topic RE: Attach and Launch Stages in Digital Exchange

Attach and Launch Stages

sidram.m — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 17:40:00 GMT

Hi ,

In which scenarios can be used Launch and attach stages..

------------------------------
Sidramappa Hunashyal
SA
Accenture
Asia/Kolkata
------------------------------

RE: Attach and Launch Stages

charliekovacs — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 21:15:00 GMT

Sidramappa,

Launch and Attach are actions that can be built into a Visual Business Object (VBO). VBOs are built in order to interact with another software application. Very simply, Launch actions will start the application (usually from a file path to the application, or a URL to a web application). Attach actions are built to make sure that the application the Digital Worker thinks it is interacting with is actually correct. In Blue Prism processes, a Digital Worker often bounces from one application to another and back again. Including an Attach action in your VBO will prevent the Digital Worker from "losing sight" of an application as it does this jumping around.

Here is an example of a Launch action. All it does is launch the application from a file path that was configured in Application Modeller:

Next, an Attach action is needed so that the Blue Prism Digital Worker can identify and connect to the correct application it should be interacting with. In order to ensure the Digital Worker doesn't "forget" which application it should be interacting with, an Attach action should be built into the VBO like so:

The Attach action lives in the other actions you build into your VBO. For example, the Log In action (screenshot below) calls the Attach action page first to make sure it's connected to the right application before proceeding with the log in steps. In general, it is best practice to always call the Attach before carrying out any work in the rest of the action. The only action that doesn't need to call the Attach action first would be the Launch, because there is nothing to attach to prior to the launch.

Cheers

------------------------------
Charles Kovacs
Developer Consultant
Blue Prism
America/Chicago
------------------------------

RE: Attach and Launch Stages

lookman — Wed, 19 Feb 2020 15:38:00 GMT

Hi Sidramappa.

Charles gave some excellent information and detail. My hat is off to you Charles.

I wanted to give a brief summary if I may regarding the usage of launch and attach stages.

Launch is used simply to fire off the application that you've spied using the application modeller. This puts the focus on the launched app and is therefore active. Attach is used to reacquire focus. In other words, if the application is running but not in the foreground, if you try to interact with it, the action will fail. So before your page reads or writes to an application, for example, you'll want to check to see if it is attached.

You can check the result of the attach with a decision. If already attached, no problem, keep going. If however the application is not attached, you can reattach before attempting the read/write action.

I hope that is clear.

------------------------------
Jack Look
------------------------------

RE: Attach and Launch Stages

AfuaOwusu — Mon, 13 Nov 2023 11:19:00 GMT

Hi Charles,

Thank you so much for your knowledge and for making this as easy peasy as it can get. Its straight to the point yet detailed with the screenshots.

Once again, Thank you and keep them coming 🙂

Afua

------------------------------
Afua Owusu
------------------------------