3. OpenRPA¶

3.2.1.1. Installing Universally or User-Only¶

OpenRPA’s installation scope.¶

The installer first prompts the user whether OpenRPA should be installed only for the specific single user or universally (all users). It is recommended to install it universally (requires administrator previleges), as it have no downsides, so unless something (or someone) prohibits you from installing it for all users, always do it so. Installing OpenRPA single-user prevents other regular users from the machine from using OpenRPA, however, both OpenFlow and NodeRED accesses are not limited nor related to this, as they are accessed by simply using a browser. After selecting the desired option, click Next.

3.3.1.1. Setting parameters locally¶

If the user desires to set parameters for the local user instance of OpenRPA, he may navigate to the Computer\HKEY_USERS\{USER_KEY}\SOFTWARE\OpenRPA registry key and add an entry for each parameter he wants to change. Here, the name of the key corresponds to the name of the parameter and its value corresponds to the value.

The process below shows how to set the ocr_language parameter to rus locally by using the Windows Registry Editor.

First, navigate to the Computer\HKEY_USERS\{USER_KEY}\SOFTWARE\OpenRPA registry key.

Click with the right-mouse button inside the empty area in the Windows Registry Editor window.

Then, click on New > String value and type ocrlanguage and press ENTER.

Finally, double click the newly set register entry and intended register value, in our case rus - which corresponds to the Russian language.

Now restart OpenRPA to verify the changes were properly made.

3.3.1.2. Setting parameters globally¶

The same process above is done but for the Computer\Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\OpenRPA registry key to enforce parameters globally in the scope of the machine. This means users can’t override these parameters.

3.3.1.3. wsurl (OpenRPA online/offline[local])¶

This parameter dictates to which OpenFlow enviroment OpenRPA should connect.

The expected value is a valid websocket URL.

Default value is OpenIAP demo enviroment: wss://app.openiap.io/.

If the value is set as blank "" (empty string), OpenRPA will run locally, that is, without being connected to an OpenFlow (and consequently, NodeRED) and will no longer benefit from the cloud features of the OON stack, such as MongoDB or Workflows remote invoking (as well as many others features).

Examples of valid websockets URL:

"wsurl": "wss://app.openiap.io/",
"wsurl": "ws://localhost.openrpa.io",
"wsurl": "",

Notice that wss indicates that the websocket URL is secured, whereas URLs starting with ws are not (same principles as http vs https for webpages). Therefore, users should make use of the respective protocol that matches with their OpenFlow enviroment.

3.3.1.4. username / jwt / password / entropy¶

These four parameters work somewhat together and are used by OpenRPA to keep track of the last logged user, besides allowing automatic logins, provided that the saved jwt is still valid.

Default value for username is empty string "".

Default values for jwt and password are null.

Default value for entropy is a randomly generated key created by the user’s Windows (example "JungBLhauG+JvQipkQPIp9sLwJw=").

After an user logs in to OpenRPA, the application will automatically generate a JSON Web Token jwt from the combination of username and password``¹, with a given secret ``entropy. After the user logs out (or the application is closed), this jwt is then saved and, from there, the same user may log back in without the need of typing the credentials again.

¹ - username and password that were typed in the login screen, not from the settings.json file.

If, for any reason, the login is not possible (password has been changed, user no longer exists or jwt is invalid), OpenRPA will prompt the user to login again.

3.3.1.5. isagent¶

This parameter modifies OpenRPA GUI. It should be used when it is desirable to hide Workflows logic or if user wants to prevent other users from making changes to Workflows. Expected values are either true or false.

Default value is false.

If this parameter is set to true, OpenRPA client will no longer show the UI elements that allow users to view or edit Workflows, but it will still be possible to invoke them (both manually/locally or remotely).

3.3.1.6. cancelkey¶

This parameter refers to which key button is responsible for stopping execution inside OpenRPA.

Default value is {ESCAPE}.

3.3.1.7. showloadingscreen¶

This parameter defines whether OpenRPA loadscreen should show up or not (i.e, the splashscreen with the gears in grey scale when the application is initialized).

Default value is true.

There are no pro/cons performance-wise in disabling the loadscreen. In some cases, it might be desirable to turn it off, especially when the robot is running on someone’s computer who is not (and does not need to be) aware of the robot.

3.3.1.8. culture¶

This parameter defines the language used in most elements (tooltips, buttons etc.) in the OpenRPA GUI. Notice that the list of all possible values will not be shown here, since this list is still expanding (thanks to our contributors). The most intuitive way to set this parameter is by choosing the language through UI Language, on the upper ribbon of the the OpenRPA GUI, in the Settings tab.

Default value is the user’s local input language, if supported by OpenRPA. Else, it will default to en (which stands for “English”).

3.3.1.9. ocrlanguage¶

This parameter sets the language OCR will use to interpret text on images. The full list of supported languages can be found on OpenRPA GUI ribbon in the Settings tab under the name Tesseract (next to UI Language).

Default value is eng (which stands for “English”).

3.3.1.10. openworkflows¶

A list of IDs of the Workflows that were open the last time OpenRPA was closed. This parameter exists so that OpenRPA can keep track of the Workflow tabs and automatically open them next time the application is initialized.

Default value is an empty list [].

3.3.1.11. mainwindow_position¶

This parameter stores information about size and position of the OpenRPA GUI on the screen, so that it will be displayed in the same way next time the application is initialized.

The four values refer to the Windows Coordinate System. The first two represent the X and Y coordinates of the upper-left corner of the window, whereas the second pair of values represent the coordinates of the bottom-left corner of the windown.

Default value is “0, 0, 0, 0”.

3.3.1.12. designerlayout¶

[DEPRECATED] This is no longer needed as it was replaced by ``layout.config` file.`

This parameter sets the default OpenRPA UI elements, such as the size and position of Toolbox, Design and Properties.

Default value is an empty string "" and it means that these elements were never adjusted and are on their original spot.

3.3.1.13. properties¶

This parameter is a set of inherited classes settings. This is a dynamically created list of the add-ons settings that are loaded when OpenRPA is executed. In the case of new plugins, their settings can be added to the global settings in this list. Note that the first word of each parameter is the name of the plugin being setted.

This is an important parameter, since it allows users to configurate their own plugins.

These settings can also be accessed through OpenRPA GUI, in Recorder plugins in the Settings tab.

IE_enable_xpath_support - It enables experimental XPath support in IE. Default value is true.

NM_unique_xpath_ids - A list of unique IDs for creating XPath selectors.

NM_debug_console_output - It writes debug information to browser console. Default value is false.

NM_wait_for_tab_after_set_value - It waits for tab status to be in ready state after setting a value. Default value is false.

NM_wait_for_tab_click - It waits for tab status to be in ready state after clicking a button. Default value is false.

NM_compensate_for_old_addon - It adds pixel compensation for old add-ons. Default value is false.

Script_csharp_intellisense - It activates Intellisense for C# scripts. Default value is true.

Script_vb_intellisense - It activates Intellisense for Visual Basic scripts. Default value is true.

Script_use_embedded_python - OpenRPA comes with Python embedded, but will use default system Python if disabled. Default value is true.

Script_py_create_no_window - It states whether the Python script should be started in a new window or not. Default value is true.

Windows_allow_child_searching - If an Element in a Selector is not found, automatically search all children for match. Default value is false.

Windows_allow_multiple_hits_mid_selector - It allows an Element Selector in a Selector to find more than one children. Default value is false.

Windows_enum_selector_properties - It tests each Selector Element for the minimum required amount of properties needed. Default value is true.

Windows_get_elements_in_different_thread - GetElement uses another thread while searching in order to avoid locks if selector finds robot. Default value is true.

Windows_traverse_selector_both_ways - It traverses UI tree both ways to filter out ghost Selector Elements. Default value is true.

Windows_cache_timeout": "00:05:00 - Timeout for caching of Elements. Default value is true.

Windows_enable_cache - It enables caching of Elements for faster automation at the expense of RAM. Default value is true.

Windows_search_descendants - It searches all descendants. Please note that this makes the robot slower, so it is recommended to use this option for more simple Selectors. Default value is false.

3.3.1.14. record_overlay¶

The Recording Overlay checkbox (which can also be set inside OpenRPA ribbon in the Settings tab) is used to highlight the Elements as they are moused over while recording. Be aware that CPU performance may be affected when this parameter is set to true, hence it is recommended to keep it to false and change it only during debugging/presentations purposes.

Default value is true.

3.3.1.15. querypagesize¶

This parameter sets the maximum number of results per MongoDB query when Activities in OpenRPA are using OpenFlow’s API to communicate with the MondoDB.

Each query has a cost of its own and then the data transfer (querypagesize) also has a cost. A high value for querypagesize means that MongoDB will be queried less often, but the load of each query will be higher.

There is no perfect value for this parameter, but knowing the differences may optimize specific scenarios for an OpenRPA Workflow needs.

Default value is 50.

3.3.1.16. lastupdatecheck / updatecheckinterval / doupdatecheck¶

These parameters refer to update checking done by the robot when it is started. If a new update is found, a message will be displayed to the user for him to decide if the updates should be installed or not.

lastupdatecheck is a log of the last time the robot checked for updates.

updatecheckinterval sets the interval between update checks. Default value is “1.00:00:00” (i.e., one day).

doupdatecheck is a boolean value that states if the robot should look for updates or not. Default value is true.

3.3.1.17. autoupdateupdater¶

This parameter sets if the Updater should auto update itself or not. If true, it will proceed with the updating without displaying any message to the user.

Default value is true.

3.3.1.18. log (12 parameters)¶

The following parameters refer to the log file created to store all the outputs of the Workflows, as well as error or exception messages. There will be more information in this file than in the Logging section of the Output bar, since showing too much information in this section slows down the robot. Some of these parameters can be set through the upper ribbon of the GUI, in the Settings tab.

The “Level” refers to the type of information user wants to get. Lower numbers mean more critical information, whereas higher numbers mean less critical information. In other words, if user sets minimum and maximum values to, e.g., 1 and 2, only the most important information will be logged. if, on the other hand, the user sets the values to 1 and 7, less critical information will be added to the log file.

The broader the range between the lowest to the highest level, the more information will be retrieved. Please note that this operation slows the robot down, since more processing is required.

log_to_file - If user enables logs, the robot will create a .txt log file and save it in the root folder of the robot. Default value is false.

log_file_level_minimum - Default value is “2”.

log_file_level_maximum - Default value is “5”.

log_verbose - This parameter habilitates the verbose mode, that is, more words are added to log file in order to make it more readable to humans. Default value is false.

log_activity - When set to true, this parameter adds logs of the activities performed by user during execution of OpenRPA, such as changes to Designer. Default value is false.

log_debug - It adds information about debugging to log file. Default value is false.

log_selector - It adds logs of Selectors activities. Default value is false.

log_selector_verbose - This parameter habilitates verbose mode for selector logs. Default value is false.

log_information - This parameter enables logging information that is not fundamental to the operation of the robot, but is important for humans to be aware of or keep record of. Default value is true.

log_output - It adds messages that were displayed in the Output tab, as well as messages from Writeline Activity. Default value is true.

log_warning - It adds warning messages to the log file, that is, issues that had an effect on the platform or robot, but did not prevent it from running. Default value is true.

log_error - It adds error messages to the log file, that is, issues that could not be handled by the robot and prevented it from running. Default value is true.

3.3.1.19. use_sendkeys¶

When set to true while recording, this parameter mimics an user typing one key at the time. When set to false, the Recorder will try to directly change the control on the selected application and apply the whole text at once. Each application/control may react in a different way, hence the reason why this parameter might be useful.

This parameter can also be accessed through OpenRPA ribbon, in the Settings tab.

Default value is false.

3.3.1.20. use_virtual_click¶

OpenRPA tries to do a Virtual Click instead of actually clicking with the mouse. See more at Virtual Click.

Default value is true.

3.3.1.21. use_animate_mouse¶

When playing a recorded Sequence, the cursor will appear changing its position throughout execution. It becomes easier to visualize the actions that were recorded. It also is a way to produce material for RPA presentations.

This parameter can also be accessed through OpenRPA ribbon, in the Settings tab.

Default value is true.

3.3.1.22. use_postwait¶

This parameter sets the default value for all Activities that have post_wait property.

It means that the robot will wait this amount of time after each of these Activity to make sure that the computer is responsive before moving on to the next.

It slows down the performance of the robot when running the Workflow, as each Activity will have an overhead. This parameter is not necessary, but for extremely specific cases, this is already implemented and may come handy.

Default value is “00:00:00”.

3.3.1.23. minimize¶

This parameter defines whether OpenRPA UI should minimize when running the robot or not.

In order to optimize performance, this parameter should be set to true. When running, the robot will access the Desktop and check all open windows to find the one required. So, it doesn’t need to check its own window.

It may be useful to have the window maximized when debugging, so that the user will be able to see what is happenning during execution.

Default value is true.

3.3.1.24. recording_add_to_designer¶

The Record directly into designer checkbox (set inside OpenRPA ribbon in the Settings tab) is used when the user wants to see the activities being inserted into the designer as they are recording it.

Having this parameter enabled is advised during development or while debugging, but be aware that it might cause some input delay. If disabled, the Recorder will memorize the activities and only insert them after recording is over.

Default value is true.

3.3.1.25. reloadinterval¶

Time interval that the robot will use to reload local files when OpenRPA is running connected to an OpenFlow.

The robot will query OpenFlow for a list of Workflows and Detectors and it will compare the last updated assign on those with the time it has on its local copy. If there are any changes, it will then reload the file or files.

If the Worflow or Detector is already open in the Designer, OpenRPA will then raise a warning to the user and ask if the newer version should be loaded or not. If new files are found or if files were deleted, OpenRPA will automatically proceed to create or delete files in local directory.

There is also the option of realoding at any time through OpenRPA UI, at the General tab at the upper ribbon.

Default value is “00:05:00”. If value is set to “00:00:00”, it will never be reaload.

3.3.1.26. move_animation_run_time / move_animation_steps¶

When playing a recorded Sequence, the user may choose whether the movement of a window will be shown as an animation or not. It can be set in the Properties menu of the Activity.

move_animation_run_time - This parameter sets the amount of time between each of the steps of the animation. Default value is “00:00:00.5000000”.

move_animation_steps - This parameter sets how many steps the animation will take. If set to 1, no movement will visible, since the window will move directly to the new position. The more steps, the smothier the movement. Default value is “20”.

3.3.1.27. remote_allow_multiple_running / remote_allow_multiple_running_max¶

When a robot is running Workflows that rely on application GUI, keyboard or mouse and parallel Workflow executions would result in conflicting actions, these parameters set limitations so OpenFlow/Node-RED will only invoke a given number of workflows at once.

remote_allow_multiple_running - This parameter sets the permission for the robot to run additional Workflows at the same time. Default value is false.

remote_allow_multiple_running_max - It sets the maximum number of Workflows that can be run at the same time. Default value is “2”.

3.3.1.28. cef_useragent¶

This parameter allows user to define what user-agent value should the robot use when logging in a Google account. Some users may find issues when loggin in OpenRPA using a Google account due to different versions of Chromium browser, so this parameter makes sure the robot is using the most up-to-date version.

Default value is an empty string "".

Possible values are the literal user-agent header used in most common http-requests, such as “Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X x.y; rv:42.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/42.0”.

3.3.1.29. show_getting_started¶

This parameter lets the user decide if the “Getting Started” tab will be shown when OpenRPA is initialized. This message contains basic information about the App, such as most common shortcuts, as well as links to the Wiki page and explanatory videos.

Default value is true.

Users may also disable “Getting Started” on the right botton corner of the page (“Show again” checkbox).

3.3.1.30. notify_on_workflow_remote_start / notify_on_workflow_end / notify_on_workflow_remote_end¶

These parameters set the notification behavior of OpenRPA during execution start and end.

notify_on_workflow_remote_start - It shows a notification when the Workflow is started remotely. Default value is true.

notify_on_workflow_end - It shows a notification when Workflow ends running. Default value is true.

notify_on_workflow_remote_end - It shows a anotification when Workflow ends running remotely. Default value is false.

3.3.1.31. log_busy_warning¶

This parameter defines if a message is logged everytime OpenFlow tries to run a Workflow and the robot is busy.

This is a performance oriented parameter. It is advised to keep it set to false if it is expected for the message to show up often.

Default value is `true.

3.4.2.1. Read¶

Users have access to execute and view the content of the workflow.

3.4.2.2. Update¶

Users have access to update and view the content of the workflow.

3.4.2.3. Delete¶

Users have access to delete the workflow or group of workflows from the workspace.

3.4.2.4. Invoke¶

Users have access to invoke the content of the workflow.

To set these permissions simply click in the user you want to grant or revoke permissions and click the desired button. If the user is available at the OpenFlow repository but not in the current workflow, simply click the new button and type their username, a dropdown will come up with suggestions for the name of the user you are looking for. Select the user and click OK.

3.4.4.1. Dragging an Activity¶

To drag an activity into OpenRPA, simply click the activity inside the Toolbox keep the left button of the mouse pressed and drag it into the workspace.

Then, the activity will appear inside the sequence.

This shows how easy it is to drag it to the main sequence! Try it yourself! Drag another activity into the main sequence.

If, on the other hand, you’d like to drag it into a nested sequence simply repeat the procedure but instead of simply dragging it into the workspace, drag it into the block inside the desired sequence.

3.4.4.2. Organizing the Workflow¶

Organizing the workflow in OpenRPA is easily done through changing activities’ display names and organizing sequences by nesting them.

Changing an Activity’s Display Name

To change an activity’s display name, the user can either click the name of the activity or change its property DisplayName inside the Properties box, as seen in the image below.

Nesting Sequences

Nesting a sequence inside the main sequence is easy. Simply drag a Sequence activity inside the main sequence.

After that, a new sequence will appear with its default display name set as Sequence.

To do the same into already nested sequences or activities containing pseudo sequences, simply drag the Sequence activity into the desired block.

3.4.4.3. Creating and Deleting Variables & Arguments¶

Creating a Variable

To create a variable automatically, the user must have the text caret inside an input field and inside some activity or property belonging to any. Afterwards, they can simply press Ctrl+K to create that variable. Remember that after creating that variable, the user must assign a value to its alias through the Variables section inside the Variables, Arguments & Imports box or through the Assign activity. In our case, this variable is assigned to the value “This is variable one”.

To create a variable manually, the user can simply click the field containing the Create Variable placeholder inside the Variables section in the Variables, Arguments & Imports box, type the variable’s name and if needed, assign a Variable type to it - or just leave it as String - then assign its Default value. The user can change its Scope as well, which is discussed in the Variables, Arguments sections next in this chapter.

It is useful to remind the user that a variable must always have a specific type. Refer to Appendix A for more information on types.

Deleting a Variable

To delete a variable, simply click with the right button mouse in its row inside the Variables section of the Variables, Arguments & Imports box and click Delete.

Creating an Argument

The process for creating an argument is similar, yet there is no way to create an argument automatically. The user must always create it inside the Arguments section in the Variables, Arguments & Imports box and obligatorily set its Direction, which will be discussed in the Variables, Arguments section next in this very same chapter.

In order to create an argument, simply click the field containing the placeholder Create Argument inside the Arguments section of the Variables, Arguments & Imports box type the argument’s name and assign a type to it, if needed - else just leave it as String.

Deleting an Argument

To delete an argument, simply click with the right button mouse in its row inside the Arguments section of the Variables, Arguments & Imports box and click Delete.

3.4.4.4. Output & Debug¶

The Output section inside the Output bar is used to output every information pertaining to the execution of workflows inside OpenRPA. This information includes debugging output, ie. error messages, output from the WriteLine activity - more on this below - and messages indicating that the workflow has executed successfully. Please refer to the Designer section to see a thorough explanation of the Output bar.

Debugging Error Messages

OpenRPA’s error messages are very similar to any C# trace output, an example follows below.

[13:00:08.797][Output] Using the Designer failed in 00:03.325
# OpenRPA.Interfaces.ElementNotFoundException: Failed locating 1 item(s)
   at OpenRPA.Windows.GetElement.Execute(NativeActivityContext context)
   at System.Activities.NativeActivity.InternalExecute(ActivityInstance instance, ActivityExecutor executor, BookmarkManager bookmarkManager)
   at System.Activities.Runtime.ActivityExecutor.ExecuteActivityWorkItem.ExecuteBody(ActivityExecutor executor, BookmarkManager bookmarkManager, Location resultLocation)

This is the most common error in OpenRPA, it occurs when an element is selected with any Get Element activities but it ends up not existing upon running the workflow - either because its existence has timed out or because the user has willingly closed it.

The first block inside the square brackets ([13:00:08.797]) is the Timestamp of the debug error message. It denotes the exact time when it occurred.

The second block inside the square brackets ([Output]) denotes the type of message - in our case, obviously, it is an output message.

The third block is the content of the debug error message. It contains the name of the workflow which failed (Using the Designer), followed by its relative execution time (00:;03.325) - ie. the time that has elapsed from its start to the failure - and the error which occurred - in our case OpenRPA.Interfaces.ElementNotFoundException.

It is recommended that when reporting bugs the user denotes the type of error which occurred - in our case ElementNotFoundException - for the purposes of making it easier for people to understand and thus be able to quickly help you solving the error!

Writing Output to the Console with WriteLine

The user can also write expressions to the Output console by using the WriteLine activity. Any object of type String can be used inside an expression which is going to be outputted to the console. Everything else will need to be casted into the type String, more on that in Appendix A. Expressions need to be prefixed suffixed with " to indicate they are strings.

The user can also write any expressions involving variables, just remember to concatenate them using the + operator.

3.5.2.1. Toolbox & Snippets sidebar¶

This is the place where all activities lie as well as some code snippets which teaches the user on how to use of the tool for various purposes.

To use an activity, simply drag it into the Workspace sequence you want to add it to.

For more information on these activities, such as a detailed explanation of each one, refer to the Toolbox Detailed section.

OpenRPA’s Toolbox.¶

3.5.2.2. Workspace¶

The workspace is where the user organizes all the activities pertaining to the task which will be fulfilled by the workflow. It is also where the user will set all variables, arguments and import namespaces for further use.

Once the user drags activities into the sequence, upon pressing the Play button inside the ribbon or pressing the F5 key, they will be executed in a cascading manner - each one after the previous one. And if there are any errors - untreated by TryCatch or Throw activities - the workflow execution will stop and the error message will appear in the Output box, which will be discussed in the Output bar section.

Each Sequence activity has its own scope as well, which will be discussed in the Variables section, further below.

OpenRPA’s Workspace.¶

The user can also organize their workflow by nesting Sequence activities, as shown in the picture below.

Nesting sequences inside OpenRPA.¶

As well as nesting, the user can use the Comment Out activity to ignore everything inside it. In the picture below, all activities inside the Comment Out activity won’t be executed.

Commenting activities out outside OpenRPA.¶

3.5.2.3. Properties Box¶

Every activity in OpenRPA has its own property box, containing parameters passed that change the workings of the given activity. Inside the property box there are also sections which are pretty much self explanatory and refer to the given parameters they cause changes upon, such as Input, Output or Misc.

Properties box.¶

The only property common to all activities is Displayname, which changes the name of the activity inside the workspace. It is shown below.

Displayname Property.¶

3.5.2.4. Output bar¶

The output bar contains three sections: Logging, Output and Workflow Instances.

Logging

The Logging section shows the output of the Workflows as well as any instance of any error or exception which occurred inside OpenRPA.

Output

The Output section contains only outputs generated by any workflows that were executed.

Workflow Instances

The Workflow Instances section contains all workflow instances pertaining to the queues file path the currently logged user is listening. It is useful as a catalog of recent workflow results and to see which workflows are queued, idle, complete, failed or running (in progress).

3.5.2.5. Connection bar¶

The connection bar contains information related to the connection status of the OpenFlow web service set in the Configuring OpenRPA section as well as the status of both NM and SAP plugins.

3.5.3.1. Variables¶

Variables, as their very name states - are changeable values assigned to aliases inside the execution of a sequence. These aliases can be used in mathematical or computational expressions. For example, if you want to save a variable named “price” to assign the price of a product along a sequence. You can use the assign activity and an expression to assign it’s value.

Upon inserting an activity with an input box, if you mention a non-existent variable and want to easily create it you can press Ctrl+K and a dropdown will appear with many types of variable to be selected.

Variables in OpenRPA are statically typed and their type can be selected from the variable type field inside the argument box.

3.5.3.1.1. Variable use case: Saving the result of a computation¶

A use case of a variable is demonstrated next. In this example, we will save the result of a computation into a variable.

First, drag an Assign activity to the main sequence.

Then, type a name for the variable and press Ctrl+K to create it automatically. In this case, the chosen name is resultOfComputation.

Afterwards, assign the result of the computation (2*6)[right-hand side] to the variable [left-hand side].

The user now may notice that a warning now appears in the right-hand side of the activity. That is because the expression is a Int32 type, the variable resultOfComputation is a string and Microsoft Workflow Foundation is strongly typed. if the user has no experience with programming a thorough explanation is given on Appendix A. For now, just select the type of the variable as Int32 in the Variable type parameter inside the Variables, Arguments & Imports box, as seen in the picture below.

3.5.3.2. Scope¶

It refers to the reach of the objects contained within a sequence. If you have some knowledge of programming and scope, you can skip this part. First, let’s think of it as sets. In this example, we are going to use variables since arguments function as if they were globally scoped.

Per the code block below, one may observe that sequence B has access to only variables x, - but since B is inside the scope of A, it makes sequence B to have access to all variables {n, p, x, y}. In simple words, sequences can be used to organize variable scopes and to group activities, just like a developer would normally do in a programming language using functions to avoid monolithic code.

Sequence A {

	variables = n, p

	Sequence B {

		variables = x, y

	}
}	

3.5.3.3. Arguments¶

Arguments are simply variables that can be passed to other sequences, external services or workflows and have global scope. They act exactly as variables, except for that single characteristic. If you pass an argument to a sequence created within another sequence, the argument is still valid within the outer sequence. If you pass a variable, that does not happen.

It is important to notice that both variables and arguments can have a default value, which are assigned to both if a value isn’t necessarily assigned during the execution of the sequence. It is also required for arguments with the isRequired property checked to have an ‘In’ value, ie. already passed or having a default value.

Similarly to Variables, Arguments in OpenRPA are statically typed and their type can be selected from the variable type field inside the argument box.

Output (In - In/Out - Out) Output refers to the way a variable or argument is handled during run-time. They are classified below.

• In

  In this case the argument is received from external service and is only given an input value that can’t be returned after the execution of the workflow

• In/Out

  In this case the argument can both be given an input value or be changed and outputted after the execution of the workflow

• Out

  In this case the argument returns a value to an external service, and it can’t be changed after the execution of the workflow

• Properties

  This turns the argument into a Property, which means it has the same features of an In/Out argument but can also have a default value

3.5.3.4. Imports¶

Imports tab shows all the modules used and referenced in the selected sequence.

3.5.3.5. Serializable vs Non-Serializable Arguments¶

Microsoft Workflow Fundation (MWF), the technology which OpenRPA is based on, diversificates variables/arguments into two diferent categories: Serializable and Non-Serializable. For the great majority of workflows there is no need to understand the differences, as they will not affect anything, but there are cases that knowing the technical limitations of non-serializable objects might explain why your workflow or process is not working exactly as you may expect.

In short: non-serializable objects, as the name suggests, can not be serialized. This term, in this context, can be simplified to: these objects can not be saved / can not be transmitted over a network. That consequently implies that a workflow state can not be saved if the workflow contains any variable/argument that is non-serializable, and also, invoking workflows with non-serializable arguments is not supported. The most common non-serializable variable/arguments types are: DataTables and DataSets but other types (from the infinitely many existing types from all the namespaces) also fall into this category.

With this brief explanation, here are some limitations that users may face when dealing with workflows containing non-serializable variables/arguments as well as some suggested workarounds:

• Saving workflow states

  When OpenRPA is connected to an OpenFlow, workflows states are saved automatically in OpenFlow whenever specific activities¹ are reached. These states exist to indicate the current situation relevant to a workflow instance, such as the designer layout (activities, sequences) being run, the variables and arguments and their current values, etc. Hence, if the workflow contains non-serializable objects such a DataTable, the state can not be saved.

  ¹ - All the activities that “go idle” (Detectors, Delay, Invoke Remote with wait) as well as Persist activity.

  Workaround: Split complex workflows into smaller workflows, leaving the smaller workflows to manage the non-serializable objects. That way if an unexpected interruption occurs, you will not lose all the data.

• Remote Remote OpenRPA / invoking with non-serializable arguments

• Invoke Openflow / Node-RED invoke and data return

  If one desires to use Invoke Remote OpenRPA Activity, be aware that the workflow being invoked may not use non-serializable arguments. As the destination computer / OpenRPA is different than the source OpenRPA, the non-serializable arguments can not be passed around and thus the invoking will fail.

  Similar limitation also happens when an user invokes a flow in Node-RED by using the Invoke Openflow activity, non-serializable objects are not supported to be used as arguments. Exception to this rule is the DataTable type, OpenRPA will attempt to neatly convert these to JArray Objects before contacting Node-RED as well as convert it back to DataTable when the data is returned / node workflow out is used.

  Workaround: Use the activities from OpenRPA.OpenFlowDB toolbox to upload files/update data/create entities and collections in OpenFlow MongoDB and then, on the destionation computer, access the data by querying OpenFlow MongoDB. This way, the entire Data/DataSet/DataTable (any non-serializable object) is stored within MongoDB and the parameter being passed during the invoke can be the _id or some other identifier.

  Workaround2: Convert the non-serializable object into a serializable one, for example base 64 string, then pass it as parameter and convert it back if needed.

3.5.4.1. OpenRPA¶

The reader will find below the activities located inside the OpenRPA toolbox.

Click Element

Click on an Element found with GetElement.

Properties Parameters

Animate Mouse - If set to True, the cursor will appear changing its position throughout execution. It only works on Physical Clicks!

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

Double Click - If set to True, the cursor clicks twice inside the window.

Element - The application selected with the Get Element activity.

Key Modifiers - If set, the corresponding keys act as if pressed during execution.

Mouse Button - Set to 1 if the Left Mouse button is to be clicked;``2`` if it is the Middle Mouse button; 3 for the Right Mouse button.

Post Wait - Time OpenRPA should wait for this activity to finish after completing its execution.

Virtual Click - Set by default as True. OpenRPA tries to do a Virtual Click instead of actually clicking with the mouse. Visit Appendix B - Virtual Clicking for more information.

X Offset - The horizontal offset inside the window to be clicked. Units are in pixels. It also allows for negative values. Only works on Physical Click!

Y Offset - The vertical offset inside the window to be clicked. Units are in pixels. It also allows for negative values. Only works on Physical Click!

OpenRPA Click Element.¶

Close Application

Closes a given application selected with the Get Element activity.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

Force- If set to True, it kills the application.

Selector - Contains all the data belonging to the application selected.

Timeout - Time interval until the Activity ceases if not successfully able to close the application. Can be a simple 00:00:00.00 {hh:min:ss.mili} or an object from the TimeSpan class.

OpenRPA Close Application.¶

Comment Out

Every Activity inside Comment Out is ignored by the execution of the workflow. This Activity is useful for remarking something out of the sequence.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Copy Clipboard

Saves the content from Windows clipboard into a variable.

Repetitive sequential usage of this Activity, however, is not recommended, as it is unreliable due to buffer issues. As a suggestion/workaround, one can use the Invoke Code Activity and run the following AHK code variable1 := Clipboard. Notice that variable1 is the name of the variable.

If the content of the Windows clipboard that will be copied is a String the user has to specify the variable inside the String Result field in the Properties Box. If it is an image the user has to specify the BitmapSource variable file path the image will be saved inside Image Result.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Image Result - Creates a bitmap from the image copied into the clipboard and returns it as a BitmapSource variable.

Send Ctrl+C - Sends Ctrl+C before trying to copy the Clipboard Content.

String Result - Returns the result from the clipboard as a string.

OpenRPA Copy Cliboard.¶

Detector Activity

Detector turns workflow into idle mode, waiting on selected Detector to trigger.

It is worthy reminding the user that Detectors can also be used to trigger StateMachines inside OpenRPA.

An example of how to set a Detector is found at Windows Automation section.

Properties Parameters

Detector - ID of the Detector which will be used to trigger the condition.

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Foreach DataRow

Foreach DataRow enumerates through each row inside a DataTable.

This Activity iterates through a DataTable or DataView.² All the Activities inside Foreach DataRow will be looped over each row. Examples of using Foreach DataRow Activities are shown both at Web Automation and Excel Read workflow examples.

Properties Parameters

DataTable - The data table used to gather the data.

DataView - The data view used to gather the data. For more information on how to use a DataView, please refer to Appendix B’s DataView.

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

OpenRPA Foreach DataRow.¶

² - What is the difference between DataView and DataTable? (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7382932/what-is-the-difference-between-dataview-and-datatable)

Highlight Element

Highlights an Element found with GetElement Activities.

Users can also define a specific Element to be highlighted when using this Activity outside of a GetElement Activity. Besides that, it allows users to specify the duration of the highlighting by inserting a TimeSpan object in the format HH:mm:ss inside the Duration parameter, such as 00:00:30 to highlight this given element for 30 seconds. It also allows for blocking the execution of the Workflow until the highlighting has finished by setting the Blocking parameter to True.

Properties Parameters

Blocking - If set to True, it blocks the execution of the Workflow until the highlighting has finished.

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

``Duration`- Duration of the highlighting. Can be a simple 00:00:00.00 {hh:min:ss.mili} or an object from the TimeSpan class.

Element - The Element to be highlighted by GetElement.

Result - [DEPRECATED] Currently unused parameter.

OpenRPA Highlight Element¶

Insert Clipboard

Sets the content of parameter Text into the Windows clipboard buffer. Repetitive sequential usage of this Activity, however, is not recommended, as it is unreliable due to buffer issues. As a suggestion/workaround, one can use the Invoke Code Activity and run the following AHK code:

Clipboard := variable1
Timeout := 3
WaitForAnyData := 1
ClipWait, % Timeout, % WaitForAnyData

; "variable1" is the name of the variable, can be changed.
; More info about ClipWait at https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/commands/ClipWait.htm (yes .htm, not .html)

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Ignore Errors - If an error occurs, will ignore it and continue. Default value is False.

Text - Text which will be inserted into the clipboard.

OpenRPA Insert Clipboard.¶

Invoke OpenFlow

Invoke OpenFlow allows the user to invoke Workflows which have been configured with OpenFlow/Node-RED, i.e., available at the Workflows page (e.g. http://localhost.openiap.io/#/Workflows).

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Wait until Completed - If set to True, OpenRPA waits until the Workflow invoke call is finished - either success or error. If successful, the message containing the data (as designed in the flow at Node-RED) is returned to the OpenRPA robot.

If set to False, however, OpenRPA will no longer have access to the returned message - communication will be one-way. Therefore, all logic that would otherwise depend on it must then be redesigned. Think of it as a try/catch exception block that does not return any exception message. ³

Workflow - The Workflow which is to be invoked.

OpenRPA Invoke OpenFlow.¶

Invoke OpenRPA

Invoke OpenRPA allows the user to invoke OpenRPA Workflows saved in OpenFlow’s repository - those available at the RPA Workflows page (eg. http://localhost.openiap.io/#/RPAWorkflows).

The Map Variables button allows the currently set variables and arguments to be passed to the Workflow invoke call. In order to do that, after choosing your Workflow from the dropdown, create the arguments in the Variables, Arguments & Imports box and click the Map Variables button in the activity.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Wait until Completed - If set to True, OpenRPA waits until the Workflow invoke call is finished - either success or error. If successful, the message containing the data (as designed in the flow at Node-RED) is returned to the OpenRPA robot.

If set to False, however, OpenRPA no longer has access to the returned message - communication now is one-way - and therefore all logic that would otherwise depend on it must then be redesigned. Think of it as a try/catch exception block that does not return any exception message.

Workflow - The Workflow which is to be invoked.

OpenRPA Invoke OpenRPA.¶

Invoke Remote OpenRPA

Allows to remotely invoke RPA Workflows, saved in OpenFlow’s repository, to be executed at other OpenRPA clients.

The Map Variables button allows the currently set variables and arguments to be passed to the workflow invoke call. In order to do that, after choosing your workflow from the dropdown, create the arguments in the Variables, Arguments & Imports box and click the Map Variables button in the activity.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

Target - OpenFlow’s hash string identifying the target which will be activated to execute the workflow.

Wait until Completed

If set to True, OpenRPA waits until the Workflow invoke call is finished - either success or error. If successful, the message containing the data (as designed in the flow at Node-RED) is returned to the OpenRPA robot.

If set to False, however, OpenRPA no longer has access to the returned message - communication now is one-way - and therefore all logic that would otherwise depend on it must then be redesigned. Think of it as a try/catch exception block that does not return any exception message.

Workflow - OpenFlow’s hash string identifying the workflow which will be executed.

OpenRPA Invoke Remote OpenRPA.¶

Move Mouse

Move mouse cursor to a location relative to an element found with GetElement (or desktop if no element is supplied).

This Activity has two modes of usage.

The first mode of usage is Selector-less. In this mode, the Activity will use the absolute values of the screen to find the X and Y offset values. As an example, if the user has a 1366x768 display, the activity will move the mouse according to that resolution inside the screen. To use this mode, all the user needs to do is to delete any value inside the Element property of the activity - its default value is item - and you can define the X and Y offset values.

The second mode of usage is Selector-bound. In this mode, after selecting a Windows element, the activity will use the relative values of the part of the screen which the element occupies to find the X and Y offset values. To use this mode, all the user needs to do is drag the Move Mouse activity into the element selected and define the X and Y offset values.

The application must be selected by using the Get Element Activity.

Properties Parameters

Animate Mouse - If set to True, the cursor will appear changing its position throughout execution. Good for showing what is happening in a presentation.

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Element - The application selected with the Get Element Activity.

Post Wait - How long OpenRPA should wait for this Activity to finish after completing its execution.

X Offset - The horizontal offset inside the window which the cursor will be moved to. Units are in pixels. It also allows for negative values.

Y Offset - The vertical offset inside the window which the cursor will be moved to. Units are in pixels. It also allows for negative values.

OpenRPA Move Mouse.¶

Open Application

Open Application searches for Windows element based on a Selector, and focus on it. If the Application was not found, it will start it.

Clicking Highlight will red-highlight the first element that matches the criteria on the Selector. Useful for checking if the Selector is properly set up.

This Activity also supports working with Selector inside itself. All you need to do is drag a GetElement, or according activity, inside its sequence.

This activity can also be used to work with browsers and other applications such as Java, SAP etc. Properties Parameters

Animate Move - Visibly move the window of the application which will be opened, instead of instantly moving it. Useful for presentations.

Check Running - Check if application is already running using the Selector. If set to False, it will launch a new application no matter what.

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Height - If set, the application is opened with this given height. Units are in pixels.

Result - Save the result of the execution to a variable. By default, it saves the application Element itself.

Selector - Contains all the data used to identify applications.

Timeout - Time to check for whether the application was found. Essentially a timeout for the Check Running parameter. Can be a simple 00:00:00.00 {hh:min:ss.mili} or an object from the TimeSpan class.

Width - If set, the application is opened with this given height. Units are in pixels.

X - If set, move the application to this horizontal offset. Units are in pixels. It also allows for negative values.

Y - If set, moves the application to this vertical offset. Units are in pixels. It also allows for negative values.

OpenRPA Open Application.¶

Show Balloon Tip

Show Balloon Tip shows a message similar to the Show Notification activity near the system tray. It differs from Show Notification only in that it also contains a title and allows for other types of notifications such as Error or Warning.

Properties Parameters

Duration - How long the message will appear.

Message - Message which will be shown. Needs to be included inside quotes.

Title - Title of the balloon tip.

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

NotificationType - Different notification types: Information, Error or Warning.

OpenRPA Show Balloon Tip.¶

Type Text

The user is strongly discouraged from using this Activity. It is preferable to select an element with the GetElement activity and use the Assign property to assign a string value to it.

Type Text sends keystrokes from the text contained inside Hint to the window currently focused. Instead of memorizing every keystroke, it is recommended to use the Recorder as it will map every keystroke automatically.¹

The key stroke syntax should be “{{Modifier1, Key1} {Modifier2, Key2} {…} {ModifierN, KeyN}}”.Keep in mind that Modifiers, which would be auxiliary keys - such as Ctrl, Alt, Shift - are not obligatory.

The user can also send variables or hardcoded text, such as sending “{{Modifier1, Key1} SOME TEXT ” + desired_variable + “{Enter}”.

Properties Parameters

Click Delay - Delay between each keystroke.

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Text - Displayname inside the Workflow designer.

OpenRPA Type Text.¶

¹ - `Overview of TypeText Activity <https://openrpa.openiap.io/pages/typetext-syntax>`_ (``https://openrpa.openiap.io/pages/typetext-syntax``)

3.5.4.2. OpenRPA.AviRecorder¶

3.5.4.3. OpenRPA.Database¶

Here belong the activities located inside the OpenRPA.Database toolbox.

Database Scope

Selects the database that will be used to query, insert, update or delete data by opening a connection and ending it once all the activities inside its scope are concluded. A thorough example is shown in the OpenRPA.Database Activities, DataTable, DataView section.

Properties Parameters

ConnectionString - The ConnectionString (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.data.sqlclient.sqlconnection.connectionstring?view=dotnet-plat-ext-3.1) which will be used to connect to the database. An example is "Server=localhost;Port=3306;Database=using_datatables;Uid=root;Pwd='life is fine 9#';".

DataProvider - The provider used for the given database. Default for MySQL is "MySql.Data.MySqlClient".

DataSource - The name of the database schema that will be used to gather data from.

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Timeout - Time to wait until the connection is completed. If the connection is not completed until this time, activity will pass on through others inside the outer sequence. Can be a simple 00:00:00.00 {hh:min:ss.mili} or an object from the TimeSpan class.

OpenRPA.Database Database Scope.¶

Execute Non Query

Runs a query that returns no results, useful for INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements. The Result value is the number of rows affected by the command. If no rows are affected, it returns 0.

Properties Parameters

Query - The query which will be executed.

activity_displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

CommandType - Default is set to Text - which means the command inside the Query field will be executed. If set to StoredProcedure, the text inside Query should be the name of a stored procedure. If set to TableDirect all rows and columns of the named table will be returned when you call one of the Execute methods.

Result - Int32 output of the executed query.

OpenRPA.Database Execute Non Query.¶

Execute Query

Runs a query and returns the results as a DataTable. Useful to be used with SELECT statements.

Properties Parameters

Query - The query which will be executed.

activity_displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

CommandType - Default is set to Text - which means that the command inside the Query field will be executed. If set to StoredProcedure, the text inside Query should be the name of a stored procedure. If set to TableDirect all rows and columns of the named table will be returned when you call one of the Execute methods.

DataTable - The DataTable object where to save the result of the query.

OpenRPA.Database Execute Query.¶

Execute Scalar<>

Runs a query that returns exactly one result, such as aggregate functions: SUM, AVG, MAX, MIN and COUNT.

Properties Parameters

Query - The query which will be executed.

activity_displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

ArgumentType - Type of the result which will be returned.

CommandType - Default is set to Text - which means that the command inside the Query field will be executed. If set to StoredProcedure, the text inside Query should be the name of a stored procedure. If set to TableDirect all rows and columns of the named table will be returned when you call one of the Execute methods.

Result - Result output of the executed query. - has its type defined as in ArgumentType.

OpenRPA.Database Execute Scalar<>.¶

Update from DataTable

It adds in SQL table the data contained inside the given DataTable.

The DataTable must first be selected with the Execute Query Activity by using the "SELECT * from ${TABLE};" statement, where "${TABLE}" is the table file path the data will be added. Then, the user can change its data by adding rows with the AddDataRow activity and finally update it employing the above-mentioned method.

It is important to remind users that the headers and content must match those of the SQL Table.

Properties

DataTable with the data you want to update from - self-explanatory.

TableName - Table to insert rows into.

activity_displayname - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

Result - number of rows affected.

OpenRPA.Database Update from DataTable.¶

3.5.4.4. OpenRPA.ElisRossum¶

Here belong the activities located inside the OpenRPA.ElisRossum toolbox.

Auth Activity

Authenticates the user into the Rossum Platform (https://rossum.ai/) by using his Rossum credentials and it also saves the JWT token returned to a variable. User must have first configured an account.

After typing the desired name for the variable in the Result parameter inside the Properties Box, the user must also create it by pressing Ctrl+K. This variable will hold the contents of the JWT token returned so users can make use of it in the activities discussed below to perform the invoice processing.

For more information on the Rossum Platform, please refer to Quick Start Guide on Rossum - FAQ | Help Center (https://rossum.ai/help/article/quick-start-guide/).

Properties Parameters

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

Password - Password for the Rossum credentials.

Result - Variable to which the JWT token will be saved.

Username - Username for the Rossum credentials.

OpenRPA.ElisRossum Auth.

This platform provides invoice extraction services through cognitive data capture, which is the recommended way over common OCR for this type of data. Please visit Rossum - FAQ | Help Center (https://rossum.ai/help/faq/) for more information.

Export File Data

This activity exports the data acquired from the Rossum Platform annotation (https://api.elis.rossum.ai/docs/#annotation) into a variable of type OpenRPA.ElisRossum.ExportResult. Furthermore, this object allows the users to iterate through it and consume the following datatypes: invoice_id, date_issue, date_due, sender_ic, recipient_ic, amount_total_base, amount_total_tax.

The users must have a JWT token returned by the Auth Activity previously saved into a variable, which will be inserted in the Key parameter.

The users must also have previously initialized a Rossum Platform queue into a variable by using the Get Queue activity.

The Fileurl variable which will be used to acquire the data for the Rossum Platform annotation must have been initialized as the Result from an Upload File activity.

After typing the desired name for the ExportResult variable in the Result parameter inside the Properties Box the user must also create it by pressing Ctrl+K. This variable will hold the current data of the Rossum Platform annotation acquired by using the Fileurl specified.

Properties Box

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

Fileurl - URL for the Rossum Platform annotation acquired with the Upload File activity.

Key - JWT token returned by the Auth Activity.

Queue - URL attribute for the indexed queue which is returned from the variable acquired through the Get Queue activity - ie. qs(0).url.

Result - Variable to which the data acquired will be saved.

OpenRPA.ElisRossum Export File Data.

Get File Status

Gathers the status for a Rossum Platform annotation (https://api.elis.rossum.ai/docs/#annotation) and saves it into a variable.

The users must have a JWT token returned by the Auth Activity previously saved into a variable, which will be inserted in the Key parameter.

The users must also have previously initialized a Rossum Platform queue into a variable by using the Get Queue activity.

The Fileurl variable which will be used to gather the status data for the Rossum Platform annotation must have been initialized as the Result from an Upload File activity.

For more information on possible file statuses, please refer to Rossum Platform Annotation Lifecycle (https://api.elis.rossum.ai/docs/#annotation-lifecycle).

Properties Parameters

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

Fileurl - URL for the Rossum Platform annotation acquired with the Upload File activity.

Key - JWT token returned by the Auth Activity.

Result - Status returned by the activity. Refer to Rossum Platform Annotation Lifecycle (https://api.elis.rossum.ai/docs/#annotation-lifecycle) for more information.

OpenRPA.ElisRossum Get File Status.

Get Queue

Acquires all queues contained inside the given account for the Rossum credentials provided with the Auth Acivity and saves them to a variable.

The users must have a JWT token returned by the Auth Activity previously saved into a variable, which will be inserted in the Key parameter.

In Rossum Platform, a queue is a space into which users import documents they want to process. Each queue is an organizational unit that typically represents a particular document type that needs to be processed. Learn how to create a Rossum Platform queue at Creating a New Queue on Rossum - FAQ | Help Center (https://rossum.ai/help/article/creating-a-new-queue/).

After typing the desired name for the variable in the Results parameter inside the Properties Box the user must also create it by pressing Ctrl+K. This variable will hold the contents of the JSON Object containing the ``Queues[]``returned by the Rossum Platform.

Properties Parameters

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

Key - JWT token returned by the Auth Activity.

Results - Variable which will hold the contents of the Queues[].

Upload File

Uploads a file into one of the queues returned by the Get Queue activity and saves the resulting URL for the Rossum Platform annotation (https://api.elis.rossum.ai/docs/#annotation).

The users must have a JWT token returned by the Auth Activity previously saved into a variable, which will be inserted in the Key parameter.

The users must also have previously initialized a Rossum Platform queue into a variable by using the Get Queue activity.

The users must also provide the absolute filepath of the file in the Filename parameter inside the Properties Box. This file must obligatorily have the PDF file format or else the activity will return an error. It must also be enclosed between quotes.

After typing the desired name for the variable in the Result parameter inside the Properties Box the user must also create it by pressing Ctrl+K. This variable will hold the contents of the URL`for the `Rossum Platform annotation.

Properties Parameters

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

Filename - Absolute filepath of the file which will be uploaded.

Key - JWT token returned by the Auth Activity.

Queue - URL attribute for the indexed queue which is returned from the variable acquired through the Get Queue activity - ie. qs(0).url.

Result - Variable to which the URL for the document just uploaded will be saved.

Wait for File Status

Sets the workflow status to idle until the status of the Rossum Platform annotation (https://api.elis.rossum.ai/docs/#annotation) is equal to the one provided by the users.

The users must have a JWT token returned by the Auth Activity previously saved into a variable, which will be inserted in the Key parameter.

The Fileurl variable which will be used to match the status data for the Rossum Platform annotation must have been initialized as the Result from an Upload File activity.

After typing the desired name for the variable in the Result parameter inside the Properties Box the user must also create it by pressing Ctrl+K. This variable will hold the current status of the Rossum Platform annotation acquired by using the Fileurl specified.

For more information on possible file statuses, please refer to Rossum Platform Annotation Lifecycle (https://api.elis.rossum.ai/docs/#annotation-lifecycle).

Properties Box

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

Fileurl - URL for the Rossum Platform annotation acquired with the Upload File activity.

Key - JWT token returned by the Auth Activity.

Result - Variable to which the Rossum Platform Annotation Status will be saved.

Status - Status which the current status of the file will be matched against. For more information on possible file statuses, please refer to Rossum Platform Annotation Lifecycle (https://api.elis.rossum.ai/docs/#annotation-lifecycle).

Timeout - Time interval for which the workflow will wait before ceasing to check whether the status of the file in the Rossum Platform matches the status provided in the Status parameter. Can be a simple 00:00:00.00 {hh:min:ss.mili} or an object from the TimeSpan class.

3.5.4.5. OpenRPA.Forms¶

Here belong the activities located inside the OpenRPA.Forms toolbox.

Invoke Form

Allows the user to create a static form which uses ForgeForms language (https://wpf-forge.github.io/Forge.Forms/guides/getting-started.html). SimpleForm and ImageForm examples are shown in the Snippets toolbox, just besides the Activities toolbox. This is very useful when a Workflow needs to gather input from an user before executing its business logic. The user can set up the form and preview it by clicking the Open Designer button. After creating it, all the user needs to do to create the variables used by it is click the Create variables button. An example is shown in the OpenRPA Forms section.

Properties Parameters

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Form - String containing the form which will be created.

Result - Creates a FormResult variable which will hold the DOM object created by the form. To access the values inside the DOM object created, the user can simply use the Model.Values(i).ToString to access the i-th input variable.

Show Notification

Shows a notification in the lower right corner of the screen for a limited amount of time.

Properties Parameters

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Message - Message which will be shown.

NotificationType - Different notification types: Information, Error or Warning.

OpenRPA.Forms Show Notification.¶

3.5.4.6. OpenRPA.IE¶

Here belongs the activities located inside the OpenRPA.IE toolbox.

Get Element

This Activity is similar to OpenRPA.GetElement. It selects an Element - or elements - filtered with the IE selector.

Clicking Highlight will red-highlight the first element that matches the criteria on the selector. Useful for checking if the selector is properly set up.

This activity also supports nesting GetElements. In order to know more about that, please refer to Return multiple elements section.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Elements - the selected IE Elements.

From - Allows search only within an Element found within any of the IEElement’s instances.

LoopAction - Loop the selected Activity until something is found.

MaxResults - Maximum number of elements to be found.

MinResults - Number of minimum results. If this value is higher than 0 and this Activity fails to find an element, it throws an exception (ElementNotFound). If you want to check whether an element exists or not, set this value to 0 and test for ‘item.Length() == 0’ inside the sequence.

Selector - Contains all the data to identify the IE application.

Timeout - Time when the Activity ceases if it is not successfully able to find an element.

Wait for ready - If true, wait until the page is fully loaded.

¹ - `XPath Syntax <https://www.w3schools.com/xml/xpath_syntax.asp>`_ (``https://www.w3schools.com/xml/xpath_syntax.asp``).

OpenRPA.IE Get Element.¶

Open URL

Opens an URL in the currently selected InternetExplorer.Application instance. If there is no URL set, it will automatically start a new Internet Explorer instance.

Properties Parameters

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

FocusBrowser - If set to True, will focus the window opened by the browser.

Url - The URL which the browser will navigate to.

OpenRPA.IE Open URL.¶

3.5.4.7. OpenRPA.Image¶

Here belongs the activities located inside the OpenRPA.Image toolbox.

Get Color

Gets RGBA color at the specified coordinates inside an element provided by Image.GetElement.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Element - Element from which the colors will be acquired.

Result - Variable file path to save the color.

X Offset - The horizontal offset inside the element from which to capture the color. Units are in pixels. It also allows for negative values.

Y Offset - The vertical offset inside the element from which to capture the color. Units are in pixels. It also allows for negative values.

OpenRPA.Image Get Color.¶

Get Element

Locates an image in screen or in a specific application window and creates an ImageElement from it. Use the Select Image button to select the image you want to capture or use the Recorder.

The Recorder at first tries to create Elements from controls in Windows Applications, Java Apps or Web elements. As a last resource, it will then make use of Image.GetElement to create Elements by capturing the smallest unique images inside the image you drag while recording.

Clicking the Highlight button will red-highlight the first element that matches the criteria in the Selector. It is useful for checking if the Selector is properly set up.

Properties Parameters

CompareGray - If set to True, compares the image in grayscale to find the desired element. This parameter also saves performance.

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Elements - Element from which the image will be gathered.

From - Allows search only within an Element found within any of the ImageElement’s instances.

Limit - Limit the number of Elements.

LoopAction - Loop the selected Activity until something is found.

MaxResults - Number of maximum results.

MinResults - Number of minimum results. If this value is higher than 0 and this activity fails to find an Element, it throws an exception (ElementNotFound). If you want to check whether an image exists or not, set this value to 0 and test for ‘item.Length() == 0’ inside the sequence.

Processname - Limits the Element’s process to a specific processname.

Threshold - Threshold used to find a matching image.

Timeout - Time until the Activity ceases if not successfully able to find an Element.

OpenRPA.Image Get Element.¶

Get Image

Gets an image from the screen relative to another image or Element found with Image.GetElement.

First of all, user must use the Image.Get Element Activity to select the image which this Activity will act upon, then use the Select Image button to specify the relative area within the screen you want to capture. That is, the selection Get Image does it match to another image selected with the Image.Get Element Activity.

Clicking Highlight will green-highlight the image selected that is relative to the other one, which will appear blue-highlighted. This is useful for checking if the Selector is properly set up.

For more on Image Handling inside OpenRPA, please visit Appendix B - Image Handling.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Element - Element from which the image will be gathered.

Height - Height of the image to be captured.

OffsetX - The horizontal offset inside the Element from which to capture the image. Units are in pixels. It also allows for negative values.

OffsetY - The vertical offset inside the picture from which to capture the image. Units are in pixels. It also allows for negative values.

Result - Variable file path the image Element will be saved.

Width - Width of the image to be captured.

OpenRPA.Image Get Image.¶

Get Text

Gets text from an image using OCR. It can be limited to a specific word or sentence. It can also be used to split or limit text gathered from other image-related activities.

The Limit to or WordLimit parameter is used to limit the output of the OCR processing. It is useful if you want to limit the output of Get Text to a given set of words. To access the text created from OCR, simply access the item.Value variable - or the Value property of the Element defined.

Properties Parameters

CaseSensitive - Differentiate between lowercase and uppercase letters.

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Element - Element from which the image will be gathered.

Result - Variable file path the ImageElement gathered will be saved.

WordLimit - Maximum numbers of words to gather.

OpenRPA.Image Get Text.¶

Load From File

Loads an image from a file and returns it as an ImageElement.

It also uses OCR Image Recognition automatically to capture the text inside the screenshot and saves it inside the result’s ImageElement.value attribute. The extensions allowed are: gif, jpg, jpeg and png, that is, only image extensions.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Filename - Filename of the file that will be used to obtain the image from.

Result - Variable file path to save the ImageElement.

Note

Note: OCR Image Recognition is done automatically upon the image. Users may access the resulting text by accessing ImageElement.value property.

OpenRPA.Image Load From File.¶

Take Screenshot

Takes a screenshot of the whole screen or of a specific Element found by using Image.GetElement and returns it as an ImageElement.

This Activity has two modes of usage.

The first mode of usage is Selector-less. In this mode the Activity will take a screenshot of the whole screen if no Width, Height and offsets are set. To use this mode, all the user needs to do is deleting any value inside the Element property of the activity - its default value is item - and define the X and Y offset values, if desired.

The second mode of usage is Selector-bound. In this mode, after selecting an Image Element, the Activity will use the relative values of the Image Element to find the X and Y offset values. To use this mode, all the user needs to do is drag the Take Screenshot activity into the Element selected and define the Width, Height and X,``Y`` offset values.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Element - Name of the Element from which the screenshot will be captured.

Height - Height of the screenshot.

Result - Variable file path to save the screenshot.

Width - Width of the screenshot.

X - The horizontal offset inside the picture from which to capture the screenshot. Units are in pixels. It also allows for negative values.

Y - The vertical offset inside the picture from which to capture the screenshot. Units are in pixels. It also allows for negative values.

Note

Note: OCR Image Recognition is done automatically upon the image and you may access the resulting text by accessing the value property of the resulting Image Element.

OpenRPA.Image Take Screenshot.¶

3.5.4.8. OpenRPA.Java¶

Coming soon - Work in progress

3.5.4.9. OpenRPA.NM¶

Here belong the activities located inside the OpenRPA.NM toolbox.

Close Tab

This Activity allows the users to close the currently opened tab or all tabs inside one of the three browsers currently supported by OpenRPA: Chrome, Firefox or Edge.

The users need to set the desired browser inside the Browser parameter. This can be "chrome", "ff" or "edge". Corresponding, respectively, to each browser cited above.

If the users desire to close all tabs they must set the CloseAll parameter to True, else the Activity will only close the currently opened tab.

Properties Parameters

Browser - Browser which OpenRPA will close the tab - or tabs. This parameter can be set to "chrome", "ff" or "edge".

CloseAll - If set to True, OpenRPA will close all tabs currently opened inside the browser.

Displayname - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

Execute Script

This Activity allows the users to execute JavaScript scripts inside one of the three browsers currently supported by OpenRPA: Chrome, Firefox or Edge and returns the value of the last expression evaluated. It is useful to remind users that the browser must already be opened, else the Activity will return a System.NullReferenceException.

The script which will be run can be inserted by clicking the Open Editor and pasting or typing the script inside the Code Editor.

The users also need to set the desired browser inside the Browser parameter in which the script will be executed. This can be "chrome", "ff" or "edge". Corresponding, respectively, to each browser cited above.

To return the value of the last expression evaluated as an Object users must type the name of the variable inside the Result parameter and press Ctrl+K to create it.

Users can also set the FrameId`´ corresponding to the ``Frame in which the script will be injected. For more information on this, please visit Window.frames (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/frames).

Properties Parameters

Browser - Browser in which OpenRPA will execute the script. This parameter can be set to "chrome", "ff" or "edge".

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

FrameId - ID of the frame in which the script will be injected. Must be of type Int32.

Result - Variable to which the result of the last expression evaluated will be saved.

Script - Script which will be executed.

Get Element

This Activity is similar to OpenRPA.Get Element. It selects an element - or elements - filtered with the NM Selector.

Clicking Highlight will red-highlight the first Element that matches the criteria on the selector. Useful for checking if the selector is properly set up.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Elements - The selected NM elements.

From - It allows search only within an Element found within any of the NMElement’s instances.

MaxResults - Maximum elements to be found.

MinResults - Number of minimum results. If this value is higher than 0 and this activity fails to find an element, it throws an exception (ElementNotFound). If you want to check whether an elements exists or not, set this value to 0 and test for ‘item.Length() == 0’ inside the sequence.

Selector - Contains all the data to identify the NM application.

Timeout - Time until the activity ceases if not successfully able to find an element.

Wait for ready - If set to “True”, it waits until the page is fully loaded.

¹ - `XPath Syntax <https://www.w3schools.com/xml/xpath_syntax.asp>`_ (``https://www.w3schools.com/xml/xpath_syntax.asp``).

OpenRPA.NM Get Element.¶

Open URL

Opens an URL inside one of the three browsers currently supported by OpenRPA: Chrome, Firefox or Edge. If no URL is set, it will automatically start a new browser instance.

The users need to set the desired browser inside the Browser parameter in which the URL will be opened. This can be "chrome", "ff" or "edge". Corresponding, respectively, to each browser cited above.

The users also need to set whether the tab will be opened inside a new tab or in the currently opened tab by setting the NewTab parameter to True or False.

Properties Parameters

Browser - Browser in which OpenRPA will execute the script. This parameter can be set to "chrome", "ff" or "edge".

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

NewTab - If set to True, it opens the URL inside a new tab in the browser. Else, if set to False, opens the URL inside the currently opened tab.

Url - URL which will be opened inside the browser.

OpenRPA.NM Open URL.¶

3.5.4.10. OpenRPA.Office¶

Here belongs the activities located inside the OpenRPA.Office toolbox.

Add Paragraph

Adds a new paragraph to a Microsoft Word document, which is inserted at position Index.

Properties Parameters

Filename - Full path or filename of the Microsoft Word document file path the paragraph will be added.

Index - Index file path the paragraph will be added. Initially, the file that will be read will index each paragraph starting at 1. So, if the user adds at a position that contains a paragraph after it, the new paragraph will be added in between.

Text - Text which will be added - i.e., paragraph.

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

OpenRPA.Office Add Paragraph¶

Clear Range

Clears all data and formatting from a range of cells.

Properties Parameters

Cells - Either select a range of cells to wipe or leave blank if it is desired to clear all cells.

Filename - Full path or filename of Microsoft Excel workbook.

Worksheet - Name of worksheet from which cells will be cleared.

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

ReadPassword - Provides a way to open Microsoft Excel files if a password is needed. Remember to insert the password between quotes - ie. "password".

Visible - Actually opens Microsoft Excel interface.

WritePassword - Provides a way to save Microsoft Excel file if a password is needed. Remember to insert the password between quotes - ie. "password".

Workbook - Provides a way to select which Workbook will be read.

OpenRPA.Office Clear Range¶

Close Document

Closes a Microsoft Word document. Also closes Microsoft Word application itself if no other documents are open. This activity works very similarly to OpenRPA.Close Application, the only difference here is that it saves the Word document by default when closing it.

Properties Parameters

Filename - Full path or filename of Microsoft Word document which will be closed.

Save Changes - Whether or not to save changes when closing the Word document. The default is True.

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

OpenRPA.Office Close Document¶

Close Workbook

Closes an open Microsoft Excel workbook. Also closes Microsoft Word if no other workbooks are open. This activity works very similarly to OpenRPA.Close Application, the only difference here is that it saves the Excel document by default when closing it.

Properties Parameters

Filename - Full path or filename of Microsoft Excel workbook which will be closed.

Save Changes - Whether or not to save changes when closing the Excel workbook. The default is True.

Workbook - The user can also pass the variable name of a Workbook which is already open.

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

OpenRPA.Office Close Workbook¶

Get Mails

Gets all emails from a Microsoft Outlook folder and automatically saves them into the item variable. Users can then choose to loop through all emails in the selected folder or save it into a variable of type IEnumerable<email> by inserting it into the Emails field.

It also allows the use of DASL queries to filter through the emails gathered. An example is the "@SQL=urn:schemas:httpmail:subject LIKE '%${SUBJECT}%'" query, which will filter through all mails containing in its subject the parameter passed in ${SUBJECT}.

Users can also download all the attachments in a given folder or specific email by using the item.SaveAttachments(${FOLDERPATH}, ${OVERWRITE}) function, where ${FOLDERPATH} is the String variable containing the path of the folder file path the attachments will be saved and ${OVERWRITE} is the Boolean value which specifies whether to overwrite files, if set to True, or not.

Properties Parameters

Filter - The user can pass a filter to get only emails containing the specified string.

Folder - Folder from which the emails will be gathered.

MaxResults - Specify a maximum number of emails to be acquired.

UnreadOnly - If set to True, will only acquire unread emails. Else, will acquire any read and unread emails.

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

Emails - Will save all emails to a variable of the IEnumerable<email> type containing all emails acquired.

OpenRPA.Office Get Mails¶

Get Paragraph

Gets one or more paragraphs from a Microsoft Word document starting at index 1. User must first set the variable file path the text acquired will be saved inside the Text parameter. If user sets no index, activity will capture all the text inside the Word document. If desired, they can also set the maximum number of results inside the Max Results parameter, as to limit the amount of paragraphs captured as well as a variable to hold the number of paragraphs contained in the Word document inside the Count parameter. They must also save the changes made to the Word document with the Set Paragraph activity in order for them to take effect!

Properties Parameters

Filename - Full path and filename of the Microsoft Word document from which the paragraph (or paragraphs) will be acquired.

Index - Starting index for the paragraph or paragraphs which will be gathered. Leave this field blank to gather whole text inside Word document.

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

Max Results - Limit number of paragraphs which will be acquired. Leave blank to get all from index onwards.

Count - Returns the total number of paragraphs inside the document.

Text - Save the result text to this variable.

OpenRPA.Office Get Paragraph¶

Get Selected Range

It gets the Cell indexes for a range selected inside the Excel Worksheet within Microsoft Excel application’s Windows UI. Click ... to select the file from which the Excel Worksheet will be opened. If no cells are selected, return the C11 cell by default.

Properties Parameters

ColumnAbsolute - If set to True, it returns the absolute index of the column. The letter must be prepended by $, e.g., $A will return the first column.

External - If set to False, it returns a local reference without including a Workbook and Worksheet reference.

Filename - Full path or filename of Microsoft Excel Workbook.

RowAbsolute - If set to True, it returns the absolute index of the row. The number must be prepended by $, e.g., $9 will return row number 9.

Worksheet - String value of the Worksheet from which cells will be selected.

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

ReadPassword - Password used to read the file.

Visible - If set to True, visibly opens Excel Worksheet and execute the Activity.

WritePassword - Password used to write the file.

Range - Variable file path the selected range will be saved.

Workbook - Users can also use an already open Workbook instead of the filename.

OpenRPA.Office Get Selected Range¶

Move MailItem

It moves an email captured with the Get Mails Activity into the selected folder in the dropdown.

First, select the folder inside the dropdown and, then, enter the email object that will be moved inside the Mail input field. This email object is indexed from the IEnumerable<email> variable from the Get Mails Activity.

Properties Parameters

Folder - Folder file path the email will be moved.

Mail - Email object corresponding to the email inside Outlook that will be moved.

OpenRPA.Office Move MailItem¶

New MailItem

Creates a new email item and either sends it to the desired email contact or opens a new Outlook Message box prompt for the user to execute any other activities inside it. If user chooses the latter option, Outlook will either create a new draft if the user clicks Yes when asked to save changes or simply discard the whole email message.

Users can also send attachments by specifying a String list variable containing the paths for the desired files. User is also allowed to consume the attachments - ie. media - by using them with HTMLBody parameter.

Properties Parameters

Attachments - String list containing the paths for the attachments. E.g., {"C:/BPA/attachment1.pdf", "C:/BPA/attachment2.png"}. N.B. the type of the variable must be set as String[], i.e., list of strings.

BCC - Blind Carbon Copy. It sends email to predefined recipients and does not allow them to see other receivers.

Body - Text body of email message.

CC - Carbon Copy. Sends email to predefined recipients and allows them to see other receivers.

HTMLBody - HTML body of email message.

Subject - Subject of email message.

To - Main recipient of email message.

DisplayName - Title of Activity inside the sequence.

UIAction - If selected to Send, it sends the email right away. Else, it shows Outlook Message box prompt.

Email - email object file path the result of the Activity will be saved to. Can be used to manipulate message after sent, such as sending it to another folder.

OpenRPA.Office New MailItem¶

Read Cell

Reads the content of a single cell in a Microsoft Excel sheet into a variable.

Properties Parameters

Cell - The cell which will be read - ie. "A8".

ArgumentType - Type of the variable file path the content of the cell will be saved.

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

Filename - Filename of the file which will be read.

Result - Variable file path the content of the result of the cell will be saved.

Workbook - Variable file path the entire Workbook object will be saved. Despite this Activity reading a specific cell, the Workbook is also available.

Worksheet - Worksheet from which to gather the data.

Formula - Variable file path it saves the content of the formula inside the cell.

Range - Range which will be read.

OpenRPA.Office Read Cell.¶

Read Range

Reads a range of cells in a Microsoft Excel sheet.

Properties Parameters

Cells - The cells which will be read, can be delimited with a colon.

Filename - Filename of the file which will be read.

Worksheet - The sheet inside the Excel file which will be read.

Clear Formats - Clear cell formatting.

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

IgnoreEmptyRows - Ignores empty rows in the file which will be read. Please notice that it changes the numbering of the rows.

ReadPassword - String containing the password for the file, if there is any.

Use Header Row - Read header from the range of cells selected.

Visible - OpenRPA will actually open an Excel file in Windows UI.

WritePassword - Password with which the file will be written after being read.

DataTable - DataTable file path data will be saved.

lastUsedColumn - Save last used column index to variable.

lastUsedRow - Save last used row index to variable.

Workbook - Save Workbook to a specific variable.

OpenRPA.Office Read Range.¶

Run Excel Macro<>

This Activity is responsible for running Microsoft Excel Macros.

Once this Activity is created, a dialog window named “Select Types” will appear. If the VBA macro procedure which defines the macro actually returns any data, then the users must select the data type of the return output. Else, the user can set this parameter as String. For more on what macros are and how to use them, please refer to the Getting started with VBA in Office (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/library-reference/concepts/getting-started-with-vba-in-office) page. If the VBA macro procedure must receive any parameters, they must be declared inside the Parameters as a String array - ie. enclosed between {}.

If Microsoft Excel is closed, it will be opened once the Workflow reaches this Activity.

Properties Parameters

Name - Name of the macro which will be executed. Notice that this is not the filename, but the name of the macro inside the chosen file. This name must be between quotation marks.

Parameters - The parameter required by the macro. This must be an array containing all parameters.

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

Filename - Full path or filename of the xlsm file that contains the macro to be executed.

Result - The variable or argument file path the result (i.e., the output) of the macro will be stored, if there is any. Must be created before running the Workflow.

Workbook - Variable file path the entire Workbook object can be saved. The type of this variable must be “Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Workbook”.

Worksheet - Name of the worksheet from which the macro will be read. It must be a string.

OpenRPA.Office Run Excel Macro<>

Run Slideshow

This Activity is responsible for presenting a previously created Microsoft PowerPoint slideshow.

Properties Parameters

Filename- Full path or filename of the Microsoft PowerPoint slideshow that will be presented.

StartingSlide - Index of the slide from which the robot should start presenting the slideshow.

AdvanceTime - Time interval for which OpenRPA should wait before visualizing the next slide in the presentation. Can be a simple 00:00:00.00 {hh:min:ss.mili} or an object from the TimeSpan class.

CloseAtEnd - Boolean value. If set to True, the Microsoft PowerPoint Application will cease execution when the presentation is over. Otherwise, it will remain open.

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

EndingSlide - The index of the last slide that will be presented.

KioskMode - Boolean value. If set to True, it enables kiosk mode for Microsoft PowerPoint, that is, the slideshow will be presented automatically in a manner that users cannot interfere with the execution of the slideshow.

OpenRPA.Office Run Slideshow

Save MailItem

Saves a Microsoft Outlook email item as a file.

First, enter the email object - indexed from the IEnumerable<email> variable - inside the EMail parameter in the Properties Box. This email object is indexed from the IEnumerable<email> variable acquired with the Get Mails activity. The email will be automatically saved into the Folder specified with the Subject of the e-mail as its filename.

Properties Parameters

EMail - Email item which will be saved into a file. Indexed from a IEnumerable<email> variable.

Folder - Folder path file path the email item will be saved.

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

Type - Type of file which will be used to save the email item. Current supported formats are .doc, .html, .ics, .mht, .msg, .rtf, .oft, .txt, .vcs, .vcf.

Filename - Currently unused parameter.

OpenRPA.Office Save MailItem¶

Set Paragraph

This Activity sets the content of a paragraph inside a Microsoft Word document.

The user may choose to overwrite the entire document with the text specified by not providing any value to the Index parameter. It is recommended that after setting the changes that will be made, they use the Close Document Activity to properly close and save the Word document.

Properties Parameters

Filename - Full path and filename of the Microsoft Word document file path the paragraph (or paragraphs) will be set.

Index - Index of the paragraph which will be set.

Text - Text variable or String containing the text that will overwrite the given paragraph or whole document.

DisplayName - Title of Activity inside the sequence.

OpenRPA.Office Set Paragraph¶

Write Cell<>

This method sets value or formula to a single cell inside a Microsoft Excel document.

The user must first set the type of Result, which corresponds to the datatype that will be saved in the cell. Please remind that the datatype must be already set inside the Excel document. Users can also specify the Workbook that will be used inside the Workbook parameter as well as the Worksheet that will be used to write or overwrite the cell.

Properties Parameters

Cell - Cell that will have its contents changed.

Formula - Formula from which the value will be acquired and placed inside the cell.

Value - Variable or content with prespecified datatype which will be obtained and placed inside the cell.

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Filename - Full path and filename of the Microsoft Excel document file path the cell will be set.

Result - Currently unused parameter.

Workbook - Workbook that will be used to insert or change the cell’s content.

Worksheet - Worksheet that will be used to insert or change the cell’s content.

OpenRPA.Office Write Cell<>¶

Write Range

This Activity writes all data contained inside a DataTable into a Microsoft Excel Worksheet.

The user must first click the ... button and find the file file path it will be saved or added. Users can also specify a Workbook

Properties Parameters

Cell - The first Cell that corresponds to the row file path it will start writing.

DataTable - DataTable from which data will be gathered.

Filename - Full path and filename of the Microsoft Excel document file path the cell will be set.

Worksheet - Name of the sheet file path it will write.

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

ReadPassword - Password used to read the file.

Use Header Row - If set to True, it will use the header from DataTable to write the range of cells selected.

Visible - If set to True, it will visibly open and write Microsoft Excel document.

WritePassword - Password used to write the file.

Workbook - Workbook that will be used to insert or change the cell’s content.

OpenRPA.Office Write Range¶

3.5.4.11. OpenRPA.OpenFlowDB¶

Here belong the activities located inside the OpenRPA.OpenFlowDB toolbox.

Assign OpenFlow

Assigns an OpenFlow Workflow to an user or role. This activity works very similarly to the assign node inside Node-RED.

Properties Parameters

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

InitialRun - This parameter attributes an initial run to the Workflow assigned.

targetid - ID of the user file path the Workflow will be assigned.

Wait until Completed - If set to True, OpenRPA waits until the Workflow invoke call is finished - either success or error. If successful, the message containing the data (as designed in the flow at Node-RED) is returned to the OpenRPA robot.

workflowid - ID of the Workflow that will be assigned.

OpenRPA.OpenFlowDB Assign OpenFlow¶

Delete File

Deletes a file from the OpenFlow MongoDB database. The user can use either the Filename of the file he wants to delete or the id, available at OpenFlow’s page > Admin > Files > Clicking the Edit button for the file > Show json or by checking the URL.

Properties Parameters

_id - ID of the file which will be deleted.

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

Filename - Filename of the file which will be deleted.

IgnoreErrors - Ignore any errors which may have occurred and forcibly delete the file.

OpenRPA.OpenFlowDB Delete File¶

Delete One

Deletes one item from the OpenFlow MongoDB database. Users must specify the desired Collection file path the item belongs. User can also specify an object which will be deleted in batch from the database as well.

Properties Parameters

_id - ID of the item which will be deleted.

Collection - Collection file path the item belongs.

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

IgnoreErrors - Ignore any errors which may have occurred and forcibly delete the item.

Item - Object which the user can specify instead of the _id.

OpenRPA.OpenFlowDB Delete One¶

Get Credentials

Gets a set of encrypted credentials from OpenFlow. This is the most recommended way of acquiring previously saved credentials into the OpenFlow MongoDB database with the Set Credentials activity. It is a great replacement for any kind of local safe, such as KeePass.

Properties Parameters

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

Name - Name of credential which will be acquired.

Password - Saves the password to a variable of type SecureString (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.security.securestring?view=netcore-3.1).

UnsecurePassword - Saves the password acquired to a variable of type String.

Username - Saves username acquired to a variable of type String.

OpenRPA.OpenFlowDB Get Credentials¶

Get File

Downloads a file saved inside the OpenFlow MongoDB database and saves it to the specified LocalPath. The user can use either the Filename of the file he wants to download or the id, available at OpenFlow’s page > Admin > Files > Clicking the Edit button for the file > Show json or check the URL. The folder file path the file will be saved must exist already.

Properties Parameters

_id - ID of the file which will be downloaded.

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

Filename - Filename of the file which will be downloaded.

IgnorePath - If set to True, will ignore the last name of the LocalPath. Useful for downloading full folders created inside OpenFlow.

LocalPath- Path of the folder file path the file will be saved.

OpenRPA.OpenFlowDB Get File¶

Grant Permission

It adds or updates permissions for a user or role on the specified object. The document must be updated in OpenFlow after changing permissions with Insert or Update One. The object must also be supplied from an OpenFlowDB.Query Activity.

Properties Parameters

Delete - If set to True, it will allow specified user or role to delete the object inside OpenFlow.

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

EntityId - ID of the object inside OpenFlow MongoDB database.

Item - Object gathered from OpenFlowDB.Query Activity.

Name - Name of the role or user file path permissions will be added.

Read - If set to True, it will allow specified user or role to read the object inside OpenFlow.

Result - JObject file path the resulting object will be saved.

Update - If set to True, it will allow specified user or role to update the object inside OpenFlow.

OpenRPA.OpenFlowDB Grant Permission¶

Insert One

Inserts one object into the OpenFlow MongoDB database.

Properties Parameters

Collection - Collection file path the object will be saved. Default is "entities".

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

EncryptFields - Encrypts the specified fields.

IgnoreErrors - Forcibly adds the object to the OpenFlow MongoDB database, ignoring any errors that may occur.

Item - Object which will be added.

Result - Returns a JObject containing the object which was just added.

Type - Type of the Object which will be added.

Uniqueness - Specifies the field on which the item is unique or not.

OpenRPA.OpenFlowDB Insert One¶

Insert or Update One

Updates an item into the OpenFlow database and, if it does not exist, insert it instead. Checks on _id unless the user specifies Uniqueness, then it will find existing items based on the fields mentioned in the Uniqueness.

Properties Parameters

Collection - Collection file path the object will be saved. Default is "entities".

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

EncryptFields - Encrypts the specified fields.

IgnoreErrors - Forcibly adds the object to the OpenFlow MongoDB database, ignoring any errors that may occur.

Item - Object which will be added.

Result - Returns a JObject containing the object which was just added.

Type - Type of the Object which will be added.

Uniqueness - Specifies the field on which the item is unique or not.

OpenRPA.OpenFlowDB Insert or Update One¶

Query Activity

Query the OpenFlow MongoDB database for one or more items.

Properties Parameters

Collection - Collection file path the object will be saved. Default is "entities".

DataTable - Saves the output of the query to a DataTable.

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

Orderby - Selects the order in which to query the data. More on this here (https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/reference/operator/meta/orderby/#:~:text=In%20the%20mongo%20shell%2C%20use,in%20ascending%20or%20descending%20order.&text=These%20examples%20return%20all%20documents,age%20field%20in%20descending%20order.).

Projection - Provides a field in which to use to project the data as per here (https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/tutorial/project-fields-from-query-results/).

QueryString - Name of the object which will be returned inside the collection.

Result - Returns a JObject containing all objects returned by the query.

Skip - Number of items file path to skip. The argument type is Int32.

Top - Selects top items. The argument type is Int32.

OpenRPA.OpenFlowDB Query

Remove Permission

Removes permissions for a user or role on the specified object. The document must then be updated in OpenFlow after changing permissions with Insert or Update One Activity. The input field inside the activity is an autocompleting field for the user to select the User which will have permissions removed. Object Item must be the Result from a OpenFlowDB.Query activity.

Properties Parameters

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

EntityId - ID of the object inside OpenFlow MongoDB database.

Item - Object gathered from OpenFlowDB.Query activity.

Name - Name of the role or user which permissiosn will be added.

Result - JObject file path the resulting object will be saved.

OpenRPA.OpenFlowDB Remove Permission¶

Save File

Uploads and saves a file into the OpenFlow MongoDB database.

Properties Parameters

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

Filename - The complete path and filename of the file which will be uploaded.

Path - Save the file with a path prefixed to it inside the database. Used for arranging items inside a specific folder for returning them later.

Result - String containing the ID of the file inside OpenFlow MongoDB database.

OpenRPA.OpenFlowDB Save File

Set Credentials

Creates or updates a set of encrypted credentials inside OpenFlow. This is the most recommended way of saving credentials into the OpenFlow MongoDB database. It is a great replacement for any kind of local safe, such as KeePass.

Properties Parameters

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

Name - Name of credential which will be stored.

Password - Password of credential which will be stored.

Username - Username of credential which will be stored.

OpenRPA.OpenFlowDB Set Credentials¶

Update From DataTable

Adds each row of a DataTable as an Entity inside a Collection in OpenFlow.

The user must first insert the Collection to which the data will be inserted. The default collection is "entities" but the user can insert any Collection name if he desires to add the data to a new Collection. If the Collection does not exist, the activity will automatically create it.

Then, the user must insert the DataTable from which the data will be acquired.

The EncryptFields allows users to encrypt data by using Client-Side Field Level Encryption (https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/core/security-client-side-encryption/).

The Result parameter will save the data containing the query returned by the insertion of the rows to a JArray variable.

The Type parameter will specify a default type to add to the given row if the row does not contain any type field or it is null, "" or empty.

The Uniqueness parameter enforces that the indexed fields do not store duplicate values. The default unique index is id (stored in MongoDB as _id). Yet, the users can specify other unique indexes such as name. To compose unique indexes, simply type them separated by a comma. So, in case you want to specify name and type as unique indexes, you could fill this parameter with name,type. For more information on this, please visit Unique Indexes (https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/core/index-unique/).

Properties Parameters

Collection - Collection to which the data will be inserted. The default collection is "entities" but the user can insert any Collection name if he desires to add the data to a new Collection. If the Collection does not exist, the activity will automatically create it.

DataTable - DataTable from which the data will be acquired.

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

EncryptFields - Allows users to encrypt data by using Client-Side Field Level Encryption (https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/core/security-client-side-encryption/).

Result - Variable to which the data will be saved containing the query returned by the insertion of the rows. Must be of JArray type.

Type - Specifies a default type to add to the given row if the row does not contain any type field or it is null, "" or empty.

Uniqueness - Enforces that the indexed fields do not store duplicate values. The default unique index is id (stored in MongoDB as _id). Yet, the users can specify other unique indexes such as name. To compose unique indexes, simply type them separated by a comma. So, in case you want to specify name and type as unique indexes, you could fill this parameter with name,type. For more information on this, please visit Unique Indexes (https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/core/index-unique/).

3.5.4.12. OpenRPA.SAP¶

Coming soon - Work in progress

3.5.4.13. OpenRPA.Script¶

Here belong the activities located inside the OpenRPA.Script toolbox.

Invoke Code

It allows the user to write code inside an editor and execute the given code in a specific step of the Workflow sequence. Currently supported languages are C#, PowerShell, Python, VB and AutoHotkey. To write the code, simply click the Open Editor button, select the desired language in the dropdown and click the Validate button. The code will be executed when the workflow is executed.

It is useful to remind the user that this activity supports data binding, i.e., the user can define a variable inside OpenRPA and use it inside the code and vice-versa - yet the variables must be previously defined. The user must also notice that the Python environment used to execute code written with this activity has an embedded Python version (3.7.3) installed. If the user wants to use the external environment installed inside the folder - which is defined in the Users variables > Path variable, set in Window’s Environment Variables - they must refer to Settings > Run Plugins > Script and uncheck the Use embedded python checkbox.

Properties Parameters

Code - Code that will be executed.

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

Language - Language that will be used to execute the code. Currently supported languages are C#, PowerShell, Python, VB and AutoHotkey.

PipelineOutput - Currently unused parameter.

Pip Install

It installs one or more Python modules in the currently selected Python environment. The Python environment here refers to the version of Python that OpenRPA will use to install the modules. If the user has not unmarked the checkbox inside Settings > Run Plugins > Script, OpenRPA will use the default Python environment that comes embedded with OpenRPA. Else, OpenRPA will use the environment installed in the Path, set in Users variables, inside the Window’s Environment Variables.

Properties Parameters

activity_display_name - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

Force - If set to True, it will force the reinstallation of the specified modules.

Modules - String array used to define the modules that will be installed, e.g., {"matplotlib", "sns"}.

3.5.4.14. OpenRPA.Utilities¶

Here belong the activities located inside the OpenRPA.Utilities toolbox.

AddDataColumn Activity

It adds a DataColumn to an existing DataTable.

The user must first insert the DataTable file path the column will be added inside the DataTable field. Then, select its type inside the blank dropdown and finally insert the name of the new DataColumn.

Properties Parameters

AllowDBNull - If marked, null values are allowed in this column for rows that belong to the table.

AutoIncrement - If marked, column automatically increments the value of the column for new rows added to the table.

ColumnName - Name of the header of the column that will be added.

DataTable - DataTable file path the column will be added.

DefaultValue - Default value of the column, in case none is set. Must not be set if AutoIncrement is checked.

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

MaxLength - It sets the maximum length of a text column.

TargetType - Type for the column’s data.

Unique - If marked, indicates that the values in each row of the column must be unique.

AddDataRow Activity

It adds a DataRow to an existing DataTable.

The user must first insert the DataTable inside the DataTable to insert to field. Then, the row data inside the Array of DataTable columns. It is interesting to remind the user that the row data must match the given number of columns inside the DataTable.

Properties Parameters

DataTable - DataTable file path the DataRow will be added.

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

RowData - Object array containing the row data, e.g., {"zechriel", 31909790}.

CreateDataTable Activity

This Activity creates a new DataTable object with column names - i.e., headers - and maps it to a variable.

The user must first insert the variable inside the New DataTable variable field and press Ctrl+K to create it. Then, they must insert the column names for the given DataTable inside the Array of DataTable columns, e.g., {"name", "telephone_number"}.

Properties Parameters

ColumnNames - Header for the DataTable object. It must contain an array of String, e.g., {"name", "telephone_number"}.

DataTable - Name of the variable of type DataTable file path the newly-created DataTable will be mapped.

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

DeleteAllRows Activity

This Activity deletes all the rows from an existing DataTable object.

DataTable object must then be updated with the Update from DataTable Activity - currently only works for DataTable used inside OpenRPA itself and OpenRPA.Database.Update from DataTable.

Properties Parameters

DataTable - DataTable object from which the rows will be deleted.

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

DeleteRow Activity

It allows the user to delete a row at a given index by using the dt.Rows(n) notation - where dt stands for the DataTable object and n for the index of the given DataRow.

Properties Parameters

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

Row - DataRow object which will be deleted from the DataTable.

DownloadFile Activity

It downloads a file to a specified filepath. Users must first choose the folder in which the file will be saved by clicking the ... button and then type its filename along with the file format, preceded by a dot, such as``insideairbnb.csv``. Then, users must insert the URL from which the file will be obtained inside the Properties box.

Properties Parameters

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

LocalPath - Full path and filename of the file that will be downloaded.

Overwrite - This parameter overwrites the file if it already exists.

URL - URL from which the file will be gathered.

Get Credentials

This Activity gets a set of credentials from Windows’ Credential Manager.

The most recommended way of obtaining and saving credentials is through the OpenFlow MongoDB database with the Set Credentials activity. Please refer to the OpenRPA.OpenFlowDB section for more information.

Properties Parameters

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

Name - Name of credential which will be obtained.

Password - Saves the password to a variable of type SecureString (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.security.securestring?view=netcore-3.1).

UnsecurePassword - Saves the password obtained to a variable of type String.

Username - Saves username obtained to a variable of type String.

JArrayToDataTable Activity

This activity parses the contents of a JSON Array into a DataTable object and maps it into a variable. The JArray must obligatorily be 1-dimensional, else the contents which do not belong to the main array will be ignored.

This activity is great for usage with the OpenFlowDB.Query activity to map all the contents of a Collection into a DataTable object. Simply select the Collection you want to gather the data, insert {} inside the QueryString parameter and map the Result to a variable - ie. results, this way it will return all the data and the user can assign it to a variable jarrayobj with content new JArray(results) and finally use this activity to map the contents of jarrayobj into a DataTable.

Properties Parameters

DataTable - DataTable variable which will hold the results of the JArray.

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

JArray - JArray variable holding the content which will be parsed.

Match Activity

This Activity matches a given String object to a Regular Expression pattern and saves the Boolean, i.e., True or False, result in a variable if the String contains the given pattern. For a thorough explanation of Regular Expressions, please refer to RyansTutorials Regular Expressions (https://ryanstutorials.net/regular-expressions-tutorial/).

Properties Parameters

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

Input - Input String upon which the RegEx pattern will be matched.

Pattern - RegEx pattern that will be used to match against the string.

Result - Variable file path the Boolean value, i.e., True or False, will be saved in case of matching, or not, the input String to the RegEx pattern.

Compiled - It specifies that the regular expression is compiled to an assembly. This yields faster execution but increases startup time.

CultureInvariant - If marked, specifies that cultural differences in language are ignored.

ECMAScript - If marked, enables ECMAScript-compliant behavior to the expression. This value can be used only in conjunction with the IgnoreCase, Multiline and Compiled values.

ExplicitCapture - If marked, specifies that the only valid captures are explicitly named or numbered groups in the format (?<name>..). This allows unnamed parentheses to act as non-capturing groups without the syntactic clumsiness of the expression (?:...).

IgnoreCase - If marked, specifies case-insensitive matching.

IgnorePatternWhiteSpace - If marked, eliminates unescaped white space from the pattern and enables comments marked with #. However, this value does not affect or eliminate white space in character classes, numeric quantifiers or tokens that mark the beginning of individual regular expression language elements.

Multiline - Multiline mode. If marked, changes the meaning of ^ and $ so that they match at the beginning and end, respectively, of any line, and not just the beginning and end of the entire string.

RightToLeft - If marked, specifies that the search will occur from right to left instead of from left to right.

Singleline - If marked, specifies single-line mode. It changes the meaning of the dot (.) - it will match every character (instead of every character except itself).

Matches Activity

This Activity matches a given String object to a Regular Expression pattern and saves the resulting groups to an array of Match objects <https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.text.regularexpressions.match?view=netcore-3.1>_ (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.text.regularexpressions.match?view=netcore-3.1).

Objects are accessible by indexing the array, as shown in the image below. For a thorough explanation of Regular Expressions, please refer to RyansTutorials Regular Expressions (https://ryanstutorials.net/regular-expressions-tutorial/).

Properties Parameters

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

Input - Input String file path the RegEx pattern will be matched upon.

Pattern - RegEx pattern that will be used to match against the string.

Result - Variable file path the Boolean value, i.e.,``True`` or False, will be saved in case of matching, or not, the input String to the RegEx pattern.

Compiled - This parameter specifies that the regular expression is compiled to an assembly. This yields faster execution but increases startup time.

CultureInvariant - If marked, specifies that cultural differences in language is ignored.

ECMAScript - If marked, enables ECMAScript-compliant behavior to the expression. This value can be used only in conjunction with the IgnoreCase, Multiline and Compiled values.

ExplicitCapture - If marked, specifies that the only valid captures are explicitly named or nunmbered groups in the format (?<name>..). This allows unnamed parentheses to act as noncapturing groups without the syntatic clumsiness of the expression (?:...).

IgnoreCase - If marked, specifies case-insensitive matching.

IgnorePatternWhiteSpace - If marked, eliminates unescaped white space from the pattern and enables comments marked with #. However, this value does not affect or eliminate white space in character classes, numeric quantifiers or tokens that mark the beginning of individual regular expression language elements.

Multiline - Multiline mode. If marked, changes the meaning of ^ and $ so that they match at the beginning and end, respectively, of any line, and not just the beginning and end of the entire string.

RightToLeft - If marked, specifies that the search will occur from right to left instead of from left to right.

Singleline - If marked, specifies single-line mode. It changes the meaning of the dot (.) - it will match every character (instead of every character except itself).

ReadCSV Activity

This Activity parses the contents of a .csv file into a DataTable variable.

The user must first click the ... button to select the file that will be parsed and, then, insert the DataTable variable file path the contents will be saved inside the Properties box.

The user can also define a specific delimiter inside the Delimeter parameter (the default are "," or ";"). Users can also choose to insert the headers inside the DataTable by setting the UseHeaderRows parameter to False.

Properties Parameters

DataTable - DataTable variable file path the content generated by parsing the .csv file will be saved.

Delimeter - It specifies a delimiter that will be used to separate the columns of the .csv file - default is "," or ";".

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

Filename - Full path and filename of the .csv file that will be parsed.

UseHeaderRows - If set to False, OpenRPA will also parse the contents of the headers of the .csv file into the DataTable. Else, it will simply ignore the headers.

ReadExcel Activity

This Activity parses the contents of a Microsoft Excel document into a DataSet variable.

The user must first click the ... button to select the Microsoft Excel document that will be parsed and, then, insert the DataSet variable file path the contents will be saved inside the Properties box. The user can also choose to insert the headers inside the DataSet by setting the UseHeaderRows to False.

Properties Parameters

DataSet - DataSet variable file path the content generated by parsing the Microsoft Excel document will be saved.

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

Filename - Full path and filename of the Microsoft Excel document that will be parsed.

UseHeaderRows - If set to False, OpenRPA will also parse the contents of the headers of the Microsoft Excel document into the DataSet. Else, it will simply ignore the headers.

ReadJSON Activity

Parses the contents of a JSON array inside a .json file into a DataTable variable.

Currently only supports a 1-dimensional JSON array. The user must first click the ... button to select the .json file that will be parsed and then insert the DataTable variable file path the contents will be saved inside the Properties box.

It is useful to remind the users that the file must contain a [ in its first character position and a ] in its last character position.

Properties Parameters

DataTable - DataTable variable file path the content generated by parsing the .json file will be saved.

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

Filename - Full path and filename of the .json file which will be parsed.

ReadPDF Activity

Parses the text contents of a PDF file into a String variable and, optionally, return the PdfReader (https://github.com/itext/itextsharp/blob/5d8d6301e334aa37a01b5374cdfd4e9bc20f40ca/src/core/iTextSharp/text/pdf/PdfReaderInstance.cs) as a Result for more parsing options.

The user must first click the ... button to select the PDF file that will be parsed and then insert the variable containing the String object with all the text inside the PDF file inside the AllText parameter.

Properties Parameters

AllText - String variable file path the text content of the PDF file will be saved.

Filename - Full path and filename of the PDF file that will be parsed.

Result - PdfReader variable file path the stream of memory acquired from the parsing will be saved.

Replace Activity

Matches a given String object to a Regular Expression pattern and replaces the content of each group matched by a Replacement String object.

For a thorough explanation of Regular Expressions, please refer to RyansTutorials Regular Expressions (https://ryanstutorials.net/regular-expressions-tutorial/).

Properties Parameters

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

Input - Input String file path the RegEx pattern will be matched upon and have its contents replaced.

Pattern - RegEx pattern that will be used to match against the string.

Replacement - Replacement String object which will be used to replace every group inside the Input String with its contents.

Result - Variable file path the String object with its contents replaced by this activity will be saved.

Compiled - This parameter specifies that the regular expression is compiled to an assembly. This yields faster execution but increases startup time.

CultureInvariant - If marked, specifies that cultural differences in language is ignored.

ECMAScript - If marked, enables ECMAScript-compliant behavior to the expression. This value can be used only in conjunction with the IgnoreCase, Multiline and Compiled values.

ExplicitCapture - If marked, specifies that the only valid captures are explicitly named or numbered groups of the form (?<name>..). This allows unnamed parentheses to act as noncapturing groups without the syntatic clumsiness of the expression (?:...).

IgnoreCase - If marked, specifies case-insensitive matching.

IgnorePatternWhiteSpace - If marked, eliminates unescaped white space from the pattern and enables comments marked with #. However, this value does not affect or eliminates white space in character classes, numeric quantifiers or tokens that mark the beginning of individual regular expression language elements.

Multiline - Multiline mode. If marked, changes the meaning of ^ and $ so that they match at the beginning and end, respectively, of any line, and not just the beginning and end of the entire string.

RightToLeft - If marked, specifies that the search will occur from right to left instead of from left to right.

Singleline - If marked, specifies single-line mode. It changes the meaning of the dot (.) - it will match every character (instead of every character except itself).

SelectFile Activity

Prompts the end-users of the workflow to select a file and save its file path (or paths) to a variable by using a FileDialog (https://docs.microsoft.com/pt-br/dotnet/api/system.windows.forms.filedialog?view=netcore-3.1). It also allows the users who built the workflow to enforce certain checkings - such as checking whether a file exists, checking whether a path exists.

The users can also specify two types of dialog by changing the IsSaveAs parameter. The first one is a OpenFileDialog (https://docs.microsoft.com/pt-br/dotnet/api/system.windows.forms.openfiledialog?view=netcore-3.1), which allows the end-user to open a file and save it to the Result parameter. The second one is a SaveFileDialog (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.windows.forms.savefiledialog?view=netcore-3.1), which allows the end-user to save an empty file to the desired filepath.

Users can also return one or more file paths by changing the Multiselect parameter to True yet they must use the FileNames parameter to store the results if they choose to do so. If the users choose to select multiple files, they can iterate through them by using parentheses - ie. result(0). After inserting the result variable which will hold the file path (or paths) inside either the Result or Results parameter the user must create it by pressing Ctrl+K.

Properties Parameters

CheckFileExists - If True, displays a warning if the user specifies a file name that does not exist. Default value is False.

CheckPathExists - If True, displays a warning if the user specifies a path that does not exist. Default value is False.

DefaultExt - Sets a default extension which will be used for displaying the data inside the file dialog, eg. txt.

Filter - Filter for the options that appear under the Files of type dropdown, eg. "txt files (*.txt)|*.txt|All files (*.*)|*.*".

FilterIndex - Starting index for the Filter parameter.

InitialDirectory - Starting directory for the file dialog.

IsSaveAs - If True, sets the dialog to a SaveFileDialog (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.windows.forms.savefiledialog?view=netcore-3.1). Else, to a OpenFileDialog (https://docs.microsoft.com/pt-br/dotnet/api/system.windows.forms.openfiledialog?view=netcore-3.1).

Multiselect - If True, allows the users to select multiple files. Users must obligatorily use the FileNames parameter to set the resulting file paths of the files selected. Default value is False.

Title - Title for the file dialog window.

DisplayName - Title of activity inside the sequence.

FileName - Result variable which will hold the String containing the file path for the file selected. If Multiselect is set to True and the end-user selects multiple files, it will only hold the value of the last selected file.

FileName - Result variable which will hold the String[] containing all the file paths for the files selected if the parameter Multiselect is set to True. If it is set to False, then this variable will hold only the single file selected at its index 0.

SelectFolder Activity

Prompts the end-users of the workflow to select a folder and save its folder path to a variable by using a FolderBrowserDialog (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.windows.forms.folderbrowserdialog?view=netcore-3.1).

After inserting the result variable which will hold the folder path inside the Folder parameter the user must create it by pressing Ctrl+K.

Properties Parameter

DisplayName - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

Folder - Variable which will hold the String containing the folder path for the folder selected.

RootFolder - The root folder which will be seen by the end-user. If left empty, will show the Desktop folder.

ShowNewFolderButton - Allows the user to create new folders in the FolderBrowserDialog by showing a Make New Folder button.

SetAllRowsState Activity

This Activity sets the state for all DataRows in the DataTable. Every time a DataTable is created, updated or deleted inside OpenRPA, a transaction log of every change made to it is created, updated or deleted as well. This activity updates this very transaction log - ie. updates the state of every single row inside a DataTable.

There are three possibilities here: Added, Modified and Not Modified. Added updates the contents of the DataTable, whereas Modified modify the existing rows containing the data and Not Modified does not act at all on these rows.

It is useful when using the Update from DataTable Activity, for example, since it updates the database checking if there were any new added rows. By setting all rows to Added, the robot will check the information in all rows before updating the database. If the user does not want the information to be added to database, it can be done by setting all rows to Not Modified. This is useful when using two DataTables from different sources to update a single data model. This Activity also tells the Update from DataTable whether it should use update item or insert item command when dealing with the database.

Properties Parameters

DataTable - The name of the DataTable that the rows belong to.

DisplayName - The title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

RowState - Select one of the three options.

SetAutoLogin Activity

This Activity configures automatic logon in the machine being used.

If the not using Microsoft Account credentials, users must use the "${HOSTNAME}\${USERNAME}" to set the Username inside the Properties box. Otherwise, users can simply use the e-mail configured as the current Microsoft Account being used to authenticate into the machine. Also provides for the use of a SecureString as the Password. If the user desires to store the password as a plaintext String, simply insert it into the UnsecurePassword.

Properties Parameters

AutoLogonCount - AutoLogonCount specifies the number of times that you can log on to the computer by using AutoLogon. This value decrements each time you log on to the computer. You must restart the computer to reset the value of AutoLogonCount.

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

Password - Use the SecureString defined here as the default password for logging in.

UnsecurePassword - Use the plaintext String defined here as the default password for logging in.

Username - String object which defines the username for logging in.

Set Credentials

This Activity creates or updates a set of credentials from Windows’ Credential Manager.

The most recommended way of obtaining and saving credentials is through the OpenFlow MongoDB database with the Set Credentials Activity. Please refer to the OpenRPA.OpenFlowDB section for more information.

Properties Parameters

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

Name - Name of credential that will be stored.

Password - Password of credentials that will be stored.

Username - Username of credentials that will be stored.

StartProcess Activity

Starts the process referring to the executable provided in the Filename path parameter.

The users can also pass arguments to the process which will be executed inside the Arguments parameter. Similarly as when starting a process from a command-line interface. This Activity also allows to pass a WorkingDirectory, which the process will use as its starting directory.

Users can also define whether OpenRPA will wait for the execution of the process to cease or not by setting the WaitForExit. They can also define a timeout for the WaitForExit parameter.

Properties Parameters

Arguments - Optional arguments which can be passed to the execution of the process.

Filename - File path for the executable which will have its process.

WaitForExit - If True, waits for the process to finish its execution.

WaitForExitTimeout - Time interval for which OpenRPA will wait for the execution of the process to cease. Can be a simple 00:00:00.00 {hh:min:ss.mili} or an object from the TimeSpan class.

WorkingDirectory - Starting directory for execution of the process.

DisplayName - The title of the Activity in the Sequence.

WriteCSV Activity

This Activity writes the contents of a DataTable into a .csv file.

The user must first click the ... button to select the file that the DataTable will be written to. Then, insert the DataTable variable from which the contents will be obtained inside the Properties box.

The user can also define a specific delimiter inside the Delimeter parameter (the default are "," or ";"). Users can also insert the headers inside the DataTable by setting the IncludeHeaders parameters to True.

Properties Parameters

DataTable - DataTable variable from which the content will be obtained.

Delimeter - This parameter specifies the delimiter that will be used to separate the columns of the .csv file - default are "," or ";".

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

Filename - Full path and filename of the .csv file which will be written.

IncludeHeaders - If set to True, OpenRPA will also write the contents of the DataTable headers to the .csv file.

WriteExcel Activity

This Activity writes the contents of a DataSet or DataTable object into a Microsoft Excel document.

The user must first click the ... button to select the Microsoft Excel document which the DataTable will be written to. Then, insert the DataSet or DataTable variable from which the contents will be obtained inside the Properties box.

Users can also insert the headers inside the DataTable by setting the includeHeader parameter to True. Also allows the user to specify a theme, containing a Table Style (https://www.excel-easy.com/examples/table-styles.html) that will be used to color the cells inside the Microsoft Excel document.

Properties Parameters

DataSet - DataSet variable from which the content will be obtained.

DataTable - DataTable variable from which the content will be obtained.

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

Filename - Full path and filename of the Microsoft Excel document which will be written.

IncludeHeaders - If set to True, OpenRPA will also write the contents of the DataTable headers to the .csv file.

Theme - It allows the user to specify a theme that will be used to color the cells inside the Microsoft Excel document.

3.5.4.15. OpenRPA.Windows¶

Here belong the activities located inside the OpenRPA.Windows toolbox.

Get Element

This Activity selects an element or elements by using the Open Selector button or automatically through recording.

The user can also make use of the Highlight button to highlight the selected area inside the screen. Clicking the Highlight button will red-highlight the first element that matches the criteria on the selector. This Activity is useful for checking if the selector is properly set up.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

Elements - Element from which the image will be gathered.

From - It allows search only within an Element found within any of the Element’s instances.

MaxResults - Number of maximum results.

MinResults - Number of minimum results. If this value is higher than 0 and this Activity fails to find an element, it throws an exception (ElementNotFound). If the user wants to check whether an element exists or not, set this value to 0 and test for the ‘item.Length() == 0’ inside the sequence.

Selector - It contains all the data belonging to the application selected.

Timeout - Time interval until the Activity ceases if not successfully able to find an Element. Can be a simple 00:00:00.00 {hh:min:ss.mili} or an object from the TimeSpan class.

OpenRPA.Windows Get Element.¶

3.5.4.16. System.Activities¶

Here belong the activities located in the OpenRPA.System.Activities toolbox.

AddToCollection<> Activity

This Activity adds items to a collection.

It is important to remind that collections are similar to lists, except that collections accept new items while lists do not. For a comprehensive account on the subject, please refer to Microsoft’s .NET official webpage (https://docs.microsoft.com/pt-br/dotnet/visual-basic/programming-guide/concepts/collections).

The Collection must first have been initialized by assigning a variable to a System.Collections.Generic.List<T>, where T corresponds to the datatype of the objects contained inside the Collection. As an example, if it is a Collection of Strings and the user wants to initialize it with a single value "name", he would assign the value new List(of string)({"name"}) to the desired variable.

Properties Parameters

Collection - The name of the collection which will be checked for the existence of the matching element. It must have been first declared as variable or argument, with argument type System.Collections.Generic.List<T>. Where T corresponds to the datatype of the objects contained inside the collection.

.

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

Item - The item to be added. It must be of the same type as declared in TypeArgument.

TypeArgument - The type of data of the items of the list.

System.Activities AddToCollection<>¶

Assign Activity

This Activity is used to assign a value to a variable.

Properties Parameters

DisplayName - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

To - Variable file path the value will be assigned.

Value - Value which will be assigned to a variable.

System.Activities Assign¶

ClearCollection<> Activity

This Activity clears a collection, that is, deletes all items from it.

Properties Parameters

Collection - The name of the collection which will be checked for the existence of the matching element. It must have been first declared as variable or argument, with argument type System.Collections.Generic.List<T>. Where T corresponds to the datatype of the objects contained inside the collection, as seen in the image in the AddToCollection<> Activity section.

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

TypeArgument - The type of data of the items of the list.

System.Activities ClearCollection<>¶

Delay Activity

Creates a delay from an instance of an object to the TimeSpan class. Users can also simply type a length of time with the format HH:MM:SS.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Duration - The argument specifying the length of the delay. Can be a simple 00:00:00.00 {hh:min:ss.mili} or an object from the TimeSpan class.

Note

A TimeSpan value represents a time interval and can be expressed as a particular number of days, hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds. Since it represents a general interval without reference to a particular start or endpoint, it cannot be expressed in terms of years and months, both of which have a variable number of days.¹

¹ - `TimeSpan Struct <https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.timespan?view=netcore-3.1>`_ (``https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.timespan?view=netcore-3.1``)

System.Activities Delay.¶

Do While Activity

Creates a loop that executes other activities dropped in it at least once and repeatedly until the looping condition no longer evaluates to True.

Properties Parameters

Condition - This is a VB Expression that represents the looping condition.

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

System.Activities Do While.¶

ExistsInCollection<> Activity

This Activity checks for the existence of an Item in a collection and returns a Boolean value.

The Collection must first have been initialized by assigning a variable to a System.Collections.Generic.List<T>, where T corresponds to the datatype of the objects contained inside the Collection. As an example, if it is a Collection of Strings and the user wants to initialize it with a single value "name", he would assign the value new List(of string)({"name"}) to the desired variable.

Properties Parameters

Collection - The name of the collection which will be checked for the existence of the matching element. It must have been first declared as variable or argument, with argument type System.Collections.Generic.List<T>. Where T corresponds to the datatype of the objects contained inside the collection, as seen in the image in the AddToCollection<> Activity section.

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Item - The item which will be searched for inside the Collection. It must be of the same type as declared in TypeArgument.

Result - Boolean variable or argument file path the result will be stored.

TypeArgument - The datatype of the items of the list.

System.Activities ExistsInCollection<>¶

FlowChart Activity

A Flowchart is used to add non-sequential workflows. By definition, a Flowchart activity is an activity that contains a collection of activities to be executed.

Flowcharts are similar to Sequences - but easier to work with - decision trees. If there are multiple “if” statements in a Sequence (especially if they are nested), it can be really hard to handle Activities and Data. Flowcharts provide an easier way to work with those situations and visualize the workflow in a more friendly-user/graphical way.

In order to add Activities to a Flowchart, the user has the option of adding a Sequence to the Flowchart and, then, adding Activities inside this Sequence.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

ValidateUnconnectedNodes - If True, executes validation of workflow logic inside nodes not connected to the flowchart execution flow.

System.Activities Flowchart¶

FlowDecision Activity

This Activity directs execution between contained activities based on the values of variables. It branches execution based on a Boolean condition, similarly to an If activity.

This Activity is responsible for routing the flow into two possible paths, represented by the boolean values True or False. It is very similar to an If statement with only two possible branching results.

Properties Parameters

Condition - The VB expression to be validated.

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the Flowchart.

FalseLabel - Text to be presented in the “False” exit of the FlowDecision node.

TrueLabel - Text to be presented in the “True” exit of the FlowDecision node.

System.Activities FlowDecision¶

FlowStep Activity

Coming soon - work in progress!

FlowSwitch<> Activity

This Activity is a conditional node (similar to FlowDecision) based on match criterion with more than two alternate branches. For only two branches, FlowDecision is a better choice. It is also similar to Switch, but designed to work on flowcharts instead of sequences.

It can be useful when necessary to create multiple routes to workflows.

Properties Parameters

DisplayName - The title of the Activity in the Sequence.

Expression - The VB expression to be validated by the Activity.

System.Activities FlowSwitch¶

HandleScope<> Activity

This Activity exists and is listed on the System.Activities because they are the baseline from Microsoft Workflow Foundation, but they are used in the OpenFlow/OpenRPA context.

For a comprehensive account of this Activity, please check the Microsoft website on the subject (https://docs.microsoft.com/pt-br/dotnet/api/system.activities.statements.handlescope-1?view=netframework-4.8).

If Activity

It is similar to conditionals in prog. If the clause condition is True, it will then execute the activities in the Then block. Else, if it is False, it will execute the Else block.

Properties Parameters

Condition - This is a VB Expression that represents the clause condition.

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

System.Activities If¶

InvokeMethod Activity

This Activity allows users to call a public method defined for an object inside a variable.

In practical terms, this is a way to invoke expressions that do not return any value or to execute a method that doesn’t exist as an Activity inside OpenRPA. It is also seen as an alternative to the Assign activity, which can only be used with methods that return a value.

Users must first specify the method which will be invoked inside the MethodName parameter - ie. ToString.

If the users desires to invoke a non-static method they need to assign the object upon which the method will be executed inside the TargetObject field. It is useful to remind the user that TargetObject and TargetType are mutually exclusive.

If the users desires to invoke a static method they need to assign the classtype upon which the method will be executed inside the TargetType field.

If the users desires to invoke a generic method, they need to specify the generic types inside the GenericTypeArguments field. For more information on this, please refer to `Generic Methods (C# Programming Guide)`_ (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/programming-guide/generics/generic-methods).

Users can also specify a variable to which the result of the method invoking will be saved in the Result parameter.

Users can also specify whether they want the method to run asynchronously by checking the RunAsynchronously checkbox.

Please notice that using the InvokeCode is a better option, since it has auto-completion and other features provided by IntelliSense.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

GenericTypeArguments - Allows the user to pass generic arguments if invoking a generic method.

MethodName - The name of the method which will be invoked.

Parameters - The required parameters for the method.

Result - The variable or argument file path where the result will be stored. The data type must be consistent with the expected result from method.

RunAsynchronously - If set to True, the robot will run this method in parallel with the Workflow (that is, it will not wait for the method to be completed before moving on to other Activities).

TargetObject - Object upon which the method will be executed. Mutually exclusive with TargetType!

TargetType - Classtype upon which the method will be executed. Mutually exclusive with TargetObject!

NoPersistScope Activity

This Activity exists and is listed on the System.Activities because they are the baseline from Microsoft Workflow Foundation, but they are used in the OpenFlow/OpenRPA context.

For a comprehensive account of this Activity, please check the Microsoft website on the subject (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.activities.statements.nopersistscope?view=netframework-4.8).

Parallel Activity

This Activity allows OpenRPA to execute multiple Sequences at the same time.

Please note that it is necessary to add a Sequence Activity inside Parallel and then add the Activities inside this Sequence.

This Activity is not recommended if more than one Sequence inside it works with UI, since it can cause conflict between different Activities. The same is valid for different Sequences accessing the same application at the same time, or even using the mouse or keyboard.

Properties Parameters

CompletionCondition - Boolean value. If set to False, the robot will wait for all parallel Sequences to end before moving on to the next Activity. Otherwise, the robot will proceed to the next Activity when one of the Sequences is done.

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

System.Activities Parallel¶

Persist Activity

This Activity saves all variables and states into an XML file, so that OpenRPA can continue the Workflow from the last Activity that went “idle”.

It is very important to remark that it can only be done if the Workflow has serializable variables. DataTables, for instance, are not serializable. So, if there is any error while serializing the variables (that is, if the Workflow has DataTables), it will not persist the state at all.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

System.Activities Persist¶

Pick Activity

This Activity allows users to branch the execution of the Workflow and proceed with the branch that is triggered first.

Each branch has a Trigger field and an Action field. The Trigger is designed to work with event-driven Activities, such as Detectors. Once the Detector is triggered, the Activities in the Action field will be executed.

If nothing is inside the Trigger field, both branches will be executed and the robot will exit the Pick Activity once the first one is completed. In practical terms, the usage of this activity is very similar to the Parallel Activity, except that it does not wait for all branches to be completed before moving on.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

System.Activities Pick¶

RemoveFromCollection<> Activity

This Activity removes one Item from a collection.

It is important to remind that collections are similar to lists, except that collections accept new items while lists do not. For a comprehensive account on the subject, please refer to Microsoft’s .NET official webpage (https://docs.microsoft.com/pt-br/dotnet/visual-basic/programming-guide/concepts/collections).

Properties Parameters

Collection - The name of the collection which will be checked for the existence of the matching element. It must have been first declared as variable or argument, with argument type System.Collections.Generic.List<T>. Where T corresponds to the datatype of the objects contained inside the collection, as seen in the image in the AddToCollection<> Activity section.

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

Item - The item to be removed. It must be of the same type as declared in TypeArgument.

Result - The variable or argument file path the result will be stored. It must be of “Boolean” type.

TypeArgument - The type of data of the items of the list.

System.Activities RemoveFromCollection<>¶

Rethrow Activity

This Activity must be used in the same context as the Throw block, but inside the Catch block. The difference is that this Activity throws again the same exception that was thrown in the Try block and throws it again in the Catch block.

Properties Parameters

DisplayName - The title of the Activity in the Sequence.

System.Activities Rethrow¶

Sequence Activity

This Activity is used to nest sequences upon the main sequence. You can drop activities inside it just as you would do inside the main sequence. It is helpful to organize your code/workflow because you can expand or collapse them.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the activity inside the sequence.

System.Activities Sequence.¶

State Activity

The basic unit that composes a state machine, which can only be in one state at any particular time.

For each State, there will be an Entry Action (an activity executed when entering the state) and an Exit Action (an activity executed when exiting the state). In OpenRPA, users can double-click on each State and edit the Activities to be executed on Entry and Exit of that State.

Besides that, it is also necessary to edit the Transition between states. By adding a new State and connecting it to the first one, a circle will appear in the connection line between them, with a ‘T’ plus a number (e.g., T1 for the first transition, T2 for the second and so on). Users can double-click on this circle to edit how the StateMachine will transition between these different states by inserting a VB Expression as a Condition which will be evaluated and checked against to continue the execution flow.

In the Transition configuration, users can add Activities to be executed if a certain Condition is met and Activities to be executed when the Condition is checked (in the Trigger field). In other words, the robot will check all possible Transitions, execute the Activities inside the Trigger, and will only proceed to the ones that meet the Condition, one at a time. Note that the Condition is not in the State, but in the Transition, which means that the Triggers will be executed even if the Condition is not met.

For a comprehensive account on States and StateMachines, please refer to the Microsoft official website (https://docs.microsoft.com/pt-br/dotnet/framework/windows-workflow-foundation/state-machine-workflows).

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

System.Activities State¶

StateMachine Activity

State Machines are event-driven workflows and constitute a different type of Workflow from `Sequence and Flowchart. There can be only one initial state and at least one final state, which will be reached when the workflow is completed. A state machine can only be in one state at any particular time.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

For a comprehensive account on States and StateMachines, please refer to the Microsoft official website (https://docs.microsoft.com/pt-br/dotnet/framework/windows-workflow-foundation/state-machine-workflows).

System.Activities StateMachine¶

Switch<> Activity

This Activity evaluates the expression against the keys in the cases and executes the activities associated with the case that matches.

Once this Activity is dragged into the Designer, a dialog window will appear so that the user can choose the data type of the expression. After that, the user will find a “Default” block that will be executed every time the expression is evaluated and an option to add new cases. Each of the cases will contain a key (the value to be tested against the Expression) and a block for dropping new Activities. The robot will test all the values against the Expression and if one of them matches, the associated Activities will be executed.

Properties Parameters

DisplayName - The title of the Activity in the Sequence.

Expression - The expression against which the keys in the cases will be tested.

System.Activities Switch<>¶

TerminateWorkflow Activity

This Activity terminates the execution of the Workflow. Once the Workflow is terminated it can not be resumed.

Properties Parameters

DisplayName - The title of the Activity in the Sequence.

Exception - The exception to be thrown when the Workflow is terminated. It must be an already declared variable or argument with the corresponding data type (System.Exception).

Reason - A string that explains why the Workflow was terminated.

System.Activities TerminateWorflow¶

Throw Activity

This Activity provides a method to terminate the execution of the Workflow in a certain case, displaying an Error message. In programming, that would be known as “throwing an exception”. Upon entering the exception in the Exception field, type new to exhibit the available ones.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Exception - The exception which will appear on the Error message.

System.Activities Throw¶

TransactionScope Activity

This Activity exists and is listed on the System.Activities because they are the baseline from Microsoft Workflow Foundation, but they are used in the OpenFlow/OpenRPA context.

For a comprehensive account of this Activity, please check the Microsoft website on the subject (https://docs.microsoft.com/pt-br/dotnet/api/system.transactions.transactionscope?view=netcore-3.1).

TryCatch Activity

Tries to execute a sequence of activities within the Try block. If any of them causes an error, the error is caught and then the activities inside the Catches block are executed. At the end of execution, the Finally block is executed.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the main Sequence.

System.Activities TryCatch.¶

While Activity

This Activity creates a loop that executes other Activities dropped in it while the condition is unfulfilled - i.e., False. Once it is fulfilled, i.e., True, the loop ceases and moves to the next Activity. Differently from the Do While Activity that first checks whether the condition evaluates to True before the looping begins.

Properties Parameters

Condition - This is a VB Expression that represents the condition.

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

System.Activities While.¶

WriteLine Activity

This Activity writes the output to the console according to the Text string.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the sequence.

Text - The string which will be printed on the console.

TextWriter - Optional - The writer used to write the character stream.

The TextWriter class is an abstract class. Therefore, users should not instantiate it in code. The StreamWriter class derives from TextWriter and provides implementations of the members for writing to a stream. The following example shows how to write two lines that consist of string values to a text file by using the WriteLineAsync(String) method.¹

¹ - `TextWriter Class <https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.io.textwriter?view=netcore-3.1>`_ (``https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.io.textwriter?view=netcore-3.1``)

System.Activities Write Line.¶

3.5.4.17. System.Activities.Core.Presentation¶

Here belong the activities located in the OpenRPA.System.Activities toolbox.

FinalState Activity

The FinalState is the output of a StateMachine and can only exist once. Users can think of it as another type of State, but one that has no Exit Action, since it is an end node and does not require to have a transition. It accepts Entry Action only - that is, an Activity or Sequence to be executed when the robot enters this state.

It is possible to have multiple FinalState nodes in a StateMachine.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

FinalState¶

ForEachWithBodyFactory<> Activity

This Activity iterates through an object and executes an Activity or Sequence present in the “Body” field. Anything that will result in an enumerator or in a list can be iterated through with this Activity. However, it is not recommended to use it with DataTables.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

TypeArgument - The data type of the items in the object.

Values - The object that will be iterated. It can be a variable or argument previously declared or strongly-typed data.

ForEachWithBodyFactory<>¶

ParallelForEachWithBodyFactory<> Activity

This Activity is very similar to ForEachWithBodyFactory, except that it allows for asynchronous execution of the activities inside it for each iteration. This means that the activities will not run on separate threads, so each successive activity will only execute when the previously scheduled activity completes or goes idle. If none of the activities inside the execution flow of this activity are asynchronous or go idle, this activity is executed in the same way that a ForEachWithBodyFactory activity does.

The CompletionCondition parameter, which is present in Parallel defines whether the robot should wait for the completion of all the iterations before moving on to the next Activity or if it should proceed after the first succeeded iteration.

Properties Parameters

CompletionCondition - Boolean value. If set to false, the robot will wait for all iterations to end before moving on to the next Activity. Otherwise, the robot will proceed to the next Activity when the first iteration is over.

DisplayName - The title of the Activity in the Sequence.

TypeArgument - The data type of the items of the object.

`Values - The object that will be iterated. It can be a variable or argument previously declared or strongly-typed data.

PickWithTwoBranchesFactory Activity

This is a template for Pick Activity that already has two branches. Users can copy and paste these branches to increase the number of branches.

For a full account on Pick Activity, please refer to Pick.

Properties Parameters

Displayname - Title of the Activity inside the Sequence.

System.Activities PickWithTwoBranchesFactory¶

ReceiveAndSendReplyFactory Activity

This Activity exists and is listed on the System.Activities because they are the baseline from Microsoft Workflow Foundation, but they are used in the OpenFlow/OpenRPA context.

For a comprehensive account of this Activity, please check the Microsoft website on the subject (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/workflow-designer/receiveandsendreply-template-designer?view=vs-2019).

SendAndReceiveReplyFactory Activity

This Activity exists and is listed on the System.Activities because they are the baseline from Microsoft Workflow Foundation, but they are used in the OpenFlow/OpenRPA context.

For a comprehensive account of this Activity, please check the Microsoft website on the subject (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/workflow-designer/sendandreceivereply-template-designer?view=vs-2019).

3.6.3.1. Passing Variables to a Selector¶

Passing variables to a Selector is rather easy! The users can make use of the Mustache (https://mustache.github.io/mustache.5.html) syntax to append a value to an existing parameter or simply use a custom parameter inside the Selector.

In this example the users will make use of the Recorder to capture an element inside a Google Search page and pass a variable to append to an existing Selector parameter and further on they will simply use the variable for whole parameter.

Users can enter any search input they would like to search for in Google (https://www.google.com/) main page. In this case, the author has opted to choose rabbitmq.

Now, users must open OpenRPA and create a new workflow. The author has chosen to name his as Manually Adjusting Selectors.

Click inside the Sequence and click the Recorder button inside OpenRPA’s ribbon. Now click inside the element in the page.

If users are using Internet Explorer, a new OpenRPA.IE.GetElement Activity will appear. Else, if they are using Edge, Chrome or Firefox, a new OpenRPA.NM.GetElement Activity will appear.

Now, users must click the Open Selector button and the Selector Designer will appear.

Now users will only replace a part of the xpath parameter. They shall strip - ie. remove - the div/span/span[2] part of the xpath parameter and add a Mustache expression containing the name of the variable to which the value which was stripped will be assigned. The author has opted to name that variable as selectorValue so the Mustache expression would become {{selectorValue}}.

After doing this users can click the Ok button to close the Selector Designer.

Now users need to assign this variable to a value - the value is the value which was stripped from the xpath parameter but it could be anything!

The possibilities are endless for manipulation. You can even use CSS Selectors! Refer to the Using CSS Selectors for more information.

Drag an Assign Activity to the main sequence, just above the GetElement activity. Name it as selectorValue and assign to it the value which was stripped before - ie. "div/span/span[2]". Press Ctrl+K to create the variable.

Now, delete the Click Element activity from inside the Sequence in the GetElement activity and drag an Assign activity inside it so we can test whether the value was really captured.

Name the variable selectorText - it is a completely arbitrary value, users can actually name it anything they would want to.

Assign to this variable the value item.Text.

Finally, drag a Show Notification activity to the main sequence and insert selectorText in its Message input field.

If you run the workflow now a notification will show, containing the message which was acquired.

3.6.3.2. Using CSS Selectors¶

As well as using XPath Selectors (https://www.w3schools.com/xml/xpath_syntax.asp), users can also make use of CSS Selectors (https://www.w3schools.com/cssref/css_selectors.asp). In this section, users will learn how to use CSS Selectors to select all of the items pertaining to the class of span elements selected in the previous section by simply passing the CSS Selector belonging to them inside the cssselector parameter.

First, we need to locate the CSS class belonging to the class of span elements.

The users can do this by pressing either F12 or Ctrl+Shift+I.

The Console window will then appear. Click on the Elements tab.