Automation Workspace v.28 release

Review what's new and changed, and the fixes and limitations in Automation Workspace for the v.28 release.

What's new

Control Room, devices, and Bot Agent
Select the Control Room services to run at startup (Service Cloud case ID: 00781074, 00804237, 00799057, 01260425, 01271130, 01793867, 01966120, 0200222)

You can optimize application process utilization on your device by selecting the Control Room services that you want to automatically run at startup during the On-Premises installation.

Select Control Room services to automatically run at startup

Improved notifications administration to manage user access

A Control Room administrator can manage a user's access to the event categories set in the Administration > Settings > Notification settings section. A Control Room administrator can lock the required preferences and notifications only for those enabled event categories that are sent to the end users.

Lock event categories

Monitor bot runtime, device pool, and license events through notifications
Through notifications, you can monitor all:
  • Bot runtime events: Bot runtime event notifications are sent to the respective users based on bot access permissions.
  • Device pool related events: Device pool-related event notifications are sent to users based on their user role and permission in the Control Room.
  • License events (such as license over subscription or consumption): Email notifications are sent for license over subscription or consumption events.

Automation events | Platform events

Monitor Automation Co-Pilot events through Control Room notifications

With the Process events category, the Control Room notifies you about various Automation Co-Pilot events related to requests and tasks through notifications. The task and request event notifications are sent to the task owner and request creator team, respectively.

Process events

Audit log event when a package is deleted (Service Cloud case ID: 01780700, 01885638)

An audit log event is logged when a user deletes a package.

Audit events list

Import intermediate certificates for secure access to Control Room (Service Cloud case ID: 00673966, 01889608)

An intermediate certificate is used to determine if a certificate was issued by a valid and trusted root CA (certificate authority). If the intermediate certificate is not installed on the server where the TLS certificate is installed, applications might not trust the TLS certificate. To have clients trust the TLS certificate, you must make the intermediate certificates available on the server.

You can import the intermediate certificates when you install the Control Room or after you install the Control Room using the Windows command prompt.

Intermediate certificates | Configure application Transport Layer Security | Import HTTPS SSL, intermediate, and CA certificates

Validate remote deployments to avoid unauthorized device access (Service Cloud case ID: 01608589)

Prior to assigning a device for bot deployment, you can reset the bot running device for Bot Creator, Citizen Developer, and attended Bot Runner users to prevent unauthorized deployments. This enhancement enables you to clear an existing bot running device when users log into the Control Room and there is no Bot Agent available on the local device.

Switch device registration between Control Room instances

Configure username for different Automation 360 services using the CyberArk secret response (Service Cloud case ID: 01852428, 00675147, 01950039, 00819460, 00830696, 00822765)

You can configure usernames for auto-login, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), and service credentials using the CyberArk secret response. Usernames can be a combination of values from the secret response or string literals. The CyberArk secret response contains field values that you must enclose within dollar signs ($) to construct the username. For example, to configure the username in the format domain\username, you must enter: $domain$\$username$. The domain and username values in this expression will be replaced with the corresponding values from the secret response.

External key vault naming conventions | CyberArk credential retrieval use cases | On-Premises initial installation using CyberArk Password Vault

Customize device registration settings

Control Room administrator can customize the device registration settings while adding a device. For example, if there are multiple users who will log into a single device, an administrator can change the Device type to Multiple users.

Configure device registration

Minimize security risk for trigger-based bot deployment

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

Switch device registration between Control Room instances

Auto-connect to non-UI triggers for unattended users

As an unattended user who uses non-UI triggers (such as File/Folder trigger that do not require user session) you can auto-connect to the Automation Workspace when the machine is rebooted. You do not need to log in to ensure the triggers are running.

Service Cloud case ID: 00758775, 01754312, 01754887, 01803179, 01844357, 01845563, 01568082, 01866287, 01920491, 01951355, 01951355, 01957771
Packages, actions, and Bot editor
Workday package

You can use the new Workday package from Automation 360 to automate your Workday processes such as reporting, data upload/download, or triggering workflows with our new point-and-click experience. The package provides deep API-level integration with Workday that enables you to build automations easily, without having to code.

Workday package

Apigee package

You can use the new Disconnect and Resume Integration features in the Apigee package. You can disconnect from your Apigee instance and clear the session using the Apigee Disconnect action. You can resume an integration that is suspended in Apigee using the Apigee Resume Integration action.

Apigee Disconnect | Apigee Resume Integration

Goto package

You can migrate bots from other vendors into Automation 360.

Important: The Goto package was specifically designed for migrating bots from other vendors into Automation 360 and is only available on request. This package is not available as part of the standard Automation 360 installation as it cannot be used to build any bots.

Goto package
Salesforce package

You can retrieve the entire result set in the response of the Salesforce Execute SOQL actions. In the previous version, the response was limited to retrieve the first 2000 records and this limit has been removed.
View mode supports the ability to copy

You can use the Copy to shared clipboard functionality to copy actions, triggers, and metadata from a bot in a private repository that is in View mode. You can then use the Paste from shared clipboard to paste the information to an editable bot.

Actions to build automations

Credential Picker listing enhancement

For easier navigation when you pick a credential, the Credential Picket option displays the Locker, Credential, and Attributes items alphabetically across the bot packages.
Extended attributes supported in the Terminal Emulator Package (Service Cloud case ID: 01870633, 01928396, 01809815)

The TN3270E terminal type supports extended attributes. To enable extended attributes for TN3270E terminals, select the Extended Attribute check box in the Connect action.
Enhanced Packages landing page

The Package Manager landing page has been enhanced to provide more clarity with consolidated rows. When all versions of a package are disabled the status displays as Disabled. All related fields, such as recommended Control Room version, Bot Agent version, and Last modified, will show the status as Not Available.

The Version column has been renamed to Default version.
Enhanced error messages display errors from the child bots (Service Cloud case ID: 01264352)
When you create a bot where the parent bot calls a child bot, and if an error occurs in the child bot, the error message provides the following details:
  • Line number of the parent bot which ran the child bot.
  • Line number of the child bot where the error occurred.
  • Error message details, such as what went wrong with that line number and the corresponding corrective action.

Using Bot editor

Timeout option in Database Connect action (Service Cloud case ID: 00753858)

We added a timeout option in the Connect action of the Database Package. When you connect with Microsoft SQL Server to automate database-related tasks, and if the database is down or experiences any network issues, the automation will time out and fail if the database connection is not established in the specified time.

Using Connect action for database

Improved readability with new formatting capabilities in XML document (Service Cloud case ID: 01886455, 01925386)
When you insert, update, or delete nodes, the XML package does not remove carriage return characters between nodes but does remove all blank text nodes from the XML document. By using Prettyprint to format XML files, developers can easily improve the readability of a document. Developers can save time by using the following new options that have been added to the XML Package:
  • Use Prettyprint: The Save session data action supports the Prettyprint format in the XML document. When you select the Use Prettyprint check box and use the Insert node, Update node, or Delete node actions and then save the XML document, the code is formatted with proper indentation as per Prettyprint.
  • Remove text nodes that contain only white space: The Start Session action provides an option to remove blank text nodes when you parse the XML document.

Save session data action in XML | Start session action in XML

New features added to the Email Package (Service Cloud case ID: 01835214, 01846425, 01756713, 01882482)
To support extensive process automation, we added the following action-related features to the Email Package:
  • Ability to use the Reply All action.
  • Enhanced the Delete all action to delete all emails from a specific folder. Additionally, you can apply filter parameters to emails such as:
    • All, Read, and Unread
    • Subject
    • From a specific sender
    • Before, on, or after a received date
  • The dictionary variable for email properties includes a new variable, emailNoOfAttachments, used to retrieve the attachment count.

Reply All action | Example using Email actions in a bot | Delete all 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 link controls
  • Capture and automate tree controls

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

Insert Custom column in Data Table

A new Custom column option has been added to the Data Table > Insert column action that enables you to insert a new column at a specified index in a data table. When you read an Excel spreadsheet and assign it to a data table, you can modify the table by adding a new column and entering any required data.

Insert column action

New Label option in Loop package

A new Label option has been added to the Loop package that enables you to break or continue a specific loop from the nested loops.

Loop package

Add and configure If action conditions

You can add and configure a maximum of 32 conditions in a single If action.
Improved automation reliability for web applications
When you use the Recorder > Capture action to automate web pages running on Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers, the Recorder > Capture action no longer scrolls down the web page if the target object is visible on the screen. This feature improves the user experience and reliability of automation when there is a fixed top pane on the web page and if some physical actions such as mouse clicks do not work as expected.
Note: Ensure that you install the browser extension (version 3.0.8.0) and use the Recorder package (version 2.10.2) to capture the control.
Preferred view retained as default view in the Bot editor

As a bot developer, you no longer have to manually select the preferred view when you open the Bot editor. To improve the developer's productivity and user experience, when creating bots in the Bot editor, your preferred view (List, Flow, or Dual) in the Bot editor will persist across user sessions and browsers. When you navigate in the Control Room or after your next log in, the Bot editor will retain your last used or selected view.

Using Bot editor

Line markers for collapsible sections of code in the Bot editor

When you create bots using Loop, If/If-else, Step, Trigger-loop, Try, Catch, and Finally statements, the Bot editor clearly shows the collapsible sections. When building automations, developers can use these visual indicator line markers at the beginning and end of the collapsible section to improve their productivity.

Note: The visual indicator line marker for the collapsible section applies only to the List view in the Bot editor.

Using Bot editor

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.
Update to the Capture text of window action

The Capture text of window action in the App Integration package can be used to capture a text from a window on two different user sessions.

Capture text of window action

Search and replace in Bot editor (Service Cloud case ID: 00792784, 01943783)

Use the Search and replace feature in the Bot editor to search for any text or variables, string within an action and replace it.

Search and replace option in Bot editor

The experience of building a process has improved.

The Process Composer supports Global Values. You can enter Global Values as variables and select them from the variable picker.

Upload Storage file action added to Process Composer package

You can use the new Upload Storage file action in a task bot to upload data to storage for further consumption in a process. This makes Automation Co-Pilot requests more versatile by enabling bots to process files rather than requiring users to upload at request creation.

Process Composer package

Building and running bots
Notification for bot import

You are informed through Notifications when you import a bot from the Control Room. However, this notification is sent only to the user who imported the bot.

Capabilities supporting notifications | Import bots

Bulk update of multiple packages to default version for multiple bots (Service Cloud case ID: 00712719, 00728499, 00737694, 00803673, 01255722, 00838604, 00772147, 01760236, 01762679, 01771416, 01761859, 01782588, 01778220, 01784255, 01789551, 01809167, 01818690, 01831969, 01813413, 01287311, 01923711, 01927867, 01945464, 01946912, 01819540, 01945315)

You can update multiple packages to default version for multiple bots. This feature enables you to update multiple package versions across all available bots with one action thereby increasing the efficiency of a bulk package update. Additionally, you can review the bots and dependencies before a bulk update.

Updating package versions | Update bots to default package version | Example of updating default package version across bots

Enhancements to code analysis
  • You can access the new administration settings tab for policy management. The enable or disable functionality of code analysis has been moved from Administration > Policies to Administration > Settings > Policies.
  • You can define multiple named policies with different rules that have different severity levels.
  • You can apply different policies to different folders in the Automation page. When you run code analysis on a file, it uses the applicable policy for the folder (assigned or inherited) where the file is located.

Code analysis policy management | Configure and assign code analysis policy

Notifications integration in embedded automations

Notifications in embedded automations (such as Workday, Salesforce) provide you information about automations initiated from these applications and remote bot executions. It enhances the user experience by notifying you about the remote bot executions in their respective applications, thereby increasing the notifications effectiveness.

Capabilities supporting notifications

Enhanced Automation Command Centre home page

The Automation Command Center (ACC) home page provides comprehensive visibility, actionable insight, and oversight capability into all aspects of your automation domain. The ACC home page provides operational insights such as automation and device status, license utilization information, and code analysis policy compliance metrics.

This enhanced home page provides the following benefits and capabilities:
  • Effective monitoring of the automation landscape, leading to:
    • Improved reliability
    • Improved utilization
  • Ensures compliance by highlighting results of code analysis
  • Helps CoEs scale efficiently and achieve automation success
  • Easier navigation to other areas such as Automation Co-Pilot, CoE Manager, and Bot Insight

Automation Command Center

APIs and integrations
Export repository bots by version or label (Service Cloud case ID: 01805699, 01838251)

Use the new POST /v2/blm/export/version API to export repository bots by specifying the label or version of the files. These bots are exported to an archived file.

BLM API

Process Composer APIs
Use the Process Composer APIs to create a new request from processes. You can also retrieve the initial form and request by specifying the reference ID. You can use the following endpoints in the process composer APIs:
  • /requests/create: Create a new request.
  • /requests/ref/{refId}: Retrieve a request.
  • /processes/{id}/form: Retrieve initial form.

Process Composer API

What's changed

Control Room, devices, and Bot Agent
Improved secure registration for Community Edition or Automation 360 users

When a user registers for the Community Edition or Automation 360 account, the registration email sent to the user contains a temporary registration link used to create the user credentials. This registration method is more secure than sending the user their password in plain text.
Licenses page enhancements
To provide easy access to license usage and availability, the Licenses page includes information for the following elements:
  • License mode
  • Control Room expiration date and time
  • Date when the Licenses page was last updated
  • List of products with license availability
  • License total details and where used

Manage licenses

Upgrade changes in code analysis policy from Automation 360 v.28 or later versions

If you have configured a policy for code analysis prior to upgrading to Automation 360 v.28, this policy is migrated to Automation 360 v.28 and is named default policy. This policy is applied to the Automation root folder and is applicable for all bots prior to Automation 360 v.28 release.

Upgrade changes in code analysis policy for Automation 360 v.28 or later versions

Active Directory enhancements for configuring domains (Service Cloud case ID: 00733422, 01853744, 01862164, 01794663)
The following enhancements were made for administrators who configure domains for Active Directory (AD):
  • The Control Room login and the Create user pages automatically select the default domain that is configured. You can select a different domain by either entering the letters of the domain or selecting the domain from the drop-down list.
  • You can configure the domains listed on the Control Room login, the Create user, and the Create an Active Directory role mappings pages to hide domains.

Create an Active Directory user | Configure Control Room for Active Directory: manual mode | Manage domain

Support for multiple roles in Active Directory role mappings (Service Cloud case ID: 01133364, 01133364, 01929400, 01776684)

When you create multiple Active Directory (AD) role mappings for multiple security groups, the roles used in the mappings are combined for the users who belong to the security groups.

Manage Active Directory role mapping

Users who have an Attended Bot Runner license can no longer add Bot deployments to a queue. However, there are no changes for triggers.
As part of the OpenSearch service adoption, when you upgrade nodes in a stand-alone or cluster setup, you must perform a workaround to fix an installation issue.
Note: This behavior is applicable to all the customers who are on the Elasticsearch multi-node cluster and are upgrading to the OpenSearch cluster.

Automation 360 On-Premise Edition | A360.28 – Upgrade Considerations | Update nodes in a cluster setup

To accommodate multiple package updates, the /v2/repository/files/packageVersionUpdate API name was modified to /v2/repository/files/packagesVersionUpdate from the v.28 version. The change in file name will be reflected in Swagger from the v.29 version. The /v2/repository/files/packageVersionUpdate API will no longer work and will instead show a flag disable message.
Automatically deploy event triggers (Service Cloud case ID: 00758775, 01754312, 01754887, 01803179, 01844357, 01845563, 01568082, 01866287, 01920491, 01951355, 01957771)

You can use the Automatically deploy to unattended Bot Runners option when you add an event trigger to automatically deploy triggers. When you reboot your system or Bot Agent, this option will continue the trigger deployment with the current user.

Fixes

Build 17566: This build includes the following fixes (along with fixes from the previous builds):

When you check-in or check-out a bot, the automation page loads successfully without any delay. Also, there is no impact on the bot create and commit process.

Previously, the automaton page was not loading during bot check-in and check-out due to database connection. This behavior caused poor user experience and impact on the bot create and commit process.

Service Cloud case ID: 01963796, 01959945

Build 17542: This build includes the following fixes (along with fixes from the previous builds):

When you check out a bot that contains metadata in actions (for example, Image Recognition, Recorder, or Screen Capture), you no longer encounter an error and a broken image. As a result, the image preview of bots renders properly.

Previously, in such cases, image preview failed and generated an error. As as result, you were not able to check out, copy, or clone the bot.

Service Cloud case ID: 01971324, 01972601, 01977090, 01976820, 01976757, 01976571, 01976597, 01976629, 01977130, 01976845, 01977497, 01976639, 01977546, 01976736, 01977054, 01977392, 01978707, 01978097, 01969070, 01976549, 01978951, 01978955, 01979180, 01977511, 01979014, 01979687, 01979741, 01975299, 01980410, 01980114

Build 17533: This build includes the following fixes (along with fixes from the previous builds):

Bot export now completes successfully when you export a bot containing actions that store an image, such as actions from Recorder, Image Recognition, or Screen package.

Previously, bot export failed when it contained actions that stored an image, and the export error was displayed in the audit log and the historical activity page.
Control Room now sends email notifications when a scheduled bot fails prior to its execution for example, when the Bot Runner machine is not available.

Service Cloud case ID: 01768120
The Schedule column on the Scheduled activity page shows the frequency of a scheduled bot in your local language.

Previously, the frequency of a scheduled bot was not translated and not shown in the user's local language, for example, Japanese.

Service Cloud case ID: 01936850
When you restart the Control Room services and execute a bot, the bot deployment no longer fails on the connected devices nor generates an error on the In progress and Audit log pages.

Previously, the AtmosphereResource Cancelled error displayed on the In progress page and the error was registered on the Audit log page.

Service Cloud case ID: 01937388
You no longer see duplicate deployments (current and previous) for the same device on the In Progress page.

Previously, duplicate deployments were displayed.

Service Cloud case ID: 01954716
On the In progress activity page, the Activity type column displays the correct bot activity type.

Previously, the column displayed inconsistent activity types.

Service Cloud case ID: 01958801
When you create a locker, the Create locker page displays tabs such as Credentials, Owners, Managers, and so on.

Previously, tabs were not displayed.

Service Cloud case ID: 01949499
Attended Bot Runner users can view the Schedule bot menu on the following pages:
  • Automation (Run bot > Schedule bot)
  • In progress activity
  • Scheduled activity
  • Devices
  • Device pools

Previously, this menu was not displayed on these pages.

Service Cloud case ID: 01085127, 01805063
You can run bots in Debug mode even when the data table variables contain a large amount of data (up to 3 MB for a single data table variable that is being watched only). Previously, the browser stopped responding.

Service Cloud case ID: 01949707, 01955034
The query parameters URLs are now parsed even with empty values, resulting in the API server executing them successfully.

Previously, an exception error occurred in such cases.

Service Cloud case ID: 01903082
If you deploy a task with a Bot Runner that has a disconnected default device and no device pool is selected, an error message displays in your local language.

Previously, an error message displayed in English even when the user's local language (for example, Japanese) was selected.

Service Cloud case ID: 01919213
The Bot Runner device will unregister from the Control Room only if there is a valid authentication error.

Previously, during the Bot Runner authentication, the device was unregistered from the Control Room after two unsuccessful authentication attempts. The reason for the error could be due to a valid unsuccessful authentication attempt or any other error.

Service Cloud case ID: 01947943, 01946249, 01956026, 01945438
When a bot is deployed with multiple run-as users and if one or more devices disconnect from the Control Room during the bot execution, reconciliation of reconnecting devices no longer triggers the NonUniqueResultException error.

Previously, when you select X number of run-as users (where X > 1), the query returned X number of entries from the table, which results in the NonUniqueResultException error. As a result, reconciliation failed and also the bot execution was terminated.
You no longer encounter issues when you create a bot using the DLL Open and Close actions and then use the If > Dll session exists condition to check whether a DLL session is closed in a bot.

Previously when you used the If > Dll session exists condition, it failed to check a closed DLL session and displayed an error.

Service Cloud case ID: 01868691
When you use the Get node value to retrieve the JSON object in the JSON package, it returns the JSON value in the correct format.

Previously, the Get node value action displayed the output in the wrong format.

Service Cloud case ID: 01864551
You can use the Connect action to establish a connection with the FTP/SFTP server with keyfile authentication and automate a task.

Previously, the bot could not automate the FTP/SFTP operations if the SFTP keyfile server was installed on a Windows machine.

Service Cloud case ID: 01858323
You no longer encounter any errors when you create a bot using the Create workbook action from the Google Sheets package.

Service Cloud case ID: 01918952
When you use the Connect action in the Active Directory package, you can select objects in the Object Explorer window successfully.

Previously, an error was displayed when you selected objects in the Object Explorer window.

Service Cloud case ID: 01925109
In the Email package, you can use the Email > Send action to send an email without issues.

Previously, when you used Email package version 3.14.3-20220923-220748 or later, an issue occurred when using the Email > Send action.

Service Cloud case ID: 01912097, 01931592, 01934137, 01940215, 01932494, 01942202, 01942055, 01946339, 01949164

You can create bots using the Run stored procedure action of the Database package even when you include a large amount of data as an Input parameter.

When you use the Connect action of the Terminal Emulator package with the prompt value and then the Wait action, the Wait action waits for the prompt value to appear on the terminal screen.

When a new package (first version) is added to the Control Room and you select Disable setting for the new version of the package, the package will show the status as Disabled.

Previously, it showed the status as Enabled and set as default.
In the Datetime > Add action, you can now specify a fraction value in the Time value to add field to increase the value in the Datetime variable by that specific fraction value.
When you use any browser action to automate a browser window or a tab, and run the bot, the browser action now waits for the time specified in the Time out after field to execute action on the browser tab before the bot fails. Previously, the browser action failed after 30 seconds when the bot did not execute successfully, regardless of the wait time set in the Time out after field was less than or greater than 30 seconds.
Note:
  • As a result of this fix, if the Time out after field has a value other than 30 seconds, you might have to change the value for your existing bots. This will ensure that your bots continue to run properly with the latest Browser package.
  • This fix does not apply for the Find broken links action.

Service Cloud case ID: 01880159
When you perform the following sequence of actions and then rename the variable that was used in these actions, the name of the variable will now be updated for the Group conditions and the conditions in the Condition tab:
  • Use the If package
  • Add a specific condition with a variable
  • Add a specific condition with a variable
  • Save the bot.
In the Datetime > Subtract action you can now specify a fraction value in the Time unit to subtract field to decrease the value in the Datetime variable by a specific time value and unit.
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 no longer encounters an error.
In any package, when you select the Add argument option, select String or Number as the Argument type, and try to insert a value, you can now use the mouse to scroll or click the scroll bar to navigate through the options.
When you use multiple Recorder actions in a bot to automate a specific web page running in Microsoft Edge with IE mode, and then run the bot, the second Recorder action now works properly, and the bot no longer encounters an error.

Service Cloud case ID: 01848824, 01868337
You can now use the Folder > Unzip action to extract compressed files and folders from an AES-256 encrypted zip file.

Service Cloud case ID: 01854767
When you try to automate web applications, the Click action in the Recorder now works properly with the MV3 extension on Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers. Previously, when the object on a web page contained inline JavaScripts and the document to be automated was secured, the Recorder failed to perform the Click action.

Service Cloud case ID: 01927058, 01951022
When you use the Click action in the Recorder to automate applications running on Microsoft Edge with IE mode, the bots now time out automatically and no longer freeze when a pop-up appears during bot execution.

Service Cloud case ID: 01790352
When you assign a Production label to a Task Bot and deploy it, the bot no longer encounters an error at the Image Recognition > Find window in window action and runs successfully.

Service Cloud case ID: 01825541
When you use the Recorder package (version 2.10.2 or later) to capture a control on a web page, select Currently active window from the Application tab and then run the bot in a loop, the bot now captures the target control accurately and runs through all the loop iterations successfully even if the control appears behind the bot runtime window.

Service Cloud case ID: 01904537
When you use any of the following actions to determine if a window does not exist, select the web page opened in the Google Chrome browser from the list of active tabs in the Browser tab, and then run the bot, the following actions now wait for the specified time value to close the browser tabs before the bot fails.
  • Window does not exist condition in the If and Loop packages
  • Window with same title does not exist condition in the If and Loop packages
  • Window does not exist condition in the Wait > Wait for condition action
  • Window with same title does not exist condition in the Wait > Wait for condition action
  • Wait > Wait for window action
Note: When you run the bot, the actions might wait for an additional two to three seconds later than the specified time out value to execute actions before the bot fails.

Service Cloud case ID: 00790336, 00822573, 00832864, 01268577, 01586174, 00790336, 01778857, 01804828, 01809565, 01791209, 01848262, 01867832, 01877740, 01959172, 01959278
When you create or delete a folder (or form) that contains .. characters in the folder (or form) name, the folder structure no longer affected.

Previously, when you deleted a folder (or form) that contained .. characters in its name, the parent folder was deleted which caused issues with the folder structure.

Service Cloud case ID: 01886058
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
When you check in a bot that contains the string "bot_" in its name and some recorder metadata, the metadata is no longer deleted. As a result, you can check out a bot without generating an exception or error message.

Previously, the recorder metadata was deleted and you were blocked from making recorder changes to any of the bots that contain "bot_" in its name. The bot checkout failed and generated an exception or error message.

Service Cloud case ID: 01915726, 01933409, 01939124, 01944665, 01939124
When you upgrade the Control Room to Automation 360 v.27, the work items are deployed successfully for all scenarios.

Previously, when you upgraded the Control Room to Automation 360 v.27, the work item failed to deploy when queues were paused or stopped.

Service Cloud case ID: 01948038, 01950948

When you run a bot with a queue and select the queue category, the task bot (that contains a TABLE type variable and no row data) no longer fails and shows the Missing work item template error message.

Previously, when there was no row content for a TABLE type variable, you could not select the queue category while running a bot with a queue. As a result, the Missing work item template error message was shown even if a template was mapped.

Service Cloud case ID: 01922641
When you import a BLM package (zip file) to the Control Room, the Automation Anywhere Control Room Messaging service restarts and you no longer get an error message. Additionally, the bot import and export operations complete successfully.

Previously, when the ActiveMQ broker service is stopped, the broker is stopped but the process did not exit due to which the Automation Anywhere Control Room Messaging service was not restarted. As a result, when you import a BLM package, the JMSExpection: failover time 5000ms exceeded error was displayed.

Service Cloud case ID: 01924119
When you compare bot versions from the View history Task Bot page in the public workspace, the Compare versions displays any modifications made in the latest two versions of your bot without any error.

Previously, an error was displayed if you used the Compare versions feature through the View history Task Bot page.

Service Cloud case ID: 01949094, 01946533

After you update the Bot Agent to the 21.240.19897 version, you can deploy multiple bots using the API without any failure caused by the AA-DB file size.

Previously, when you deployed multiple bots using the API the AA-DB.mv.db and AA-DB.trace.db file sizes continued to increase and eventually caused the bots to fail. Additionally, the device configuration refresh initiated message continuously displayed.

Service Cloud case ID: 01776544
The following issues were fixed on the In progress activity page:
  • Active bot deployments no longer disappear after a page refresh.
  • Duplicate bot entries were removed whose status was displayed as active.

Service Cloud case ID: 01937581
Variables that you configure as input type are encrypted in the log files generated for Control Room.

Previously, input type variables were not encrypted and displayed as plain text in the log files.

Service Cloud case ID: 01768904
Users can only view activities to which they have permission on the Activity > In progress page.

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

Service Cloud case ID: 01839276, 01919244, 01940793, 01941503
In attended and unattended automation, if a bot fails to run and generates the "Node Manager went Down unexpectedly and could not complete this bot execution." error, the start time on the Historical and Audit log pages display correctly.

Previously, the start time was displayed incorrectly.

Service Cloud case ID: 01881736
All users can view the scheduled activities on the Scheduled activity page.

Previously, some users were unable to view the scheduled activities.

Service Cloud case ID: 01885890, 01848429
The Control Room Access URL length is set to a maximum of 4,000 characters.

Previously, the URL length was not set.

Service Cloud case ID: 01923035
Sorting users using the Last login option on the Users page sorts users correctly.

Previously, sorting users by last login was not sorting the users correctly.

Service Cloud case ID: 01813134
If you created a bot using the REST API command, the REST GET command is parsed without any errors even when the response body is empty.

Service Cloud case ID: 01922332
Japanese characters are supported in the REST API commands with the multipart/form-data option and the output PDF name is rendered correctly.

Service Cloud case ID: 01909753
All files in the specified OneDrive location are downloaded successfully when you use the Download file action from the Microsoft 365 OneDrive package.

Service Cloud case ID: 01886501
If you selected the Read cell value option in the Read row action of the Excel advanced package, the data from the next sheet of the specified Excel file is extracted correctly using the Switch to sheet action.

Service Cloud case ID: 01904504
If a bot contains Get multiple cells or Get single cell action from the Excel advanced package to retrieve the underlying scientific values, the values from the specified Excel file are successfully extracted when you run this bot.

Service Cloud case ID: 01882225, 01938812
Exception errors are no longer displayed for the following actions in the Excel advanced package:
  • Get single cell
  • Get cell color
  • Get multiple cell
  • Get number of cells
  • Get worksheet as data table
  • Insert/Delete rows/columns
  • Read cell formula
  • Read column
  • Read row
  • Remove blank row
  • Rename worksheet
  • Replace
  • Select cells/rows/columns
  • Set call
  • Switch to sheet
  • Close

Service Cloud case ID: 01780178, 01926325
For Automation 360 Cloud, if there are many (more than 500) bots deployed in one of the device when there are multiple devices connected to a Control Room, bot deployments across other devices are no longer blocked.

Service Cloud case ID: 01791784, 01950118, 01904686, 01795862, 01945357, 01941048
If you create a folder with the same name as an existing folder in the private workspace, an error message is now displayed, and the folder is not created.

Previously, a false successful folder creation message was displayed, but the last modified date of that particular folder remained the same as that of the previously existing folder.

When you create, view, or edit roles and then navigate to the Bots section, the folder list is sorted alphabetically making it easier to find a specific folder.

Previously, the folders were not sorted alphabetically, and it was difficult to find a particular folder when there were many folders in the repository.

Service Cloud case ID: 01762755, 01843015, 01874823
When you import a bot using the overwrite option and do not have permission to access one or more dependent folders, the import dependency is not broken because of the import failure on the dependent folder.

Previously, importing the bot when you had no permission to access the dependent folder resulted in a break in the dependency if the file or folder was already present.

Service Cloud case ID: 01929592, 01946078
When you import a bot that has more than 2,100 manual dependencies, the import is successful without any issues.

Previously, the bot import failed when the bot contained more than 2,100 manual dependencies. You had to reduce the number of dependencies to import the bot successfully.

Service Cloud case ID: 01913648, 01942373
When you have large number of processed work items, the new work items are processing in expected time without any delay.

Previously, in such cases, new work items were taking long time due to the query time out error. As a result, you were not able to deploy the bot with queue.

Service Cloud case ID: 01846496, 01939581
The group Managed Service Account (gMSA) provides functionalities such as install, update and perform LDAP authentication within a domain, and also extends those functionalities across multiple servers.
When you update Automation 360 to the v.28 release, the Elasticsearch service is replaced with OpenSearch service as the underlying technology for core product capabilities such as audit, Bot Insight, and so on.
Automation 360 for auto-login and RDP-based deployment supports the user name in the User Principal Name (UPN) format (username@domain.com).

Service Cloud Case ID: 01816116, 01906692
An error no longer displays when you click your trigger in the event trigger page.
You no longer encounter random bot deployment issues in the Bot editor.

Previously, during bot deployment, the LockAcquisitionException error was observed randomly, and the bot execution status remained as Pending execution in the In progress activity tab. As a result, the user had to retry deployment for it to succeed.

Limitations

Bots that are in the Queued status do not appear automatically on the In progress activity page.

Workaround: Click the Refresh table button on the top-right corner of the Activity table to view the queued bots.

For users (excluding the users who are assigned the AAE_Admin role) who do not have any license assigned to them (Bot Creator, UnattendedBot Runner, Attended Bot Runner, or Citizen Developer), the Audit log page displays multiple unsuccessful entries related to the Default device set event for any activity performed by the users on the Control Room.

Workaround: See A360.28 On-Prem & Cloud | After upgrading to A360.28, multiple events are getting created in Audit logs 'Default device set Unsuccessful'.

Service Cloud case ID: 01969726, 01970583, 01970990, 01971435, 01971171, 01970869, 01971854, 01970915, 01970523, 01971411, 01971788, 01971827, 01971482, 01971736, 01970333, 01972128, 01970497, 01972025, 01971459, 01971561, 01971068, 01972148, 01975216, 01975980, 01977479, 02001122
(Service Cloud case ID: 01833352)
When you want to move emails from one folder to another, and if you apply multiple filters such as Subject, From specific sender, When received date is on or after, or When received date is before, you cannot move an email when its sender id is: noreply@**.com.
Note: You might observe this issue when you use Save All attachments, Delete All, Move All, and Loop actions.

Workaround: Use only the From specific sender filter to move emails.
The Create User audit log entry page shows a valid device license even when the license allocation for a user had failed.
(Service Cloud Case ID: 01976942)

Duplicate entries of the same activity are listed in the Activity > In progress screen for the users who are assigned the same role and permission.
In a clustered environment, when you update bots to the default package versions, the Bot update list page shows Failed status and bots are auto-checked out even if they are updated with the latest default packages.
In an Oracle environment, the Bot update list page shows an Code: db.connection.exception error message.
Workaround:
  1. Log in as an administrator.
  2. Navigate to Manage > Packages and set the required package version as the default version.
  3. Log in as a Bot Creator, and then check out and edit the bot.
  4. In the Bot editor, click the three vertical ellipses at the top right corner.
  5. Select required Packages and update the package version manually.
While updating bots to the default package version, when you select the Production label bots, the package update is applied for the latest version of bots instead of the Production label bots.
(Service Cloud Case ID: 01952411, 01998646, 02088302)

When you check out and edit a bot after the bot updates to the default package version, an error is displayed in the System Date for these commands: SystemsDate, REST Web Service, and Number.

Workaround:
  1. Edit the bot and navigate to Manage > Packages.
  2. Set the Date and Time for the non-default package, and then set it back to the default Date and Time.
    Note:
    • If previous version of the package does not exist, then upload the package and assign the default Date and Time.
    • If previous version of package is available, then edit the bot, assign it to the previous package and save. Then, re-assign the bot to the new default package.
When a user (who created the workload automation) is deleted, work items are not processed even if they are available to process. As a result, you must delete and re-create the automation.
If you select the Search type as Variable name in the Search and replace feature, the content is not replaced when you use a number variable in the expression.

Workaround: To replace a specific variable in a number expression, open that action and change the variable manually.
(Service Cloud Case ID: 01950021)

If Auto update is enabled for the Bot Agent in Control Room, registered devices running Windows10 Enterprise might restart intermittently after the Bot Agent update has completed.
Bot deployments might fail if the Log collector and Sync log collector options are enabled while updating Automation 360 to v.28.
Workaround: Before updating Automation 360 to v.28 from any of the previous versions (such as v.25), ensure that the Log collector option within Administration > Settings > Devices > Advanced options and Sync log collector option within Administration > Settings > Devices > Log collection configuration are disabled.
Note: For information on resolving bot deployment issues caused when the Log collector or Sync log collector options were enabled while updating Automation 360 to v.28 release, see .Troubleshoot bot deployment issue caused if Log collector is enabled (A-People login required)
API Task is a beta feature in the v.28 release and is designed for Automation 360 cloud deployments only.

However, after you upgrade your On-Premises deployment to v.28, users with a Bot Creator license can create an API Task and users with either Device pool owner or Device pool admin permission can create an API Device pool. But you will not be able to execute the API Tasks. In an upcoming update, the API Task feature will be fully turned off on On-Premises deployments and will be available only on the upcoming Automation 360 cloud deployments.
Bot export fails when you export a bot that contains actions that store an image, such as actions from Recorder, Image Recognition, or Screen package. You can view the export error in the audit log and the historical activity page.

Workaround: Contact Automation Anywhere Support.
After you update Automation 360 to v.28, when you cancel the update process after removing all the services, the rollback of the services does not happen. As a result, you will encounter an error message, when you attempt Automation 360 update.
Limitations from previous releases
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 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.

Feature deprecations

Review features and capabilities (from Automation Anywhere or other third-party vendors) that are deprecated or nearing deprecation to understand how they impact your automation.
Deprecated weaker Transport Layer Security protocols: TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1

Automation Anywhere has deprecated weaker communication protocols TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1, and their corresponding ciphers (Cryptographic algorithms) in Automation 360 Cloud deployments (AWS and GCP). Automation 360 Cloud deployments support TLS 1.2 and later versions only.

Upcoming feature deprecations

Manifest V2 extensions for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge

From Automation 360 v.26 and later releases, we have published new Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge Manifest V3 extensions. Starting on October 23, 2023, we will deprecate support for Manifest V2 extensions on Automation 360 v.26 and later releases. After this date, we will not address any issues relating to Manifest v2 extensions. If you are on Automation 360 v.26 or a later release and still using Manifest V2 extensions for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, we recommend that you upgrade your Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browser extensions to Manifest V3 extensions before October 23, 2023.

Note: If you are on Automation 360 v.25 or earlier releases, then you will not be impacted.

Updates to the interface

Review the updates to the interface in this release.

See the following video for the updates made to the interface for Automation 360 v.28 release:

The Enter property set to your CyberArk username option is introduced on the Service Credentials page to configure usernames using the CyberArk secret response.

Configure username for different Automation 360 services using the CyberArk secret response

You can import intermediate certificates when installing Control Room On-Premises.

Import intermediate certificates for secure access to Control Room

The Control Room Service Startup Options page is introduced when installing the Automation 360 Control Room to select the services to run at Control Room startup.

Select the Control Room services to run at startup

The bot updates to default package version functionality is enhanced and moved from Manage > Packages to Administration > Bot update page.

Bulk update of multiple packages to default version for multiple bots

The Allow users to control notifications settings option is added to control and lock the user preferences for notifications.

Improved notifications administration to manage user access

The Process events notifications category is introduced to monitor Automation Co-Pilot events.

Monitor Automation Co-Pilot events through Control Room notifications

A check box is added to clear the existing default device for the logged-in Bot Creator, attended Bot Runner, or Citizen DeveloperCitizen developer users.

Validate remote deployments to avoid unauthorized device access

Updated and intuitive icons for all the actions and contextual help for various actions within packages. For example, contextual help is available for all the actions within the Excel advanced package.

Enhanced user experience through refreshed and intuitive icons

The enable or disable functionality of code analysis is moved from Administration > Policies to Administration > Settings > Policies.

Enhancements to code analysis

The visual indicator line marker for the collapsible section helps you see where in the bot you are and editing.

Line markers for collapsible sections of the code in the Bot editor

We provide implicit preference to retain the default view in the Bot editor, and the system will display the same view upon your subsequent login.

Default view in the Bot editor

You can now copy, cut, and paste the entire node in the Process Composer. These actions apply to all properties and attributes of the node, including child and branch elements.

Copy, cut, and paste actions

The Process Composer supports Global Values in variables.

Global values as variable