UiPath recently released the 2021.4 version with a lot of new features across various products. In this session we get more insight and explore ways to use the new features in your projects. Advantages for using the new release will be discussed and practical examples will be shared where necessary.
In this 1,5 hours session we will go through the topics below and explore each item:
• Introduction to new releases across Studio, StudioX, Studio Pro, UiPath Assistant
• How to upgrade to latest version?
• UIAutomation – Changes and modifications
• Modern Experience
• New activities/features
• Modifications in StudioX, UiPath Assistant
This session is interactive, including demos and Q&A.
3. 2021.4 – Installation
The 2021.4 installer can be downloaded from your
UiPath Cloud link (this will be a msi, including all the
components of UiPath Studio i.e. Studio, Assistant and
UiPath Robot) or from UiPath exe.
Once the msi or exe is downloaded, simply run it as
administrator and install the required products.
To make it easier for you to configure the installation, the
UiPathStudio.msi installation wizard has a new and improved
user interface, and better defaults for each installation scenario
(Studio, Assistant, or Unattended Robot).
4. Studio 21.4
UiPath Studio 21.4 brings new improvements and features with a new
architecture based on .NET Core. All projects created with older versions
of Studio are still supported at design and runtime with no additional
changes.
Some of the interesting improvements and features are listed below:
• Remove unused arguments, workflows, dependencies, imports,
screenshots in addition to variables. This feature enables to remove
unused components present in the xaml. It is recommended to use this
feature for better coding standards and maintainability. (Tip: If using
argument in the selector, please note removing argument will remove
from xaml, as the selector does not detect the argument dependency.)
• Enhance the error display: Click on the error will bring properties
panel in focus showcasing the error. An error is displayed as and
warning as
• Assign icons: During publish you can assign icons to your processes
or libraries. Libraries icons will be visible in Manage Packages,
processes icons are due to appear in future releases.
5. Studio 21.4
• Picture in Picture: This feature can be used to run automations on the
same remote desktop without compromising the user events and actions.
Another instance of the desktop is created by UiPath Assistant/Robot within
which the execution is carried out. This feature enables from the toolbar or
project settings.
• Pre-populate Capture Elements when started from Object Repository: if
you want to continue capturing the elements from a specific Screen or
Application you can pre-populate the descriptors list in Capture Elements by
starting from any Object Repository tree.
• GIT in mass update tool: GIT is now a possible source for Project
Dependencies Mass Update tool and you can select any remote repository.
• Refresh Remote Git Branches: Git fetch functionality that enables you to
refresh the list of Git remote branches and remove references that no longer
exist on the remote. A Refresh remote branches option is now available in
the status bar branch menu as well as the Manage Branches window.
• Multiple entry point: This feature can be enabled in the project to run xaml
from the orchestrator instead of running the main xaml.
• Improvements in object repository:
• Dragging a screen from the Object Repository and dropping it in the Designer
panel automatically adds a Use Application/Browser activity to the workflow.
• Four new element types are available in the Type field of the Add Element and Edit
Element windows
• It is now easier to use Capture Elements to record missing elements and modify
existing elements for applications and screens that have already been added to
the Object Repository.
6. Studio 21.4
Modern Experience
The option can be enabled in the project settings to use the modern user
interface of activities and object repository. The ‘Use Modern for new
projects’ toggle controls the default design experience for new projects.
Modern experience is a new way of designing automation with wizards,
recorders, and activities part of the packs enhanced for Object Repository
support. This toggle is on a global level, meaning that if enabled, all new
projects are created within the context of modern design experience.
When the Object Repository enforced toggle is set to Yes, activities that
are part of the UIAutomation pack need to reference elements from the
Object Repository.
A UI Library is an encapsulation of elements grouped by applications,
application versions, and screens.
Elements you define can be extracted as a UI Library, and after publishing
can be installed in other projects as a dependency.
7. Studio 21.4
Modern Experience
Reusability
The Object Repository enables you to reuse your UI elements across
projects:
• all locally stored elements can be reused at project level
• for testing purposes you can use Snippets panel to save into and
pass applications between projects. From Snippets you can add
applications to your local project repository.
• extract elements into UI libraries and install them as a
dependency into your projects when you want to reuse at a global
level. You can also take a reusability-first approach and start by
creating UI Libraries with the elements you will need across all
your automation projects.
Object Repository Structure
The object repository has a tree structure where each node is an object representing screens or elements which are all
hierarchical under the application.
The structure is the following:
• Application - can be one of 2 types: mobile or desktop/web, depending on what technology is used for UI
Automation.
• Version - applications can have multiple versions
• Screen - top-level window of an application version that can only be created under an app version.
• UI element - an object on the screen with a descriptor and metadata. It can be of multiple types.
9. Robot and UiPath Assistant
For the UiPath Assistant and Robot, the release focuses on user
experience, accessibility and performance, adding a more immersive
usability of the UiPath Assistant by integrating with other products while
making sure the Robot works better by using newer technologies and
configurations.
Widgets In UiPath Assistant
Starting with this release, you can add Widgets in the UiPath Assistant a lot
more easily, by making use of Automation Ops and Orchestrator Libraries.
This release also includes the very first UiPath developed widget, the Apps
Widget, bringing your UiPath Apps right at a click away in the UiPath
Assistant.
10. Robot and UiPath Assistant
The Default List widget enables you to:
• View all the available automation processes:
• If UiPath Assistant is connected to Orchestrator, processes from the environments and
folders the Robot is a part of are displayed. Hovering over a process displays its name,
version and folder.
• If UiPath Assistant is not connected to Orchestrator, processes from the
%ProgramData%UiPathPackages folder are displayed. The Packages folder can be
specified, as explained on this page.
• Download processes that have a newer version available, or that need to be
downloaded and unpacked locally, and view the installation status.
• Add or remove a process from the Launchpad, click the contextual menu and
then select "Pin to Launchpad" or simply drag and drop the process from the left
panel to the Launchpad.
The Reminders Widget
• The Reminders widget enables you to specify a time or period for you to receive
a notification for starting a process. Any process which is visible in the Process
List widget can be set to a reminder. Frequency can be set to once, daily, weekly,
or monthly, each with its own date settings to configure. A reminder can only
include one process. Clicking the Edit Reminder button allows you to make
changes to it, or even remove it.
• Processes that have set reminders appear on the Reminders tab and a reminder
is displayed once a process is about to start. Please note that a process does not
start without your consent. The reminder window allows you to Snooze (displays
the reminder again in 10 minutes), Dismiss, or Start the process.
11. Robot and UiPath Assistant
Send to desktop
• From now on, you can bring your processes everywhere in
Windows. You go into the process’ contextual menu and you
press “Send to desktop”. This creates a shortcut on your
desktop that you can use in order to start the process.
Drag & drop processes into Launchpad
• Launchpad: pin processes by drag and drop.
Set up shortcuts from the process details
• For a more efficient use of the UiPath Assistant, Keyboard
shortcuts can now be added directly from the Process Details
section. Simply click on the process name and its details are
displayed in the right panel, then add your preferred shortcut
and save.
Mandatory Input Arguments
• For better visibility, input arguments which are set as mandatory
now have an asterisk * next to their fields in the UiPath Assistant
to make it clear.
End of Support for Robot Tray
• Starting with the v2021.4 release, the old Robot Tray is being
deprecated, making the UiPath Assistant the only point of
contact for attended automation.
13. StudioX 2021.4.3
Excel Automation
• Autofit Range - Changes the displayed column width and/or row height in the specified range to the widest entry in each column and the highest
entry in each row.
• Get Excel Chart - Copies an Excel chart to the clipboard for use in other activities or saves it as a picture file.
• Insert Excel Chart - Inserts a chart in a sheet at the specified location.
• Find/Replace Value - Searches in a specified range for certain values. Depending on what operation you choose, it either returns the location of the
cell or replaces the value with another given value.
• Refresh Excel Data Connections - Gets the latest data by refreshing all sources in an open Excel workbook.
• Update Excel Chart - Updates the properties of an existing Excel chart.
PowerPoint Automation
• Paste item into Slide - Inserts an item from the clipboard into a PowerPoint presentation.
• Format Slide Content - Modifies content formatting or order in a slide.
Word Automation
• Paste Chart/Picture into Document - Pastes a chart or picture that was previously placed on the clipboard into a Word document at the specified
position.
• Add Hyperlink to Document - Adds a hyperlink to a document.
Common Activities
• Generate Data Table from Text - Generates a DataTable variable from structured text.
• Modify Date - Updates a date value using modifications including adding or subtracting days and finding the first or last day of the week, month, or
year.
• For Each Row in Data Table - Executes an action once for each row in a specified Data Table.
• Filter Data Table - Enables you to filter a Data Table by specifying conditions in the Filter Wizard window.
• Read Row Item - Retrieves a value from a row in a Data Table according to a specified column.
• Update Row Item - Assigns the specified value into the indicated column of a Data Table row.
14. StudioX 2021.4.3
Mail
• Set Outlook Mail Categories : Associates categories with a mail message.
• Mark Outlook Mail As Read/Unread : Marks the specified mail message as read or unread.
• Delete Outlook Mail Message : Deletes a mail message.
Improvements
Send Outlook Mail Message :
• The user can specify the importance and sensitivity of a mail message.
• The user can set specific mail addresses to have replies sent to.
Get Outlook Mail Messages:
• The possibility to order mail messages by date, newest first or oldest first.
• Filter by message ids.
• The documentation of this activity has been extended with many examples of filter
expressions.
Save Attachments:
• The user can specify whether to overwrite an existing file having the same name as the
attached file.
HTML Editor
• We know you want to create rich emails with tables, pictures, different fonts, etc. This is
possible with Outlook by using a Word document, but unfortunately could not be done for
Gmail or Outlook 365 using Word.
• To solve this, we have introduced an HTML Editor that allows you to create rich HTML
emails (and other content) directly.
15. UiPath Apps
UiPath Apps is a cloud-based low-code application development platform
that enables you to build and share enterprise-grade custom applications
that deliver engaging user experiences. Using UiPath Apps, you can quickly
build custom business applications that connect to data in any underlying
cloud or on-premises system using the power of automation.
Users see a list of all applications available to them in a single place; they
can choose to run the application or share them with other users within their
organization.
When a user runs an application, those designed to run automation locally
on their desktop will trigger an Attended Robot to interact with back-end
systems. Similarly, apps designed to run using unattended automation use
Orchestrator to start a job on Unattended Robots.
To run UiPath Apps, all end-users must be added to your Automation Cloud
account and meet the following requirements in order to run
attended/unattended automation:
• Attended: UiPath Robot with JavaScript Add-in enabled (UiPathRobot.js.
End-users must have attended processes used in your app available on
their Attended Robot.
• Unattended: (one or more of the following)
• Cloud Orchestrator tenant containing your processes. End-users must have sufficient
Orchestrator permissions to run the unattended processes included in your app.
• Hybrid w/ On-Prem – Connect your on-premise orchestrator to UiPath Apps Service.
All other requirements for Studio, Robot & Orchestrator apply.
16. UiPath Orchestrator
Multiple Entry Points in RPA Processes:
This feature enables you to create and configure your processes in Studio with
different entry points than the usual “Main.xaml”. To this end, a new Entry Point
field is added in Orchestrator which enables you to specify a particular entry
point for your workflow as long as multiple have been defined in Studio.
At run time in Orchestrator, you set as an entry point the workflow that
corresponds to your scenario.
Sharing Resources Between Folders:
This feature allows to share assets, queues, storage buckets, and action
catalogs between folders directly from Orchestrator. Sharing resources between
folders enables launching jobs in multiple folders when the underlying processes
are targeting the same resources without having to redesign your workflows in
Studio.
In previous versions, accessing resources in different folders can be performed
via the FolderPath property; however, this can quickly become a nuisance upon
organization tree changes; any change altering folder paths requires workflow
reconstruction.
• Linking Multiple Resources to the Current Folder
• Linking a Specific Resource to Multiple Folders
• Linking Queues
• Link Storage Buckets
• Link Assets
17. UiPath Orchestrator
Start Job & Triggers in Modern Folder
We can now see which machines are available when choosing to run a job using a certain machine
template.
Triggers Page
A new User-Machine Mappings strategy that allows you to schedule execution on multiple user-
machine mappings is available for time triggers. Orchestrator launches one job for each user-
machine pair you selected as the execution target. According to the availability of the resources, the
jobs can either begin executing or remain pending.
Standard Machines in Modern Folders
There is now a possibility to create and associate standard machines to modern folders so that
upon migrating, you do not need to change the machine key.
Because a standard machine cannot work in both classic and modern folders simultaneously, the
classic model takes precedence. A standard machine works in the classic folder as long as there
are active robots defined. Disabling all robots that are using it in the classic context will render it
usable in modern folders.
To accommodate this change, the Machine Template window has been renamed to Machines and
has been repurposed to show both standard machines and machine templates.
Role Management
Role management has been improved in Orchestrator to better delimit permissions that apply on
the tenant level and permissions that apply on the folder level.
There are now three types of roles:
• Tenant roles include only tenant-level permissions, which grant rights in relation to your tenant
resources.
• Folder roles include only folder permissions for working within a folder.
• Mixed roles include a combination of both tenant and folder permissions.
18. UiPath Orchestrator
Assigning Roles
The way in which you assign roles has also changed, depending on the type of role
and on whether or not you still use classic folders.
• If Activate Classic Folders is cleared under Tenant > Settings > General:
• You assign Tenant roles and Mixed roles from the Users page or from
the Roles page.
• You assign Folder roles and Mixed roles from the Folders page or from the
folder's Settings page.
• If Activate Classic Folders is selected under Tenant > Settings > General:
• You assign any of the three types of roles from the Users page or from
the Roles page.
• You assign Folder roles and Mixed roles from the Folders page or from the
folder's Settings page.
Processes
To upgrade a process to the latest version easily we've added an Upgrade to latest
version option in the contextual menu of a specific process.
Enhanced Robots View
The Robots page at the tenant level has been augmented to show the robot
configuration done in Orchestrator as well as how this maps to your attended and
unattended scenarios. To this end, four separate tabs are provided where you can
choose the context you are interested in.
• Configured robots
• Unattended sessions
• User sessions
• Classic robots