Using Blue prism as a True bot, integrating with external apps like Chatbox or assistant to implement real robotics

[MayankGoyal2]

Hi John,

If I have a process which is performing some end to end flow and I have to trigger this process from a web application or chat bot, so I want to host this process as a web service and call it whenever required. I have few set of questions -
1) Is it fine to use such kind of process via web service, if not why and then whats the alternate of it
2) How will I pass data to be used in the process from web application or how will process get data from external source like from a web application calling blue prism process, how will data flow from that web application to blue prism
3) If multiple such request are sent to a process via web service on same resource, how will it queue the request and run it one by one?

My idea is to use RPA for much more than running it isolated, hence looking for some ideas and pointers to implement such complex use cases

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Mayank Goyal
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[MayankGoyal2]

Hi,

Any response or suggestions on above?

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Mayank Goyal
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[MayankGoyal2]

@AmiBarrett @Dave Morris...any suggestions on above?

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Mayank Goyal
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[John__Carter]

You can expose a process (or object) as a soap WS and there is a guide describing how to do that, how to call it externally and how to pass parameters. Multiple concurrent requests will be a problem however - if the resource PC is already running the process you're likely (depending n the Run Mode of the objects) to get the 'too busy to run that process' error, as you would in control room.

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John Carter
Professional Services
Blue Prism
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[MayankGoyal2]

@John Carter , thanks a lot for your response, kindly suggest the link for this guide. Also let me know how to fix the multiple concurrent request. If we integrate our RPA tool Blue Prism with external applications to increase the scope of use, it will definitely get multiple concurrent request. In this situation, is there any provision of of queuing the request or any similar solution which enable BP to accept concurrent request, put it in a queue and then keep processing it one by one and also avoid error - resource PC too busy. If possible, kindly check with tech team if they can come up with some solution in future if not currently available.
I believe this capability will be good addition to BP integration capabilities.

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Mayank Goyal
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[HarishM2]

Hi mayank,


In blue prism webservice document it was clearly mentioned how to call concurrent session with one session by using auto initialization.  
I never tried this but read this document some time back.



For document go to blue prism portal > documents> search webservices.

It will automatically add the work item in the queue  but the problem is  it will work already running session.

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Harish
RPA Developer
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[HarishM2]

Below is the link to download Webservice guide
https://portal.blueprism.com/system/files/documents/v6%20User%20Guide%20-%20Web%20Services.pdf

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Harish
RPA Developer
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[MayankGoyal2]

@John Carter,  ​Harish M - Thanks a lot for your response. Please suggest if a process on BP is not related to UI and hence the run mode of it is not exclusive, how many concurrent request will that bot be able handle to run process concurrently. Also in such situation will BP crash if many concurrent request or give 'Resource too busy error'. Will this also depend on machine configuration as BP will be like a server in this case accepting request to run process concurrently.

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Mayank Goyal
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[John__Carter]

It's not possible to provide a definitive answer I'm afraid. Certainly a resource PC can run parallel processes if the object Run Modes don't clash, but what the realistic maximum is depends on what the processes are doing, the machine, the network etc. In practice we have had clients running 4-5 mainframe processes per machine. You'll need to experiment with WS calls - although the Resource PC can take concurrent calls, it's not a 'server' and you should not expect it to be able to take anything you throw at it.

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John Carter
Professional Services
Blue Prism
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[MayankGoyal2]

@John Carter ​- Thanks  a lot for your response, kindly suggest if there is a collection in start up parameter of process, how can we pass that collection when calling process via web service. Also let me know how to pass this collection when calling process via command line.

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Mayank Goyal
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