Version 11.3.4 Release Notes

These release notes contain new features, changed features, fixed features, security fixes, deprecated features, and known limitations in Version 11.3.4 for Automation Anywhere Control Room, Enterprise Client, and Bot Insight.

New features

Control Room new features
Feature Description
Two-factor authentication for logging in to Control Room

Administrators can now enable Two Factor Authentication (2FA) for logging in to the Control Room, which can be set for users with specific roles.

Two-factor authentication is supported only in Active Directory and non-Active Directory user environments; it is not supported for an SSO environment. See Enabling Two-factor authentication.

When users are assigned a role that requires 2FA, they must set up an Authenticator application on their mobile device and establish a connection between the Authenticator application and Control Room. On subsequent log-ins, users are prompted to enter a time-based one-time password (OTP) from the Authenticator to complete the Control Room login process.

Hide multiple domains or set any one as the default on the Control Room login screen Administrators can now hide a single domain or multiple domains from being displayed on the Control Room login screen and the Create user page.
Note: Administrators cannot hide a domain for which users were added in the Control Room.
Additionally, administrators can set one of the available (unhidden) domains as default.

See Managing domains.

Disable the verification email when a new user account is created Administrators can disable a verification link when creating a new user account. The user then receives a welcome email without any verification link and can log in to the Control Room using:
  • The credentials provided by the administrator, if it is a Control Room DB authenticated environment.
  • Windows credentials, if it is an Active Directory environment.
  • SSO credentials, if it is a SAML-enabled environment.
SSO configuration: Select Signed Authentication Request to IdP from Control Room Administrators can now configure SAML to send a Signed Authentication Request to the IdP from the Control Room if they choose SSO configuration. All the authentication requests sent from the Control Room to the IdP have a signature that the IdP can validate.

If you upgrade the Control Room to Version 11.3.4 or later, users are automatically prompted to view the SAML configuration page where they can update the settings. However, only a user with administrator role can apply the SAML configuration changes.

Callback URL extensions supported in Bot deployment API The whitelisting of Callback URLs in the Control Room is only required for parent domains. You can then use any extension of these whitelisted parent domains as the Callback URLs in the Bot deployment API.
Output variable data is available in Bot Execution Orchestrator API responses The values of variables marked for Include in Output are now securely stored in the Control Room data along with the Bot execution data. This data can then be fetched by third-party systems using the Activity/List API.
Notification for new login session (Zendesk #206592) New settings in the Control Room display a notification when a user with an active login session tries to log in to the Control Room from a different browser or device in a non-Active Directory environment.

See Configuration settings.

Export all records to a CSV file (Zendesk #206592) A new option is added to export all records that are available on the Audit log page and the Historical activity page to a CSV file.

See Enterprise 11: Export data to CSV.

Installed Windows Services verification When the Control Room installation is complete, a Services Utility verifies the Windows Services installed, starts the services, and indicates if a service did not start.
Automatically update bots and dependent files on Attended Bot Runners To reduce manual intervention when downloading updated bots and dependent files from the Control Room repository, the Automatic Updates option is available in Administration > Settings > Client Application. Setting this option to On automatically updates bots on Attended Bot Runner machines during bot execution. The default value of this option is set to Off to match the current product behavior.
Oracle option to use SID or Service Name You now have an option to use either SID or Service Name to identify the Oracle Database instance.
Control Room License API (Zendesk #226575) The Control Room License API returns detailed license information for your Control Room installed licenses.

See Enterprise 11: License API.

Updated version of Elasticsearch to 7.1.0 Elasticsearch 7.1.0 version validation
Enterprise Client new features
Feature Description
New checkpoints introduced in AADiagnostic Utility The following features are introduced in the AADiagnostic Utility:
  • An Include Sensitive Information (Marked *) check box to show sensitive information for options that have an * (asterisk). For example, Machine Name.
  • System Details in the System section of the Checkpoints Verification grid.
  • Product Details in the Product section of the Checkpoints Verification grid.
Search for a field in a terminal (Zendesk #129752) The Search Field command is added in the Terminal Emulator command that enables you to search for a field based on the text it contains. This command returns the name of the field or index of the field based on the option selected.

See Terminal Emulator command.

UI Automation technology support from Google Chrome You can now use the Object Cloning command to capture objects based on the UI Automation technology from the Google Chrome browser.

See Using object play mode.

Support for Exchange Web Services (Zendesk #122765, 133847, 187251) You can now use Exchange Web Services (EWS) with:
Uninstall Google Chrome plug-in You can now uninstall the Chrome plug-in from the Enterprise Client using the following options:
  • From the AAPluginInstallation application
  • Using the command line
  • From the Enterprise Client Tools settings
See Uninstall or reinstall plug-ins.
Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) technology support from Google Chrome When you are creating MetaBots on a Google Chrome browser, you can now use the Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) technology.
Option to automatically download updated parent Task Bots during runtime Parent Task Bots are Task Bots that are not called by any other Task Bot or MetaBot. Attended Bot Runners are provided a separate screen displaying only the parent Task Bots using the new Parent Task option. The updated parent Task Bots are downloaded automatically when you run a bot.

See Automatically update Task Bots.

Schedule operation not allowed with Attended Bot Runner license

Users with an Attended Bot Runner license can no longer create, edit, or delete schedules using the Enterprise Client. Task Bots already scheduled by the same user or a different user from the same machine will continue to be executed based on the previously defined schedule.

Uninstall Flex plug-in from UI You can now uninstall the Flex plug-in from the Enterprise Client UI using the following options:
  • From the AAPluginInstallation application
  • From the Enterprise Client Tools settings

See Uninstall or reinstall plug-ins.

Support for Autologin with locked, logged-off, or disconnected machines on Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services VMs

On Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services instances, Autologin is supported for attended and unattended bots in locked, logged-off, or disconnected mode. This applies to single-user logins. Multi-user logins are not supported for this feature.

Bot Insight new features
Feature Description
Bot Device Utilization - Bar Chart and Bot Device Utilization - Pivot Table widgets The Bot Device Utilization - Bar Chart and the Bot Device Utilization - Pivot Table widgets are added to the Devices Dashboard. The widgets display the following information:
  • Bot Name
  • Host Name
  • Start Date
  • End Date
  • Duration (Hours)
  • Duration (Minutes)
  • Activity Status
Upgrade from PostgreSQL Server to Microsoft SQL Server You can now upgrade the Bot Insight metadata from the PostgreSQL Server to Microsoft SQL Server. This upgrade is supported for Bot Insight custom dashboards, as well. However, you cannot perform the upgrade using the Microsoft SQL SSL certificate.
Note: You can migrate from Automation Anywhere Enterprise Version 11.3.2 to Version 11.3.4 directly. However, if you want to migrate from Automation Anywhere Enterprise Version 11.3.1 or earlier, you must first upgrade to Automation Anywhere Enterprise Version 11.3.2 or Version 11.3.3, and then migrate to Version 11.3.4. You can upgrade the Bot Insight metadata from the PostgreSQL Server to Microsoft SQL Server, only when you upgrade from Automation Anywhere Enterprise Version 11.3.2 or later.
Oracle Database service name support for Bot Insight installation You can now install Bot Insight with the Oracle Database using the Service Name function.
API to visualize the COE dashboard The http://hostname/analytics/rest/api/coe_dashboard API is introduced, which enables you to visualize the COE dashboard.

See Bot Insight API details.

PostgreSQL Server support Bot Insight now supports PostgreSQL Server Release 9.5.19.
Bot Insight APIs The following parameters are updated in the Bot Insight APIs:
  • Limit Parameter
  • To Date
  • BotName
  • DeptName
See Bot Insight API details.
Mobile App support Bot Insight now supports Mobile App. Log in to Bot Insight with the AAE_COE_Admin role to view:
  • Published COE dashboards
  • COE dashboards that are published during a specific time
See Enterprise 11 roles.
API to delete business data The /v1/botinsight/data/api/deletetasklogdata API is introduced, which enables you to delete all the data that is logged for a particular bot during a specific interval.

See Bot Insight API details.

Changed features

Control Room changed features
Feature Description
New permission to view all in-progress activity (Zendesk # 137069, 179060) To optimize the use of Bot Runner machines, a new permission is introduced in Roles that allows you to view all ongoing automations.

See Enterprise 11: Feature permissions for a role.

Activity > List API to view value of variables tagged for output Use the Control Room Bot Execution Orchestrator API > Activity > List API to view details of an automation, including the value of variables that are tagged as output after you run a bot that contains such variables.
Specific audit entry for failure to delete a user The audit log in the Audit page is enhanced to show the specific reason for not allowing a user to be deleted from the Users page.
API to get list of parent bots Introduced an API in the v1/Repository Management API that enables you to get the list of parent bots organized by the bot name. This is especially useful for Attended Bot Runners where you want to see the top-level bots that you can run.
Insert Work Item in bulk using a newer version of the Insert Work Item API (Service Cloud case # 00370443) A newer version (v2) of the Insert Work Item API is introduced, which enables you to add new Work Items in bulk to the queue.
Error when registering IQ Bot with wrong URL When you register IQ Bot with the Control Room, the system now shows an error if you have provided additional text apart from the actual URL. For example, if the URL for IQ Bot is http://example.com:3000, the system encounters an error if you provide http://example.com:3000sdfad.
Delete dependent files associated with the earlier version of the bot (Zendesk #136192, 140103, 176471) When Version control is enabled and the Production version is set, you can now delete the dependent files from the Control Room Repository manager, even if the dependencies are associated with the earlier version of the bot and not with the latest or production version.

See Deleting a Task Bot.

Updated timezone library The timezone library has been updated in Version 11.3.4, so when you upgrade to Control Room Version 11.3.4, you must manually update the schedules created in the Brazil (Sao Paulo) timezone as Brazil opted out of Daylight Saving Time in 2019.
Installing database permissions Minimum database permissions to create and update required databases changed from database owner (DBO) to datareader, datawriter, and ddladmin. For Oracle Database, required permissions are: GRANT CONNECT, RESOURCE, CREATE TABLE, CREATE VIEW
Required: If you are using the Microsoft SQL Server database, create the Control Room and Bot Insight databases before installing the Control Room.
Entering multiple IP addresses for a cluster Use the listed guidelines for entering IP addresses:
  • Enter the IP addresses in the exact same order on every node in the cluster. This order cannot be changed later.
  • Install the cluster nodes in the same order as the listed IP addresses.
  • If a new node is added, add it to the end of the list of IP addresses. For example: ipaddress1, ipaddress2, newipaddress3
Enterprise Client changed features
Feature Description
Relative path included in exported CSV file (Zendesk # 00328783) When you upload or download a Task Bot with dependent files to or from the Automation Anywhere Control Room repository, the relative path of the dependent files is also included in the CSV file when you use the Export to CSV option.
Identify disabled lines when a Task Bot is saved as a text file (Zendesk # 174179) When you save a Task Bot as a text file, the Disabled: True text is appended at the end of all the lines that are disabled in that Task Bot.
-- The PDFFileName system variable now returns the name of the PDF file with .pdf extension.
Retrieve emails with Korean language in the subject In the Enterprise Client, the $Email Subject$ variable supports Korean language. If your email subject contains Korean characters, the variable retrieves the email subject by using the $Email Subject$ system variable.
SMTP port range expanded to include ports 1 through 65535 The Enterprise Client supports ports in the range of 1 through 65535 for the SMTP server. You can now successfully run the Send Email command by configuring the SMTP port in this range.
Column title changed to Parameter Name/Value in Database command (Zendesk #173518) In the Database command, the column title is now changed to Parameter Name/Value to indicate that you can now use the parameter name or the parameter value for the Run Stored Procedure command. You can hover your mouse over the information icon to know more about using Add Parameter.
Support for Amazon Workspace cloud license and BYOL (Service Cloud case ID: 00410043) Enterprise Client is now certified and compliant to support Amazon Workspace cloud license and bring your own license (BYOL).

Operating system and platform compatibility in Enterprise 11