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Ability to read the images dynamically into the image type data item would help in reading data from dynamic image paths. Currently a single hard coded image can be used.
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Hi Team,
We are currently using 6.8.1 version of BP and in the process of upgrading to 7.2. Most of our current processes in production using "Microsoft Excel 6.4 Version VBO" and we had to bring that version even after our upgrade because some of the actions such as " Open workbook with timeout", "Save workbook with timeout" etc are not available in default excel VBO's for newer version. Only option we had is to bring 6.4V VBO to the upgraded version or download and import the "MS Excel 10.1.7 VBO" which is available on portal.
It would be great if we can have all the functionalities/actions in single/Master VBO so we don't have to worry about missing items and that will avoid having multiple VBO for excel.
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In the current specification, even if the following operations are performed from the process through the Interact Remote API, it is not displayed in the notification on Interact. edit submission field value move submission to any tab For example, even if the processing result of the process is reflected in the Interact form, the notification will not be displayed and the user will not be able to recognize it. So it is necessary to send notifications from the process via a different route than Interact, such as e-mail. In this case, interaction between users and processes cannot be completed only with Interact. If it is possible to display a notification even when the above operation is performed, or if it is possible to display an arbitrary notification at an arbitrary timing from the process through the Interact Remote API, I think "mutual cooperation between users and digital workers" will be more enhanced and be easier to implement. I would appreciate it if you could consider.
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現状の仕様では、プロセスからInteract Remote APIを通じて下記の操作を行っても、Interact上の通知には表示されない認識です。
・フォームの内容を更新
・フォームの格納フォルダを移動
例えばプロセスの処理結果をInteractフォームに反映しても、通知が表示されずユーザに認識してもらえないため、プロセスからメール等Interactとは別の経路で通知を送る必要があります。これではユーザ⇔プロセス間のやりとりをInteractのみで完結することができません。
上記の操作を行った場合も通知を表示する仕様とするか、もしくはプロセスからInteract Remote APIを通じて、任意のタイミングで任意の通知を表示させることができれば、「ユーザとデジタルワーカーの相互連携」がより実現しやすくなるのではないでしょうか。
ご検討をお願いします。
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During a presentation of the ROM2, the importance of good process construction, proper testing and continuous service improvements was frequently highlighted without going into the detail of how this was achieved.
Thus, when developing BluePrism processes, it is critical to invest in increasing process quality and an efficient testing process in terms of both cost and time investment.
When it comes to process development, there are a number of important factors to consider. One of the most important factors is process quality. This refers to the extent to which the process meets the specified requirements and has the ability to function safely and reliably. Another important factor is process complexity. The more complex the process, the more chance of errors and problems and the more difficult to test. When complexity increases the possibility for introducing errors and the difficulty to test escalates. It is important to reduce implementation complexity by choosing simple workflows, using business logic and reducing redundant actions. A general rule adopted is that the more paths through a piece of code, the more complex it is.
To my opinion, BluePrism implementations also have cyclomatic complexity that depend on the size and complexity of the processes, sub-processes and object actions and the amount of decision points in these components. A BluePrism implementation with high cyclomatic complexity can lead to problems such as poor performance, higher costs and errors. That is why It is important to reduce cyclomatic complexity to ensure the quality of the implementation. Several scientific papers have shown that there is a positive correlation between cyclomatic complexity and the probability of errors in software programs (e.g., Jones, 1986). Another study has shown that reduced cyclomatic complexity contributes to improved readability, maintainability and testability of software programs (e.g., McCabe, 1976). Cyclomatic complexity is a also an important factor in the quality of a BluePrism RPA implementation. Reducing complexity can prevent problems and ensure the quality of the implementation.
Cyclomatic complexity could be an indicator of the quality of BluePrism process / object implementations. This indicator aims to measure and quantify the complexity of a process. The higher the cyclomatic complexity, the more difficult it is to understand and maintain the process. McCabe's Cyclomatic Complexity can also identify the points that generate the complexity. These points are also called "cyclomatic paths" and can be found by analyzing the graphical representation. Each decision point (decision stage, choice stage, loops, etc.) potentially generates a new cyclomatic path, increasing the complexity of the flow in the process and/or object. By identifying these cyclomatic paths, the flow can be optimized to reduce complexity and improve readability and maintainability.
Some studies that can help in this regard are the following:
"Cyclomatic Complexity and Software Maintenance" by Thomas J. McCabe - This 1976 article introduced cyclomatic complexity as a measure of software complexity.
"An Empirical Study of the Relationship Between Cyclomatic Complexity and Software Maintenance" by Jaroslav Pokorný and Petr Baudiš - This 2014 article presents a study examining the relationship between cyclomatic complexity and software maintenance.
"An Efficient Algorithm for Computing Cyclomatic Complexity of Programs in java" by Surya Narayan Sharma and Suresh Kumar - This 2017 article describes an efficient algorithm for computing the cyclomatic complexity of Java programs.
In addition to cyclomatic complexity, there are other measurable factors that can affect the quality of BluePrism RPA implementations.
Some important factors are:
Duplication in processes and objects: When a piece of implementation is used in multiple places, it can lead to problems in maintaining and extending processes and/or objects. Duplication should therefore be minimized.
Test coverage: To ensure that the BluePrism RPA implementation works properly, it is important to write tests that cover all functionality of the process/object flows. The more tests that are written, the better the quality of the implementation. Test coverage is the extent to which a test suite covers all possible paths in the process /object under test. A cyclomatic path is a sequence of steps through a process /object flow that touch each logical path or decision point in the program once. To determine test coverage based on the given test suite and cyclomatic paths, each path in the test suite must be analyzed to determine if it corresponds to a cyclomatic path. If a given cyclomatic path is not covered by the test suite, more test cases must be added to the suite to cover the path. Test coverage can then be calculated as the percentage of all possible cyclomatic paths in the program that are covered by the test suite. The ultimate goal is to achieve high test coverage so that there is sufficient assurance that the software program is functioning correctly and meeting customer expectations. So if we know the cyclomatic paths of a process/object, we can derive a desired dataset that maximizes test coverage. This dataset is often referred to as a "test suite." The purpose of a test suite is to ensure that each test performed contributes to testing a unique path in the flows. The process of deriving a test suite is quite cumbersome and can be done manually or automated. It involves going through each path in the flow and identifying the requirements for the inputs of each function and each condition to be considered. This requires in-depth knowledge of the flows in the process/object and the ability to identify "corner cases" that may lead to errors in the flows. In addition to manually deriving a test suite, tools can also be used to automate the testing process. These tools could take the cyclomatic complexity of the flow as input and generate the test cases that test each line and branch of the flow. This results in a test suite that comprehensively tests the flows and would provide maximum coverage. In short, knowing the cyclomatic paths of a process/object can lead to deriving a test suite that maximises test coverage. This can be done manually, but should also be possible with tools to automate the process. The purpose of a test suite is to ensure that each test performed contributes to testing a unique path in the flows, which is important to ensure software quality.
Readability: A good implementation is easy to understand, even for people who are not directly involved. Readability can be improved by using meaningful variable names and clear process/object formatting.
Process testing does not stop at one test. It is important to conduct regular regression testing to ensure that any changes to the process and environment do not have unexpected side effects. Test suites with associated test data that ensure high coverage can be used to detect regressions in advance. This also helps to detect any errors and problems quickly and efficiently.
There is also the continuous service improvement component which is an important aspect of process development. This means that continuous improvements are made to increase efficiency and improve quality. This is achieved by constantly monitoring the performance of the process and addressing problems immediately. Efficiency is essential in process testing. Efficiency means using minimal time and resources to complete the testing process without compromising the quality of the tests. By having proper test suites, test coverage, regression testing and continuous improvement, you can ensure that the processes and objects are of high quality and tested efficiently.
It is important to consider these factors when designing and implementing BluePrism processes and/or objects. Scientific articles that offer more information on these topics include "The Relationship Between Cyclomatic Complexity Metrics and Software Quality: A Controlled Experiment" by D.R. Kuhn and "Agile vs Traditional Methods: A Meta-Analysis of The State of The Art" by A. Subramanian et al.
Perhaps a study topic for a graduate student to measure the quality of BluePrism processes and objects?
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While debugging, if there is an option to export the current collection values to excel will help in analysing the collection data. Thanks!
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Hi everyone. I`m sharing an idea to improve the dev experience in Blue Prism. Blue Prism isn`t available to see the params and inputs of the actions in Business Object/Process comparison. This functionality would be good to compare previous commits and restore versions that would need to restore.
In the example below, I need to see the inputs of each actions to compare the previous version of the navigate. When I analising directly in the Object, It`s able to see the inputs values, as you can see in the attachment file:
BP Version: V6.10.4
Regards
Eduardo
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Isolation and portability: Docker containers provide a lightweight and isolated runtime environment for applications. Running Blue Prism in a Docker container allows you to encapsulate the application and its dependencies, making it easier to manage and deploy across different environments.
Reproducible environments: Docker containers allow you to create consistent and reproducible environments for running Blue Prism. By packaging the application and its dependencies into a Docker image, you can ensure that the exact same environment is used during development, testing, and production.
Scalability and resource utilization: Docker containers provide efficient resource utilization and scalability. You can run multiple Blue Prism containers simultaneously, allowing for parallel execution of processes and optimizing resource allocation. Containers can be easily scaled up or down based on the workload, ensuring optimal utilization of computing resources.
Version control and rollbacks: Docker enables version control of container images. Each image can be tagged and versioned, making it easier to manage different versions of Blue Prism. This facilitates easy rollbacks to previous versions in case of issues or the need to revert to a stable state.
Simplified deployment and updates: Docker simplifies the deployment process for Blue Prism. With a Docker image, you can easily distribute the application to different environments, minimizing the manual setup and configuration steps.
Resource optimization: Docker allows for efficient resource allocation by running multiple containers on a single host machine. This reduces hardware costs and optimizes resource utilization.
Collaboration and development efficiency: Docker containers provide a consistent and reproducible environment, making it easier for teams to collaborate on developing Blue Prism processes. Developers can share containerized development environments, ensuring that everyone is working in the same setup. This streamlines the development and testing process, leading to increased efficiency and productivity.We are looking seek guidance from their support or community forums for best practices and specific instructions on running Blue Prism in Docker containers.
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based on ticket #251602 BP allows the definition of external web services that then can be used as Action stages. There is an option in the definition 'Disable Sending of Request' which is a nice feature to first do same dry runs before actually sending the WS request. However, the output of this Action changes depending if the 'Disable Sending of Request' is activated or not: some header lines of the request are omitted in the Request Output data. In our tests these header lines were missing when 'Disable Sending of Request' was active: 'Host', 'Content-Length', 'Connection' Since this is intentionally 'by design' I am creating this enhancement idea to have all header lines shown in the request output, regardless if 'Disable Sending of Request' is active or not.
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In the current Decipher we don't have an option in the UI to modify the existing dashboards under reports. Adding an option to customize the dashboards or adding/creating new tiles (similar to Blue Prism enterprise) will help the business to track/create the model according to their wish.
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We have several developers across various parts of the business using the same BP server but we'll each maybe only need to get to a handful of the processes or objects. Could we add a favourites option so each user can limit the default view to bits they want/need to see?
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With the growing security concerns, many organization requires the new product/system to meet their minimum security standard, We have noticed that the BluePrism7.1.2 Interactive client on-prem, HUB, and Interact have no option to limit the concurrent user session to 1 user. i.e., same user able to login from different browser and different nodes at the same time. It would be really great if this feature is onboarded in the upcoming release.
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Additional options when creating a rule would be very helpful and reduce the volume of rules required for a form. My highest priority would be to have AND / OR settings (for example, field2 state is mandatory if field1 has a value of 'A', 'B' or 'C'). A While option would also be very useful as this would prevent the need to create 2+ rules in case a user changes something on the form (for example, field2 state is hidden while field1 = 'no'). Other suggestions include rules based on more than one field and any other basic functions. We currently have a very simple form which usually displays 7 fields on 1 page which uses 130 rules, the above changes would reduce that to under 10 rules.
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The Inbox allows users to sort / filter on various fields, however, as soon as the user navigates away from the Inbox then any applied filters etc. are reset. It would improve the user's experience if these settings could be saved / stored. For example, a user may change the number of rows displayed from the default 5 to 25, sort by oldest to newest and then filter for a certain form / key value but this is then reset as soon as they open a form.
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We tend to lose a lot of work when locks are released accidentally from all the locked process and business objects. This needs to be further improvised in the upcoming feature where admin (or superuser) can only release locks if required from all the process and objects. Developers would have restricted access to unlock either the process and objects that they have created or only one at a time.
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Email - POP3_SMTP > List Messagesでメールを取得したところ、
送信したメールの件名にスペースが追加されてしまいました。 長い文字数の件名の場合に発生するようです。 SUPPORTに問い合わせたところ、開発チームでも再現されたと伺いました。 今後もメールの件名の長さは制限できない場合があり、長い件名でも取得できるよう改善いただきたいです。
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Hi, Now that we (since 6.10) have the ability to search for processes and objects in Studio, I'd like to ask for a few refinements of this long-awaited feature. 1. When searching Studio it would be nice to be able to search with multiple criteria. This way I would be able to list a process that I'll be working on as well as the object I know to be involved. The search criteria could have a ; as separator. Eg. 'process1;object5' would provide a list of processes and object matching these criteria. 2. As I tend to work on a process for a while, it would be nice to have the BP UI remember previous search criteria so I can pick them from a list. Happy coding! ---------------- Pau Sweden
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Currently failed posts to Splunk by Data Gateways/Logstash are dumped to the Dead Letter Queue and left there to accumulate. These can be resent using the Logstash API; however, this should be provided by the Data Gateways platform and represents a blindspot in the tool.
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We noticed the following SQL query runs which causes a block on the Blue prims database and causes performance issues: SELECT count(*) as TotalItems FROM BPVWorkQueueItem i LEFT JOIN BPVSessionInfo s ON i.sessionid = s.sessionid WHERE i.queueid=@queueid AND (i.keyvalue is null OR i.keyvalue like @itemkey) AND i.state in (1,3) Our suggestion: Consider using SELECT COUNT(1) to just count the number of records. This will give you the same results much faster without the unnecessary reads
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The usability of the scheduler entry will be more appropriate if we are able to change the order of the tasks
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It would be great to have a native PowerPoint VBO with all functinality and expansion from Blue Prism itself on digital exchange for the PowerPoint.
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