Migration updates for v.27 release

Review what's new, changed, and the fixes and limitations to migrating from Enterprise 11 and 10 versions to Automation 360 v.27.

What's new

Enterprise 11 and Enterprise 10
Scan Automation 360 bots that use Basic authentication in Email action

This release introduces an option to use the Bot Scanner to scan all Automation 360 bots and identifies those that use Basic authentication in the Email package and Email trigger action so that you do not have to identify them manually.

You can use the Bot Scanner report to analyze the impact to the bots due to the Basic authentication and the estimated effort required to switch the authentication mode from Basic to OAuth 2.0.

For more information, see Scan bots for Basic authentication | Basic authentication scanning messages

Variables created automatically after migration

In the Bot Scanner utility, bots that contain the following non-referenced system variables are no longer flagged as Action Required or Review Required:

  • $Excel Column$
  • $Filedata Column$
  • $Dataset Column$
  • $Table Column$
  • $XML Data Node$
  • $PDFTitle$
  • $PDFSubject$
  • $PDFFileName$
  • $PDFAuthor$

After migration, the system automatically creates these variables based on the Automation 360 naming convention, and the migrated bots run successfully.
Support for SMTP server type with Send Email command

When you migrate bots with the Send Email command, you can select the Use outgoing Email server settings option in the Bot Migration Wizard to identify and select the server type for the Enterprise 11 bots. You can configure required server details using a new SMTP server type option.

See Migrate Enterprise bots.
Improved automated editing ability for legacy bots

When you migrated legacy bots that contained the Log To File command, the Carriage Return and Line Feed (CRLF) characters were converted to LF characters automatically. In Automation 360, the text is displayed in a single line with no line feed, whereas in Enterprise 11, the CRLF is added at the end of each line as a line feed. As a result, you had to add the $String:Newline$ variable to insert a CRLF in the migrated bot.

The new Convert \n characters to \rn\n Log to File action option in the Bot Migration Wizard enables you to add a new CRLF automatically to migrated bots and avoid manual edits. Migrated bots that use the Log To File sub-commands to log files can use the CRLF characters in a string.

See Migrate Enterprise bots

Enterprise 11 only
Migration enhancement to packages and actions
  • When you migrate Enterprise 11 bots with variables whose values are read from a text file, the system adds the String: Import string from text file subcommand to import the variables from the text file into a string variable. As a result, extra lines are added in the migrated bots.

    The Read variables action has been added in the Text filepackage to address the extra lines.

    You can use this action to read the values of all variables in a text file as a single line in a migrated bot which simplifies the post-migration efforts and reduces the number of lines added in a migrated bot.

    See Read variables action
  • Microsoft is removing the capability to use Basic authentication in Exchange Online for the following protocols:
    • RPC
    • MAPI
    • Offline Address Book (OAB)
    • Exchange Web Services (EWS)
    • POP
    • IMAP
    • Exchange ActiveSync (EAS)
    • PowerShell
    For those customers running bot for Email automation that connect to Exchange Online using the IMAP, POP3, or EWS protocol with Basic authentication, we have added authentication options to support OAuth2 authentication.

    You can migrate Enterprise 11 botswith the authentication type set to the OAuth2 option with Authorization code with PKCE or Client credentials.

  • In the Read from action of the Database package, the following option is introduced: Don’t create file if no data is found. This option is selected by default for migrated bots with the Database package, and the migrated bots now follow the same behavior as Enterprise 11. If the executed SQL query does not return any data, the behavior is as follows:
    • If this option is selected, no CSV file is created.
    • If this option is not selected, a 0 KB CSV file is created.
    For more information, see Using the Read from action.
  • Migrated bots support the newly added Return key in the Simulate Keystrokes > Keystrokes action. These bots will continue to display the Enter key (which has been renamed to Num Enter) and the newly added Return key.
  • Migrated bots support access to the Datetime global variable across all actions in the Datetime commands.
You can successfully migrate Task Bots that contain references to multiple MetaBots which include DLLs with same name. The session name of the first DLL is created using the name of the DLL. When the subsequent DLL with the same name from another MetaBot is migrated, the ID of the folder in which the DLL resides is used as a session name.

For example: M_DLL_Session-<MetabotFolderId>_<DLLName>.

Fixes

If the Enterprise 11 bots used the Send Email command without configuring authentication, now after migration the Email server host, Email server port, and My server requires authentication values are set to the appropriate values.

Previously, after migration, these values were set to null variables and authentication failed.

Service Cloud case ID: 01849475
After migration, bots that are using Visual Basic script or JavaScript in the Run Script legacy automation action and using multiple parameters that include spaces without quotation marks will now display the correct output after execution.

Previously, such bots were displaying incorrect output.

Service Cloud case ID: 01901882
An error no longer occurs during migration when the Select Query bot runs validation. Previously, the following error randomly occurred with text drivers.

[Microsoft][ODBC Text Driver] Object invalid or no longer set.
After migrating to Automation 360, if the Application window does not exist for the bots that use the If, IF/ELSE, or Loop in Windows control, then these bots no longer encounter errors during bot run.

Service Cloud case ID: 01846262
The Stored Procedure parameters are set correctly with Nvarchar when you migrate bots to Automation 360.
When a bot that contained the File and Folder loop was migrated to Automation 360, an error was displayed if the corresponding folder did not exist. You can migrate such bots like the corresponding legacy bot as the If condition is now added before the File and Folder loop to check if the folder exists.
You can migrate bots that contain the Substring command from the String package to Automation 360, even if the optional Length attribute is blank.
When you migrate a bot that has $counter variable within a nested loop to Automation 360, the child loop counter is now set to the parent loop counter and the child loop iteration is processed correctly.
When you run a Select query inside a Loop package, and you reiterate its result set further, the resultant Loop now reiterates the latest record as expected.

Service Cloud case ID: 01799961
You can successfully migrate bots that have the Wait for object to exist value option set to 0 seconds in the Object Cloning command.
When you use the Run Logic command with an IF/ELSE condition that uses a Credential variable, all credential variables migrate successfully.
When you migrate Enterprise 11 bots with string variables that have static values, variable parsing through legacy expressions is no longer performed. This avoids unnecessary parse expressions from being added to the migrated bots.

Service Cloud case ID: 01819830
You can successfully run migrated bots that contain multiple Clipboard variables as an output. Automation 360 adds the Clipboard:Copy to action after every variable so that migrated bot is run properly.

Service Cloud case ID: 01815938
When you migrate Enterprise 11 bots that use the Connect action with the Terminal Emulator command, and if the Hostname field contains a Credential Variable, then the field is mapped correctly after migration.

Service Cloud case ID: 01861600
When you run migrated bots that contain the Legacy Automation > Manage web controls > Select Item by Text action, the list that contains variables is now displayed as expected.

Service Cloud case ID: 01782998
You can now change, reallocate, or delete the license of a Bot Runner user in a migrated Automation 360 Control Room, even if the Bot Runner user had logged in to Enterprise 11 Client at least once.

Previously, an error was displayed in such cases.

Service Cloud case ID: 01829547
You can run migrated bots successfully on SMTP servers when you include the Send Email command inside a Loop, and that loop iterates more than 100 times.

Service Cloud case ID: 01792886
Migrated bots do not create duplicate variables when the Error_description variable is case-sensitive.

Service Cloud case ID: 01861530
You can now successfully migrate audit logs using the audit log export utility on a multi-node setup from the Enterprise 11 Control Room.

Previously, the audit log export utility displayed an exception error in such cases and the audit logs could not be migrated.

Service Cloud case ID: 01912835

Limitations

In Enterprise 11, if bots were using certain keys (such as: Ctrl, Shift, Caps Lock, Num Lock, and so on) in the Insert Keystrokes command, the keys were reset when an error was encountered during the execution of child bots. However; after migration, these keys are not reset when an error is encountered during the execution of child bots. As a result, different output or behavior might occur during the execution of the other subsequent child bots or the main bot.

Service Cloud case ID: 00773679
When you migrate a bot that uses the Send email command and run the bot in Automation 360, the predefined placeholders in the email body are not replaced with their actual content.
For example: 
Task Name: <taskname>
Repeat: <repeat>
Status: <status>
Last Run Time: <lastruntime>
Whereas when you run the bot in Enterprise 11 with these placeholders, the following output is generated:
Task Name: PLACEHOLDER_SEND.atmx
Repeat: Do not Repeat
Status: Failed
Last Run Time: 11/29/2022 13:04:22

Service Cloud case ID: 01908010
When you run a migrated bot with an XML package that contains an Xpath expression, the running bot might fail and generate this error message: No node found at XPath
This issue might occur for these specific scenarios:
  • If the root element does not have a namespace, and the child element of the XML package has a default namespace.
  • If there are more than one xmlns (the default XML namespace) defined in the XML document.

Service Cloud case ID: 01874203, 01798339

See XML path is not working which works fine in Enterprise 11

Updates to the interface

Migration
The Bots using Email action with Basic authentication option is added to the Bot Scanner to scan bots that use basic authentication in the Email package and Email trigger.Bot Scanner wizard displaying option to select Bots using Email action with Basic authentication

Scan Automation 360 bots that use Basic authentication in Email action

The Use outgoing Email server settings option is added to the Bot Migration Wizard to specify the type of email server you use. Bot Migration Wizard displaying option to select the type of Email outgoing server

Support for SMTP server type with Send Email command

The Convert \n characters to \rn\n Log to File action option is added to the Bot Migration Wizard to provide you an option to not have to edit the bots manually and a new line is added automatically in migrated bots.Bot Migration Wizard displaying option to select the the option to take a new line in bots

Improved automated editing ability for legacy bots