URGENT NOTIFICATION RELATED TO USE OF CHROME AND EDGE BROWSERS AS PART OF BLUE PRISM PRA AUTOMATIONS

[CharlotteK]

This information was last updated on 6th of December 2022

Google (Chrome) and Microsoft (Edge) have announced that they are changing the way third-party browser extensions are supported. In June 2023, any browser extension that uses their Manifest V2 (MV2) standard will no longer operate unless action is taken.   

In response to this announcement, SS&C Blue Prism has created a new browser extension that supports Manifest V3 (MV3) for it's RPA product.  

It is recommended that customers who currently use either of these browsers as part of their automations adopt a MV3 compatible solution for use with SS&C Blue Prism by June 2023 and test their automations as part of that adoption/upgrade process.

In addition, customers should be aware that with MV3, Google (and Microsoft) have removed the capability to perform JavaScript invocation or injection. Customers who utilize that capability must either modify their automations to overcome the vendor-imposed restrictions or adopt the Blue Prism Browser Automation Agent solution, which offers continued support for this functionality. 

To help our community of users identify if they are impacted by this announcement - our product team has provided a utility that will determine if you are affected by this issue. We recommend that you run this utility, which can be found here https://digitalexchange.blueprism.com/dx/entry/3439/solution/manifest-v3-impact-assessment-utility

If the utility identifies you are affected (i.e., Using Chrome or Edge / utilizing the JavaScript insert/invoke function) please make sure your organization completes the survey sent to them by their account or customer success manager.

Note: this survey is intended for end-users of  SS&C Blue Prism RPA only. If you haven't received this survey and feel that you should have, please contact your SS&C Blue Prism representative. Information for SS&C Blue Prism partners is available on the Connect Partner Portal.

Our upcoming releases (7.1 and 6.10.5) will contain Browser Extension support for Manifest V3. 

[Note: these versions will also support those customers who could not apply the January 2022 Microsoft security patch update. Visit FAQs. http://portal.blueprism.com/customer-support/support-center#/path/-Featured-Articles/1784860762/-Solution-Windows-updates-from-11th-January-2022-causing-authentication-issues-in-Blue-Prism.htm] 

Our communication regarding this event will evolve in the coming weeks and months. In the meanwhile, please find the latest information in our Knowledge Base FAQs. Support Center | Blue Prism Portal

[06/12/22 Addendum]: Please follow the below links for official communications and timelines from:
- Google
- Microsoft

#BluePrismNews
#InsideRPA
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Charlotte Kennett
Director, Global Customer Marketing & Community
Blue Prism
Europe/London
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[Walter.Koller]

Microsoft plan is to phase out current MV2 extensions and disable them by default in January and completely deactivate them by mid of 2023.
In order to continue using MV2 extension, MS says some policies in Windows have to be changed.
Unfortunately I could not find any further information on where or what those policies are.

Does anyone have some more information on how to enable MV2 extensions begin of next year?

Thanks!

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Walter Koller
Solution Manager
Erste Digital / Erste Group Bank
Europe/Vienna
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[robert.nicklin]

Hello Walter,

I've been speaking to representatives at both Google and Microsoft to understand what is meant by "Enterprise exceptions" when describing the timelines for MV2 support. It appears that the two organizations are going to adopt different approaches to extending MV2 support beyond January 2023.

I've taken the following understanding away from discussions that have been had (though this is not documented anywhere yet, to my knowledge):

•  Google Chrome will allow users to set a new Enterprise group policy using their administration tools which will allow continued MV2 support beyond January. There has been no indication that the ability to leverage this group policy is dependent on support package or other chargeable service. I've been told that documentation on how this can be done is expected in September, though I have no more specific dates than that.
• Microsoft are defining "Enterprise exceptions" as "exceptions for Enterprise customers". When discussing this with a representative from Microsoft, I was told that there will be a new group policy that can be set, but this would not actually do anything for anyone not on an Enterprise contract. When asking what would be considered an Enterprise contract, I was directed to this URL: Enterprise Agreement | Microsoft Volume Licensing.

My apologies that I don't have any more specific information for you than this - I hope that more information will be made publicly available by browser vendors over the coming weeks to help confirm what actions are available to users for extending the support timeline to mid-2023.

Regards,
Rob

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Robert Nicklin
Product Manager
Blue Prism
Warrington, England
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[Walter.Koller]

Hello Robert,

Thanks a lot for your quick reply and getting in contact with officials to clarify the upcoming chances.
Your information is sufficient to forward to our IT department for further clarification with MS representatives, which should be no problem with our contracts with MS.

Regards,
 Walter

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Walter Koller
Solution Manager
Erste Digital / Erste Group Bank
Europe/Vienna
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[DennisDepping]

Hi all,

Currently the extension for Chrome is not in the official Chrome webstore -> when will this be deposited there?

Greetings

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Dennis Depping
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[robert.nicklin]

Hi Dennis,

The MV3 browser extensions for 6.10.5 and 7.1 are set to "private", which means they're not searchable on the associated web stores, though they are uploaded and available for use through the Blue Prism installers, which deploy the necessary registry keys. At this time there is no plan to make the extensions "public" and therefore searchable on the web store.

Is there a reason you need to find the browser extensions on the store vs. using the Blue Prism installers to deploy them?

Regards,
Rob

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Robert Nicklin
Product Manager
Blue Prism
Warrington, England
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[DennisDepping]

Hi Rob, 

yes we are currently try to add this Extension ID to the "Exception List" from our Group Policy and Packaging the BP 6.10.5 to make it available in our internal software center. The Colleagues who are managing the Group Policy where asking where to find the Extension to test if the Exception is working and some of them are not able to install it from Blue Prism so a download via Chrome webstore would be great.

Is there any reason to keep this one private as most of the others are public?

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Dennis Depping
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[robert.nicklin]

Hi Dennis,

We actually used to always publish browser extensions as "private" until about Blue Prism 6.8. For that version, Edge support was dependent on users sideloading the Chrome extension into Microsoft Edge, which required the extension to be public. From that point on we made extensions public, but the shift to version specific extension pairing vastly increased the number of extensions available on the store. To avoid clogging up the store with lots of different extension versions, I've directed the developers to publish new extensions as private moving forwards. There is an outstanding task for us to go through and make all old extensions private (except for Blue Prism 6.8), but we haven't got around to actioning that one yet.

I can see why you need the extension URLs however and I appreciate the insight. Would having the extension URLs present in the release notes for all versions serve as a viable alternative to the extensions being public on the store? If so, I'll start a conversation with our technical authors about adding the URLs to the release notes for all versions we mark as private visibility.

For now, here are the URLs for the 6.10.5 extensions:

• Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pgdpmkfahhejhfpgejaendjeeacoknjf?authuser=0&hl=en
• Edge: https://microsoftedge.microsoft.com/addons/detail/bcbgfmbngklahikmeloakcpkaakelojd

Regards,
Rob

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Robert Nicklin
Product Manager
Blue Prism
Warrington, England
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[DennisDepping]

Thanks a lot, this helped me and I am also a fan of documenting these links in the future 🙂

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Dennis Depping
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[JamesGregory]

We have updated to the newest browser extension and removed all instances of invoke Java however we are now seeing that elements that have JavaScript as part of the web address are no longer working when clicking them. 

These are spied as a regular HTML element and don't have anything other than the Web ID selected yet a click action won't work but no error is thrown. 

Is this related to this newest extension or is it a different issue?

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James Gregory
RPA Developer
Europe/London
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[robert.nicklin]

Hello James,

This is an issue that has been caused by the move to MV3 browser extensions as the JavaScript that the element triggers can no longer be executed under MV3 policies. We've listed it on the 6.10, 7.1 and the Browser Automation Agent known issues pages to make users aware.

The development teams have been looking into this and have found what they believe to be a solution to this problem that will allow this to operate moving forwards - we're currently putting this change into the Blue Prism 7.1.2 and Browser Automation Agent v2 releases (both planned for release in November).

Regards,
Rob

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Robert Nicklin
Product Manager
Blue Prism
Warrington, England
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