Import bots - You can import bots with their dependencies from one Control Room to another. The source environment can be Automation 360 Control Room , Enterprise 11 , or Enterprise 10 Control Room instance.

Automation 360

You can import bots with their dependencies from one Control Room to another. The source environment can be Automation 360 Control Room, Enterprise 11 , or Enterprise 10 Control Room instance.

Before you begin

  • Ensure that the following rights are enabled to import bots:
    • Import bots permission
    • Manage packages permission
    • Create folder permission, if it is required
    • Check-in to public workspace permission if you are importing to the public workspace
    • Check-out permission (if the bot or file with the same name exists in the target Control Room)
  • Ensure that the version of Control Room and packages in the source and target Control Room are same or later version for export as well as import.
  • You must have a Bot Creator license to import bots into the private workspace.

    You can import bots into the public workspace if you have the required permissions, regardless of your license.

  • To import the Enterprise 11 bots into your Automation 360 Control Room, consider the following additional requirements:
    • You must have the required aapkg package that you created using the Bot Lifecycle Management export feature in the Enterprise 11 Control Room instance.
    • The aapkg package must be present in the same Automation 360 machine where you want to import the Enterprise 11 bots.
    • You can import the password protected aapkg packages using the Bot Lifecycle Management Import API only. See Import repository bots in BLM API
  • Ensure that the default maximum size for individual bot is 50 MB. However, the total import (zip/bundle) file can be up to 1 GB in size.

About this task

  • Review the guidelines before you import bots.

    Guidelines for exporting and importing bots

  • When importing bots, ensure that the target Control Room version is same or later than the source Control Room version. If you import bots from a later version of the Control Room to an earlier version, the bot might be corrupted.
    Note: When importing a bot, the system automatically uploads any required packages that are missing from your Control Room. However, the import can fail if these packages do not have a valid signature. If a package signature fails verification, the import will fail silently. You will not see an immediate error message, but you can find details about the failure in the Audit logs under the Upload package event. Use the latest package versions for a successful import.
  • To import bots from one Control Room to another, use the exported zip file (or aapkg file, in case of Enterprise 11 or Enterprise 10 bots). If the SMTP is configured, you will receive a link to download the zip or aapkg file on your configured email address. If SMTP is not configured, you can access the download link by navigating to Activity > Historical page.
    Note: You can import the Enterprise 11 bots (.aapkg file) with or without the dependent MetaBots only into the public workspace. If you are importing the file into the private workspace, ensure that the dependent MetaBots dependencies are included.

Source version information for imported bots

When a bot package is exported with source version information, Automation 360 preserves the source version metadata during import. This metadata helps administrators and bot developers to track the origin and history of imported bots across Control Room environments.

The imported version includes information such as source Control Room details, bot version number, check-in comment, user who checked in the bot in the source Control Room, and source check-in date and time. After the import is completed, the source version information is available in the bot version history and can be used to trace deployments across development, test, and production environments.

Considerations
  1. Source version information is available only if it was included when the bot package was exported.
  2. The imported bot retains its imported version history information for audit and traceability purposes.
  3. If source version information is not included in the export package, only the import event information is available in the target Control Room.
  4. For large packages, source version information might not be preserved if export package limitations apply.

Procedure

  1. On the left pane, click Automation.
    A list of available bots and forms is displayed.
  2. Click Manage bots > Import.
  3. Browse and select the required zip file or aapkg file based on your source environment:
    Source environmentAction
    Automation 360 bots Select the required zip file.
    Enterprise 11 or Enterprise 10 bots Select the required aapkg file.
  4. Select the private workspace or public workspace based on your following source environment:
    Source environmentAction
    Automation 360 bots

    You can select either the private or public workspace as required.

    If you have analytics bots in your source Automation 360 environment, then all the associated Bot Insight dashboards are also imported based on the following selection:
    • If you select the private workspace, you can view only default and custom dashboards.

      To view published dashboards, you must check in the bots to the public workspace.

    • If you select the public workspace, you can view only published dashboards.

      To view default and custom dashboards, you must check out the bots to the private workspace.
    Enterprise 11 or Enterprise 10 bots Select the public workspace.

    This selection enables you to migrate Enterprise 11 or Enterprise 10 bots to the Automation 360 environment later during migration.
    Note: When importing or promoting bots into a Private workspace, if you import or promote only the parent bot and if the corresponding child automations already exist in the Public workspace of the target Control Room (with the same names), those child automations are automatically checked out to the private workspace.
  5. Optional: Enter the password in the Password field.
    If your exported bot or file is password protected, you will be prompted to enter a password. Obtain the password from the user who has exported this bot or file.
  6. If some of the files that are being imported from the package are already available in your Control Room, choose one of the following options:
    • Skip the bot or file (don't import it)
    • Overwrite the bot or file with the imported one
  7. (Optional) In the Global values section, select the Include global values check box if you want to include any available global values with the bots that you are importing.
    Note: Review the following considerations for including the global values while importing bots:
    • Only the users or roles associated with the View and manage global values permission can select the option to include global values while importing bots.
    • If the global values are not available in the target Control Room, then they are replicated and created from the source Control Room.
    • Global values will be created in the target Control Room with empty or blank global values (Value field empty).
    • Global values with the same name in the source and target source Control Room will not be imported.
    • Global values that were imported into a target Control Room cannot be edited or updated.
    • Global values are imported with the changeable scope across the Control Room (both source and target).
  8. Click the Import bots option.

    Based on the success or failure of the import bot, a notification also displays in the Control Room Notifications with the (new-notification) icon. For more information, see Automation events event notification.

  9. After the import is complete, based on your source environment, navigate to the corresponding repository to find and use the imported bot:
    Source environmentAction
    Automation 360 bots Navigate to the corresponding workspace (private or public, based on your selection in Step 4).
    Enterprise 11 or Enterprise 10 bots

    Navigate to the public workspace in the Bots > My Tasks folder or Bots > My Metabots folder.

    Note: Enterprise 11 and Enterprise 10 bots are imported in .atmx and .mbot format. Use the migration wizard to convert the Enterprise 11 and Enterprise 10 bots files to the .bot format, which is supported in Automation 360.

    Migrate Enterprise bots