Blue Prism Unable to Identify Button in Web Pop Up when Running Unattended

[JustinPiche]

I have an application that works in an Oracle cloud service web interface and I've gotten 90% of the objects to be recognized while running unattended processes. I've used a combination of AA and HTML elements with inconsistent results. (One page will only recognize a button as an HTML object, the next page, same button, will only be recognized as an AA object--it's frustrating) Either way, regarding AA objects, if I'm working in a foregrounded web site and I have a pop up, I've tried foregrounding the popup by clicking in the header of the pop up, first, to no avail. Should I be activating the pop-up first? I tried checking to see if the object exists in a wait stage before clicking anything, still no luck. I've tried identifying objects with keystrokes as attributes to use Global Send Keys--nada. Is there a best practice to dealing with web popups in a web interface? Do pop-ups even exist while running unattended processes?--There's no way to check or confirm it.  I've tried using every possible object type including regions, with relative objects--no luck!  I should also note that I've gotten very similar pop-ups to work at other stages of the same process without a problem--just using plain HTML objects--not this one, it doesn't work. I lined up all the attributes to ensure I wasn't missing something, no dice. To add another wrinkle to this issue, when I open Application Modeler in the object studio, I can highlight every object in this pop up, as expected, without a single issue. It's like the tale of two applications--I'm ready to rip my hair out.  I've scoured your documentation for days to resolve this and still no luck. So I'm asking--is there a best practice to dealing with web popups inside an unattended web interface?   Thanks JP

[JamesMcLintock]

Hi Justin,

Pop-ups can be a nightmare in web services, now I am going to assume your using iexplore (as Blue Prism standard browser).

Pop-ups within de-bug often do appear as spy-able via standard techniques within the object you're working with i.e. I am working in an iexplore object, and a download bar appears at the bottom, and Blue Prism will let me spy it within this objects application modeller.

This is often quite misleading and will fail when in control without warning. The easiest way we have solved this within our own Centre of Excellence is a range of "Utility" objects all built for the standard pop-ups you face when working with a browser:

• File downloads
• File uploads

To name the simplest, these are independent objects with Win32 spying that attach themselves to the browser. It's tedious at first,but it does mean that you have robust, reliable objects for all future projects.

Hope this is of help,

James

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James McLintock
Process Analyst and Developer
Blue Prism
Europe/London
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[John__Carter]

With Internet Explorer, pop ups such as Save As belong to the main iexplore.exe instance, whereas the web page itself is usually part of another iexplore.exe instance. And as James' says, they are part of the IE client itself, should be spied as Win32 etc not as web content, and often using a separate object yields the best results. Creating generic VBOs such as 'IE Save As' or 'IE Message Pop Up Handler' will also provide you with objects to reuse on future projects, just as James and his COE colleagues have done.

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John Carter
Professional Services
Blue Prism
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