Automate Best Practices
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Whether you’re at the beginning of your robotic process automation project or well on your way to building an automation center of excellence, there’s always room to optimize your RPA processes. This webinar demonstrates the best practices for developing tasks and workflows with Automate. Following best practices will help you maximize the ROI of your Automate implementation and avoid common automation pitfalls. The topics covered include: Task and workflow design Structure task flow Naming conventions -Testing and debugging -Error handling -Task logging -And more
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Automate Best Practices
- 1. Back to Basics Webinar Series: Automate Best Practices
- 2. Your Presenters Director of Document Management Richard Schoen HelpSystems Pat Cameron Director of Automation Technology HelpSystems
- 3. HelpSystems. All rights reserved. 1. HelpSystems Overview 2. Automate Best Practices 3. Demo 4. Q&A
- 4. Broad Solutions in Growing Markets Secure • Risk Assessment • Anti-virus • Security Event Monitoring • Identity & Access Management • Compliance Reporting • Managed Security Services • Professional Security Services • Managed File Transfer • Encryption Inform • Enterprise Data Access • Mobile Data Access • Operations Analytics • Executive Dashboards & Reporting • Data Warehousing Automate • Workload Automation • Business Process Automation • Network Monitoring • Message & Event Monitoring • Performance Monitoring • Data Backup Management • Remote Monitoring & Management • Capacity Planning • Document Management
- 5. HelpSystems. All rights reserved. Automate Best Practices
- 6. Focus on task building Automate and Automate Enterprise Create re-usable task logic Automate Best Practices
- 7. We will focus on task building Automate and Automate Enterprise Create reusable task logic Organize your task repository Common task structure patterns Variable naming Integrations Error Handling Debugging Automate Development Best Practices
- 8. Automate Folder name by department Task prefix by department Meaningful naming Automate Enterprise Securable repository Users and groups Active Directory authentication Change logging These are just suggestions Workflows for Automate Enterprise Task and Workflow Organization and Naming Conventions Folder Naming Task Naming
- 9. Connect to desired service FTP, Database, Email. Active Dir, Excel, CSV List items to dataset Loop through dataset items Do individual item processing Process remaining items Disconnect from service Log steps as needed Workflows chain tasks together General Task Structure and Flow
- 10. General Task Structure and Flow
- 11. Allow parameter input Drive tasks with input settings Excel, CSV, Database, Global Constants Makes tasks configurable Call as subtasks As workflow steps in Enterprise Write functionality once Use everywhere Create Re-Usable Tasks
- 12. Automate variables are dynamically typed Prefix variable names with var_ var_ExcelFile, var_Connection Prefix variable names with type iCount or numCount for numerics strExcelFile or ExcelFile for file names gblVarName for globals oExcel – object name for ActiveX automation There is no one right answer Subjective and hotly debated Use what works for your team Task Variables
- 13. Automate Execution event logging Log extended step information Log to database User messages Keep the auditors happy Automate Enterprise Audit logging Workflow and task changes Who is accessing the server Web based operations console Automate Built-In Logging
- 14. Write custom logs from tasks Capture specific business metrics Any custom business specific data Ex: FTP transfer info, completion times, etc. Aggregate to one or more log tables Write to SQL Server database Write to text file log Write to Access database Write to Excel file What’s your favorite? Automate Custom Task Logging
- 15. Self healing resilient tasks Retries on error Run selected error steps Ignore error causes Bypass selected errors Set step error timeout Stop after error Continue to next step Break out of a loop Goto step or label on error Step Level Error Handling
- 16. Step Level Error Handling
- 17. Add breakpoints Add variable watches Drill in to datasets (V11) Copy and paste steps as XML Attach files to tasks Run until breakpoint Step through task (F9) Run selected steps only Disable/comment out steps Task Builder - Testing and Debugging
- 18. Task Builder - Testing and Debugging
- 19. Environment variables Value pairs (Name / Value) Eliminate hard coding Use in any task or workflow Read-only values Can be encrypted Update in one place Often better than settings database Automate and Automate Enterprise Global Constants
- 20. Global Constants
- 21. Central database connection strings Eliminate hard coding Use in any task or workflow Read-only values Can be encrypted/hidden Update in one place Store as Text or Data Link Global Database Connections
- 23. Internal VB scripts External VB scripts Internal IDE for testing ActiveX Automation Automate Word Automate Outlook Automate Excel Lots of samples on the internet Call VB functions just like actions Using VB Scripting
- 25. .Net APIs written VB or C# Feels like calling custom actions Call functions directly with DLL action Runs in separate app domain Unloads after each call Call directly via COM/ActiveX automation Keeps DLL in-process Maintains DLL in-memory state Use direct instead of ActiveX Microsoft .Net Assemblies and Custom DLLs
- 26. Microsoft .Net Assemblies and Custom DLLs
- 27. Run any console application Java Python Selenium Perl PowerShell BAT files Microsoft .Net VB Scripting Capture return codes Capture stdout and stderr Use skills you already know External Scripting Languages and Executables
- 28. Manage AML task files (AML) Manage workflows (AMPKG) Automate AML files Export tasks from Enterprise (AML) Export Workflow packages (AMPKG) Use Git, SVN, TFS, etc. Add to repository Manage with Git, SourceTree, etc. Store Tasks and Workflows in Version Control Software
- 29. Store Tasks and Workflows in Version Control Software
- 30. Create an outline of manual steps What does the human do? How much can we automate? Process is consistent Follows a general predictable pattern Can be automated Approach to Defining Automation Tasks
- 31. HelpSystems. All rights reserved. Demo Time
- 32. HelpSystems. All rights reserved. Questions and Answers
- 33. Thank You for Attending! Next steps: Download FREE trial Set up FREE automation consultation Website: http://www.helpsystems.com/automate Telephone: US Sales: 800-328-1000 Outside US: +44 (0) 870.120.3148 Support: 952-933-0609 Technical Experts: richard.schoen@helpsystems.com pat.cameron@helpsystems.com