Introduction:
Hello everybody,
In this blog post I am guiding you through my first automation experience using the recently released Cloud Studio. The process I am automating is a simple login into an SAP System. Since these process steps need to be done for nearly every bot interacting with the SAP GUI, it might be useful for you as well. It is for sure a good practice to get to know common functionalities such as capturing pages, declaring elements and building a workflow using drag and drop activities.
Every single step to automate the process is described in vivid detail and explained by a graphical documentation. Thus, the automation can easily be executed by everyone using the 12 months Free Trial of SAP Intelligent RPA. Beside the step-by-step instruction you will also find a video in which the required steps are shown. The video is in German, but the steps can be followed the same way.
If any questions arise, feel free to contact me or share your opinion about the process automation using SAP Intelligent RPA 2.0 in the comment section.
Step-by-step instruction:
1) Login into your Intelligent Robotic Process Automation Factory and click on the tab “Projekte” (Projects). Before you can enter the Cloud Studio you have to create a project. Click on “Neues Projekt” (new project) (symbol 1).
2) Now, name your project and add a description if needed.
3) I called my project “MyFirstCloudProject”. To enter the Cloud Studio you have to click on the project (symbol 1). A new browser tab is opened.
4) The first step in the Cloud Studio, is to capture your applications. To do so you must click on “Applications aufnehmen” (capture applications).
5) Open SAP Logon on your device (if you haven´t started it already) and refresh the applications that can be captured with the Cloud Studio by clicking on the designated icon (symbol 1). If “SAP Logon 760” appears in the list (symbol 2), the Cloud Studio has recognized the SAP Logon Application. Click on the application to enter the capturing setting.
6) The page will then be displayed (symbol 1) and properties on the right side (symbol 2) are shown. If the application is displayed correctly,press “Aufnehmen” (capture) (symbol 3).
7) In the following step the page will be scanned and captured. In comparison to the Desktop Studio there is no need to set any criteria for the page recognition. This task is handled automatically by the Cloud Studio, which makes capturing pages a lot easier and quicker. By looking on the name of the application (symbol 1) in the bar on the left side check if there is a small green tick. The green tick indicates that the page is recognized correctly. The chosen criteria by the Cloud Studio can be viewed on the right bar (symbol 2).
😎 In the next step, declare the elements you want to interact with on the preciously captured page. In my case I want to log into the System “022> …” (symbol 1). To declare it I have to select the element and then click on “Element deklarieren” (declare element) (symbol 2).
9) By analyzing the green tick we know that the element is declared and can be used in the automation later on.
10) Furthermore the next page must be captured. To do so you have to click on “…” and press “Bildschirm hinzufügen” (add page).
11) After the page is captured you have to declare the needed elements/credentials. In this example it is necessary to declare the credentials (symbol 1 and 2) and the submit button (symbol 3).
12) Now that you have captured the Applications and declared the relevant elements you can start designing the automation workflow. Click on “Anlegen” (create) (symbol 1) and select “Automatisierung” (automation) (symbol 2).
13) Before the automation is created you have to configure your Desktop Agent Version (symbol 1). If you aren´t sure what version your Desktop Agent is running on, open your Desktop Agent and check the information (symbol 2). Choose the correct version and submit. Add a name and a description in the following window to finalize your automation creation.
14) In the middle (symbol 1) you can see the user interface where you can build your automation by using drag-and-drop activities from the right side (symbol 2).
15) At first, navigate through “Werkzeuge” (tools) > “Bildschirme” (pages) to drag-and-drop your first page (SAP Logon) into the workflow. By double-clicking on the page in the workflow perspective (symbol 1) the page is displayed (symbol 2). Before adding interaction activities you have to add the “start application” activity (activities > Core SDK > Application > Start Application). As an alternative just use the search bar.
16) The “Exist Element” and “Double Click (Element)” activities are used for the declared element on the “SAP Logo 760” page. Using the “Exist Element” activity is a best practice experience to ensure that the bot waits until the page and the declared element has been loaded so actions can be executed according to plan. Now I can drag-and-drop the second page “ISK…” into the workflow. On this page I use the “Exist Element” as well. Additionally, I use the “Set Element” activity to enter the credentials. By clicking on the activity (symbol 1), I can choose the value I want the bot to set into the element. Here I choose the value “110” (symbol 2). After completing the properties for the Set activities you can save and test your automation (symbol 3)!
Here you can find the Video:
Conclusion
From my first experience using the Cloud Studio, I can say that the user flow is extremely intuitive, and processes can be automated in an easy manner. Despite the Cloud Studio being a new tool, my previous knowledge gained by automating processes in the Desktop Studio is still beneficial. Of course, editing the bare code in the Desktop Studio allows you to implement more options, but for most automations the activities offered in the Cloud Studio should be sufficient. The main differentiator clearly is the speed of capturing pages, building workflows and putting them into operation all on a single cloud-based platform.
Let me know if you enjoyed the blog post and feel free to share your Cloud Studio development experiences!
Best Regards,
Karl
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