgrading to IQ Bot Cloud if you restart the Control Room, you can now view or create learning instances immediately without restarting the IQ Bot service.
Known limitations
IQ Bot On-Premises and Cloud

If you create a learning instance and click Learning instances > Edit, a blank page is displayed.

Workaround: Clear your browser cache and try to edit the learning instances.
IQ Bot On-Premises and Cloud

If you log in to the Control Room as an IQ Bot administrator, a 502 system error is displayed when you click the IQ Bot tab in the navigation bar.
IQ Bot On-Premises and Cloud

You can view the ValidatorURL error message for a validated document along with the corrected field in the .csv output file.
IQ Bot On-Premises and Cloud

In Internet Explorer, you cannot save a document or mark it as invalid in the learning instances validator screen.

Workaround: Use the Google Chrome browser to access the learning instances validator screen.
IQ Bot Community Edition

If you remove a bot (Delete a bot) associated with the document from the staging environment, you must create a group before uploading this document to the production environment. However, after deleting the bot from the staging environment, you cannot create or edit the group when you upload the same document to the production environment.

Bot Insight A2019

New features
Line Bar Chart widget available

Enterprise A2019

The Line Bar Chart widget enables you to view and analyze information about your metrics and attributes. You can input two metrics and one attribute and display a bar graph when only one attribute is selected or display a clustered graph when two or more attributes are selected. You can use Date types as interval options, grouped by Day, Week, Month, and Year.

Bot Insight visualizations

Advanced settings for a query

Enterprise A2019

You can use the Advanced Settings option to configure more of your queries when you create a new widget. You can now set limits to your attribute values as grouped by 10, 20, 50, and 100 values. You can also sort your data by ascending or descending order.

Configuring a Line Bar Chart query