New conversion rules' files - Application Modeller Converter

[María_del_Pila1]

Hi everyone!

I was working with my team using the "Application Modeller Conversion Tool" converting objects works with Internet Explorer to Egde and Chrome.

We know that the rules' files only apply to objects from IE to Chrome/Edge/Firefox but we were wondering if there's any chance to reverse de conversion, and take an object that uses chrome/edge etc to IE. 

Has anyone develop a conversion rules' file to this?

I tried to "reverse" one of them but i don't think i'm doing it correctly.

It keeps coming an error (in spanish) "El valor no puede ser nulo"

Can anyone help me?
Thanks!!

Pilar

[bruce.liu]

Hi Pilar,

Thanks for your interest in the Application Modeller Conversion Tool. I am consciously aware that no guidelines have been given on how one may go about creating a customised conversion rules but as you are aware it is certainly technically possible, but it is not a task for the faint hearted. The reason why a customisation guide is not written right now is down to demand: there is not really many conversions one can write between any two Application Modeller modes. There are currently IE to Modern Browsers, and AA to UIA. I may later publish a new one for IE Mode to IE Mode for Edge conversion (not supported by Blue Prism yet), because this is going to be a common scenario for customers out there.

Out of curiosity, can you please provide some background on the reason why you would require a modern browser mode to IE conversion? It surprises me a bit since the vast majority would be moving away from IE as opposed to moving into it. Because of that I doubt many would require such a conversion to the extent that a conversion rule file is justified.

It is difficult to comment on what exactly has gone wrong here. Click 'Show Detailed Error' may give you some further information. There are two main challenges of creating another set of conversion rules file:

1. Perform analysis to know what must be added, removed or updated to convert from one mode to another. This includes ID Conversion, Parameter Conversion, Attribute Conversion and Element conversions. All would require close examination of the XML behind each type of object. Although it is possible to reverse engineering on certain sections, others cannot be done purely based on IE to modern browser rules, since those parts are dropped automatically if they do not match the rules defined the conversion rules file. toActionArguments is one such example.
2. Use the feature of the tool to enable this. Different sections may have different ways of rule definition. 
3. Validate the results and then tweak the rules to fine tune the results.

Another thing to consider is if the effort of creating such a conversion rule is indeed needed. It takes a lot of effort to make one, and get it right in the end. For a piece of work that may only occur as a one-off, I would say doing it manually may be more efficient.