Automation 360 v.24R2 Release Notes for Internet Explorer 11 EOL

Release date: 17 May 2022

This release notes applies to the Automation 360 v.24R2 patch release for Cloud , On-Premises , Sandbox, and Community Edition users impacted by the Internet Explorer end-of-life (IE EOL) and who have therefore chosen to convert IE bots.

Cloud, On-Premises, IQ Bot, Sandbox, and Community Edition are on Build 13343.
Note: The IQ Bot build does not include any specific updates and is available to match the Control Room build.

Why this release

Microsoft has announced end-of-life (EOL) for Internet Explorer beginning June 2022 and recommends Microsoft Edge or Microsoft Edge in IE mode. This release contains packages certified on Edge in IE mode and an IE Update Bot wizard to help you update bots in bulk to work with Edge in IE mode. The upcoming IE EOL might affect your deployments based on the operating system you are currently using where the bots are run.

See the following table for details:
Microsoft operating system Automation 360 bots
Windows 10 Semi-Annual Channel Upgrade the bots to use a compatible browser.

For a list of supported browsers, see Browser requirements for Automation Workspace.

All other supported operating systems No immediate impact

Starting from the upcoming Automation 360 v.25 release, you will be prompted to access the Control Room through an alternative supported browser, such as Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge (Chromium) instead of Internet Explorer. Your Control Room will no longer be accessible on Internet Explorer. By aligning with Microsoft's strategy for browser support, we can provide you with enhanced functionality that latest browsers such as Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge make technologically possible.

Updating to this release

You can update to Automation 360 v.24R2 On-Premises from the following previous releases that are certified for update:
  • v.24 (Build 12350)
  • v.23 (Build 11513)
  • v.22 (Build 10526)
  • v.21 (Build 9664, 9642, 9595)

As Community Edition and Sandbox are Cloud deployments, no manual upgrade is required. These environments are automatically updated to Automation 360 v.24R2 Build 13343.

If you are not on any of the above certified releases, update Automation 360 to one of the certified releases (listed previously) before updating to this release.

For the latest updates to the Automation 360 extensions for Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox, see Browser extensions for Automation 360.

Bot Agent updates

This release includes an optional Bot Agent update. To use the features in Automation 360 v.24R2 patch, update the Bot Agent available with the following builds:
  • Bot Agent version 21.200 for Build 13343
  • Bot Agent version 21.1000.14009 for Build 13331 (On-Premises pre-GA)

Note that if you want to run your existing bots, you do not have to update your Bot Agent to this release.

If you have installed the Automation 360 v.24R2 pre-GA patch (Build 13331) with Bot Agent version 21.1000.14009, perform the following steps.
  1. Uninstall the pre-GA Bot Agent version 21.1000.14009.
  2. Install Bot Agent version 21.200 for Automation 360 v.24R2 (Build 13343).
Important: If you have moved your bots from the user acceptance testing (UAT) environment and deployed them in a production (PROD) environment with Bot Agent version 21.1000.14009, you must update the packages with the latest Bot Agent version 21.200.

Community Edition features

Cloud, On-Premises, and Sandbox features

Fixes

The following fixes are available for Cloud , On-Premises , and Sandbox:

Service Cloud case ID Description
01784593 You can now run migrated bots successfully even when a $ (dollar sign) is present as a value in the User Variables field. The Bot Scanner no longer displays a preprocessing error.
-- When you automate web applications running on Microsoft Edge Chromium with IE mode or Internet Explorer, the Recorder now captures the object from the currently selected browser tab. Previously, the Recorder captured the object from the last used tab.
01189873 After migration, when you use the Browser > Open action to open a URL that has a space character, use the Browser > Download files action to download the file from the specified URL, and then run the bot, the bot now opens the URL in a single tab and downloads the file from the specified URL.

Previously, when the specified URL had a space character, the bot split the URL and opened it in two separate tabs.

Known behavior and limitations

The following limitations apply to Cloud , On-Premises , and Sandbox:

  • When you execute a stored procedure with name parameter arguments that resides in another database in the SQL Server, the bot displays an error because of the JDBC driver issue with executing a stored procedures with name parameters of another database in the same SQL instance.

    Workaround: When you add parameters to provide an input parameter or configure an output parameter, ensure you do not enter any value in the Parameter name field. The bot will not encounter any error when executing the stored procedure because the Database package considers blank values as indexing.

  • Note that even when the number of schedules listed on the Control Room Schedules page is less (for example, five or six schedules), you might see the following error because of a query timeout: An unexpected problem occurred. This is an existing Control Room database performance related issue.
  • There are other limitations and behavior that apply to bots migrated from Enterprise 11 to Automation 360 and to Automation 360 bots that run on Internet Explorer and are converted to Microsoft Edge with IE mode. For more information, see Known behavior and limitations.
  • When you use the Browser > Close action to close a tab or a window opened in the Microsoft Edge browser, if only one Microsoft Edge browser window is open, the bot encounters the following error: Error occurred while closing the tab
  • When you use the Browser > Open action to open network URLs that start with two backslash (\\) characters in the Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Mozilla Firefox browser, the URLs might not open properly.

    Workaround: Replace the two backslash (\\) characters with file:// protocol.

  • When you use the Browser > Open action, select New tab or Existing tab option to open a specific webpage in Microsoft Edge with IE mode, the bot might throw an error after opening the webpage.
    Workaround: Use any of the following workarounds based on specific scenarios:
    • Option 1: Add Try/Catch block around the Open action and ignore the exception as the website opens.
    • Option 2: In the Browser > Open action, select the New window option instead for such websites.
  • When you use the New window option in the Browser > Open action with the 3.4.x version of the Browser package to open a URL with arguments, the bot might not perform the specific action as the 3.4.x version of the Browser package does not support argument flags.

    Workaround: Use any version other than the 3.4.x version of the Browser package to automate.