DX VBOs using C# 6 with older BP versions

[DavidCunliffe]

Hi! I'm using an older Blue Prism version, v6.6 specifically. When I download new VBOs from the DX I find that there are Code Stages in C# which do not compile.

When I look in the object's Code Stages to see what is going on, I find it is nearly always due to string interpolation - that C# 6 feature where you write a string literal prefixed with a dollar symbol and then enclose variable names in curly brackets inside the string. I assume using any other C# 6 features would cause the same thing, but it's usually string interpolation.

My question is: Is there any way to make my older version of BP use the newer C# features?

I'm just setting out on a project to upgrade my Blue Prism infrastructure, but wondered if there was a workaround I could use for the next two or three months (other than rewriting all the strings in the VBO!)

[ArkadyDudko]

Have you tried upgrading your local .NET runtime to be latest? I think older version of BP will run with newer .NET  ( not the other way  - newer BB working with older .NET)

[ewilson]

Hello @David Cunliffe,

Beginning with Blue Prism v6.0, .NET Framework v4.7 or higher was a requirement. String interpolation was initially added with C# 6 which saw support start with .NET Framework v4.6 I believe. There have been enhancements to string interpolation that were introduced in C# 10 and 11 though, so it may be one of these enhancements that's tripping you up.

What specific VBOs are you having trouble with?

Cheers,
Eric​​

[DavidCunliffe]

Thanks both! I should have mentioned that .Net 4.7 is installed and Blue Prism reports that version in the About page.

I was assuming that it was due to the Rosslyn compiler not being the targetted version in the BP build.

The specific VBOs I'm looking at are the new MS Graph API for Outlook (I did notice that it says it was only tested with BP 6.7 and I'm on 6.6, but thought it was worth a shot).

[Walter.Koller]

"I should have mentioned that .Net 4.7 is installed and Blue Prism reports that version in the About page."

The about page shows the expected .Net version. It does not show the actual one.
This confused me too until it was clarified to me by BP support.

In order to find the actually installed .Net versions you have to follow this description:
Determine which .NET Framework versions are installed - .NET Framework | Microsoft Learn

[DavidCunliffe]

Ah, thanks Walter! So following through that MS link for the .net framework version , I actually have .net 4.8 installed.

[DavidCunliffe]

@ewilson - sorry, I misnamed the VBO that I was using - it is actually "​Microsoft 365 - Outlook" from

https://digitalexchange.blueprism.com/dx/entry/3439/solution/microsoft-office-365---outlook

[ewilson]

@David Cunliffe,

We’re in the process of adding a new action to that VBO. While we’re at it, we’ll change the string interpolation to a legacy pattern. That will address your issue.

Cheers,
Eric​

[ewilson]

@David Cunliffe,

Version 1.1 of the VBO has been posted to the DX. We've changed the string interpolation to a more legacy string concatenation pattern. You can find the updated VBO here.

Cheers,
Eric​