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Best Practice for Transitioning Objects/Processes from IE to Google Chrome

MarcMoran
Level 3

‎22-02-21 11:46 PM

Hi there,

I am currently part of a team looking to transition all of our existing processes that currently run using IE over to Google Chrome before the IE EoL deadline later this year. We currently have around 2200 IE elements in all of our objects. We are not intending to make the switch to Chrome immediately - this will be a gradual transition where processes are switched over one by one, and so we need to keep all of our IE objects intact until such a time that there are 0 IE processes left using these shared objects.

We have looked at duplicating every object we have, however as we have upwards of 200 IE objects currently in use this would result in a lot of clutter and make the environment very hard to manage - although this is not something we are discounting as a last resort

It is possible to change the application type to Chrome in the application modeller, and add in new Chrome elements alongside existing IE elements. This has been tested with one object being capable of both attaching to and interacting with Chrome and IE windows in the same page. My intention was to include a choice stage which would decide whether each object attach and carry out it's function within Chrome or IE, with the variable controlling this choice stage being passed through from the parent process.

However, I am unsure if spying IE and Chrome objects within the same application modeller will cause issues that I can't forsee yet, and so I'm looking for clarity on whether anyone else has had success using a similar method, or if anyone else has any tips on how to make mass re-spying of objects from IE to Chrome as easy as possible. How have you dealt with your transition?


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Marc Moran
Senior Process Automation Officer
Renfrewshire Council
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10 REPLIES 10

henrynli
Staff
Staff

‎23-02-21 04:18 AM

Hi Marc,

Not sure if you have referenced to this tool from DX portal : https://digitalexchange.blueprism.com/dx/entry/3439/solution/application-modeller-conversion-tool

It is community supported but worth you spending time to try it out.

Cheers

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Henry Li
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david.l.morris
Level 15

‎23-02-21 05:24 PM

I cannot say that I've put a process into production with elements from two different application types, but in the testing I've done there appears to be no issues. The only thing to workaround is that you have to constantly keep switching the application model to use a different application type (IE vs Chrome vs Win32 etc.) in order to make updates to the application model.

I suspect you'll find it works, but of course (and I'm sure you would have already) it is a good idea to do a proof of concept on a single process/object first to verify the concept works, put it into SIT/UAT, and then into Prod all before you start changing any other object.

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Dave Morris
Cano Ai
Atlanta, GA
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Dave Morris, 3Ci at Southern Company

peterlacken
Level 7

‎27-02-21 06:20 PM

Hi Marc,

I was the lead on a project to convert Over 40 business objects from IE to Chrome last year and developed my own conversion utility and Analytics Tiles to visualize the progress. See attached file.

first I would recommend you get onto the latest BP version - I worked with them to improve the chrome extension through versions 6,8 and 6,9.  It is better with every version but still not totally bug free in 6,10.

If I understand correctly what you are asking I don't think you can run IE and Chrome from the same object. You will be better advised converting IE to a chrome version, renaming the IE version and renaming the chrome version to the old IE version. This way there is no process changes necessary.

As above there is a xoncerdion utility online on the DX and you csn download my report on DX to Get snnoverview of the scope of the project. Search for chrome on DX - author is Ren Røros.

good luck and reach out if you need more assistance.

Peter Lacken

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PeterLacken
Ren Røros Intelligent Automation
Peter.Lacken@rria.no
http://www.rria.no
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Preview file
332 KB

MarcMoran
Level 3
In response to peterlacken

‎08-03-21 10:34 AM

Hi Peter, 

I've actually already used your conversion report process to check the scope of how much we have to do as a team, which has been very useful. Thank you for this! I haven't been able to find the conversion utility you mentioned on the DX, do you have a link?

We are looking to schedule our upgrade to 6.10 with BP in the next couple of weeks, so hopefully we can get moving on the Chrome migration sometime shortly after that.

Thanks,
Marc

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Marc Moran
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0 Likes

MarcMoran
Level 3
In response to david.l.morris

‎08-03-21 10:37 AM

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your reply. I've done a couple of very small objects testing using/attaching to both Chrome and IE from the same object. As you mentioned, switching the application model can be a little cumbersome however everything appears to be fine otherwise - I was worried that maybe something 'under the hood' would be affected by doing this so wanted to post here and double check

As you recommended, I'll probably make a proof of concept object with quite a few more elements first just to see if that results in any issues, and I'll edit the OP with an update.

Cheers,
Marc



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Marc Moran
Marc
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0 Likes

MarcMoran
Level 3
In response to henrynli

‎08-03-21 10:40 AM

Hi Henry,

We've given the AMCT a try but been very unsuccessful with it, it didn't manage to get any of the IE HTML elements to be detected properly within the Browser/Web spying mode.

We're going to wait until the 6.10 upgrade is in until we try again and see if that makes a difference, but unfortunately it doesn't look like the best option for us so far, unless you have any tips on where I might have gone wrong? Have you seen success with it before?

Kind Regards,
Marc




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Marc Moran
Marc
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0 Likes

peterlacken
Level 7
In response to MarcMoran

‎08-03-21 04:56 PM

Hi Marc,

I am surprised to hear Blue Prisms own conversion tool didn't work out for you. 


If you have a business object that you are ok to share I am happy to run it through our conversion utility and send back to you the chrome converted business object free of charge. I am curious to hear if ours worked better for you than the BP own.

regards,
Peter



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PeterLacken
Ren Røros Intelligent Automation
Peter.Lacken@rria.no
http://www.rria.no
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0 Likes

bruce.liu
Staff
Staff
In response to MarcMoran

‎10-03-21 10:36 AM

Hi Marc,

I am the author of Application Modeller Conversion Tool, and I am more than happy to listen to any feedback you have with the tool. If you do not already know, the tool has recently gone through extensive updates in the last week or so, taking onboard new ideas from our customers and partners, as well as providing some much needed bug fixes. If you have time, may very well give v1.3.0 a try. It definitely works a lot better than previously.

The browser conversion is quite a complex topic, and I personally do not think any tool will give you a conversion that requires little or no work in the end. There are so many external factors that are not within Blue Prism's control, e.g., the definition of the element itself. Often browsers do render elements differently and without having access to your target applications, it is almost impossible to know if a straight conversion from attributes you have selected in IE would work in modern browsers.

For more information on browser conversions, you can take a look at the GitHub site where Application Modeller Conversion Tool is being hosted https://github.com/blue-prism/ApplicationModellerConversion. For some limitations we have gathered so far, see https://github.com/blue-prism/ApplicationModellerConversion/blob/master/BROWSER.md. For change log associated with the tool, see https://github.com/blue-prism/ApplicationModellerConversion/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md.

I am in the process of producing some education material on the subject of Browser Migration. More details will be shared hopefully in the Community in the coming weeks. After all, the tool is just part of the solution to the problem, the rest is all dependent on getting a good understanding of the topic and in turn proactively work on areas where the tool is not able to assist.

Hope this helps.

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Bruce Liu
Senior Product Consultant, Professional Services
Blue Prism
Australia/Sydney
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