topic How to set each virtual worker to only pick specific priority items. in Product Forum

How to set each virtual worker to only pick specific priority items.

Tejaskumar_Darji — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 19:19:00 GMT

How to set each virtual worker to only pick a specific priority item.
For e.g. BOT1 - 0 Priority items, BOT2 - 1 priority items.

I do not want to use different queues and I've set up different priority items in the same queue.

Also, I do not wanna lock items one by one and decide if it is desired priority or not.

I'm looking for a direct way to handle this scenario.

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Thanks & Regards,
Tejaskumar Darji
Sr. RPA Consultant-Automation Developer
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RE: How to set each virtual worker to only pick specific priority items.

HarpreetKaur — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 22:54:00 GMT

Hello,

You can achieve that by setting tags for your queue items. e.g. when you're populating a queue with 0 Priority items, at the same time assign '0 Priority' tags to those items as well. Similarly for '1 Priority'.
Now you can create a mapping for which bot to pick up which priority in your Get Next Item action by setting that tag value as input.
so if the runtime resource A is mapped to only deal with '0 Priority' items, it will never lock any other priority items in that same queue.

However, make sure that you use a limited amount of tag variations because if handled carelessly they can end creating a lot of slowness, memory issues.

Regards

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Harpreet Kaur Product Consultant
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RE: How to set each virtual worker to only pick specific priority items.

stepher — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 15:45:00 GMT

Tejaskurmar,
It does not appear that you are using the Priority value to prioritize, rather to sort or filter.

Harpreet's recommondation of using Tags will absolutely work, but I also agree that Tags can be a bit finicky. I do, however, tend to use Tags to make sure that the work units are moving forward in the process (I use the Status value to more clearly indicate where the work unit is in its progression as well, but since you cannot use the Status value to select a work unit, I end up duplicating the Status in the Tag field).

All that said, if you are truly looking to have the work units processed in parallel by separate machines, I would probably recommend creating discrete workqueues. You can still build in Process logic to state that if all of the items in Work Queue A are completed (or deferred) then move onto Work Queue B to assist.

I am curious as to why you would want a specific bot to cover one set of items, and a different specific bot to process a different set of items. We do our best to keep the Bots provisioned identically, so there would be no inherent advantage. In any case, maybe you could look at having the Bots assigned to the available work queues (or by Tags) in a First-In-First-Out method. To my mind, this could utilize yet another work queue (as a controller/gate keeper) or you could do something like a text file saved to a specific location to indicate which queue the Bot should work.

Good luck,
Red

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Robert "Red" Stephens
Application Developer, RPA
Sutter Health
Sacramento, CA
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