Increase in processing time from second item onwards - Web Automation

[maneesh.vemula1]

Hi All - We're currently working on web automation project where the web page is Chrome based and all the elements have been spied in Browser Mode. While running the automation from the control room, we've observed that the processing time for the first item in the queue is normal, but when the second item is picked up from the queue - the processing time is more than doubled. Ex: If the first item takes 2 minutes to process, the second and the rest of the items are taking more than 5 minutes. We can clearly observe while watching the automation run on screen that it takes significantly more time for the elements to be recognized by the bots. If we stop the process and re-run it again, the first item that is picked up is processed as expected but then again for the second item, the processing time is significantly longer. Have you ever observed such behavior? Any suggestions on how to resolve this?

Thanks in advance!

------------------------------
Maneesh
------------------------------

[RonanConsidine]

Hi Maneesh,

When you are spying the elements in the windows are you following strict practices to ensure that they can be spied as quickly and efficiently as possible?

The rules to normally follow for anything foreground would be:
- Remove any traces of elements that could change such as URl's or Xpaths
- Limit the number of ticked attributes to as few as possible (usually 3-5) 
- Include match index or indices where spying is slow to aid in matching speed

It is possible to spy using other methods such as accessibility however that may not be best suited.

Other than spying, can you ensure that your process is set to pick up after the first item where it can neatly handover into the process flow again?
E.g. When your process first starts it performs steps 1-3, then after getting an item performs steps 4-7.

Does your process navigate back to step 3 ahead of the process or is there a step 8 that needs to be closed and re-opened?

------------------------------
Ronan Considine
Senior Business Analyst
Blue Prism
------------------------------

[maneesh.vemula1]

Hi Ronan - Thanks for the reply! We've followed best practices with regards to spying the web pages like you've mentioned. We do have a step where all the pop-up windows are closed and we return to the home page, pick up the next item in the queue and start over the steps from the beginning.

------------------------------
Maneesh Vemula
------------------------------