Update Navigate and Write stages to work with responsive webdesign

[JacobGjerstrup]

It would be great if the Navigate and Write stages in the Object Studio could be updated to work with newer responsive webdesigns where various fields might depend on filling out data in other fields. 

For instance, when using a write stage to fill out a form, the "Send" button on the form will not be activated if it is listening for changes in the form itself, as the Write stage does not update the website, leaving the button inactive because the site thinks nothing has changed. This same behavior occurs when using the build-in "Click" functionality of the navigate stage, forcing developers to resort to using Global Mouse Clicks and Global Send Keys when automating modern browsers. 

This behavior further complicates issues when multiple systems, be they browsers or others (like SAP), are used and constantly forces us developers to keep the active system activated to ensure that Send Keys and Global Mouse Click can be used.

One website that shows the issue is https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/tools/currencyconverter - if you use a write stage to write to the currency converter, the currency conversion does not work.

The issue have been present in many of the previous versions in Blue Prism and I've tested it in 6.10 as well where it's still present. Furthermore, I've tested it in both Chrome (with the newest extention) as well as in Internet Explorer.

[DavidRubiano]

I think this is one of the biggest flaws of Blue Prism. the work around using Send Keys isn't always reliable and I'm surprised this haven't already been presented as an idea before.

[mwulff]

I second this so much.

BluePrism doesn't seem to trigger the correct ui events for writing. We have managed to work around this by injecting our own javascript into the page, but that is a hack at best.

I would add that a "Clear text-field before writing" option would be helpful as well.

[MikkoKamppila]

Support this 100%. Various Java/Ecmascript based frameworks use internal state management which block the inputs that aren't triggered by the event handlers. The workaround has so far been to use Send Keys or JavaScript injection etc., but those aren't sustainable means to carry on and maintain in a long run.

[LubosG]

I can only agree that it would be great to have, but im not sure if anything like that is possible since it purely based on the website design and simply, BP cannot do such things since the website itself needs to be handled in a way the designers want it.. unfortunately, usually its human style input.. cant see a way how BP can work around that

[MelanieGiuliani]

Hi Jacob,

Thanks so much for submitting your idea! We are moving it into the Under Consideration status while we route the idea through our internal review process. 

We will update you as your idea moves along the lifecycle.

Thank you!
Melanie 

[robert.nicklin]

Hi Jacob,

We made a change in Blue Prism 6.10.3 and 7.0.1 that will now see write stages trigger underlying input events for web fields when interacting with them.

I do have a question though, as your idea states "It would be great if the Navigate and Write stages..." - do you have examples of where a navigate action (i.e. a click event) also needs to trigger an input event on a web page? If so, would you mind sharing them so we can consider adding this function for these stages as well?

Regards,
Rob

[JacobGjerstrup]

Hi Robert. Sorry that it's taken some time before getting back to you - we've now upgraded to 7.0.1 and we still have the same issues in regards to write stages not triggering websites. I've specifically used https://www.valutakurser.dk/ to test this - it's a currency converter and it's supposed to convert one currency to another the moment you start writing in the currency fields. Unfortunately, using a write stage in Blue Prism does not result in any conversion.
This issue is the same we see in the actual systems we use, and as such, the issue does not seem to be fixed in 7.0.1.

As for examples where navigate stages need to trigger an input event - we have had examples such as radio buttons where using a navigate Click did not work and thus having to resort to Global Mouse Clicks. It's much less of an issue, though, compared to writing using Send Keys.