[2] How To Use akaBot Studio

Introduction

I. Purpose

akaBot Studio is one of 3 components of akaBot suite.

akaBot Studio is a solution for application integration, business processes automation. It provides a wide range of activities to model almost of the business processes within one organization – from simple to complex.

The tool pre-builds hundreds of activities to perform the actions of automations on web, on desktop, working with data base, generating the PDF files, sending emails…

This document aims to guide you how to use the akaBot Studio.

II. Audience

This document targets to the developers who will use the akaBot Studio to develop the automating business process.

akaBot Studio User Interface

akaBot Studio contains multiple panels which allows you to easily access to specific functionalities as below:

I. File Panel

To access the File panel, click File at the top left corner of the screen:
The User Interface of File panel is as below:

The File panel allows you to perform some below actions:

1. Create a new workflow project.

Each business process may be represented by an akaBot project which enables you to automate rule- based processes, by giving you full control of the execution order and the relationship between a set of predefined activities in akaBot Studio.

To create a new workflow project, you should follow below actions:
Step 1: Click ‘New’
Step 2: Choose type workflow: Blank or General Business Process

Step 3: Enter name project
Step 4: Click button ‘Create’ to finish.

After clicking, by default a sequence activity will be shown up in the Designer panel allowing you to start developing your project.

2. Open a Project

To open an existed workflow project, you can follow below actions:

Step 1: Click Open

Step 2: Choose file with format file is *.xaml
Step 3: Click button ‘Open’

3. Change configuration options

This window to support them setup: Debug mode, and add references Directories
Debug
Step 1: Click ‘Options’

Step 2: Press to up or down size milliseconds between debug ste Step 3: Press button ‘Ok’ to submit the change configuration / ‘Cancel’ to close this window
and cancel this process.

4. References Directories
Step 1: Click ‘Options’

Step 2: Choose tab ‘References Directories’
Step 3: Click button ‘Add’

Step 4: Click ‘Ok’ to choose a folder

Step 5: Press button ‘Ok’ to submit the change configuration / ‘Cancel’ to close this window and cancel this process.

4. View the version details

You can view the version of akaBot Studio by click in tab ‘About’:

About akaBot Studio screen will be previewed Product details as below:

5. Close akaBot Studio

When click Exit, akaBot Studio will be closed.

II. Home Panel

To access the Home panel, click Home at the top of the screen:

The Home panel allows you to perform some below actions: New, Save, Start, Debug, Stop, Open Logs, Publish, Add activity

1. New

There are 3 main types of projects:

• Flowcharts - suitable to a complex business logic which needs to integrate decisions and connect activities by using multiple branching logic operators.
• Sequences - suitable to defined linear processes from one activity to another without cluttering your project.
• State Machines – suitable for very large projects which have number of states triggered by a transition condition.

In this item, you can create new these three types
 

a. State machine diagram

• Step 1: Choose New + State machine diagram

• Step 2: Enter name diagram
• Step 3: Click button ‘Create’

b. Flowchart

• Step 1: Click 'new' > Flow Chart

• Step 2: Enter name flowchart diagram
• Step 3: Click button ‘Create’

c. Sequence

• Step 1: Click 'new' > Sequence

• Step 2: Enter name flowchart diagram
• Step 3: Click button ‘Create’

2. Save

• Step 1: Edit activity, control flow,… in project
• Step 2: Click 'Save' > Save if only save changes or Click Save as if save with different *.xaml file.

• Step 3: Enter name *.xaml file > click button Save

3. Start

Click button

to run BOT. Wait a few minutes for the BOT to finish and see result in Output Window
 

4. Debug
Click

to identify and remove errors from a given project. Coupled with logging, it becomes a powerful functionality that offers you information about your project and step-by-step highlighting, so that you can be sure it is error-free.
 

5. Stop
When starting or debugging the process, you can click

to stop this process.
 

6. Open Logs
Click

to open folder have log file - display details about what is happening in your project

7. Publish

• To publish an automation project:

• Step 1: Create / Open a new project.
• Step 2: In the Home ribbon tab, click Publish. Theo Publish project window opens

• Step 3: In the Publish Location category, set the project to be published to Orchestrator

8. Add Activity

• To add activity

• Step 1: In the akaBot Studio click File menu, chose Options.
• Step 2: In the table Options, click References Directories tab, click Add button and chose directory containing the activity library (.dll Files) to load activities.
• Step 3: In the akaBot Studio click Add Activities. , chose activities from the list and press Add.

9. Show or hide tools

• Check or uncheck box to show or hide tool in screen of akaBot Studio.

III. Activities

This panel displays all the built-in activities which aid in the creation and the execution of automation projects. These activities enable robots:

• Manipulate the data by adding/extracting/reading information.
• Directly interaction with websites, windows applications…to simulate the human actions.

The activities are grouped in different categories such as: Flow chart, Control Flow, Primitives, Core, Excel, XML, Browser…
You may quickly add an activity into the project workflow by searching by activity name and drag the activity in the Designer panel.

Please refer to section III. akaBot Studio Activities for details of each activity.

IV. Designer

The Designer panel allows you to design your automation projects by designing the workflow, defining logic, creating variables/arguments or importing the namespaces.

You may design the workflow or defining business logic of the workflow by using activities in Activities panel then connect these activities by the arrow.
To connect activity A to activity B, you need to click to activity A, hold the mouse and drag to the activity B to create a link (represented by an arrow) between these 2 activities.

You may set what activities will be the starting point by connecting Start activity to selected one.
Depending on the activity, you may place an activity inside another activity such as: Parallel, If, Flowchart, Sequence…

1. Create a variable

To create a variable, follow below steps:

• Step 1 - Click Variables tab.
• Step 2 – Fill variable properties.

Variable Properties:

2. Create an argument

To create an argument, please follow below steps:

• Step 1 – Click Arguments tab
• Step 2 – Click Create Argument option.
  The new argument will be displayed with all default values. You may customize these values for the created argument.

3. Import a namespace

To import a namespace, please follow below steps:

• Step 1 – Click Imports tab
• Step 2 – Find the namespace you want to import
• Step 3 – Double click the namespace to import.

V. Properties

This panel is contextual and enables you to view and change the properties of a selected activity.

• Step 1: Double click an activity in Designer panel.
  Properties of that activity will be showed in Properties panel.

• Step 2: Change the properties

VI. Workflow Outline

This panel display the hierarchy of the workflow listing all the used activities and their connection.

You can double click on an activity to quickly open it.

VI. Verify output, error, debug

1. Verify output

When run akaBot Studio, you can see result in each step.

• Step 1: Click 'Start' to run akaBot Studio
• Step 2: Click the “Output” button at bottom left to see.

2. Verify error

Click the “Error List” button at bottom left

3. View debugging information

• Step 1: Choose “Debug” when running
• Step 2: Check the debugging information in the Debug tab as below:

Akabot Studio Activities

I. Core actitivies

1. Message Box

The Message Box* activity allows you to display a message in e debug dialog box.
Property Column:**

2. Path Exists

The Path Exists activity checks whether a exists or not

Property Column

3. Select File

The Select File activity lets the user select a file. The full path of the file will then be returned as a string variable.
Properties Column:

4. Select Folder

The Select Folder activity allows the user to select a folder. The full path of the folder will then be returned as a string variable.
Property Column

5. Comment

The Comment activity allows the developer to insert comments or notes into the coding of the program.
Properties Column:

6. Comment Out

The Comment Out activity allows the developer to ignore, effectively skipping, any activities that are placed inside the Comment Out activity.

Properties Column:

7. Append Line

The Append Line activity enables you to append a line of text to a file

Properties Column:

8. Read Text File

The Read Text File activity allows you to extract the texts inside a text file and store it in a string variable.

Properties Column:

9. Write Text File

The Write Text File activity allows you to overwrite a text file. If the destination path does not exist, it will be created by this activity.

Properties Column:

10. Copy File

The Copy File activity allows you to copy a file from one locale to another.

Property Comlumn:

11. Move File

The Move File activity allows you to move a file from one locale to another.

Properties Column:

12. Get Files

The Get Files activity allows you to retrieve the data of multiple files.

Properties Column:

13. Create Directory

The Create Directory activity allows you to create a new directory.

Properties Column:

II. Window actitivies

1. Open Window

Open Window is a container that opens an application that allows numerous of activities to be written in the Do section.

A pathway to the application must be written in the file path in order for this activity to open the application.

Open Window Properties:

2. Window Scope

Window scope is a container that allows you to attach it to an already opened window. It allows you to do numerous of activities alongside with the Open Window.

Window Scope Properties:

Note: If this is placed in a try and catch and the Continue On Error is true, the try and catch would not produce any errors even if the program has errors.

3. Click
Allows you to click a specific interface in your program, eg: a button, textboxes etc

Click Properties:

Note: If this is placed in a try and catch and the Continue On Error is true, the try and catch would not produce any errors even if the program has errors.

4. Type Into
Type Into sends keystrokes to a editable field, special keys can also be used in the dropdown box.

Note: If this is placed in a try and catch and the Continue On Error is true, the try and catch would not produce any errors even if the program has errors. Strings must be placed in between quotation marks.

5. Send Hot Key

Send Hot Key triggers keyboard shortcuts.

If you click on any of the key property, the robot would act accordingly to it.

Send Hot Key Properties:

III. System activities

1. While

The While activity allows you to execute a specific process repeatedly, while a specific condition is met. In the While activity, the condition is reviewed before the sequences in the loop is executed.
Properties Column:

2. Do While

The Do While activity allows you to execute a specific process repeatedly while a condition is met. When the specified condition is no longer being met, the program exits the loop. In the Do While activity, the sequences in the loop is executed before the condition is reviewed.

Properties Column:

3. For Each

The For Each activity allows you to step through arrays, lists, data tables, dictionaries or other types of collections, so that you can skim through the data and process each piece of information individually.

Properties Column:

4. Sequence

The Sequence activity allows you to transition from one activity to another easily. It executes the activities inside the sequence in a linear fashion and the sequence can also be easily manipulated to chain multiple sequences together.

Properties Column:

5. Flowchart

Flowcharts can be used in a variety of situations and is much more versatile than a sequence. The most prominent feature of flowcharts is that they present multiple branching logical operators that enable you to create complex business processes and connect activities in a multitude of ways that a sequence just can’t do.
Properties Column:

6. If

The If activity is used to make decisions. It the condition is met, “Then” would be executed while “Else” would be ignored. However, if the condition is not met, “Else” would be executed while “Then” is ignored.

Properties Column:

7. Switch

The Switch activity enables you to select one route for the process to execute, out of multiple possible routes, based on the value of a specified expression.

Properties Column:

8. Assign

The Assign activity is a vital activity that allows you to assign a value to a variable.

Properties Column:

9. Invoke Workflow File

The Invoke Workflow File activity is used to invoke a workflow file with an XAML extension. Arguments can be passed in or out the workflow using the “Import Arguments” tab.

Properties Column:

10. Delay

The Delay activity enables you to pause the automation for a custom period of time. This is useful in getting certain timing-based automation right.
Properties Column:

IV. Browser activities

1. Open Browser

The Open Browser activity allows you to navigate to a specific Url by launching a specified browser.
Properties Column:

2. Browser Scope

The Browser Scope activity creates a container that lets you to attach to an already opened Browser
and execute actions within the Browser.

Properties Column:

3. Navigate To

The Navigate To activity allows you to navigate to another website on the current tab.

Properties Column:

4. Switch To

The Switch To activity allows you to switch between different UI Elements within a browser.

5. Click

The Click activity is used to send a click action into the webpage.

Properties Column:

6. Type Into

The Type Into activity allows you to type texts into any text field within the webpage.

Properties Column:

7. Wait Element Exist

The Wait Element Exist activity waits for a selected element to appear in the webpage.

Properties Column:

8. Wait Element Vanish

The Wait Element Vanish activity waits for a selected element to disappear from the webpage.

Properties Column:

9. Get Web Attribute

The Get Web Attribute activity allows you to get the value of an attribute that belongs to a UI element

Properties Column:

10. Select Item

The Select Item activity allows you to select an item from a combo box or list box.

Properties Column:

V. Excel activities

1. Build Data Table

This activity allows you to create a data table according to a specific schema in a visual manner.

You may customize the data table to be created by clicking DataTable button. After clicking, the Build Data Table windows is opened as below:

There are two columns and two rows by default. The default column titles and variable types cannot be edited. Instead, the columns may be removed and then replaced by new ones.
To add a column into your table, click + icon. A pop up window is displayed to customize the properties as below:

Column Properties:

Click OK button at New Column window to attach the column into table.
To remove a column, click x icon beside the column name. To remove a row, click x icon at the beginning of the row.

Click OK button to save the new data table or abort it by clicking Cancel button.

2. Read Range

Read Range reads the value of an Excel range and stores it in a DataTable variable. Read Range can only be used in an Excel Application Scope activity. If a range is not specified, the whole excel sheet would be read. However, if a cell number is specified it would read from the cell number to the rest of the sheet. Otherwise, a range is specified as per example given below, it would read from the specific range.

A workbook path means the excel file has to be inserted in this activity. The sheet you want the read range to read has to be specified as per in your excel file.

Read Range Properties:

Note: Strings must be placed in between quotation for Range, Sheet Name and Workbook Path.

3. Write Range

Write Range writes value into an excel sheet by using a DataTable variable. It has to be in an excel application scope.

If the starting cell is not specified, it would write starting from the A1 cell and would be overwritten if there were some previous texts. If the sheet name is not specified, the activity would be create a new spreadsheet with the sheet name as mentioned.

Write Range Properties:

Note: Strings must be placed in between quotation for Sheet Name and Starting Cell.
###3.5.4 Append Range
Append Range Activity Add the input data after the last line of the excel file.

Append Range Properties

Note: Strings must be placed in between quotation mark for the Sheet Name.

5. Output Data Table
Output Data Table writes a data table to a string into a csv scheme.

Output Data Table Properties:

6. Add Data Row

Add Data Row adds another row to a Data Table.

If you use an Array Row then the Data Row can be ignored, vice versa.

Add Data Row Properties:

7. For Each Row

For Each Row Activity performs an action for each row in a specified DataTable variable.

For Each Row Properties:

8. Get Row Item

Get Row Items gets a value from a DataRow variable from a specified column.

If the Column Name is set, the Column Index can be ignored. If the Column is set, the Column Name
and Column Index can be ignored.

Get Row Item Properties:

VI. Word activities

1. Word Application Scope

Word Application Scope opens up a word document or creates a new document if there is no document found. It also acts as a scope for other word activities. If the word activity ends, so does the document and word application.

This activity only works if Microsoft Word is installed on your computer.

Word Application Scope Properties:

Note: All strings has to be placed in between quotation marks.

2. Read Text
Read Text reads off a text from a word document and stores it in a string variable. It can only be used in a Word Application Scope activity.

Read Text Properties:

3. Append Text

Append Text adds text at the end of the word document. It can only be used in a Word Application Scope activity.

Note: Strings must be placed between in quotation marks.

4. Replace Text

Replace Text activity replaces a string in the word document with another string. It can only be used in a word application scope activity.

Replace Text Properties:

Note: All strings must be placed in between quotation marks.

5. Add Image

Activity used to add images from your computer to insert in the word document. It can only be used in word application scope activity.

Get Images Properties:

Note: All strings must be placed in between quotation marks.

6. Export to PDF

Export To PDF converts a word document into a PDF document. It can only be used in a word application scope activity.

Export To PDF Properties:

Note: All strings must be placed in between quotation marks.

VII. Email activities

1. Send Mail

Send Mail sends email messages using the SMTP protocol.

Send Mail Properties:

Note: All strings must be placed in between quotation marks.

2. Send Outlook Mail

Send Outlook Mail sends an email from Outlook itself.

Send Outlook Mail Properties:

Note: All strings must be placed in between quotation marks.

3. Get Outlook Mail Messages

Get outlook mail messages allows you to fetch messages from outlook.

Get Outlook Mail Messages Properties:

Note: All strings must be placed in between quotation marks.

VII. Error handling activities

1. Try and Catch, Throw and Rethrow

Try and Catch allows you to catch a certain specified type of exception and shows you the type of error or it could also be dismissed to continue the program.

he program that you want to find the bug should be placed into the Try Section while under the Catch Section, you have got to mention the type of exception you are looking for.

Throw Property allows you to throw and find an exception providing you enter the type of exception.

Under the ReThrow property, it would allow you to re-throw the type of bug you are finding for if it does not pop out the first time.