Automation 360 v.22 Community Edition Release Notes

Release date: 15 September 2021

Review the new features in the Community Edition of the Automation 360 v.22 (Build 10535) release.

Automation Workspace


What's new
Introducing Text file package A new Text file package is now available and includes the Get text action. Use this action to extract text from files that have Japanese characters with Shift-JIS encoding and then save the content in the files to a string variable. Text file package
Share session across bots Share a DLL, Excel, and Terminal Emulator session across multiple bots using the Global session option. You can also share a session with specific child bots using the Variable option and share a session with only the current bot using the Local session option. Sharing sessions across bots
Enhancement to AISense Recorder AISense Recorder now enables automation of applications that use Russian and a combination of Russian and English interfaces. AISense for recording tasks from remote applications
Enhancements to recorder conditions for packages Use the new Object does not exist condition from the Condition list of any package to verify whether a specific object in a window exists and then execute actions based on the result. This condition works with SAP technology as well. The existing Object condition is now renamed as Object exists. Loop package
Enhancements to Excel advanced package Open files with .xml and .txt extensions using the Open action. Use the wildcard character (*) in the Open action for file names to search based on the wildcard pattern. When you use the Run macro action and specify an argument that has a blank value, this blank value can now be passed to the macro.
New option in Database: Disconnect action In the Database: Disconnect action, you can now use the Keep database schema in cache until bot finishes running option to enable the Loop action to iterate the dataset by using cached schema after disconnecting from the database.
Use regular expressions in File > Open action (Service Cloud case ID: 00737614) Use regular expressions (regex) in the Open action of the File package to support pattern-based search.
Specify timeout for bots (Service Cloud case ID: 00667049, 00690892, 00699158, 00706491, 00739420, 00739415, 00741590, 00769795) You can now specify the amount of time by which the execution of a bot must be completed. The system stops the bot execution if it is not completed within the time you specified. Configure timeout for bot execution
New Exchange version supported in Email package In the Email package, when you choose an EWS server to establish a connection, you can now use the Exchange2013 option in the Exchange Version field.
New actions in Window package Use the Close all action to close all windows or programs running on the system, except the windows added in the Add window field. Use the Restore action to restore the size of a maximized or a minimized window or application running on the system. Window package
New option to search text within bot content in Bot editor (Service Cloud case ID: 00735685, 00736201, 00739122, 00740481, 00733885, 00748970, 00746459, 00738181,00756441,00759037,00761453,00764478) In the Bot editor, use the search box in the Flow, List, or Dual view to search for text, variables, or actions in the entire bot content such as package name, action name, string name, or variable name. This feature helps you to view or edit a bot with long code lines to determine where the searched text, such as variables, strings, or actions, is used and in which line. Actions to build bots
Enhanced support for SOAP Web Service URI (Service Cloud case ID: 00759811) In the SOAP Web Service package, if the input to the Address location field is empty, the bot now retrieves the address location from the WSDL file.
New option in SOAP Web Service package Use the Build SOAP request option in the SOAP Web Service package to retrieve SOAP request details from the SOAP URI or the WSDL file. You can now select any operations from the list of services and ports available in the SOAP Request to automatically populate data in the fields of the SOAP Web Service action. Example of using the SOAP web service action
TNS name supported for Oracle Database connection TNS (Transparent Network Substrate) name is now supported in the Oracle Database. You can connect to the Oracle Database by specifying the TNS name and path of the tnsnames.ora configuration file.
Wait time option in Google Sheets package (Service Cloud case ID: 00738249, 00817449, 00814775) When you use the Connect in the action in the Google Sheets package to establish a connection with the Google server, you can now set a wait time in the Wait for actions to complete field when performing actions such as Get, Set, or Delete. For example, if you have a large file that takes a long time to open, you can now set the wait time for the file to open before the system executes the next set of actions.
New option for Put action in Dictionary package You can now assign a static value to a key for a dictionary variable by using the Static value option in the Put action in the Dictionary package. Dictionary package
Relative click and occurrence supported in packages (Service Cloud case ID: 0055643,00754173) When you capture a target image using the Image Recognition package, you can now use the Preview option to select a specific captured occurrence and position your click location relative to the image. The feature is supported in the following packages and actions: Image Recognition > Find image in window Image Recognition > Find window in window If > Image Recognition condition Loop > While > Image Recognition condition Wait for condition action > Image Recognition condition Using Find image in window action\|Using the Find window in window action
Enhancements to execution type key in AATaskExecutor variable When you schedule a bot to run, the `Execution_Type` key in the `AATaskExecutor` variable now returns information about the execution type with schedule type (frequency) such as `Run as schedule Daily`, `Run as schedule Weekly`, or `Run as schedule Monthly`. When you use a trigger in a bot, the `Execution_Type` key can be accessed through the trigger data. The `Execution_Type` key returns the `Run through Trigger` as a string for triggers.
Language support for variable names Variable names now support Greek and Japanese languages. You can now create variable names using the following characters: Greek uppercase and lowercase characters Japanese Katakana full-width and half-width characters.
New option in REST Web Service (Service Cloud case ID: 00764198, 00800287) In the REST Web Service package, you can now use the Allow insecure connection when using https option to skip SSL certificate validation and to allow non-secure connections.
Work item ID and time filters for workload automations Combine the work item ID and start time of a queue to search for specific work items and monitor the progress of these work items. The start time filters the list of all work items that start between specified start date and start time. Actions allowed on view queue page
Enhancements to the bot structure We have enhanced the overall readability of the bot structure and updated the node labels of the bot to show selected properties and parameters of each action in detail in the Flow, List, and Dual views. You no longer have to expand each action to view these details. The Flow, List, and Dual views display the following properties of actions: The value you enter for actions such as Set text for all supported technologies Names of objects on which actions such as Set text, Click, Left click, Get property, and Select item by index are performed Name of the object property mentioned in the action Name of the return variable if some value is assigned to a variable List of properties for the Get property action
Java applications supported in App integration package The App integration package now supports Java applications that are based on the Standard Widget Toolkit and Abstract Window Toolkit, which can draw text using Windows text-drawing APIs.
Direct download support in Bot Store Users who cannot connect their Control Room to the internet can now directly download Automation 360 bots and packages locally from Bot Store and then import them to their Control Room. Download locally and import bots and packages from Bot Store to Control Room

Automation Co-Pilot for Business Users


What's new
Select File element input supported for Create a Request action The Create a Request action in the AARI Web package now supports passing input in the request creation forms for the Select File element. You can now use bots to create a request and upload or download files as input with the Select File element. These input files are uploaded to the storage service to be available for further processing in the request.
Output variables support in Process Editor The Output variables section in the process editor enables you to create a user-defined variable that can be set as an output to any process. This helps you pass the output from the child (sub) process, which was called in the Process Task, to the parent (main) process. Display child process automation output
Detail view in Tasks page The new Detail view option in the Tasks page provides better insight into individual tasks for better task management. The detail view previews each task in its respective request view page without opening another page, which helps organize and correspond your tasks with the available requests. Users can interact with their tasks as well.

Discovery Bot


What's new
View Groups of steps When reviewing a process view, you can now use the group option or icon to display groups of steps that belong to the primary level action and secondary level action (and subgroup level actions) used during the recording session. Use the group icon to help you decide what groups of steps to select for a task you want to automate. For example, a primary level action displays Microsoft Outlook, a secondary level action displays Outlook mail notification, and subgroup level actions display terms such as Email -Add To, Email – Add Subject. Create a process view with branches and opportunities
Use Dynamic option for system-generated views You can now use the Dynamic option from the Model options to view recordings where groups of steps display a set of repeating patterns that belong to the same application or same primary level action used during the recording session. Use this option to decide the context of the process or the task you want to automate. Groups of steps that are labeled belong to supported applications such as Microsoft (Excel, Outlook, and Notepad), Notepad++, text editors, most windows use cases, and Chrome browser functionality. Create a process view with branches and opportunities
Enhancements to PDD Word document The PDD Word document now includes a process recording flow chart and the time on each individual step in hours, minutes, and seconds. Review opportunities and convert to bot