Version 11.3.5.1 Release Notes

Review the new features, changed features, fixed features, security fixes, and known limitations in Version 11.3.5.1 for Automation Anywhere Control Room, Enterprise Client, and Bot Insight.

Important: If active schedules exist in your system and you install the Version 11.3.5.1 patch, all the existing schedules will disappear after installation. You must perform some additional steps before installing Version 11.3.5.1 to prevent this issue. See the 11.3.5.1 Control Room upgrade section.

If you have already installed Version 11.3.5.1 and your active schedules no longer exist, see this article for information about how to retrieve the schedules: Scheduled bots disappear after upgrading Control Room to 11.3.5.1 (A-People login required).

New features

Control Room
Configure banner text for login page

Service Cloud case ID: 00453389

To provide legal protection in a secured environment, admin users can configure a banner text that will be displayed on the login screen of the Control Room and Enterprise Client. The user can enable or disable this setting from the Control Room.

Login banner settings

Support for LDAP channel binding

Control Room supports LDAP channel binding in order to comply with a security release from Microsoft. LDAP channel binding provides enhanced security for network communications between an Active Directory and its clients. It provides a more secure LDAP authentication over SSL and TLS.

Configuring LDAP channel binding

Export or import workload management queues

Zendesk ticket ID: 109568

Users with the AAE_Queue_Admin role can now export or import workload queues along with entities that include general settings, owners, participants, consumers, Work Item structure, and Work Items in the Control Room. You can reuse already created queues across environments without manually creating them in your Control Room.

Export or import queues

Bot Insight
Power BI connector part of Microsoft Power BI desktop

The Automation Anywhere connector for Bot Insight is now certified and officially a part of the Microsoft Power BI Desktop August release.

Enterprise 11 data connector for Power BI

API to retrieve scheduled device information
The /v2/botinsight/data/api/getdevicescheduleinfo API is now available which enables you to retrieve device-specific metrics. The API provides the following information:
  • Number of times the device was scheduled
  • Details of bots running on the device

Bot Insight API details.

Changed features

Control Room
Configure decimal place for division in client application settings

For the division operation, you can now configure decimal places for division in the Control Room. You can set the value of the decimal place in the range of 0 through 16. The default value is 4.

Enterprise Client application settings from Control Room

Set screen resolution for bot deployment in RDP

Service Cloud case ID: 00452025

You can now set the screen resolution of the Bot Runners for every bot deployment or schedule in RDP. When you select the Run bot runner session on control room option, the Set bot runner screen resolution check box is enabled. You can set the resolution either by selecting a value from the drop-down list or entering a value in the field.

The screen resolution is only set for the RDP session. The actual resolution of the Bot Runner machine remains unchanged.

Guidelines for RDP-based bot deployment

Enterprise Client
Retrieve all characters from an Excel cell using Get Cell Value in the Excel command

Service Cloud case ID: 00390855

In the Excel command, a Get Cell Value check box is now available for the Get Cells, Specific Cell option, which you can use to perform the following:

  • When you choose the Specific Cell option and select the Get Cell Value check box, the option retrieves all the characters from the cell. However, the format of the data entered in the specific cell is not retained.
  • When you choose the Specific Cell option without selecting the Get Cell Value check box, the option retrieves up to 8221 characters. The format of the data entered in the specific cell is retained as given in the Excel sheet.

Excel command

Display email received date and time in local time zone for Email Automation command

Zendesk ticket ID: 94592, 00458979

In the Email Automation command, when you select IMAP or POP3 as the server type, a Use local timezone check box is now available. When you select this check box, the email received date and time is displayed in the local time zone.

If the Use local timezone check box option is not selected, the email received date and time is displayed in the server time zone.

Get email from a mail server

Install and uninstall plug-ins using MSIs

You can now perform the following operations using the Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI):

  • Install the Google Chrome, Java, Silverlight, and Adobe Flex plug-ins in online and offline mode.
  • Uninstall the Google Chrome and Java plug-ins.

You can perform these operations using the installation wizard or through silent installation.

Install or uninstall plug-ins using MSI

New Email system variables available: Email sent date and sent time

You can now use the Email Sent Date and Email Sent Time variables for the following:

  • The Variable Operation command display these variables. You can reset their values.
  • In the Email Automation command, you can use these variables in your task to manage the Email Automation loop.
  • In the Send Email command, when you provide values for all the variables, the mail received displays the variables as email sent date and time in the list.
  • When Error Handling uses the Send Email command, the variable file sent as an attachment in the email displays the email sent date and time.

Email Automation command

New tag available in the exported XML file of Object Cloning command

A new CaptureTechnology tag is introduced in the exported XML file of the Object Cloning command. The LegacyTechnology tag is no longer supported.

  • Tasks created in Version 11.3.3 and later store the value from the Select Capture Technology field in the CaptureTechnology tag.
  • Tasks created in versions prior to Version 11.3.3 store the value from the Legacy Technology check box in the CaptureTechnology tag.

How Select Technology works in Object Cloning command

Automate Oracle applications using Object Cloning command

Zendesk ticket ID: 60016, 67078, 67711, 69542, 88071, 97982, 115481, 154529, 00039874, 00375189

The Object Cloning command is now enhanced to capture objects on Oracle EBS applications.

Configure decimal place for mathematical operations

Zendesk ticket ID: 67958,76861,92825,109625,154606,156532

In the Variable Operation command, you can now configure the decimal value for all mathematical operations. You can select the Decimal configuration check box and set the value of the decimal place in the range of 0 through 16. The default value is 4.

Variable Operation command

Optimized search for all the Java-based application

Service Cloud case ID: 00463762

The search by location capability is now enabled for all Java-based applications to optimize the search and play mechanism.

Bot Insight
Audit dashboard access for non-admin users

Non-admin users can now access the Audit dashboard and perform certain tasks in the dashboard.

Enterprise 11 roles

Power BI connector included in installation file

The Power BI connector is now available as part of the Automation Anywhere Enterprise installation file. You can plug the connector into your Power BI Desktop or Power BI Service.

Enterprise 11: Deploy Power BI connector

Fixed features

Control Room
Zendesk ticket ID/Service Cloud case ID Description
00534562 Work Items that are inserted in the Queue are now deployed immediately and no longer remain in the queue even when a large size bot is deployed.
00440536 Bot Insight licenses are now used only when a Bot Insight role is assigned to the user. When the Bot Insight role is assigned to the user, if the operation fails because license consumption is exceeded, a correct count of the licenses is displayed on the license page.
00368160 When the Control Room tries to retrieve schedule automation data from the database and the database connection is unavailable, the information is now recorded in the audit log. Earlier, the information was not recorded in the audit log.
-- If one occurrence of the schedule is affected due to an issue related to database connection or database downtime, all the subsequent occurrences of the schedule no longer result in an AUTOMATION_MISFIRE audit.
00502268 When Work Items are assigned to multiple bots at the same time, the Work Items are processed only once, preventing the bots from repeating the output.
00528697 Work Items are no longer deployed on the disconnected Bot Runner machine but deployed only in the connected machine. As a result, Work Item consumption is no longer delayed.
00523775 Files in the temporary folder are now deleted without any interruption even when a specific erroneous file is not deleted during the delete process. This prevents files from accumulating in the NAS repository of the Control Room and enables other operations to function properly.
221378, 00585611 To resolve issues such as user permissions and bot deployment, you can configure an API-based setting, which enables the Enterprise Client to retry communication with the Control Room.

Contact Automation Anywhere Support for more details on the API configuration.

Enterprise Client
Zendesk ticket ID/Service Cloud case ID Description
-- Send Email Notification now works properly for reports. Previously, when an email was sent from Exchange Web Services (EWS) using OAuth, the notification did not work for reports.
-- The Terminal Emulator Command > Get text > Lines from-to action is now fixed for terminal type 3270 with advanced technology. The output of the action now displays all the lines in the TN3270 screen. Previously, the last line text was not displayed.
00541416 The Excel cell variable used in the Excel Command now displays the correct output when an Excel file has various sheets and each sheet has a different header name.
00534743 A task file with variables in the If command with the Image Recognition condition can now be exported correctly to an XML file format.
00493708 A task executed using the If Windows Control exist command now works properly. Previously, the task failed when the command was used.
00489459 The Email Automation command with the Get All Messages option enabled now downloads all the email attachments. Previously, emails were read but some of the file attachments were not downloaded.
00379817 You can now delete emails from the mailbox using a loop in the Delete Message of the Email Automation command. Previously, when the email body contained an image in the first line, the task stopped responding.
-- When you select the EWS option as the server type in the Email setting and Trigger Manager screens, a tooltip is now provided for the Client IDand Tenant ID fields, and the First time EWS OAuth connection only label.
00526996 The array variable now contains correct values. As a result, when a value is assigned to an array variable from an Excel or CSV file and the range does not start from Column A and is set to more than 50 rows, the variable now contains the correct values. Previously, the array variable did not contain the values properly.
-- The Object Cloning command now updates the technology appropriately. As a result, a Task Bot created in Version 11.3.2 with Legacy set as true and updated in Version 11.3.5.1 with any other technology will reflect the updated technology value. Previously, the technology value remained the same and was not updated.
-- When Auto Login with the legal disclaimer setting is enabled, after an Auto Login timeout, the user is now prompted to enter a password; the user cannot directly log in to the system. Previously, the user was directly logged in without a prompt for the password.
00488549 The Object Cloning command now captures images properly in the Workbench even when the screen is partially visible. Previously, images captured using this command showed displaced images in the Workbench.
00474695 The Compare functionality now displays the SAP GUI Automation command lines. Previously, the command lines were not displayed and appeared blank.
00505793 In the XML command, when you insert a node in the XML file, DefaultNSPrefix is no longer added. Additionally, starting from Version 11.3.5.1, in the Advanced view tab of the Insert Node command, the xmlns (default XML namespace) is not allowed either as a prefix or as an attribute.
00573310, 00593806, 00593676, 00600139, 00621361 When you send an email from the Send Email command with authentication enabled in the email settings and if the SMTP server does not allow the From address to be different from the address configured in the settings, the send email operation fails. The system now displays an error message indicating that the email address must not be different and has to be updated.
00514523 A task created and deployed using the System Variable now displays the correct value for $AATaskExecutor(Executor_Email)$. Previously, it displayed an empty value.
00500566 In the Enterprise Client, redundant exceptions are now managed properly for AANotification.exe. The AANotification error is no longer displayed on deployment from the Control Room due to these exceptions.
184138 You can now successfully run the queued tasks without any error even if the enabletaskqueue setting is enabled in the AA.setting.xml file. Previously, the queued task execution failed because the player intermittently stopped due to an error.
Bot Insight
Zendesk ticket ID/Service Cloud case ID Description
00474012 When the Control Room is opened in the Google Chrome browser and the display language is set to Japanese, the Bot Insight dashboard content is now displayed in Japanese. Previously, the dashboard content was displayed in English.
00567278 An error message is now displayed on the operational analytics dashboard in the following scenarios:
  • When there are no entries in the dashboard_operations table in the Bot Insight dashboard.
  • There is a mismatch in the dashboard ID in the Bot Insight and BIVisualization tables.
  • The electronic data connector (EDC) service starts with issues.
  • Query engine fails to start normally due to a missing Hadoop folder.

The error message indicates that an access token is required in the X-Authorization header. Previously, when data was not available, the operational analytics dashboard was displayed twice.

00552711

The dashboard widget for Bot Device Utilization datasource now loads properly, even if the data is large.

Security fixes

Control Room
Zendesk ticket ID/Service Cloud case ID Description
-- Added the display for date and time of last login in the Control Room.
229851, 231912, 232498 Added HTTP security headers to all the Control Room responses:
  • X-Frame-Options
  • X-XSS-Protection
  • X-Content-Type-Options
  • Strict-Transport-Security
  • Content-Security-Policy
00393541 Added ability to update database passwords for Control Room.
00453389 Added login banner to display access warning in the Control Room.
00576055, 00608138 Added restrictions on the Control Room administrative settings pages to display an Access is denied message for non-administrative users.
00524226 Removed the Allow Header HTTP header from Bot Insight.

Known limitations

Control Room
You will encounter an issue when you uninstall the Version 11.3.5.1 patch in order to revert to the base Version 11.3.5.

Workaround: You must provide the Version 11.3.5 MSI file to uninstall Version 11.3.5.1

Uninstalling Version 11.3.5.1 patch