Automation Workspace v.37 release

Review what's new and changed, and the fixes and limitations in Automation Workspace for the v.37 release.

What's new

Control Room, devices, and Bot Agent
Introducing the Next-Gen Process Composer
Transform how your organization executes complex workflows with our advanced process orchestration model that unifies AI capabilities, human expertise, and automation tools into a single, scalable platform. Following are the key highlights of this feature:
  • Process modeling: Design complex workflows visually with swimlanes for better organization.
  • Unified orchestration: Seamlessly integrate bots, APIs, documents, and teams within a single workflow.
  • Enhanced developer tools: Benefit from smart navigation, an in-product resource center for help, and a wizard-based expression builder with improved validation and error handling.
These features enhance speed, control, and visibility for enterprise automation.

Next-Gen Process Composer

Enhanced header section in Bot Editor
The following enhancements are now available in the Bot editor to improve the automation-building experience for developers:
  • Breadcrumbs feature: The addition of Breadcrumbs in the Bot editor provides a seamless navigation experience while building automations. Developers can easily see the navigation trail and quickly navigate to different automations by clicking on their names.
  • File status display: When navigating between automations using Breadcrumbs, the status of each file—such as New, Checked Out, Public, or Cloned—is displayed next to the current file name.
  • Session configuration options: Related functionalities for session configuration, including Capture and run with admin privileges, Run in virtual window, and Ignore unexpected popups are now grouped together within the Run-time options.

Breadcrumbs em editores

Update to Automation 360 from previous four releases

Starting from this release, On-Premises customers with a minimum support plan of Platinum can update Automation 360 directly to the latest version from the previous four releases (that is, from n−4 releases, where n refers to the latest release). This capability enables you to update to the latest version without needing to go through the intermediate updates. This streamlines the update process, allowing for quicker adoption of new features and improvements.

Updating to v.37 release

Note: For the available support plans, see https://www.automationanywhere.com/customer-support. For information on your support plan, contact your account team.
Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.5 (Service Cloud Case ID: 02114364)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9.5 introduces enhancements to security and automation in order to support modern workloads across hybrid cloud environments. These improvements are aimed at better supporting modern workloads, particularly in hybrid cloud environments, where resources are spread across infrastructures. Starting from this release, you can deploy Automation 360 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.5 version.

Sistema operacional, ambiente e plataforma compatíveis com a Control Room

Enhanced workload management through parallel queue processing

Parallel queue processing enables WLM to simultaneously process multiple queues across devices, enhancing the speed and efficiency of queue processing. By optimizing the use of devices, parallel queue processing ensures that workloads are distributed evenly, leading to improved system performance and reduced wait times for queued tasks.

Processamento de filas paralelas

Improved reporting through grouping of automation run hours

The Automations dashboard in Automation Command Center (ACC) provides detailed grouping of automation run hours. With the detailed grouping, you can now monitor automation run hours metrics grouped by various entities; thus realizing your most valuable automations, users and devices. It enables you to view automation run hours over a specified time range, with the ability to group by specific entities and view the data in a histogram.

Painel de automações

Support of Simplified Chinese language in Control Room (Service Cloud Case ID: 02171136, 02170860, 02176637, 02190266)

Automation 360 now provides localization support for Simplified Chinese for its user interface (UI), automation, and documentation. To access it, navigate to the Control Room interface, click the language icon (globe icon) next to the user profile setting (My settings), and select the Simplified Chinese language from the list.

Import of pre-built templates on a predefined schedule

As a Control Room administrator, if you have enabled the settings for auto-importing of pre-built templates in the Control Room, the pre-built templates from the Bot Store will be auto-downloaded on the first of every month at midnight local time. Previously, these predefined templates were imported on a quarterly basis, but this new monthly schedule enhances the availability and accessibility of templates, ensuring that you have the latest resources.
Support of Event triggers with auto login using external key-vaults (Service Cloud Case ID: 02172540, 02192012)

Event triggers now support auto login using external key vaults. Whether you are an attended, unattended, or bot developer user, device credentials are set through external vaults (such as CyberArk, HashiCorp, or AWS) in the Control Room. On the bot run, the auto-login credentials are retrieved seamlessly from external key vaults.
Trigger count on Event triggers page for Citizen Developers

Citizen Developers can view the number of triggers that they configure for their automation in the Private tab on the Event triggers page. Citizen Developers can also monitor and track the triggers from this page.

Gatilhos de evento

Web triggers enhancements
The Jira, Microsoft 365 Outlook, and ServiceNow web triggers support server-side filters.
  • In Jira web trigger, you can reuse the issue filter (JQL query) created in Jira instance to define the trigger condition to filter the events.
  • In ServiceNow, you can use the filters created for the events table or the roles defined in the ServiceNow instance to define the trigger conditions to filter the events.
  • In Microsoft 365, you can create trigger conditions using native Outlook options such as sender, attachments, email priority, email subject, and flags to filter the events.
Connector Builder enhancements

Connector Builder now supports importing API definitions with Open API specification version 3.x

Connector Builder also supports the inclusion of special characters . and @ in request header keys and request parameter keys. You can now import actions with these special characters when you create a connector using the Import API definition option.
Support for Windows authentication using gMSA for database connectivity

Automation 360 now supports the use of Group Managed Service Accounts (gMSA) for Windows authentication when running Control Room services. This integration allows Control Room services to use gMSA for authentication with the database, aligning with enterprise identity management practices and reducing the need for manual credential configuration.

Autenticação do Windows usando gMSA para conectividade de banco de dados

Introducing automation credits for simplified license management

Automation Credits license information on the Licenses page (Administration > Licenses) allows you to use a single credit type for any license, simplifying management and tracking.

Créditos de automação

APIs and integrations
Workload Management (WLM) APIs
  • Queue management
    Create Queue (POST v3/wlm/queues):
    You can now create a queue with only the create permission. Previously, you needed either create, manage, import, export or owner permissions.
    Update Queue (PUT v3/wlm/queues/{queueId}):
    You can now update a queue with manage or owner permissions. Previously, you needed either create, manage, import, or export permissions.
    Delete Queue (DELETE v3/wlm/queues/{queueId}):
    You can now delete a queue with manage or owner permissions. Previously, you needed either create, manage, import, export, or owner permission.
    Add Queue Owner (POST v3/wlm/queues/{queueId}/members):
    You can now add an owner to a queue with create, manage, import, or owner permissions. Previously, you needed either create, manage, import, export, or owner permissions.
    Export queue(s) (PUT v3/wlm/queues/export):
    You can now export queue(s) with only export permission. Previously, you needed either manage, import, export or owner permissions.
    Adds a consumer (POST v3/wlm/queues/{queueId}/consumers):
    You can now add a consumer with create or manage or owner permissions. Previously, you needed either create, manage, import, export or owner permissions.
    Removes a consumer (DELETE v3/wlm/queues/{queueId}/consumers/{consumerId}):
    You can now remove a consumer with create or manage or owner permissions. Previously, you needed either create, manage, import, export or owner premissions.
    Adds a participants (POST v3/wlm/queues/{queueId}/participants):
    You can now add a participant with create or manage or owner permissions. Previously, you needed either create, manage, import, export or owner permissions.
    Delete a participants (DELETE v3/wlm/queues/{queueId}/participants/{roleId}):
    You can now remove a participant with create or manage or owner permissions. Previously, you needed either create, manage, import, export or owner permissions.
    Delete a queue member (DELETE v3/wlm/queues/{queueId}/members/{userId}):
    You can now remove an queue member with create or manage or import or owner permissions. Previously, you needed either create, manage, import, export or owner permissions.
    The following validation rules are added:
    • An error will be thrown if the queue description exceeds 255 characters.
    • An error will be thrown if the manual processing time is less than 0 or greater than 9999.
    • An error will be thrown if a positive processing time is provided without a corresponding processing time unit.
    • An error will be thrown if the processing time unit does not match one of the allowed values: SECONDS, MINUTES, HOURS, DAYS.
    • An error will be thrown if the provided display column ID does not correspond to any work item model attributes.
    • An error will be thrown if the column ID in the work item processing order does not match any work item model attributes.
    • An error will be thrown if the priority order does not start from 1 or is not sequential.
    • An error will be thrown if the work item processing order sort direction does not match 'asc' or 'desc'.
  • Work item model management
    Create Work Item Model (POST /v3/wlm/workitemmodels):
    You can now create a work item model with either create or import permissions. Previously, you needed either create, manage, import, or export permission.
    Delete Work Item Model (DELETE /v3/wlm/workitemmodels/{workItemModelId}):
    You can now delete a work item model with only the manage permission. Previously, you needed either create, manage, import, or export permission.
  • Work Item Export
    Download Work Items Export File (GET /v3/wlm/workitems/export/download):
    You can now download a work items export file with only the export permission. Previously, you needed either create, manage, import, or export permission.

What's changed

Control Room, devices, and Bot Agent
Optimizing automation deployments across devices in a device pool (Service Cloud Case ID: 01961764)

Optimize automation deployments across devices in a device pool by managing and distributing automation tasks to ensure efficient use of resources, improved performance, and reliability. When you select a device pool that contains multi-user devices that have available sessions, the automation deployments are now managed correctly among these devices to ensure that deployment load is spread evenly across the devices in the device pool.

Dispositivo para vários usuários em um grupo de dispositivos

Automatic deletion of metadata for the updated automations and packages older than 30 days

Starting from this release, package update details specific to an automation available in the Bot updates table that are older than 30 days will be deleted automatically. This feature is designed to maintain an organized and efficient automation environment. This reduction in data volume can lead to faster access times and improved overall performance of the automation environment. With less outdated metadata to manage, system administrators can focus on more important tasks, simplifying the maintenance and management of the automation environment.

Atualização de bots para a versão do package padrão

Alert message displayed when run-as users associated with schedule activity is deactivated
Starting from this release, if any of the associated run-as users of scheduled activity is deactivated, an alert is displayed in the Scheduled activities page. The alert message provides immediate feedback that a run-as user, who is crucial for executing scheduled activities, has been deactivated. This ensures that administrators are promptly informed of any potential disruptions in automation processes. This alert message plays a crucial role in maintaining the reliability and security of automation schedules by ensuring that any changes in user status are quickly addressed.
Note: The alert is no longer displayed when the deactivated run-as users are activated.

Atividades agendadas

Support for Active Directory role mapping with users or groups from different domains (Service Cloud Case ID: 02131291)

Control Room now supports group mapping with users or groups from different Active Directory domains on On-Premises deployments.

Create Active Directory role mapping

Expired license behavior in license group management

The Create group and Edit group (Administration > Licenses) options show only active and future active GUIDs for license group addition, with icons indicating expired and active GUIDs for easy identification.

GUIDs expirados

User experience enhancements for license grouping

The user interface text on the Administration > Licenses page has been updated for improved clarity.

Criar um grupo de licenças

Update to log in error message

The login error message has been updated to inform the user to log in again to connect to the Control Room if there are already 5 concurrent sessions active and the user attempts to log into a 6th session.

Sessões do usuário

New audit events added
The following new audit event types are added when you create, edit or delete a role with runas user permissions:
  • Edit role- runas user(s) permissions

    This action is logged when run-as users permissions are assigned to a role during create and edit role.

  • Delete role- runas user(s) permissions

    This action is logged when run-as users permissions are revoked from a role during delete role.

Lista de eventos de auditoria

File size limit for Control Room objects

The Control Room objects, such as bots, processes, templates, forms, and AI Skills, now have a size limit of 50 MB. Also, the maximum default size for all repository bots is now 50 MB. This improvement helps prevent out-of-memory (OOM) and Control Room shutdown issues caused by large file sizes.

For example, when you perform a bulk package update, the bot size limit of 50 MB prevents OOM issues in the Control Room.

Bot Lifecycle Management | Crie seu primeiro bot

Revised Workload permissions for better user experience
With revised Workload Management (WLM) APIs, Workload permissions are enhanced to use minimal permissions to manage queues and work items. This enhancement includes:
  • Creating a queue only with the create permission.
  • Updating and deleting a queue with manage or owner permissions.
  • Adding an owner to a queue with create, manage, import, or owner permissions.
  • Exporting queue(s) only with the export permission.
  • Adding or removing a consumer or participant with either create, manage, or owner permissions.
  • Adding or deleting a queue member with either create, manage, import, or owner permissions.
  • Creating a work item model with either create or import permissions.
  • Deleting a work item model with only the manage permission.
  • Downloading a work items export file with only the export permission.
Generative AI Package: Global Session Support

The Generative AI Package has been updated to include support for Global Session. This allows for the propagation of session context from a parent bot to its invoked children bots when using Generative AI actions, improving state management across complex automations.

Fixes

After you update to this release, if an automation (parent) has a dependent child automation (bot) with scanned or metadata dependency, the parent automation will now deploy successfully without any failures.

Service Cloud Case ID: 02213434, 02212482, 02213903, 02214567, 02202339, 02209234
Automation will no longer be deployed on a multi-user device if the auto-login device credentials of two users are identical (irrespective of case sensitivity). For example, User1 with domain\username and User2: with domain\UserName.

Service Cloud Case ID: 02161664
Fixed OpenSSL vulnerability issue. For more information, click the release download link and view the Security & Compliance reports at A-People Downloads page (Login required).

Service Cloud Case ID: 02161805
When you use the Loop action and change the loop iterator from CSV/TXT (for each row in CSV/TXT) to Database (for each row in a SQL query dataset), an error on the Bot editor screen is no longer displayed and allows you to develop the automations.
When you use the If action with multiple conditions, including a Recorder condition with secure recording enabled and Recorder preview image option is enabled, the images will be temporarily saved to the repository with an expiration time stamp of one hour after the image is saved.

Service Cloud Case ID: 02188888
When you do a bulk package update of bots, the bot size is now limited to 50MB. This helps prevent Out of Memory (OOM) issues in the Automation 360 Control Room.

Previously, in such cases, for example, during Database package update, JSON file size increased from 15MB to 260MB causing OOM issue and Control Room went down for some time.

Note:

  • All the repository bots size is now limited to 50MB.

  • When the bot size increases beyond 50MB, the bulk package update might fail.

Service Cloud Case ID: 02196714
The captured images are no longer stored in file system when checked in as part of secure recording.

Previously, when you were using secure recording feature, the captured images were still persisted in the repository which led to a security issue.
Device pool owner can now edit a device pool and save the changes successfully even if any one of the other owners of this device pool is disabled.

Service Cloud Case ID: 02201801
When you use the Delete unused versions feature, it no longer deletes packages that are used by automations in the public repository.

Service Cloud Case ID: 02176850, 02204971
When you navigate to public repository with sub-folder more than 1000 and open any Task Bot or configuration file, it now takes less time to expand and load folder and does not show any error message. As a result, you can view the folder hierarchy correctly in the left panel on the Public or Private workspace tab.

Service Cloud Case ID: 02149276, 02210524
On the Event triggers page, when you add an API Task with web triggers, the Choose a user modal displays only the users with run permission for the folder where you check in the API Task.
When you have a custom role with one or more run-as users and if some or all the selected run as users are deleted, the Run as selected count now reflects correctly in the custom role. Additionally, when you add or update run-as users for a role, and if the selected run as users are either disabled or deleted, you no longer encounter an error message when creating or editing a role.

Service Cloud Case ID: 02180578, 02197309, 02210550

Remove icon is easy to locate and use. Previously users found it difficult to locate the icon for removing the attribute, and it appeared that there was no option to remove the credential attribute (Manage > Credentials).
Only a user with Manage all queues permission or the owner of the queue can now delete the queue.

Previously, any user with an Export or Import queues permissions and a queue participant or consumer was able to delete a queue.

Service Cloud Case ID: 02213384
With improved time formatting for long hours, the Home > Automation > Longest Running Bots now shows the correct Average running time.

Previously, when bots ran for over 24 hours and were either completed or manually stopped by a user, an incorrect Average running time was displayed.

Service Cloud Case ID: 02206323
After you update the Excel advanced package to this version (6.23.0), the Convert excel to PDF action to convert a workbook, worksheet, or a CSl/ file to a PDF file no longer adds an extra character ($) before and after the variable.

Service Cloud Case ID: 02212023
When you perform a bulk package update for a parent bot with REST API package that includes the dependent child bot, the compiler now uses the correct package version present in the current bot.

Previously, in such cases, the compiler was using the old version used in the parent bot, showing an error message.

Limitations

The naming convention for the Automation Co-Pilot category license has been updated on the License, User, and drill-down pages. Please note that the Settings page retains the original naming. This is a UI-only update and does not affect functionality or licensing behavior.
When you add an API Task or a Task Bot to the Event triggers page, the Control Room assigns the Production label to the unlabeled bots as it takes the latest version of the bot as the context.
In the new editor, the Assistant does not display validation errors for missing dependencies. Currently, it fails to indicate the exact location of an error within a process.

For example, if you import a process that includes a form or approval task with a task requester or assignment assigned to a role or team that does not exist, the error will not be displayed. Similarly, when you import a process that contains a child process with a task assignment assigned to a non-existent role or team, the error will not be displayed.
You edit a complex process in the new process editor and add two horizontal swimlanes. When you try to move an element from the first swimlane to the second, there will be a delay of a few seconds before you can move the next element.
You might encounter an issue when you perform the following steps in the new process editor:
  1. Create a form with the following fields in this order: first, add a text box, and then add a date field.
  2. Create a process, add a form task, and attach the form you just created.
  3. Click on the form task and check the Input values section.

    You will notice that the order of the fields is incorrect, the date field appears before the text box field.
You import a process that includes a form task to the private repository. You will notice that when you run the process in the new process editor, the form elements are not rendered in the web interface because the API fails.

Workaround: Edit the Form task, remove and re-add the Action button at the form step in the process.
In the new process editor, when you create a process with a form task and click the Add button, you can add more than one Cancel button and save the process. No validation error will be displayed when you save the process.
In the new process editor, when you create a process with a bot task, you will notice that in the Queue timeout field, the maximum time allowed is 24 hours. However, the minutes (+) symbol is enabled, which allows you to add more minutes than 24 hours.

Workaround: Ensure that if you set hours as 24, then minutes should be 0.
When you open an existing process in the new process editor, which was initially created in the previous editor, you will see an error if you had included the following special characters in the Element ID field of the task:
  • Parentheses ( )
  • Leading and trailing spaces

Workaround: You must manually correct the error, as the new process editor does not currently support parentheses or leading/trailing spaces in the Element ID field.
While updating Automation 360 to this release, if the filepath for uploading the OpenSearch certificate.zip has a semicolon (;), the installation will not work.

Workaround: Ensure that you do not have a semicolon (;) in the filepath that is used to upload the OpenSearch certificate.zip file.
When you promote a bot from public repository by selecting the target URL and API key, the bot promotion fails with an error message for some API keys.

Workaround: To resolve this issue, generate a new API key is which does not have specific pattern.
When executing the BLM v2 API in Swagger, a typo in the OpenAPI specification causes the base URL /v2/blm to be appended twice, resulting in an incorrect URI and a 404 - not found error. This prevents the BLM Swagger APIs from functioning as expected through the Control Room Swagger UI.

Workaround: While the Swagger UI is affected, the underlying API is still functional. You can bypass the Swagger UI and make direct API calls.
Limitations from previous releases
When you check-in a bot to the folder with the name System, the bot version is not displayed correctly.
When you perform bulk package update for List package, an Any variable that is used as List, returns the Undefined type.
Workaround
  1. Check out the bot and edit Anyvariable. For example, Update the description.
  2. Click Save and check-in the bot.
When you import a bot in the public workspace and clone of the imported bot is in the private workspace, the bot version shows N/A in the public workspace.