Is there a way to create a BluePrism solution without using the UI?

[AaronPetry]

Hello all, I am curious as to if it is possible to create a BluePrism RPA solution without using the UI to configure the flows? For example, if we have all of the necessary information for the RPA process such as the steps needed to create an account in an application, the order in which the steps should be followed, the various elements that need to be interacted with, the data used to create the account, etc., could we call some BluePrism API or create code that when loaded into BP, will automatically create the flows/solution rather than a developer manually going into BluePrism and configuring the flows manually.  Hopefully that makes sense! If not, or if you have any questions, please let me know and I will try to clarify! Cheers, Aaron    

[John__Carter]

Hi Aaron, no there isn't. Your example is highly theoretical, in reality you'd need to assemble and prove the 'necessary information' beforehand, and to do that you'd need some sort of UI. At a push you could probably generate the XML for a process, but doing the same for a business object would be more or less impossible - there's too much trial and error required in object creation.

[AaronPetry]

Thank you for the quick response, John! Just for curiosity's sake, is it technically impossible do it for a business object or would it just be extremely difficult and time consuming and therefore, it might as well be done through the UI?  Also, I'm sure the complexity of the business processes differ greatly between applications, so that would definitely play a part.  Cheers, Aaron

[John__Carter]

Hi Aaron - technically it's possible because a process or object is defined as XML, and as long as that XML is valid, BP will accept it. As a tiny example, copy a data item from a diagram and paste into Notepad. Play around with the XML and change the name value. Then paste back into the diagram and you should see a data item with a new name. So on a larger scale you could technically manufacture the XML for an entire object. But realistically, constructing valid XML would be very difficult, and perfecting the application model without a UI would be almost impossible. I know this from experience because BP v1 had no Object Studio and all business objects had to be coded as DLLs. It was slow and painful work!

[AaronPetry]

Got it. Thank you for your insight, John! Really appreciated.