Excel Macro with Blue prism

[MayankGoyal2]

Hi,

We have a action to run macro from BP in excel VBO, the objects waits for macro to complete. If there is any error in macro, it goes into recover. Now when macro runs for long time like 20-30 min, BP is waiting on that action stage, however it crashes the BP and in control room it shows disconnected. Please let us know why this happens and how the same can be fixed?
Ideally BP should be waiting on action stage and whenever macro completes should move to next stage.

------------------------------
Mayank Goyal
------------------------------

[nobu]

Hi Mayank,

"Waring" message is expected behaviour. When it exceeded the timeout value, the message was shown in the control room. It is just a message for you which doesn't stop the process. 

You can change the timeout value from 2 locations

1. System - Settings:
   
   
2. Each Stage:
   
   

FYI,
I still believe just waiting for a long time (e.g., 20 minutes) is not ideal way to utilise a robot. In this case, Advanced workqueue guide (section7 Design example) may provide a better solution. If you are interested in, please check the document from the Blue Prism portal site (https://portal.blueprism.com/)

Cheers,

Nobu

------------------------------
Nobuhiro Tokushige
Product Specialist
Blue Prism
Australia/Sydney
------------------------------

[MayankGoyal2]

@ewilson - Any inputs on above issue with run macros with parallel thread ?

------------------------------
Mayank Goyal
------------------------------

[ewilson · Accepted solution]

@Mayank Goyal ​I've updated the VBO so the action is published. I also updated the guide to include that action in the list. Seems those were oversights. As for the error you're seeing, I'm wondering if that tied to the macro you're trying to execute? There is no Dictionary used in the code stages of this action or the regular Run Macro action that this references.

As a test, I created a blank Excel workbook and added the below macro to it. Then I execute it from the VBO and everything worked fine.

Public Declare Function GetTickCount Lib "kernel32.dll" () As Long Sub WasteTime() ' All this macro will do is run through a loop and then display a dialog. Dim NowTick As Long Dim EndTick As Long Dim Finish As Long Finish = 10 EndTick = GetTickCount() + (Finish * 1000) Do NowTick = GetTickCount() DoEvents Loop Until NowTick >= EndTick MsgBox "We are finished looping!" End Sub​ 
Cheers,

------------------------------
Eric Wilson
Director, Partner Integrations for Digital Exchange
Blue Prism
------------------------------

[MayankGoyal2]

@ewilson - Thanks for your response, just want to check if this Excel extended VBO includes all functionality from basic excel vbo as well and additional functionality on top of it? ​

------------------------------
Mayank Goyal
------------------------------

[ewilson]

@Mayank Goyal  that's correct.

Cheers,
​​

------------------------------
Eric Wilson
Director, Partner Integrations for Digital Exchange
Blue Prism
------------------------------

[NileshJadhavBP]

Hi Mayank,

If activity take 20-30 min that mean excel file is huge and you are processing lots of action with same data.

Please check or do below thing 

1. if there are formula used in the excel file.Please convert that into value so file size will get reduce.
2. filter excel data and keep or take necessary data so your process will work fast.
3. Check VBA code & remove unnecessary loops and variables declaration.
4. Try to create and use function in VBA.
5. try to divide your main action in to small action.

i hope it will help you.

Thanks
Nilesh Jadhav.

------------------------------
Nilesh Jadhav
Senior RPA Specialist
------------------------------