Automation Workspace v.27 release

Review what's new and changed, and the fixes and limitations in Automation Workspace for the v.27 release.

What's new

Control Room, devices, and Bot Agent
Windows 365 Cloud PC now supported as Bot Runner (Service Cloud case ID: 01792699)

We support Windows 365 Cloud PC as a Bot Runner to create and run bots on Windows 365 Cloud PC.

Bot Runner device requirements

Oracle Database is now supported on Linux (Service Cloud case ID: 00726728)

We now support Control Room with Oracle Database on Linux, so you can now choose to install the Control Room with Oracle Database on Linux.

Installing Control Room on Linux | Database requirements

Microsoft Edge offline extension is supported (Service Cloud case ID: 01829649, 01880289)

You can now install the Microsoft Edge offline extension for Microsoft Edge Enterprise browser users even when the device is offline.

When the Bot Runner machines do not have Internet connectivity, you can use these features with the Microsoft Edge offline extension:

  • Automation of web apps
  • User interface triggers
  • Device registration

The Microsoft Edge offline extension is transparent and works similarly to the Microsoft Edge online extension for users.

Install Bot Agent and register device | Browser extensions for Automation 360

Centralized notifications repository for various events and capability updates

You can now track all the platform and automation events through a centralized repository. With this feature, you can identify the severity of events, consider possible actions based on the severity of events, and then take appropriate actions. You can also be notified about platform updates, such as bot export and package updates. Thus, it improves platform and user productivity.

Notifications

Automatically select the number of Bot Runners (Service Cloud case ID: 00821020, 00715598, 00723191, 00784822, 01830238, 01870817)
You can enable Automation 360 to automatically select the Bot Runner users for specific tasks to:
  • Scale automations easily
  • Run bots concurrently
  • Use resources efficiently

This capability ensures that when you run or schedule an automation, the system automatically picks the available run-as users from the specified list.

Automatically select the number of Bot Runners users | Schedule a bot

Manage domain accounts using gMSA (Service Cloud case ID: 00731119)

You can use a group Managed Service Account (gMSA) to manage and run Control Room and other Automation 360 services.

Configure service credentials

View keyboard shortcuts in Bot editor

In Bot editor, you can now open a menu to view the available keyboard shortcuts.

Keyboard shortcuts list
Validate device credentials prior to bot deployment

Prior to bot deployment, you can select to validate the device credentials for Bot Creator, attended Bot Runner, Citizen Developer, and unattended Bot Runner users. This provides users additional security for bot deployment.

Switch device registration between Control Room instances

Export roles to view users and their permissions (Service Cloud case ID: 01804955)

You can export selected roles and their permissions to CSV files to view the following information:

  • User information
  • Run-as user information
  • User permissions
  • Folder permissions

Export roles

TLS 1.3 encryption support for a more secure connection to Control Room services (Service Cloud case ID: 00549240, 00606859, 01925085)

Automation 360 On-Premises supports both TLS 1.3 and TLS 1.2 cryptographic protocols for HTTPS and TCP communications between our components.

Support for secure protocols | Configure application Transport Layer Security

Enhanced Automation Anywhere Debugger tool

The Automation Anywhere Debugger tool is available in the Bot Assistant utility to provide a better user experience. When you invoke the Debugger tool from the Bot editor, you can add, update, or delete actions and variables in a bot.

By default, the Watched variables lists is empty. With a single click, you can add all the used variables in a bot. These variables display in a pop-up window where you can select or deselect, one or more variables, from the list.

Debugger tool

Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge certification for operating systems
Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge extensions are certified for the following operating systems:
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Standard R2
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2016
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2019
Packages, actions, and Bot editor
Notification for package updates

When you add or update a package or upload a custom package to the Control Room, you are now notified about this platform event. This notification is displayed to all the Control Room users through the Notifications repository.

Capabilities supporting notifications | Add packages to the Control Room | Add custom package to your Control Room | Upload custom package to your Control Room

ServiceNow package

You can use the ServiceNow package from Automation 360 to authenticate and perform several actions with records and attachments in ServiceNow tables.

ServiceNow package

ServiceNow triggers

You can use ServiceNow triggers to call an action when there is a new or updated record.

ServiceNow New Record trigger

Cut, copy, paste keyboard shortcuts added for TN3270 and TN5250 Terminal Emulator
In the Terminal Emulator package, the following keyboard shortcuts are now available specifically for TN3270 and TN5250:
  • Shift + Control + A = Select all
  • Shift + Control + C = Copy
  • Shift + Control + X = Cut
  • Shift + Control + V = Paste
Using Send text action
Quick assistance at hand for the developers​ in the Bot editor
The accessibility and usability of the Bot editor, actions, and packages have been improved. As a citizen developer or an RPA developer, when you are creating bots, you can quickly look up information about the actions without navigating outside the Bot editor. Under the Actions pane, quick help is enabled with contextual information about actions​. Additionally, an icon is configured with a link to the documentation. If you want more information about an action, you can click the link, which redirects you to the relevant page in the documentation portal. This feature is currently available in the following actions and packages.
  • Database
  • Email
Enhanced user experience through refreshed and intuitive icons

With the new and intuitive icons for actions in the Bot editor, citizen developers and RPA developers can quickly locate the correct action while creating automation for a day-to-day task. These unique and renewed icons are developed according to brand and global standards.
Seamless package updates

When a package version is added to the Control Room, either from a Cloud download or Control Room upgrade, as an administrator, you have the flexibility to disable the new version of packages. This feature helps you to restrict users from using the new package version until it is verified.

Updating packages in Control Room | Automatic package updates for On-Premises Control Room | Automatic package updates for Cloud Control Room

New option in Read from action of Database package (Service Cloud case ID: 01263940)

A new check box is available when you use the Read from action to retrieve records from the database and save the retrieved data in a CSV file. When you select this check box, no CSV file is created if the executed SQL query does not return any data.
Proxy support for EWS-OAuth2 (Service Cloud case ID: 00771400, 01574715, 01815888)

When you create a bot with the Email package that uses EWS OAuth2 for authentication and the Bot Runner machine is configured behind the firewall, then all outbound requests are routed through the proxy server configured on the Bot Runner machine.
64-bit ODBC driver​ now supported in Database package (Service Cloud case ID: 01256142, 01829360, 01849908)

We now support connecting to databases by using the 64-bit ODBC driver. This option is available when the connection mode is the default. Organizations transitioning to Microsoft 365 will benefit from leveraging this enhancement and can sustain automation build with 32-bit ODBC drivers.

Using Connect action for database

OAuth 2.0 support in Email and Email trigger packages (Service Cloud case ID: 01798311, 01803702, 01791859, 01828526)
Microsoft is deprecating the ability to use Basic authentication in Exchange Online for these specific protocols:
  • IMAP
  • POP3
  • EWS
We support OAuth 2.0 authentication for these protocols in the Email and Email trigger packages. For enhanced security, you can maintain the business continuity of your email automations by switching the authentication type from Basic to OAuth 2.0, (as recommended by Microsoft).

Using Connect action in Email package

Retry mechanism supported in credential variables (Service Cloud case ID: 01786319, 01887182)

The credential variables support the retry mechanism. When you create a bot that uses credential variables, if the bot fails during run time to retrieve those variables from the Credential Vault because the Control Room is disconnected or the Control Room services stop intermittently, then the bot tries three times to retrieve the credential variables from the Credential Vault.

Note: Ensure that the Bot Agent version installed on your system is the version that is released with Automation 360 v.27.
Support of other domain name in the Active Directory package (Service Cloud case ID: 01807358, 01910765)

We now support Active Directory user operations by logon name with domain and can provide the domain name to extract user details. When you retrieve the user property or perform any user operation based on the logon name (userPrincipalName), and if the user domain name differs from the domain specified in the LDAP path, the user properties are now successfully retrieved with or without a domain name.

For example, LDAP Path: LDAP://ADServer/DC=automation, DC=net
User Logon name
userPrincipalName: kim@aaengg.net User can provide logon name as kim@aaengg.net.
userPrincipalName: shaun@aasales.net User can provide logon name as shaun@aasales.net.
userPrincipalName:sarah@automation.net user can provide a logon name as either sarah or sarah@automation.net.
The following list of actions supports logon name with domain.
  • Update user details
  • Rename user
  • Delete user
  • Enable user account
  • Disable user account
  • Set user property
  • Get user property

User account operations

Shared mailbox support for Email automation (Service Cloud case ID: 00797231, 01816574, 01829499, 01854615, 01871861, 01933058, 01834152, 01829684, 01853949, 01880386, 01869636, 01894591, 01867553, 01911371. 01925438)

The Email package supports the email automation of a shared mailbox in Outlook for Office 365/Microsoft 365 using IMAP/EWS protocols, and OAuth 2.0 authentication using Client Credentials and Authorization Code with PKCE grant flows. You can automate emails retrieved from a shared mailbox and perform all email-related tasks by accessing each folder(s) and its subfolder(s) in the shared mailbox.
New action in Text file package
You can use the new Read variables action in the Text file package to read the values of variables from the text file.
Note: The Import string from text file action in the String package has been deprecated and will not be available for new bots. We recommend that you use the new Read variables action with enhanced capabilities. This deprecation does not impact any existing bots or bots which were migrated previously and they will continue to run properly. See Support and deprecation policy for packages for package lifecycle and deprecation policy.

Read variables action

Call an existing JavaScript function in a webpage

You can use the new Call a JavaScript function action in the Browser package to call an existing JavaScript function directly in a webpage or in an iFrame within a webpage in Google Chrome and Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browsers. In the bot, you can also pass one or more input parameters to the JavaScript function and process the return value from the function.

Call a JavaScript function 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 client controls
  • Capture and automate password text controls
  • Capture and automate page tab controls

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

Capture objects on applications running in administrator mode

You can use the Recorder to capture objects on applications running in administrator mode. To capture the object, select the Capture and run with admin privileges option from the Bot editor.

Recorder package

Enhanced bot performance when using global values across bots
When you use global values across a parent bot and a child bot, the bot performance is enhanced by reducing the bot execution time. To enable enhanced bot performance, you must set the Bot compatibility version to 3 in the Advanced settings page of the Bot editor.
Note: Ensure that the Bot Agent version installed on your system is the version that is released with Automation 360 v.27.

Bot compatibility version

Enhanced user interface for Define functionality in AISense Recorder
  • We have enhanced the user interface of Define window in the AISense Recorder that enables you to use anchors easily and automate UI objects that are not detected by AISense Recorder automatically. To improve functional clarity, the following object types are renamed:
    • Active text is renamed to Link
    • Passive text is renamed to Text value
  • If you unintentionally click the screen or click before the highlighter appears, the AISense Recorder provides visibility into it. You must confirm to capture the object again or use the Define functionality to define the object on the screen.
  • In the Define window, the AISense Recorder shows embedded help for each of the control types so you can select the correct control types for custom objects.

Use variable anchor | Capture Textbox, Radio, Checkbox, and Combobox | Capture text value through AISense Recorder | Capture link button through AISense Recorder | Capture Image button through AISense Recorder

New virtual key added to the Simulate keystrokes package

In the Simulate Keystrokes > Keystrokes action, a new key named Return has been added to the virtual keyboard for Enter functionality and the Enter key in the Number pad has been renamed to Num Enter. As a result, the Return key is the main Enter key on the keyboard. This enhancement keeps the keyboard in sync with the physical keyboard. The nomenclature has been changed to avoid confusion between the Enter key on the keyboard and the Enter key on the Number pad.
Support for global variable for all Datetime actions

In the Datetime package, you can use the Datetime global variable across all Datetime actions. You can select to use either String variable or a Global variable in the Source date and time variable option. This avoids creating multiple local variables and reduces the total number of actions used in a bot.

Datetime package

The resiliency of the File/Folder trigger has been improved to continue listening after a network disruption has occurred. Previously, a network error caused the trigger to lose connection with the Bot Agent.

Service Cloud case ID: 01769532, 01773584, 01834098, 01867418
Important: For information about the supported packages for this release, see Packages updated in v.27.
Building and running bots
Notification for bot export

When you export a bot in the Control Room, you are now informed through the Notifications repository. This notification is sent only to the user who exported the bot.

Capabilities supporting notifications | Export bots

Code analysis runs automatically for all unscanned bots in public workspace

Code analysis now runs automatically on all the bots with the Not Scanned status in the public workspace. This ensures visibility on the coding best practices for policies configured in the Control Room and will show the results of code analysis for all the bots in the public workspace without the need to run code analysis on each bot one by one.
Check out multiple bots and files (Service Cloud case ID: 00628344, 00822352)

You can now select multiple bots and their dependent files from different folders that belong to the same process and check them out from the public to the private workspace. You can check out a maximum of 10 parent bots, but there is no limitation on the number of dependent child bots.

Check out multiple bots

Choose specific version of non-bot dependency to check out with parent bot

When you check out a parent bot, you can now choose the version of a non-bot file dependency to check out. Every version of a parent bot can have different versions of non-bot file dependencies.

With this feature, you can roll back the dependencies while rolling back the parent bot. You can make changes to a specific version of the dependent non-bot file.

Check out non-bot file dependencies

Compare bot version in private workspace (Service Cloud case ID: 01761840, 01771389, 01763432, 01904500, 00798356, 01780116)

You can now see the changes made to your bot logic in the private workspace before checking in your bot. As a Bot Creator, it was difficult to identify the changes made to the bot logic, input, and output parameters. With this functionality, you can now easily identify where you have made the modifications to the bot logic, variables, triggers, dependencies, and packages compared to the latest version or any other previous version of the bot.

Compare bot versions

Edit non-empty folder description in public workspace (Service Cloud case ID: 01820406)

You can edit the description of non-empty folders in the public workspace. Meaningful descriptions provide more insight of the bots contained in that folder. This feature enables an administrator or a user with rename folder permissions to better manage the repository when it contains many folders.

Create and rename folders

Specify queue running times in workload automations (Service Cloud case ID: 01816260, 00331357, 01924895, 01274769)
You can set the specific time period when to run a workload automation. When creating the workload automation, you can set the queue running days and time to ensure that the automation does not run during these scenarios:
  • Applications are not available
  • During scheduled upgrades
  • Non-working days (holidays, weekends)

Using the Run with queue

Check for duplicates when adding work items (Service Cloud case ID: 00825850, 01792046, 01806516)

You can check for duplicate work items before adding them to the queue. This feature prevents re-processing the same work items multiple times, thus saving time and resources. You can either move the work items marked as duplicate for re-processing or discard them.

Insert Work Items

Generation of API Key is audited

The generation of the API key is now audited and will display the expiry time of the api-key in the audit logs.
APIs and integrations
Workato Integration

You can integrate the Automation 360 platform and Workato by using the Automation Anywhere connector. You can establish a connection with the Automation Anywhere Control Room and perform various operations using the Control Room APIs.

Workato integration

SnapLogic Integration

You can now integrate the Automation 360 platform and SnapLogic. You can establish a connection with the Automation Anywhere Control Room and perform various operations by using the Control Room APIs.

Snaplogic integration

RPA Bots for Salesforce
Now when creating new connections, you have the option to include an API Gateway certificate.

What's changed

Control Room, devices, and Bot Agent
Automated reprocessing of failed WLM work items (Service Cloud case ID: 00825872)

When you create or edit a queue, you can now use the Max auto retry attempt option to ensure that failed WLM work items are reprocessed automatically. With this option, you can specify the number of times for which the automatic reprocessing of failed work items will be attempted.

Automatic reprocessing of failed work items is attempted after all the work items in a queue are processed.
Better device management with improved device permissions (Service Cloud case ID: 01264963, 01871530)
You can now view and manage Bot Agent devices even if you have not registered them by using the enhanced Edit the device(s) permission. The Edit the device(s) permission is improved as follows:
  • Device(s) from my device pools: To edit devices from device pools
  • Run as users default device(s): To edit Run as user(s) default device
The Control Room administrator grants you access to a specific set of devices based on your role. When the Edit the device(s) permission with the Device(s) from my device pools and Run as users default device(s) options is selected, you can view and manage all (registered and non-registered) devices from a specific accessible group.
Enhanced bot Compare versions page

The bot Compare versions page shows changes in the dependencies between two versions of the bot. It shows changes for the first level of dependencies only and displays those dependencies sorted in alphabetical order.
Specify time period to put work item on hold (Service Cloud case ID: 00825875)

You can put a work item on hold for a specific date and time. This ensures that the work item moves automatically to processing (new state) on the specified date and time and no longer requires you to manually move it for re-processing. A new column in the Edit queue page displays the hold status of the work item, either date and time or indefinite if you do not specify the date and time.

Edit queues

Packages, actions, and Bot editor
Control Room version compatibility check with specific packages

When you manually upload a package or a bot in the Control Room, the system now checks if the specific packages used in the bot are compatible with the Control Room version.
Analyze button renamed in Bot editor

The analyze button of Bot Insight (Analyze Task Bot) has been renamed to Bot Insight "Analyze" dashboard in the Bot editor page.

Fixes

Build 16701: This build includes the following fixes (along with fixes from the previous builds):

Fix for inconsistencies that were observed on the In-progress activity page.

Service Cloud case ID: 01949323, 01950696, 01944637, 01951100, 01953055, 01950639, 01951722, 01929156, 01954486, 01954920

Build 16694: This build includes the following fixes (along with fixes from the previous builds):

If the Manage my activity feature is enabled for a user role, then the user can view the pause, resume, and stop status on the In progress activity page. If this feature is disabled, then the user cannot view these statuses.

Previously, users were able to view these statuses even when the feature was disabled.

Service Cloud case ID: 01937106

Build 16667: This build includes the following fixes:

When synching with the Active Directory (AD), the user mapping no longer overwrites the Description field in the Control Room with blanks.
The Automation 360 Control Room no longer generates an error in the User Management log when a mapped security group has no members.
The In progress activity page no longer shows bots after they are run.

Previously, the page incorrectly showed bots in the active state even after execution.

Service Cloud case ID:

01914651, 01924866, 01923265, 01928088, 1918956, 01922321, 01931985, 01921849, 01938985, 01939812,
01940084, 01940585, 01940258, 01938868, 01934451, 01940222, 01941187, 01940900, 01941742, 01939639,
01941503, 01941496, 01939639, 01942720, 01942430, 01943379, 01943617, 01938885
When a user is assigned an admin role to create schedules and later the admin access is removed for that user, an audit log will be logged when the schedule is canceled because of the user not having the admin privileges.

Previously, when such schedules were canceled, no audit logs were logged indicating that the schedule was canceled because the user did not have the required privileges.

Service Cloud case ID: 01830359
The Administration > Licenses page and the Control Room banner displayed on the same licenses page now display correct information about license expiry.

Previously, the correct information about license expiry was not displayed.

Service Cloud case ID: 01807324
When you edit a role, the Edit role audit log page now displays the correct old, new, and run-as user values.

Previously, these values were not displayed.

Service Cloud case ID: 01759116
When you edit your first or last name on the My profile page, the description and auto login values on the Edit user audit log page will not be updated.

Service Cloud case ID: 01846878
You can correctly filter the status for activities on the Activity > Historical page.

Previously, some filters were not displaying the correct status for activities.

Service Cloud case ID: 01869361, 01875216
Users without permission cannot view the activities of other users on the In progress activity page.

Previously, some users were able to view the activities of other users even though they did not have permission.

Service Cloud case ID: 01911289, 01910582
If you configured the log collection level as Debug, the logs collected from some packages do not include customer data.

Previously, the logs collected from some packages included customer data.

Service Cloud case ID: 01862053, 01870001
If the CPU utilization and device memory threshold values are outside the percentage range defined by the Control Room administrator in the Administration > Settings > Devices > Threshold settings for multi-user devices, a clear error message now indicates the device unavailability and provides an appropriate action.

Previously, when the CPU utilization and device memory thresholds values exceeded the defined value, bot deployment failed with an unknown error message.
Device shows an accurate status when the Bot Agent is disconnected from the Control Room.

Previously, due to the default time (15 minutes) of the WebSocket connection, a device was shown as connected even when the Bot Agent was disconnected from the Control Room.

Service Cloud case ID: 01843990
In the Oracle Database environment, a checked-in bot is now automatically refreshed and can be viewed in the Public folder.

Previously, to view a checked-in bot in the Public folder, you had to manually refresh the Automation page by using the Refresh button.
When a Stop Task command is used, WLM work items are now marked as completed successfully and show the correct status in the Control Room.

Previously, WLM work items were marked as failed even if the bot was executed successfully.

Service Cloud case ID: 01841320, 01840748
When you run WLM automations, if the Control Room restarts during deployment, the WLM deployment continues without delay when Control Room services are active.

Previously, after the Control Room restarted, there was a delay of 15 minutes before the WLM deployment continued.
When you run a bot by using the Run bot with queue option, the correct value of the work item is now selected, irrespective of the modification source. Previously, when the value of a work item was modified through the API or bot setting, the older value was selected by the bot

Service Cloud case ID: 01786785
In an Oracle Database environment, when you select the number format and sort order for the work items in a queue and then run bot by using the Run bot with queue option, the queues are now deployed successfully. Also, the correct log entry is shown in the Audit log or Activity page.

Previously, queues were not deployed, and no errors were shown in the Audit log or Activity page.
In a clustered environment, the bot deployment progress is no longer stuck and the Bot Runner device connects to the Control Room successfully.

Previously, the bot deployment progress would get stuck sometimes and show an error message Waiting for user: <username> and/or device: <device-name> on the In progress > In progress activity page.

Service Cloud case ID: 01830285
When a bot keeps running for a few hours, an error no longer occurs due to high memory usage with the Recorder package version 2.9.2 or later.

Previously, an increase in memory usage caused the bot to fail after a few hours with a Java heap space error.

Service Cloud case ID: 01911565
When you read emails within a loop using a Microsoft Outlook Client connection with a subject filter, use the Delete action and run the bot, the bot now completes the set iteration and deletes the emails from the specified folder. Additionally, the variable that was used to display the count of total emails versus deleted emails now displays the correct counts in the message box.

Service Cloud case ID: 01845642,01857791,01880424
When you establish a connection with the EWS server, and emails are read within a loop to filter and move all emails from a subfolder created within the custom folder, the bot now executes without an error.

Previously, an error occurred because the bot could not read the emails from the folders created outside the predefined folder, such as Inbox, Junk, or Draft.

Service Cloud case ID: 01823238
You can now successfully create a bot by using the Upload file action from the Microsoft 365 OneDrive package.
Previously, the bot displayed an error when you used the Upload file action and if the file name had special characters such as brackets [].
Note: Brackets [] are now supported in the file name.

Service Cloud case ID: 01798568

When you choose the variable option to perform a task and during bot creation process you delete the variable you created (Your variables), and when you click the Add option in the variable field to insert a variable (such as global variable), the option is now enabled.

Previously, the Add option for inserting the variable was disabled.

Service Cloud case ID: 01869139

When you create a bot, you can now use the Update node action of the XML package to update the value of a node. Previously, the attributes were removed when you updated the text value of an XML element.

Service Cloud case ID: 01805643
In the Email package, connect to the EWS server and use Loop > For each mail in mail box. If the source mail is sent on behalf of some other user, for example, user xyz@aa.com sent mail on behalf of user abc@aa.com, the email dictionary variable emailFrom now returns the correct sender ID, which is abc@aa.com.

Previously, the email dictionary variable emailFrom returned the sender ID as xyz@aa.com.

Service Cloud case ID: 01856149
When you run a stored procedure in Oracle and it returns SYS_REFCURSOR, the Run stored procedure action closes the cursors.

Previously, the Run stored procedure action was not closing the cursor after the maximum cursor limit was reached.

Service Cloud case ID: 01842046, 01898572
In the Active Directory package, when you perform a user account operation such as Add users to group, Delete user, Disable user account, or Rename user, and if the username has an asterisk (*), open parenthesis, or close parenthesis, you can now add a user without any error.

Previously, the username did not support the following special characters: asterisk (*), open parenthesis, and close parentheses.

Service Cloud case ID: 01884962

When you create a folder in Outlook with a percentage (%) in its name (for example, Clients%ClientA), create a bot using the Connect action from the Email package and then use the Folder exists or Folder does not exist condition, the bot finds the Clients%ClientA and retrieves mail from it.

Previously, the bot was not able to retrieve mails from the folder because percentage (%) was not supported in the folder name.
When you connect to the Microsoft Access Database with JDBC and specify the database path, if you use the following specific aggregation functions in the query, an error is no longer encountered when you run the bot:
ASC, ATN, SQR, CBOOL, CCUR, CDATE,
CDBL, CDEC, CDATE, CDBL, CINT, CLONG, CLNG,
CSIGN, CSTR, CVAR, DATEADD, DATEDIFF, DATEPART,
DATESERIAL, DATEVALUE, FORMAT, IIF, INSTR, INSTRREV,
ISDATE, IsNull, ISNUMERIC, LEFT, LEFTS, LEN, MID,
MONTHNAME, DATE, NOW, NZ, SIGN, SPACE, STR, TIME, VAL,
WEEKDAYNAME, WEEKDAY, STRING, TIMESERIAL, CONCAT
When using the Task Bot: Run action, you can search dictionary and session variables to use as input parameters. Previously, no results displayed when using this Advanced search feature.

Service Cloud case ID: 01879539
A Task Bot no longer fails when you debug or run it when any in_Window input variable is set.

Previously, in edit mode, when you debugged or ran a Task Bot with an input variable by selecting the Use as input check box, the bot failed.

Service Cloud case ID: 01919263
When you use the Save action in the Email package, and if the email subject includes a comma (,), the emails are saved successfully.

Previously, if the email subject included a comma (,) and you saved the email, the comma (,) was replaced with an underscore (_).

Service Cloud case ID: 01786211
When you select the Package details page, and select the Availability tab, if the package (all users or selected roles) is changed, then the Package details page displays the last modified information of the user who made the changes, and the changes made at the access level (all users or selected roles).
You can create bots using the Download file action of the Google Drive package.

Previously, when you used the Download file action and marked the Overwrite existing file option to overwrite the file of the same name, the downloaded file became corrupted. If you then used the Excel advanced > Open action to open this file, or manually tried to open the Excel file, an error message displayed indicating that the Excel file was corrupted.

Service Cloud case ID: 01833815
You no longer have an incorrect starting date when you create an event using the Google Calendar package.

Previously, when you created an event in Google Calendar and entered the value in the Start Date field with the event type set to All Day, the Google Calendar package decremented the day value by one when you selected the All Day option.

Service Cloud case ID: 01815644
When you use the Excel advanced > Open action to open an Excel spreadsheet which did not exist and then run the bot, the bot now displays the correct error message in Japanese.

Service Cloud case ID: 01857992, 01925567
You can successfully extract fields from a PDF file when you use the PDF > Extract field or Extract text actions.

Service Cloud case ID: 01818304
When you use the 3.6.1-20220428-010115 version of the Simulate keystrokes package to enter keystrokes against specific webpages running in the Microsoft Edge browser with IE mode, the bot processes the keystrokes faster.

Service Cloud case ID: 01820418
When you use the PDF > Split document action to split multiple PDFs into various folders and then use the For each file in folder iterator to run the bot in a loop to split each file in the specified folder, the bot no longer encounters an error.

Service Cloud case ID: 01803983
When you use the File > Copy Control Room file action and choose the dynamic file path option to select a file from the Control Room repository, the bot no longer encounters an error. Previously, even if the uploaded file was available in the Control Room, the bot failed and displayed this error message: Get Resource failed: Error: Could not find the file at the Control Room path. Check the file path and try again.

Service Cloud case ID: 01805364
When you use the File > Rename action to rename and overwrite an existing file, the bot no longer shows an incorrect error message. Previously, when you tried to rename an existing file, the bot showed an incorrect file name in the error message.

Service Cloud case ID: 01845943, 01858350
You can successfully rename the file and remove an extension from the file name by using the File > Rename action. Previously, when used the Rename action to remove an extension from the file name, the bot trimmed the last character from the file name instead.

Service Cloud case ID: 01842995
When you use the Recorder to capture objects on an application that is installed on a virtual machine, finish the recording after the objects are captured, and then relaunch the Recorder, the bot successfully launches the Recorder and no longer inserts any actions that were recorded earlier.
When you use the Recorder > Capture action to automate Citrix virtual apps running on Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers, add a delay of 60 seconds and run the bot, then if the object does not exist, the bot waits for the specified time (60 seconds) in the Keep trying for (seconds) field before executing the next steps.
When you run the bot using the following sequence of actions, the bot shows accurate data for each loop iteration:
  1. Use the Database > Connect action to connect to the database
  2. Use the Database > Read action to read the values from the database
  3. Use the For each row in a SQL query dataset iterator to run the bot in a loop
  4. Use the Database > Disconnect action to disconnect from the database and select the Keep database schema in cache until bot finishes running option.
Previously, during the second loop iteration, the action picked up data from the previous loop.

Service Cloud case ID: 01817192, 01853717, 01880154, 01940546
An error no longer occurs when you use Recorder package 2.8.6 and later versions to perform a click operation on a link element that opens a pop-up window on a web page running in Microsoft Edge with IE mode.

Service Cloud case ID: 01845776, 01858872, 01923003
When you install the AARemoteAgent_2.0, the DLL files are now copied to the correct A360 Remote Agent folder and the AARemoteAgent_2.0 runs properly. Previously when you installed the AARemoteAgent_2.0, the DLL files were copied to an incorrect A360 Remote Agent\Java folder.

Service Cloud case ID: 01935630
You can now successfully use the PDF > Extract field action to extract values from a PDF that contains a string data type with the dollar sign ($).

Service Cloud case ID: 01848220
You can now successfully run all migrated web actions of the Legacy Automation package in multiple steps of a bot in Microsoft Edge with IE mode.

Service Cloud case ID: 01853563, 01865846
In the File > Copy Desktop file action, when you use a variable that contains a number sign (#) instead of a file path to locate the file that you want to copy, the bot no longer encounters an error.

Service Cloud case ID: 01808009, 01845923
When exporting data to Excel CSV files, Boolean values return accurately. Previously, a bug caused values to return as -1 while using OLE DB Driver for SQL Server (version 18 or later).

Service Cloud case ID: 01826530
Updating the Bot Agent version sometimes failed. However, when you select the Automatically update all bot agents option, the Bot Agent updates to the latest version without failures.
Control Room now supports Windows NT in French.

Service Cloud case ID: 00682337
All DELETE /v1/configurations endpoints are not accessible anymore.

Service Cloud case ID: 01920980
While installing Automation 360 on a three-node cluster, the installer prompts you to enter the Elasticsearch password for the first node only and replicates this data across the other two nodes.
Bots that are running for longer duration display correctly on the In progress activity page.

Previously, these bots displayed only after bot updates and were removed after the page refresh.

Service Cloud case ID: 01921149
You can now update Internet Explorer bots created in Automation 360 to Microsoft Edge with IE mode using the Update Bot wizard even if these bots (or its dependencies) contain a '.' (dot) character in its name.

Service Cloud case ID: 01809003, 01814904, 01822014, 01858820
If you selected the Log off windows session post bot execution option under Auto-login settings in the Control Room, data in the resource folder is cleared after the bot run.

Service Cloud case ID: 01795752, 01778828, 01804711,01864871,01923299, 01823515
If you delete a device entry from Manage > Devices in the Control Room, the device registration properties are removed. This enables you to reregister the device.

Service Cloud case ID: 01808450
You can successfully log in to Automation 360 using Active Directory credentials when the Auto-login users into Control Room option is enabled, without encountering any issues..

Service Cloud case ID: 01808170, 01826805
The generated Control Room operational log files contain readable characters.

Service Cloud case ID: 01872473
The Repository Management (/v2/repository/files/<file_id>/content) API now returns file contents only for the files the logged-in user has permission to view. The content of these files cannot be updated using a different API.

Previously, this Repository Management API returned file contents for the files that the logged-in user did not have permission to view. And the user could update the content of these files.

Service Cloud case ID: 01819101
Bot deployment now resumes and completes without any issue when the Task Bot > Pause action executes before or while the runtime window is loading.

Previously, the resume option was not displayed in the runtime window, and the bot deployment was not completed.

Service Cloud case ID: 01835794
You can create a folder within the Bots folder in the public workspace.

Previously, folder creation failed with an error in the public workspace.

Service Cloud case ID: 01257981
You can now successfully compare different versions of your bots and dependencies in both the public and the private workspaces.

Previously, comparing the bot versions failed with a timeout error.

Service Cloud case ID: 01770115, 01905037
When you export the user data to a CSV file, it now shows the correct user type and device license information for all users.

Previously, user data exported to the CSV file showed incorrect information.

Service Cloud case ID: 01840507
You can now check in a bot successfully to the public workspace.

Previously, the bot check in failed because the audit trial was processed unsuccessfully.

Service Cloud case ID: 01860361
The BLM export is an asynchronous call and when used with the existing API endpoint /v2/blm/status/{requestId}, there is a delay associated with the API call. Due to this delay, you cannot retrieve the current status of the export if there is not enough time gap between the export and the status call. To bypass this limitation, a new API endpoint has been added GET /v2/blm/status/{requestId}/timeout/{timeout} which introduces a time delay that waits for the export process to complete and then retrieves the status.

Service Cloud case ID: 01806109
Upgraded Swagger UI and Swagger Editor to version 4.15.5 to fix a security vulnerability.

Service Cloud case ID: 01843148
When you create bots that use the Excel advanced > Select cells/rows/column action and set the Cell Range with an expression (such as B1:$SampleNumber.Number:toString$), the Bot editor no longer displays an error and the action now works properly.

Service Cloud case ID: 01941537
When you use the File trigger to modify a BAT or VBS file, the trigger is generated once. Previously, the trigger would generate twice when you enabled the file modified scenario.

Service Cloud case ID: 01816589, 01877498
You no longer encounter issues with bot check-in or cancel check-out after the bulk package update operation. When you try multiple bulk updates of packages, now an appropriate error message indicates to perform bulk updates of one package at a time.

Previously, when you performed multiple bulk updates of packages, it resulted in check-in or cancel check-out errors.

Service Cloud case ID: 01849828, 01881950
Bots with a large number of automations complete successfully without any pre-processing issues or errors.

Service Cloud case ID: 01949415, 01949372, 01949033

Security fixes

The version of Springframe Work is updated to 5.3.22 and does not exhibit the security vulnerability. 

Service Cloud case ID: 01850811

Limitations

When you create a device pool with a temporary (disconnected) device, the device deletion job does not complete successfully. Additionally, the Audit log page shows the device is deleted, whereas the Device list page shows the deleted device in the list.
When you check out bots in bulk, you cannot check out the bots for which you have the required permissions. This is because bots for which you have the required permissions are also excluded along with the bots for which you do not have the required permissions.
The bot checkout fails in the following scenarios:
  • If a bot with same name (but different case) exists in your private workspace with the same path.
    Note: In such cases, the bot checkout or overwrite fails even when an overwrite confirmation message displays.
  • If a folder with the same name exists in your private workspace with the same path.
When you compare bot versions from the View history page in a Public workspace, the Compare versions page shows an error message.
Workaround: To fix this error, perform one of the following actions:
  • In a Public workspace, click the three dots icon next to the required bot in the Action menu and click Compare versions.
    Note: You cannot compare the bot versions when only one bot version is available.
  • If you check out a bot to a Private workspace and then modify and save it, click the three dots icon in the Action menu and click Compare versions.

Service Cloud case ID: 01949094, 01946533
In Windows and Linux operating system, notifications are not working with the Oracle Database.
We use a third-party parser to convert from HTML format to plain text. As a result, when you convert an email from HTML format to plain text, you will see that, sometimes, the text is not converted into plain text and is not displayed in the correct format. For example, you might see that some lines are added or skipped.

Service Cloud case ID: 01822614

In any package, when you select the Add argument option, select String or Number as the Argument type, and then try to insert a value, you might not be able to navigate through the options using the scroll functionality.
When you use the System > Get environment variable action to select the list of environment variables to return the system parameters of the device, some environment variables might not be visible.

When you use the Text file > Read variables option to read the values of variables from the text file, use the If > String condition to execute actions based on the value of the specified source string, and run the bot, the bot might fail if the key value added to the mapped variable does not match the value in the text file.

Workaround: To pass null values successfully, perform the following steps:
  1. Use Text file > Read variables action to add a dictionary variable.
  2. Use Dictionary > Get action to find and save a specific key value.
    Note: If the key value does not match with the value in the text file, then an empty string is returned to the string variable.

Alternatively, use the If > Dictionary > Check key condition to validate if the key is present in the text file. You can then assign value to the string variable accordingly.
After you upgrade to Automation 360 v.27, if a new package (first version) is added to the Control Room and in the setting for packages you selected Disable for the new version of package, you will see that the package will have status as Enabled and set as default instead of Disable.
In an Oracle Database environment, when you upgrade to Automation 360 v.27, the new package versions that are shipped through the installer remain in the disabled state and are not set as the default version.

Workaround: You must enable each updated or new package manually and set the package as the default version.
In the Automation page, column customizations made on the Files and folders are not retained when you navigate away from that page. For example, if you customize the columns in the private workspace, move out, and navigate back to the private workspace, the previous customization is not retained. It returns to the default view.

Similarly, searches and customizations such as filters, sort orders, custom columns, and partially completed edits are not retained when you navigate away from the page.

When you run the v1/audit/messages/list API in Control Room swagger, the following error message is displayed: 

Please correct the following validation errors and try again.
propKeyfilterErrorValue must be a string.
PropKeypageerrorValue must be a string.

Workaround: Run the v1/audit/messages/list API using Postman application to avoid the error.

Service Cloud case ID: 01988096

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When you check in a bot or a file, it might not reflect immediately in the public workspace and takes sometime to appear.

Recommendation: Ensure that you do not attempt to check in the same bot or a file again while the check in is in progress.

Service Cloud Case ID: 02067111
Limitations from previous releases

When you run a bot in the Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge browser, use the If, Loop, or Wait action, select the webpage from the list of active tabs in the Browser tab, close the browser window, and then run the bot, the bot might take two minutes to open the webpage in the browser irrespective of the timeout value mentioned.

Workaround: Move the If, Loop, or Wait action inside the If block and use the Application is running condition with same browser application to check whether the browser is running.

You will encounter an error when you run a standard workflow in the SAP BAPI package.

Workaround: To execute SAP BAPI, use the Run Function call (RFC) with a combination of Create function, Set or Get field value, Set or Get structure, and Set or Get table actions.

A360 : SAP BAPI functions - Run Standard Workflow - Error while selecting BAPI_SALESORDER_CHANGE (A-people login required)

When you migrate a bot that contains XML command > Get single node, after migration, the bot encounters the following error: No node found at XPath while executing the Get Single node command Workaround: If the XPath expression is not starting with (/) , apply XPath starting with “/“ so that at the time of execution, the modification can be skipped or the XPath expression can be designed to get the desired result.

When you use the Capture action with the Recorder package (version 2.9.x or earlier) to navigate to another web page in the Google Chrome browser (version 105.0 or later), and then use another Capture action to automate objects in the navigated web page, the bot might encounter an error.

Workaround: Before you use the Recorder > Capture action in the bot, maximize the Google Chrome window .
When you use the If package, add a specific condition with a variable, then add specific conditions within a group, save the bot, and if you rename the variable that was used, the name of the variable might not update for the Group conditions but is only updated for the conditions in the Condition tab.
Command prompt API allows you to switch the device registration even if the Allow devices (single user) to be switched to another Control Room without reinstalling bot agent option is disabled.
When you upgrade from Automation 360 v.25 to a later version, although you enabled code analysis in the Control Room, the rules set in the policy are not retained after the upgrade.

Workaround: Before upgrading, we recommend that you keep a note of the rules enabled in Automation 360 v.25 and then re-enable them after upgrading to a later version.
When you uninstall Automation 360 from the Control Panel, the name of the file is displayed incorrectly (for example, 3e592.msi) on the User Account Control window.
While running a bot in debug mode, the bot will fail if the variable size gets greater than 3 MB. An error message appears showing that a variable has exceeded the 3 MB limit.
When you set the default package version using the Update bots to default package version option for bots in the public workspace that are using the Excel Advanced > Open action, the Task Bots do not display the session name and file path values.
Workaround: Perform one of the following workarounds:

Updates to the interface

Automation Workspace
The Max auto retry attempt option is added to reprocess the failed WLM work items automatically.
Image of Auto-retry option for the failed WLM work items

Automated reprocessing of failed WLM work items

The drop-down menu in the Bot editor now includes an option to open a menu for keyboard shortcuts.
Image displays before and after the additional keyboard shortcut menu feature.
Keyboard shortcuts
The Device(s) from my device pools and Run as users default device(s) options are added in the Edit the device(s) permission to manage registered and non-registered devices.
Image of UI change for Edit devices permission

Better device management with improved device permissions

The gMSA option enables you to manage your domain accounts across multiple servers.Image of the new group managed service account option

Manage domain accounts using gMSA

The Custom number of bot runners option allows you to choose the number of Bot Runners that you want to use to run bots.Image of the new option to choose the custom number of bot runners to run bots

Customize the number of Bot Runners

The Automation Anywhere Debugger tool is now available within the Bot Assistant utility to provide a better user experience.

The Debugger tool home screen

Enhanced Automation Anywhere Debugger tool

Updated and intuitive icons for all the actions and contextual help for Database and Email actions.
Updated action icons and contextual help

Enhanced user experience through intuitive icons | Quick assistance at hand for the developers in the Bot editor

The drop-down menu in the Bot editor now includes the Capture and run with admin privileges option that enables you to capture objects on applications running in administrator mode.
Introduction of the new Capture and run with admin priviliges option

Capture objects in admin mode