Hi Nicholas,
First, let me just say that I'm right there with you on the frustration. I've been dealing with things like this over the course of Blue Prism 6.3 to 6.10.1. With each new version, some issues appeared to be fixed, but something else would happen or the same issues would come back. Overall, Chrome automation did get MUCH better from 6.3 to 6.10.1. I find it to be pretty reliable in 6.10.1, but the latest version I'm involved in where a client has it in production is 6.9 so it's hard to confirm for sure.
In any case, you're seeing some of the same issues I've experienced, and I'd like to comment on each one of them, if nothing else but so that you know you're not crazy. =) In some of the cases, I can suggest workarounds, I think.
But, bottom line up front here, I'm liking v7.0 with its new native browser messaging component or whatever it's called. It has worked flawlessly for me so far, but of course it still is missing some features you've mentioned. I'm still doing some testing around that. I hate suggesting v7.0 because I know you've been around for a while and already know the common suggestion of "Oh just upgrade and your problems will be solved!" Haha!
• Failing to connect to Chrome extension
This was supposed to be fixed in 6.10.1. It was a common issue I ran into in 6.10, and it was one of the things they tried to fix. The setting I'd suggest for attempting to troubleshoot is in the System tab > System group > Settings > and all the way at the bottom under "Browser Extension Connectivity" > "Use fixed browser extension port (31924) only". Checking this box turns ephemeral ports off. Unchecking the box turns ephemeral ports on. The trade off is that with the box checked, things should work similarly to early versions of v6 where only port 31924 was used, which causes more functionality to work properly but with the increased chance of the connectivity breaking, requiring a restart of the browser and sometimes of the runtime resource. If you have the box unchecked, then it should be more reliable as far as connectivity goes, but instead some functionality doesn't work such as trying to attach to browser windows that Blue Prism did not open originally. Overall, this issue has been a thing for quite a while across a number of versions and it's the one that makes me want to tear my hair out the most.
• Missing Navigate option
The Navigate stage action you want is called "Set Address". If I remember right in IE automation, it was called "Navigate URL" or something. It works the same though. You're gonna facepalm on this one, and it's ok because I did the same thing. Blue Prism didn't stay consistent here. Originally in Chrome automation, this did not exist at all. I think it wasn't added until maybe 6.7 or so. I'm not 100% sure on that though. I have no idea why they didn't name it the same thing.
• UIA mode slowness
Yeah, it's slow. It's the worst. I basically attempt to never use it. When I do use it, I cry softly to myself. Luckily, Blue Prism has been adding some Global Mouse stuff to Browser mode. Now we just need a Global Mouse Click in Browser mode, and we may not ever have to use UIA in browser automation. You can technically use Active Accessibility if you're like me and found that it was faster than UIA mode in IE automation. You just have to change the Application Type from browser to desktop temporarily while you spy AA elements and then you can switch it back to Browser, and it will retain the AA elements and they'll still work.
• UIA mode causing Blue Prism to hang
This is a fun one. I have zero workarounds to suggest for it, but that or something similar has happened to me. It doesn't happen very often for me though.
• Parent document loaded does not seem to function correctly
I hadn't noticed the exact issue you described with Parent Document Loaded. I'm with you on how important that is in Wait stages. I used to use it all the time in IE automation. Chrome automation didn't used to have this at all. I think it wasn't added until like 6.9 or something, so I think they still have some stuff to work out for that. The issue I ran into is that Blue Prism would report that it couldn't find an element even though the element was loading within the timeout timeframe. The issue intended up being a problem with the browser extension that they fixed after I reported the bug. It didn't require a change to the core platform. As a side note, I'd also like to see Document Loaded added in as well and for them to function like they did in IE.
• Element not found after wait stage reports the element is found
I'm gonna say I'm 70% sure I or colleagues of mine have had this issue, but we could never reproduce it reliably enough to report it. as a bug. If you can reproduce the error, I think that would be very valuable for Blue Prism to know how to do so they can fix it.
• Times out while reading text from large elements
I cringed when I read your workaround to it. That must be painful. I'd say the same thing as above is that you're probably right about the issue and I super encourage showing Blue Prism how to reproduce that error if possible. I don't think I've had that use case so I haven't run into that issue.
• Wait stage fails to find an element if another element in the wait stage has an error
I believe I've run into this as well, but again it's kind of hard to reproduce. But I 100% agree that wait stages should attempt to evaluate all conditions before giving up just because one of them had an error. Actually, maybe a good suggestion for Blue Prism is to make it a toggle-able setting in a wait stage to say "throw an exception if there are any errors" or something similar to that.
------------------------------
Dave Morris
Cano Ai
Atlanta, GA
------------------------------
First, let me just say that I'm right there with you on the frustration. I've been dealing with things like this over the course of Blue Prism 6.3 to 6.10.1. With each new version, some issues appeared to be fixed, but something else would happen or the same issues would come back. Overall, Chrome automation did get MUCH better from 6.3 to 6.10.1. I find it to be pretty reliable in 6.10.1, but the latest version I'm involved in where a client has it in production is 6.9 so it's hard to confirm for sure.
In any case, you're seeing some of the same issues I've experienced, and I'd like to comment on each one of them, if nothing else but so that you know you're not crazy. =) In some of the cases, I can suggest workarounds, I think.
But, bottom line up front here, I'm liking v7.0 with its new native browser messaging component or whatever it's called. It has worked flawlessly for me so far, but of course it still is missing some features you've mentioned. I'm still doing some testing around that. I hate suggesting v7.0 because I know you've been around for a while and already know the common suggestion of "Oh just upgrade and your problems will be solved!" Haha!
• Failing to connect to Chrome extension
This was supposed to be fixed in 6.10.1. It was a common issue I ran into in 6.10, and it was one of the things they tried to fix. The setting I'd suggest for attempting to troubleshoot is in the System tab > System group > Settings > and all the way at the bottom under "Browser Extension Connectivity" > "Use fixed browser extension port (31924) only". Checking this box turns ephemeral ports off. Unchecking the box turns ephemeral ports on. The trade off is that with the box checked, things should work similarly to early versions of v6 where only port 31924 was used, which causes more functionality to work properly but with the increased chance of the connectivity breaking, requiring a restart of the browser and sometimes of the runtime resource. If you have the box unchecked, then it should be more reliable as far as connectivity goes, but instead some functionality doesn't work such as trying to attach to browser windows that Blue Prism did not open originally. Overall, this issue has been a thing for quite a while across a number of versions and it's the one that makes me want to tear my hair out the most.
• Missing Navigate option
The Navigate stage action you want is called "Set Address". If I remember right in IE automation, it was called "Navigate URL" or something. It works the same though. You're gonna facepalm on this one, and it's ok because I did the same thing. Blue Prism didn't stay consistent here. Originally in Chrome automation, this did not exist at all. I think it wasn't added until maybe 6.7 or so. I'm not 100% sure on that though. I have no idea why they didn't name it the same thing.
• UIA mode slowness
Yeah, it's slow. It's the worst. I basically attempt to never use it. When I do use it, I cry softly to myself. Luckily, Blue Prism has been adding some Global Mouse stuff to Browser mode. Now we just need a Global Mouse Click in Browser mode, and we may not ever have to use UIA in browser automation. You can technically use Active Accessibility if you're like me and found that it was faster than UIA mode in IE automation. You just have to change the Application Type from browser to desktop temporarily while you spy AA elements and then you can switch it back to Browser, and it will retain the AA elements and they'll still work.
• UIA mode causing Blue Prism to hang
This is a fun one. I have zero workarounds to suggest for it, but that or something similar has happened to me. It doesn't happen very often for me though.
• Parent document loaded does not seem to function correctly
I hadn't noticed the exact issue you described with Parent Document Loaded. I'm with you on how important that is in Wait stages. I used to use it all the time in IE automation. Chrome automation didn't used to have this at all. I think it wasn't added until like 6.9 or something, so I think they still have some stuff to work out for that. The issue I ran into is that Blue Prism would report that it couldn't find an element even though the element was loading within the timeout timeframe. The issue intended up being a problem with the browser extension that they fixed after I reported the bug. It didn't require a change to the core platform. As a side note, I'd also like to see Document Loaded added in as well and for them to function like they did in IE.
• Element not found after wait stage reports the element is found
I'm gonna say I'm 70% sure I or colleagues of mine have had this issue, but we could never reproduce it reliably enough to report it. as a bug. If you can reproduce the error, I think that would be very valuable for Blue Prism to know how to do so they can fix it.
• Times out while reading text from large elements
I cringed when I read your workaround to it. That must be painful. I'd say the same thing as above is that you're probably right about the issue and I super encourage showing Blue Prism how to reproduce that error if possible. I don't think I've had that use case so I haven't run into that issue.
• Wait stage fails to find an element if another element in the wait stage has an error
I believe I've run into this as well, but again it's kind of hard to reproduce. But I 100% agree that wait stages should attempt to evaluate all conditions before giving up just because one of them had an error. Actually, maybe a good suggestion for Blue Prism is to make it a toggle-able setting in a wait stage to say "throw an exception if there are any errors" or something similar to that.
------------------------------
Dave Morris
Cano Ai
Atlanta, GA
------------------------------
