View Blue Prism Code in Pseudo Code

[HuyTrinh]

Hi there - I know Blue Prism process can be exported out in xml format. But that is not easy to view from any of XML spy or parser products on the market.  At some complex points, viewing processes in diagram is even more difficult. Does Blue Prism have any alternatives to make reviewing and understand the configuration logics more efficiently? In another word, can we turn the process xml into a tree view with different level of indentations?

[BastiaanBezemer]

Good process design, not putting too much things on one page, use sub-pages.... Using the BP standard process template to start with, and keep the process that clean. Will prevent you from needing any other view ☺  

[John__Carter]

As usual Bastiaan is correct. A process should be well laid out and legible, and as with traditional coding, if the developer has produced spaghetti that nobody can read (or test or implement or run or support or maintain) then the developer has done a bad job. The Design Authority approving the design and the Lead Developer who approved the execution of the design are also at fault. BP XML is not intended to be readable, it's merely a vehicle for storing a definition. An even if it could be out into another view, if the original is a mess then any other view will be too.

[HuyTrinh]

Very valid points and I agree 100%. At the same time, I'd like to bring the attention to reality where we can only follow best practices to certain extent (many factors come into play) and complex business rules. I'm also confident that no spaghetti code gets into production at my company. But the tasks of bringing someone new to understand the codes, support and maintain are major challenges. And the reality is ""someone new"" likely to have background and experiences in other more popular programming IDE. I think if this issue is addressed in one way or another, Blue Prism can scale more smoothly.

[John__Carter]

Blue Prism XML is not a development language and is not intended to be edited directly. Even if the XML was nicely formatted, there is no way that editing the XML of a large, complex production process would be better than using the diagram, regardless of any prior programming experience. I would challenge any BP user to prove otherwise. Although a coding background can help, BP development is not traditional coding and to try to educate a new user by exploring the XML is very much the wrong approach.

[StevenHedges]

I would like to reiterate the request for some way to externalise the BP configurations and to be able to view them.  We have been running code reviews for configs developed across the bank and these are needlessly difficult when you have to click into multiple tabs when investigating wherther a particular construct has been used incorrectly.   Steven

[John__Carter]

Steven - please submit your proposal for a new way to view a process/object to the Ideas and Enhancements section of this forum, we're always open to new ideas.