Enterprise A2019.11 Release Notes

Review the new features, supported packages, changed features, fixed features, and known limitations in the Enterprise A2019.11 (Build 3337) release. There are no security fixes in this release.

Enterprise A2019

Important: This release includes a required update to your Bot Agent. Ensure that you complete the update to continue with your automation activities when upgrading from a previous release to this release.

Automatically update the Bot Agent | Manually update the Bot Agent

To verify which Bot Agent version is compatible with this release, see Compatibility with release builds.

New features
Migrate 11.x Task Bots and MetaBots to Enterprise A2019

Enterprise A2019

Bot Store integration with the Control Room

Enterprise A2019

You can now access the Bot Store from within the Control Room. You can install, configure, and run the Bot Store bots within the Control Room.

As a registered user, you can log in to the Bot Store from the Control Room and access all your downloads. You can install bots and packages from your downloads to the Control Room private repository. You can also submit your existing bots and packages from the Control Room to the Bot Store.

Bot Store

Use interactive forms in a bot

Enterprise A2019

Interactive forms provide a form builder experience for users to build interfaces for submitting and regrouping data being used to send and receive data from various applications within their attended automation process. Users with Bot Creator and Bot Runner license can use the interactive forms package to control and manage the form flow within a bot during runtime. Actions performed by users on the interactive forms can be monitored to execute logic using subtasks.

Interactive forms are first-class citizens within the bot repository and have the same workflows for moving forms between public and private workspaces, and for export or import actions. No additional licenses or permission are required to use interactive forms.

Action items in the interactive forms can be used to manage various forms within a bot.

Using interactive forms

Reuse an identical value between bots by configuring a global value in the Control Room

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

A global value enables users to reuse an identical value between bots instead of creating a new variable for each bot. Global values remain constant for all users and bots in an Control Room instance. A user with the AAE_admin role can configure a global value with a default value and enable non-admin users to overwrite the value to use in their bots.

Global values | Create a global value | Overwrite the default value

Workload enhancements

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

  • Monitor the progress of ongoing workload automations. You can also pause, resume, or stop the automations as required.
  • Configure and edit workload automations to ensure that the automations are deployed seamlessly to unattended Bot Runner devices. Execute the workload automations with priority or round-robin mode from the Devices > Edit Device pool page.
  • Set the output status of the work item processed in the Control Room on the Queues and Work item details page using the $workItemResult$ variable in a Task Bot.
  • Edit work items that are in Ready to run, On hold, Data error, or Failed state.
  • Set the individual work item status to Mark complete, Defer, or Re-process from the Edit work item page or in bulk from the View queues page.

View automation of a queue | Edit device pools | Edit work items | Use Work Item variables

Download a file from the Control Room to your device

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

Use the Download CR file action from the File package to download a file from the Control Room to your device.
Note: You cannot use this action to download a bot or a file from the My Scripts folder.

File package

Clone a bot or files

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

Create a read-only copy of a selected bot or file from the public repository to the private repository. The clone is a local copy for the same user and will not be updated with the public repository copy automatically. This provides a testing environment experience for Bot Creators to make and validate changes locally and take advantage of reusable Task Bots in concurrent developments by reusing an existing bot or file as a dependency.

  • Cloned bots and files cannot be edited, renamed, or moved.
  • Cloned bots and files can be deleted from a private repository.
  • Users can create a copy of the cloned bot.
  • A cloned bot can be used in Run Task action in another bot.
  • Cloned bots and files can be added as a manual dependency for another bot.
New features in the If package
Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition
  • Configure an If action with multiple conditions.

    Specify whether all or either of the conditions must be met.

  • Verify whether JavaScript, Task, or VBScript ran successfully or not.
  • Verify whether a string variable is empty or not.
  • Execute actions only if two strings have matching uppercase and lowercase letters.

If package | Example of using a conditional statement

Universal Recorder enhancements

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

Universal Recorder now enables you to:

  • Automate in Java applications that run using Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 9, 10, and 11.
  • Capture objects in tables in Oracle EBS applications.
  • Automate interactions with user interface objects in the taskbar, desktop, or currently active window. This option is available in the window selection drop-down list in the following packages:
    • Image Recognition
    • Mouse
    • Recorder
    • Screen
    • Simulate keystrokes
    • Window

Universal Recorder for object-based automation

New features in the Excel advanced package
Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition
  • In the Replace action, you can choose to replace cell values with an empty character.
  • In the Get cell address action, you can choose to save the retrieved cell address to a string variable.

Using the Replace action | Using the Get cell address action

Add DLL dependencies

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

As a bot creator, you can use a DLL that refers to a child DLL.

Bot dependencies

Licensing server failover

Enterprise A2019

HA failover from a primary cluster to a secondary cluster applies to all the servers, including the licensing server, and is handled by the data center high availability tools.

Distributed architecture with HA/DR support

Automate locking, logging off, restarting, or shutting down the computer

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

Use actions from the System package at the end of tasks to automate locking, logging off, restarting, or shutting down the computer.

Manage running bots with the Pause and Stop actions from the Task Bot package

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

  • Insert a Pause action to temporarily pause the running bot.
  • Insert a Stop action to terminate the running bot.

Task Bot package

Automate printer settings

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

Use actions from the Printer package to automate retrieving and setting the default printer.

Return the path and name of the currently running Task Bot using the system variable AATaskName

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

Predefined variables

Run JavaScript, Python, or VBScript from a file selected from your desktop

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

You can select the file containing the script as part of configuring the action.
Note: The file and any dependencies must be in a standalone folder. When you select a file for upload, all files and folders at the same folder level are uploaded.

JavaScript package | Python Script package | VBScript package

Device optimization for bot deployment (Zendesk ID: 238675)

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

Bot Runner devices that are used for Workload automation are now available for deployment in the Scheduled Automations page. This ensures that idle devices during a workload cycle are available to the user with scheduling rights for Control Room deployment.

Edit device pools

Supported packages

Package Version
Node Manager 6.0.4015
Application 2.0.0-20200302-135910
Analyze 2.2.1-20200314-193039
Boolean 2.0.0-20200302-135912
Browser 2.0.0-20200302-135913
Clipboard 2.0.0-20200302-135922
Comment 2.0.0-20200302-135922
CSV/TXT 2.0.0-20200312-122802
Database 2.0.0-20200302-135926
Data Table 2.0.0-20200302-140308
Datetime 2.0.0-20200302-135930
Delay 2.1.0-20200302-135931
Dictionary 2.0.0-20200302-135932
Run DLL 2.0.0-20200313-170350
Email 2.0.0-20200302-135934
Error handler 2.0.0-20200302-135940
Excel basic 2.0.0-20200302-140133
Excel advanced 2.0.0-20200302-140020
File 2.0.0-20200316-045955
File & folders 2.0.0-20200317-030352
Folder 2.0.0-20200302-135945
FTP / SFTP 2.0.0-20200302-135948
IF/ELSE 2.0.0-20200302-135950
Image Recognition 2.0.0-20200302-135953
IQ Bot 2.0.0-20191031-150538
JavaScript 2.0.0-20200313-170107
Simulate keystrokes 2.0.0-20200313-170111
Legacy Automation 1.0.0-20200317-220124

1.0.0-20200317-220128

List 2.0.0-20200302-140013
Log To File 2.0.0-20200302-140014
Loop 2.0.0-20200302-140015
Message Box 2.0.0-20200302-140016
Migration 2.0.0-20200317-220133
Mouse 2.0.0-20200302-140016
Number 2.0.0-20200302-140023
OCR 2.1.0-20200302-140025
Microsoft 365 Excel 2.0.0-20200309-140138
Microsoft 365 Calendar 2.0.0-20200305-124125
Microsoft 365 OneDrive 2.0.0-20200309-110128
PDF 2.1.0-20200302-140126
PGP 2.1.0-20200309-110135
Ping 2.0.0-20200302-140130
Printer 2.0.0-20200311-100204
Play Sound 2.0.0-20200309-110137
Prompt 2.0.0-20200302-140148
Python Script 2.0.0-20200313-170254
Recorder 2.0.0-20200318-020414
REST Web Service 2.0.0-20200312-090358
SAP 2.1.0-20200302-140250
Screen 2.0.0-20200302-140254
SNMP 2.0.0-20200302-140257
SOAP Web Service 2.0.0-20200312-110311
String 2.0.0-20200302-140306
System 2.0.0-20200309-140321
Task 2.0.0-20200317-030340
Terminal Emulator 2.0.0-20200302-140313
VBScript 2.0.0-20200313-170417
Wait 2.0.0-20200302-140319
Window 2.0.0-20200302-140348
XML 2.0.0-20200302-140321
Changed features
Change in the Dictionary > Remove action

The Dictionary > Remove action offers the option to assign the removed value to a variable.

Dictionary package

The Update migration status permission name has been changed to Allow a bot-runner user to run migrations. All functionalities remain the same.

When multiple bots are scheduled to run on the same user or device, the bots are now queued and run whenever the previous bots completes its run.

Service Cloud case ID: 00440072

Scheduled activities | Workload management

Fixed features

Service Cloud case ID Description
00483976 When the copy function is used, nested subfolders were not visible when users clicked browse to search through directories. This issue has been fixed.
00457550 When a user checks out a bot that uses the Run action to run child bots, the child bots are now cloned from the public repository to the private.
00492706 When a user exports a bot from another Control Room and imports that same bot to a new Control Room, the imported bot and enabled packages now show all required actions.
00482934 Bot deployments and website launches are now optimized for quicker process.
00421864 When a user is viewing historical activity details in Historical activity, the run option is no longer displayed.
00505120 When bots fail the check-in process, the contents are now restored in the Private repository.
00488504 Bots with more than 100 dependencies are now exported successfully without an error, even if the parent bots are in the list of those 100 dependencies.
00444902 When the Control Room is used in Internet Explorer 11, the Bot Agent is now compatible and the UI is rendered properly.
00454079 When the Capture action in the Recorder package is used, content in the browser is captured successfully.
00460530 In a developer Control Room, a user can now successfully import a bot with cyclic dependency.
00493605 In the Run action in the Task Bot package, the Assign the output to variable (optional) option now functions properly when an assigned variable is removed.
00486734 When the Set cell action in the Excel advanced or Excel basic package is used with multiple Microsoft Excel files, the values of the Active cell operation now activate and set the cells accordingly in the respective Microsoft Excel file.
00530915 Migration is not advisable for Enterprise 11 customers using Workload Management due to known issues.
-- You can now add date variables in the Vertical Bar Graph widget in the Bot Insight Business dashboard.
00475173 All fields of the Recorder > Capture action have been translated to Enterprise A2019 supported languages.
00476820 When a Bot Runner machine is logged off, the device shows the state as Disconnected in the Control Room. Previously, the device showed the state as Connected in the Control Room.
Known limitations
MetaBot logic that uses a DLL function call with one or more parameters migrates successfully. However, when you run the migrated bot, an error is shown.
Global values of the Date time data type cannot be used in actions.
The Enterprise A2019 On-Premises Control Room installation does not support the semicolon (;) special character in the Windows user password. The installation fails if you use this special character.
When data is exported into a CSV file from User Management, Audit Logs, and Roles Management for all locales except English, the respective language is not displayed correctly.

Workaround: Export to a CSV file and access a Microsoft Excel file. Import and save that CSV file as a CSV with UTF-8 encoding.

Users must explicitly enable the feature flag for the forms feature in the On-Premises build.
Note: Go to Automation Anywhere support site for more information: Interactive forms not available in Automation 360 v.11 On-Premises (A-People login required)
Forms with many radio buttons and check boxes in the same row are not rendered correctly.
Only the Form Events and UI Triggers event types are supported by event loop as the file or folder triggers and hot keys have issues.

IQ Bot

The IQ Bot On-Premises version is available for this release with additional features or updates since the last release. This IQ Bot version supports all the features and functionality available in IQ Bot Version 6.5.2.

IQ Bot feature comparison matrix

Review the compatibility of the IQ Bot On-Premises version with the corresponding Automation Anywhere Control Room On-Premises version.

Automation 360 IQ Bot version compatibility

The IQ Bot Cloud version is available for this release and supports all features and functionality available in IQ Bot Version 6.5.2. This version provides users with automatic provisioning for up to three environments such as Development, Test, and Production. Users can migrate learning instances between environments using APIs.

The IQ Bot Community Edition and the free trial version are available for this release. Both versions have feature parity and are based on IQ Bot Version 6.5.2 .

New features
Upgrade from earlier versions of IQ Bot to the latest IQ Bot On-Premises

IQ Bot On-Premises

If you are using any of the earlier versions of IQ Bot (5.3.x or 6.5.x), you can upgrade to IQ Bot A2019 Build 3337 On-Premises.

Updating Automation 360 IQ Bot

Use API to migrate learning instances between environments

You can use an API to migrate learning instances in IQ Bot On-Premises.

Access IQ Bot from the Control Room dashboard

Enterprise A2019 and Community Edition

You can access IQ Bot from the Control Room through a link, provided you have registered IQ Bot in the Control Room. Otherwise, the IQ Bot section remains hidden.

Known limitations
IQ Bot On-Premises

IQ Bot installation fails if the user password contains any of these special characters: single quotation mark ( ' ), quotation mark ( " ), or semicolon ( ; ).

IQ Bot Cloud
  • ABBYY FineReader Engine is the default OCR for data extraction in IQ Bot Cloud.
  • Data validation using Python script is not supported.
  • IQ Bot extensions for custom extraction are not available.
IQ Bot On-Premises and IQ Bot Cloud

When you upload vector PDF documents to a new learning instance, a few documents are identified as unclassified. Alternatively, if you convert the documents from PDF to TIFF and upload them, the documents are processed successfully.

Bot Insight

New features
View filtered data of Bot Insight dashboards

Enterprise A2019

The Bot Insight dashboard filter enables you to apply filters across dashboards to display filtered data on the dashboard widgets. The filter enables you to view different combinations of information from a single dashboard, thereby eliminating the need to maintain separate dashboards for different sets of users.

Bot Insight dashboard filter

View business analytics for multiple transactions simultaneously

Enterprise A2019

The Multiple Transaction Names menu displays transactional information about bots with multiple Analyze- Open and Close commands. Each Analyze- Open and Close command is considered as a transaction, and each transaction is displayed as a unique block in the data preview section. The number of rows for each unique transaction block is limited to 100.

Business dashboard