Automation Workspace v.34 release

Review what's new and changed, fixes and limitations, and the feature deprecations in Automation Workspace for the v.34 release.

What's new

Control Room, devices, and Bot Agent
Support for Microsoft SQL Server 2022

Starting from Automation Workspace v.34 release, Microsoft SQL Server database is supported on 2022 version.

Database requirements
Configure pre-built templates settings

As an administrator, you can now configure the settings by either turning on or turning off the download of the pre-built templates from Automation Anywhere in the Control Room. This enables you to manage and control the importing of pre-built templates based on your organization's needs.

Pre-built templates settings
Debug enhancements
  • You can now enable or disable breakpoints in child bots while debugging the end-to-end parent-child automations.

    Adding breakpoints in child bots allows you to pause the execution of the automation at specific points, making it easier to debug and inspect the state of the automation at those points, specifically for complex and long-running processes that span multiple tasks or child automations.

  • Breakpoints and watched variables added to a specific bot will now be automatically saved, eliminating the need for manual saving. This ensures that all breakpoints and watched variables are retained even if you close and reopen your automation or switch between different debugging sessions thereby maintaining a consistent debugging workflow.
  • You can debug your automations only in the private repository.

Debugging tools | Watched variables
New option to stop bulk package update

We provide you an option to stop a bulk package update activity midway that is currently in progress on the Bot update list page. You can stop the activity if the bulk update process runs longer or if you want to stop it for any other reason.

When you stop the process, the confirmation message displays the total number of bots selected to use the default package version and the number of bots that have been updated so far.
Increase in the limit to update bots using the custom option for bulk package updates

When you update bots to the default package version using the custom option, we have significantly increased the limit to 1000 bots with the dependencies for bulk package updates with an improved performance. This will help you quickly update your package, saving you valuable time.
Change ownership of scheduled process

As part of managing scheduled activities, you can now change or transfer the ownership of a scheduled process to any other Control Room user.

Change ownership of scheduled activity
Configure forward proxy for Control Room packages updates

The Control Room now supports the configuration of a forward proxy for secure package downloads from the Cloud. As a Control Room administrator, you can configure a forward proxy in the Control Room settings. This will allow the Control Room feature (automatic packages updates) to connect to Cloud-hosted services for updates outside of the network, ensuring a high level of security. On-Premises customers, who route outbound traffic through a network proxy, can seamlessly receive the latest package specific updates.

Configure forward proxy settings
New enhanced expression builder

We have made the process of creating expressions more intuitive to enhance the experience of developing automations. In the editor, the process to insert a variable or build an expression manually in the action properties is now simplified and easy to use, without requiring a deep understanding of expression patterns. You can now quickly create simple to complex expressions, saving you valuable time.

Expression builder
Download data files (Service Cloud case ID: 00537223, 01993793, 01993011)

A new permission Download data files is now available in the list of feature permissions that can be assigned to a user role as part of BOTS in the Control Room settings. This permission enables users to download data files in Control Room.

Note: The Download data files permission requires the Enterprise Platform license. For more information about supported version for this feature, see Enterprise Platform.

Feature permissions for a role - Bots
Configure object names in auto-login use cases when integrating with external key vault (Service Cloud case ID: 01973626, 01961519)

When you integrate the Automation 360 server with an external key vault for auto-login, you can now configure the mapping of user name and the key vault’s object names using the Control Room settings, instead of following the Automation 360 naming conventions. This enhances the usability and management of credentials, allowing users to seamlessly map their secret names to Control Room user names in just a few steps.

Custom secrets mapping
Grace license policy and notifications

When the purchased quantity of licenses is fully consumed, volume-based services such as Document Automation, Generative AI, and API Tasks will be given a grace period to continue their business activity seamlessly, instead of abruptly discontinuing the services. Notifications for the grace entry, grace period (last 7 days), and service disablement upon license expiration will be sent to the license administrators.

Control Room license expiry notifications
Notification when device pool owner is deactivated or deleted

When a Control Room user who is also an owner of a device pool is deactivated or deleted, the other users of that device pool are now notified.

View device pool details

Manage licenses offline in Control Room during license server outages

You can now allocate or de-allocate licenses using the Control Room local snapshot when the license server is not reachable due to an outage or maintenance.

License server connectivity

Enterprise Platform license availability for On-Premises deployment

The Enterprise Platform license support will now be available for On-Premises deployment for selected features. For details regarding the supported features, see Enterprise Platform.
Packages, actions, and Bot editor
Run or schedule process automation

You can run or schedule a process automation through the Run wizard in Automation 360 from a public workspace. The new process first capabilities enable you to schedule process automations and run them in less time. This eliminates the need to create shell bots for scheduling. User-friendly interface enables you to focus on driving value, adoption, and productivity through automation.

Run a process automation from public workspace | Schedule a process automation
Option to ignore pop-ups in the Bot editor

When you create or open an existing bot, you can now test the resiliency settings by enabling the pop-up handler feature before running the bot . This ensures a successful execution without any runtime issues.

Ignore pop-ups during automation execution
APIs and integrations
Connector Builder
  • You can now secure the User provided input parameters.
  • The Control Room prevents you from entering Authentication as an action name because it is a reserved name.
  • The base URL is now an optional field.
Note: This feature requires an additional license. Contact your Automation Anywhere account representative for more information.

Request parameters | Add action in Connector Builder
WLM APIs
From Automation 360 v.34, the following WLM API endpoints are deprecated and planned to be discontinued (EoL) along with the v.38 release:
  • POST /v3/wlm/workitemmodel
  • GET /v3/wlm/workitemmodels/{id}
  • GET /v3/wlm/queues/{id}
  • POST /v3/wlm/queues/{id}/consumers
  • POST /v3/wlm/queues/{id}/participants
  • PUT /v3/wlm/queues/{id}/members/{userId}
  • POST /v3/wlm/queues/{id}/file
  • PUT /v3/wlm/queues/{id}/workitems/{workItemId}
Replace the above API endpoints with the following API endpoints:
  • POST /v4/wlm/workitemmodel
  • GET /v4/wlm/workitemmodels/{id}
  • GET /v4/wlm/queues/{id}
  • POST /v4/wlm/queues/{id}/consumers
  • POST /v4/wlm/queues/{id}/participants
  • PUT /v4/wlm/queues/{id}/members/{userId}
  • POST /v4/wlm/queues/{id}/file
  • PUT /v4/wlm/queues/{id}/workitems/{workItemId}
Automation APIs

From Automation 360 v.34, the Bot Scheduler API endpoints: /v1/schedule/automations are deprecated and are replaced with /v2/schedule/automations. The v1 version is planned to be discontinued (EoL) along with the v.38 release.

What's changed

Control Room, devices, and Bot Agent
Set a limit on the size of the upload file (Service Cloud case ID: 02085500)

The File size upload limit option is now updated to enable Control Room administrators to set the limit on the size of a file that is being uploaded by other users.

File upload settings
Bot Agent version change notification

After you update to this release, an update notification alert is displayed in the Notifications section of the Control Room when there is a change in the major, minor, or a patch version of the latest Bot Agent.

Automatically update the Bot Agent
Generative Recorder configuration settings

In the Recorder package (version 3.1.5 and later), the Generative Recorder configuration settings are now visible regardless of whether a Recorder action is added in the Bot editor, ensuring there is no confusion about enabling the fallback option.

Note: To save the configuration settings, the automation must include a Recorder action.
Deleting a user after initiation of automations

If a user account is deleted after one or more of the associated automations were initiated, the deployments of the automations are now managed based on the status in the Control Room.

Manage users
Enhancements to Limit List Value Maximum Items rule

As an administrator, when you enable the Code Analysis settings, create a policy with the rule Limit List Value Maximum Items, and apply this policy to any Bots folder. Now, when a developer creates a bot in that folder, and if any action within a bot violates the rule Limit List Value Maximum Items, a code violation icon is displayed against that action. Additionally, you can open that code violation in Assistant by clicking the violation indicator in the action details pane and view the rule description.
Updating Microsoft Windows Server 2022 Datacenter from Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Datacenter (Service Cloud case ID: 02136140)

Starting from this release, you can update to Microsoft Windows Server 2022 Datacenter from Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Datacenter.

Operating system, environment, and platform supported for Control Room
License check for Automator AI license

The Control Room performs a license check for the Automator AI license and displays whether the license is installed and active through the Automations > Generate Automation icon. Users can easily check whether the Automator AI license is installed and active, ensuring they have access to all necessary features for automation.

Automator AI
User account deletion changes

Starting from this release, the Control Room allows user accounts to be deleted even if they are linked to resources. This is useful when users leave an organization or move to another role.

The administrators managing credentials, lockers, device pools, and automations will receive notifications upon account deletion. This ensures the administrators can take necessary actions, like transferring ownership or notifying relevant users.

Delete a user
New Sandbox region on AWS for Australia region

This new Sandbox for Australia, named Automation 360 Cloud: Control Room Sandbox Australia 2 will be hosted on AWS server to support data residency. This region will eventually replace the existing Sandbox region, named Automation 360 Cloud: Control Room Sandbox Australia 1 that operates on GCP.

Automation 360 Cloud FAQ
Addition of industry-standard HTTP security headers (Service Cloud Case ID: 02117379)

Security for the OAuth configuration of an application is now enhanced with the addition of industry-standard HTTP security headers.
Addition of the user description column (Service Cloud Case ID: 02088152, 02089142, 02093877, 02093045)

In the Control Room, the User view page now includes a new column for Description in the table. This column is added next to the Username column and supports both sorting and filtering functions.

Manage users
Deprecation of Oracle database

Starting from this release, support for installing Control Room on the Oracle database will not be available.

Third-party deprecations
Change in navigation for external key vault auto login settings

When you configure device auto login settings for external key vaults, the navigation menu has changed. Now you should navigate to Administration > Settings > External key vault > Device auto login. In previous releases, the navigation was Administration > Settings > Devices > Auto login settings. This navigation makes it easy to access all the external key vault settings at one place.

Updates to the interface

Fixes

You no longer encounter issues when creating a bot using Dictionary > Assign action.

Previously, when you used the Dictionary > Assign action and selected the Dictionary source variable, the Any option was missing from the data type list.

Service Cloud Case ID: 02165977
Automation deployments on multi-user Bot Runner devices are no longer stuck in the Pending execution state on the Activity > In progress page.

Previously, an incorrect server-side configuration triggered multiple configuration refresh commands for all the multi-user Bot Runner devices. As a result, some automations were stuck in the Pending execution state for longer period than expected.

Service Cloud Case ID: 02165898, 02166205, 02166534, 02167579
After updating to this release, the sub-folders now appear correctly above any available bots as per the folder hierarchy in the Find a Task Bot or Find a Folder window, even when those bots and the sub-folders are located in the same directory.

Service Cloud Case ID: 02163129
The Workload Management (WLM) API PUT /v3/wlm/automations/{id} sample payload and descriptions have been updated to accurately reflect the required parameters.

Previously, the required parameters were not correctly displayed.

Service Cloud case ID: 02118267, 02137488
Pre-built templates can be downloaded from the Bot store using the manual import option.
Task BotsAfter updating to this release, you can use the Type column in the Automation > Public or Automation > Private folders to sort all the available items such as folders, API Tasks and so on, correctly in an alphabetical order.

Service Cloud case ID: 02102263
After updating to this release, any major, minor or patch versions of the Bot Agent is now displayed correctly across all the screens such as Device update initiated, Acknowledged, Downloaded, and Started.
If the automation recording feature is available, the status of any recording that failed to upload is now displayed correctly in the Activity > Historical page.
When you create a folder with non-English characters and create parent and child bots within it, the debugger window will no longer show an error message about the file path when you step into the child bot during debugging.

Service Cloud case ID: 02146771, 02147765, 02148008, 02148587, 02149293, 02152234
When bots are configured with different trigger package versions, the Trigger listener will now download each of the versions and use them for respective bots regardless of the order in which the trigger bots are configured.

Service Cloud case ID: 02123573
If the functionality to record automation execution is available and the automation recording fails, a descriptive error message about the possible cause is now displayed correctly.
For RDP-based deployments, the next available user session is now selected correctly if the legal disclaimer and multiple user sessions are enabled.

Service Cloud case ID: 02131563
After you update to this release, you can use the Compare option for a template that has multiple versions, without encountering any issues.

Service Cloud case ID: 02130667
If there are a large number of schedules (more than 2100) and the user does not have the View all schedule activity permission, access will be restricted to specific folders. However, the user will now be able to view all the created schedules, without any error messages.

Service Cloud case ID: 02099190, 02140783
The OpenSearch (Elasticsearch) backup sync job now adds an entry in the System log for every successful run, and is scheduled to occur every 30 seconds. With this update, the OpenSearch backup component will no longer add audit logs for successful runs.

Service Cloud case ID: 01991628, 02005445
When the Export to CSV option is used to export the users list to a .csv format, the Last login column is now included in the exported file.

Service Cloud case ID: 00773313, 01849525, 02106759, 02111207, 02122600, 02143301
In the Control Room, on pages where the pagination drop-down menu is displayed, you select items greater than 25, 50, 100, or so on and click the right arrow (→) to add your selection. If the number of items you select exceeds the number chosen in the pagination drop-down menu, the drop-down menu and page number are now displayed correctly.
When you create a bot using Loop, Loop, If, or If-else conditions and add another action after the conditional statement, the values added in the conditional statement are now retained.

Previously, the values added in the conditional statement were not retained.
When you create a bot using conditional actions such as If or While and search for a condition in the search text box, the matched texts are now highlighted in bold in the search results.

Previously, the search result highlighted a few matched texts in bold.
The new packages are now downloaded automatically when the automatic update of packages option is enabled for On-Premises Control Room instances.

Previously, new packages were not automatically downloaded under certain conditions, even when the automatic update of packages option was enabled.

Service Cloud case ID: 01998000, 02084927
When you check-in a bot, the Unexpected error occurred message is no longer displayed as the old index.lock file is now deleted automatically and the corresponding bot is checked in successfully.

Service Cloud case ID: 02101840, 02108394, 02116666, 01984944, 02129953, 02100625, 02121038, 02120628, 02123571, 02117517, 02132458, 02139085
When you use the Manage bots > Promote option to migrate a bot from one environment to another, all the child bots including any of the packages available in them are successfully migrated without any issues.

Service Cloud case ID: 02116742
After you update to this release, the entries in the WLM quartz table are now reset and you can import work items from .csv files without the need to restart the Control Room.

Service Cloud case ID: 02113465, 02148436
When you pass variable values between a parent and child bot, errors are no longer encountered even if any of the variables contain null values, and the bot run completes successfully.

Service Cloud case ID: 02089254
After you update to this release, the filepath provided in the Path to executable: field is now enclosed in double quotation marks (") and conforms with the privilege escalation security guidelines.

Service Cloud case ID: 02141762, 02132449
After updating to this release, you no longer encounter password issues as special characters are supported in the Windows service accounts.

Service Cloud case ID: 02124989, 02151131
The correct device name is now displayed on the Activity > Historical and Activity > In progress pages when a deployment is part of a pool with two Run as User accounts assigned to the same device, while another device uses different credentials associated with one of the Run as User accounts. Previously, sometimes these pages incorrectly displayed the name of a non-default device if two devices were deployed on the same machine.

Service Cloud case ID: 02135000

You can now select credentials in the password field, even if Manage > Credentials > Attributes > Use attribute ONLY on Password or Masked check box is selected.

Previously the same credential was not available for selection.

Service Cloud case ID: 02141254, 02145490
Roles assigned to the application user(s) are also exported successfully. Previously, when a user tried to export the system defined roles that were assigned to the application user(s), the audit logs indicated success, but the Activity > Historical page displayed the action as failed.

Service Cloud case ID: 02119829
The data for an existing license key now remains active and is not erased from the license registration page (unless an invalid key is used). Previously, some users were not able to connect to the license server because the Control Room registration data was missing. This issue occurred when a random or incorrect license key was used, which caused the existing license key's data to be erased from the registration table.

Service Cloud case ID: 02122019
If you use any of the screen capture actions when the Ignore unexpected pop-ups option is enabled, the background applications that correspond to the action are no longer treated as a pop-up window.

Service Cloud case ID: 02108052
There is no longer any discrepancy between the audit logs captured in the Control Room user interface and those captured using SIEM-integrated Splunk. Previously there was a mismatch in the count of audit logs because the EXPORT_TO_CSV activity type audit log was not sent to the SIEM server.

Service Cloud case ID: 02118266

The Control Room enables you to save the Administration > Settings > Inactive User Account Auto-Disable Configuration option successfully by allowing you to select the roles which you want to exclude. This exclude option ensures that some users are not automatically disabled even though they have been inactive for a specified time. Previously, the Control Room allowed you to save this option even when a role was not selected.
You can now successfully create and test the OAuth connection using PKCE with client secret. Previously, you had to first create a connection and then edit the connection to add the client secret.
An automation that uses the Text file > Read Variables action in a child automation, now executes successfully even if the variable mapped in the action's output has a null value.

Previously, the automation would fail with a no value present error.

Service Cloud case ID: 02099836
After you update to this release, certain automations that are running on multi-user Bot Runner devices are now correctly marked as Pending execution instead of Started. An automation will be in Pending execution state when the following events occur:
  1. A multi-user Bot Runner device receives a configuration refresh request while there are active automations in progress.
  2. Additional automations are started on other user-sessions after the configuration refresh command is sent from the Control Room. For example three more automations are started.
  3. The new automations will remain in Pending execution until the automations that are in progress complete, and the configuration refresh command is processed.

Service Cloud Case ID: 02161311

Limitations

The automation progress window is not displayed in Run or Schedule windows even when the Hide bot run window check box is deselected using the JVM option workaround listed in this article:Hide the Automation Runtime Window Enabled with new Run Now/Schedule Wizard (A-People login required).

Service Cloud Case ID: 02166813, 02168939, 02169567
  • When you begin the bulk package update process and perform the repository operations such as Check in and Import to the Public workspace, the operations (Check in and Import) will take a longer time to complete.
  • We recommend that the Control Room administrator perform the bulk package update process during non-business hours.
Note: These limitations currently apply to Cloud and On-Premises Control Room instances.
API Task is a cloud-only feature. It is currently possible to import API Tasks into On-Premises environments. Imported API Tasks can be viewed in the On-Premises Control Room; however, they cannot be executed as automations.
When you create a bot and use the expression builder to build an expression, some selected expressions might not consistently display all the elements in the expression builder preview.

The user cannot select or edit credentials, password details, domain, and site information after clicking the Test Connection button while configuring external key vault.

Workaround: You can manually enter the password without clicking Discover Connection or Test Connection and click Next to proceed to the next steps.
After you update to Automation 360 On-Premises, when you create a process automation, and check it in to public workspace, you cannot run or schedule that process.
WorkaroundNavigate to the config folder that is available in the C:\Program Files\Automation Anywhere\Automation360\ location, and add the following values in the flagrules.json file:
{

  "flagValues": {

    "feature_schedule_process_task": true

  }

}
Save your changes and restart all the Control Room services.

Bot compilation/run fails when there are variables of type Any and the variables are mapped in the return as dictionary output. This issue primarily affects bots that use the Task Bot or Dictionary commands and have variable mappings involving Any types.

Workaround:

  1. Edit the bot: Open the impacted automation in the bot editor.
  2. Identify Any variables: Locate any variables of type Any that are assigned values from a dictionary returned by another bot.
  3. Determine specific type: Determine the appropriate data type for the variable based on the values it will receive from the child bot.
  4. Update variable type: Change the type of the Any variable to the specific type you identified.
  5. Save and run: Save the automation and run it to verify that the compilation and execution are successful.
In an On-Premises environment with Active Directory authentication, when you enable custom secrets mapping for Bot auto-login, the system fails to find a secret name mapping for Bot Runner user. This results in a failure to run the Bot.

Workaround: Do not enable custom secrets mapping for Bot auto-login. By default, the Control Room will use the Automation 360 specified naming convention (autologin_<domain\username>) to get credentials from external key vault. See External key vault naming conventions.

Updates to the interface

Automation Workspace
A new navigation menu is introduced to the external key vault auto login settings:

autologin-external-key-vault

Change in navigation for external key vault auto login settings