Automation 360 v.21 Community Edition Release Notes

Release date: 02 June 2021

Review the new features in the Community Edition of the Automation 360 v.21 (Build 9664) release.

Automation Workspace

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
Automation 360 navigation enhancements

We have enhanced the overall readability and accessibility of the Automation 360 interface. To make navigation easier, menus and views are organized based on frequently used features and related tasks.

The interface includes the following updates:
  • The Device, Profile, and Help icons are now located at the bottom of the navigation menu, consolidating all controls on the left for easy access.

    When you click these icons, flyout panels of content and actions are shown.

  • The side navigation menu can be collapsed to a slim bar to maximize the main workspace area.

    You can continue to use the side navigation in collapsed mode, with flyouts for each section.

Automation 360 navigation updates

Deploy workload automation on a multi-user Windows terminal server

To optimize workload automation and multi-user devices, you can deploy workload automations on a multi-user Windows terminal server so that a single device can process multiple work items concurrently.

About multi-user devices | About device pools

New actions in the SAP BAPI package

Use the following new actions:

  • Run standard workflow: Runs a standard workflow in SAP BAPI.
  • Run custom workflow: Runs a custom workflow in SAP BAPI.

SAP BAPI package

New actions in File package

Use the following new actions:

  • Get name: Reads a file name and stores it to a string.
  • Get path: Reads the path of the file and stores it to a string.

File package

Common table expression supported in Database package

You can now use common table expression (CTE) in the Read from action using the WITH keyword in SQL-compliant databases such as Oracle and MySQL. Use CTE statements within a SQL query to simplify complex joins and subqueries.

Using the Read from action

Support for large numbers in Number package (Service Cloud case ID:00557619)

You can now perform mathematical operations for large numbers with more precision in the Number package.

Number package

Snowflake database support using OBDC driver (Service Cloud case ID:00761695)

Snowflake OBDC driver is now supported in the Database package. You can connect to the Snowflake database using ODBC-based client applications.

The following actions support this feature:

  • Connect
  • Disconnect
  • Read from
  • Export to data table
  • Insert/Update/Delete
Variables: new features and enhancements (Service Cloud Case ID:00740585)
  • Edit the variable name after the variable is created.
  • Delete all or a specific selection of unused variables from a bot.
Universal Recorder new features and enhancements
  • Record object interactions in applications built on the Electron framework.
  • Perform double-click in all supported applications and browsers.
Limit credential attribute use to password fields only (Service Cloud Case ID:00740585)

When you create or edit a credential attribute, ensure that bots input the attribute value only in fields that are identified as password fields by selecting the Set this attribute as a password option.
Default names for output variables

When you configure an output variable for the actions in the Error handler and Python Script packages, the Control Room automatically generates a descriptive default variable name. If you create more than one output variable for an action, the subsequent variable names are appended with a -1, -2, -3, and so on to avoid a variable name conflict.
New string action to support nested variables

Use the String > Evaluate value action to compare a user-specified string variable with the string variables in the bot. If a match is found, the action returns the value of the matching variable.

String package

Delete Global values

A user with the AAE_Admin role can delete a global value from the All global values page.

Global values

ODBC driver support for all connection strings (Service Cloud Case ID: 00748887, 00777676)

An Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) driver is now available to support all the ODBC connection strings in the same way it was used in the Enterprise 11 version. Using SQL as a standard for accessing and managing data, you can connect to MySQL, Google BigQuery, Snowflake, and other databases using the ODBC driver.
Share a DLL session

You can now share a DLL session between bots.

Automation Co-Pilot for Business Users

New features
Download, delete, or view files in browser in initial forms or tasks

Users can now use the Select File element to download files that are uploaded to the initial forms or tasks, and they can also delete files or access the hyperlink file to view the file in within the browser. The uploaded file can be accessed as a hyperlink, and new icons are available for download and delete.

Enhancement to team roles

The Automation Co-Pilot team consists of three roles:

  • Member: Can create, view, and delete their own requests. All the tasks are automatically assigned to the member when they create the request in a private team. In a shared team, the member can assign tasks to other members.
  • Owner: Can create, view, delete, and assign all the requests from the members in the team.
  • Admin: Can create, view delete, and assign all the requests from the members in the team. The admin can also modify the team.

An Automation Co-Pilot admin or manager can edit their teams and update their team members' roles. They also have the option to add or remove team members. The Automation Co-Pilot manager is the team admin by default when they create a team.
Assign to me feature in tasks

When a task is unassigned and users access the tasks, use the Assign to me option to allow the tasks to be assigned to the current user so that they can immediately access the form.

Assign or unassign a task

New Bot page

When Automation Co-Pilot team members with attended Bot Runner licenses access the web interface, they are automatically redirected to Automation Co-Pilot Desktop Assistant. Users can view all the bots created by them on this page. They can also pin, search, and sort their assigned bots.
New team reference in Request and Process pages

The user can now reference the team from which a request is created by referring to the new Team column in the Request page or the team name added in the process tile in the Process page, to help guide their team assignment.

New Request Visibility field (Service Cloud case ID: 00718119)

Request visibility enables users to allow or restrict access to a request they created to other team members. When the Request Visibility field is set to Shared, all the requests are accessible by all members, owners, and team admins. If the field is set to Private, the requests are available only to the user who has created the request, owner, and the team admin.
Enhancement to the Processes page

The following enhancements are available on the Processes page:

  • Sort the processes by name, in ascending or descending order.
  • Toggle the pinning of a process.
  • Use the responsive view to adjust the display to the screen size.
Automation Co-Pilot Desktop Assistant for attended Bot Runners

The Automation Co-Pilot Desktop Assistant application enables users with the attended Bot Runner license to access their bots without logging in to the Control Room. Automation Co-Pilot web users can use the Automation Co-Pilot Desktop Assistant when the attended Bot Runner license is enabled along with their Automation Co-Pilot User license without impacting their existing functionality.

Automation Co-Pilot Desktop Assistant

Add rows from header row context menu

Only the header row is displayed when a form that has a table is launched during bot runtime. Use one of the following methods to add new rows to the table:

Discovery Bot

New features
Sort for a process tile from the Processes page

You can now use the sort field to help you locate a process tile quickly. From the Processes page, use the drop-down menu to sort on a process tile based on the process name in alphabetical order. Alternatively, you can sort in the order of the newest process created to the oldest process and vice versa.

Create a Discovery Bot process

Enhancements to opportunities

You can now review and analyze automatically generated (or system-generated) opportunities immediately from the Opportunities page. Auto-generated opportunities are created when at least two recordings are approved by the user. You can create a custom opportunity from an auto-generated opportunity and apply the Model and Filter options to target a specific opportunity for automation.

You can now prioritize opportunities based on a simple formula for all recordings in a process. From the Opportunities table, you can view the cost without automation and savings for an opportunity. The system automatically calculates the cost and potential savings for each opportunity generated. You can customize these metrics based on your organization's model for cost and savings.

Review opportunities and convert to bot

Generated PDD files are available on your local server

The generated PDD file for an opportunity is now stored locally on your server for On-Premises deployments. The existing PDD files are automatically moved to the new location and are not deleted when a re-installation or update is performed in the Control Room.

Prerequisites for Discovery Bot