The product and development teams at Automation Anywhere have been hard at work to deliver new features and updates with each release. In this post, we’ll dive into some of the most popular and requested features newly added with .25 – Build 14298 on Cloud and Build 15097 for On-Premises. Side Note: The full release notes for this release are available at the Automation Anywhere Docs Portal. While we’re covering some of our favorite .25 features, there may be others that are particularly meaningful for your use cases/organization – so be sure to check them out for additional features and details.
#1 - Bulk Package Updates
- You now have the ability to perform a bulk package update across all bots in the public directory.
- Example:
- Organization ABC created a custom package for their bots to interface with CyberArk.
- Their CyberArk version is changing, so Organization ABC is building a new version of the CyberArk package.
- Instead of updating each bot that is referencing their customer CyberArk package one-by-one, ABC performs a bulk package update to update all bots referencing this package to the most current version of the package.
- Note: BE SURE YOU USE THIS IN A TEST ENVIRONMENT FIRST! This will upgrade all bots that are in the public repository which are using the package you’ve selected to upgrade them all too – so be sure you’ve tested each bot to ensure you haven’t created additional issues before promoting them to production.
#2 - Repository Management Updates
- It’s incredibly important for an organization to appropriately manage their automation repository structure. Thankfully, that just got a bit easier with the introduction of some great Repository Management Updates.
- Version Control for Non-Bot Files: You now have the ability to store versions of non-bot files within your repository. Great for updating/rolling back things like settings or config files that are stored in your Control Room and referenced from various bots
- Renaming of Non-Empty Folders: If you’ve tried to rename a folder previously, you’ve likely run into an error indicating that a folder couldn’t be renamed because it wasn’t empty. Thankfully the .25 release includes the ability to now rename folders regardless of their contents.
- Dependency and Reference Mapping: When building with reusability in mind, its not uncommon for a single bot to be referenced by 5+ parent bots. Likewise, when creating a parent bot, its helpful to be able to quickly see all of its dependencies.
- Users can now easily view first level dependency and reference mapping directly in the Control Room UI. Great for quickly determining relationships between automations.
#3 - Selectable Technology Type for Recorder
- When applications/web interfaces don’t have well defined/standard object structures, it has been challenging, at times, to perform cloning operations.
- Thankfully, this challenge has been addressed in the .25 release with the introduction of selectable technology types.
- After capturing an object using the Recorder: Capture action, click the down arrow to the right of the “Capture Object” button to see the available technology types.
- By default, Recorder will attempt to auto-detect the preferred technology type…which is likely fine for most situations – but should you run into issues with the auto-detected technology type, you do now have the option to customize how Recorder interfaces with your application.
#4 - AARI & Genesys
- The .25 release also brings some new changes for the way Automation Anywhere is able to interface with the popular call-center/customer service platform Genesys.
- AARI Widgets have been introduced into the Genesys UI, so that Genesys users can invoke AARI processes directly from Genesys without having to leave their screens.
- Great for kicking off workflows/tasks that may need to run in the background or on another workstation
- A new Automation 360 Genesys package was also introduced – with a whopping 53 actions!
- This enables Automation 360 developers to easily take action in automating common administrative tasks on the Genesys platform.
#5 - Document Processing (Formally Known as IQ Bot)
- Document Processing (Formally Known as IQ Bot) saw a HUGE update with the .25 release.
- Developers can now create learning instances off of pre-trained invoice models – meaning that the setup time and training time have been significantly reduced…like all the way down to just checking the boxes of the fields you need to extract.
- Each learning instance also now creates a pre-built workflow – enabling the submission and validation of forms with a single click
- Not only great for testing but an excellent example of how Document Processing can/should be leveraged within a greater document processing workflow
- Finally, Machine Learning is now taking place after documents have been corrected in the AARI Validation interface…and it’s crazy how fast it can learn.
- Extraction capabilities are improved with each and every manual validation – meaning that straight-through processing rates should continuously improve as validations are completed.
- Stay tuned for an upcoming tutorial focused on this specific topic – with images that you can try out to see the learning for yourself.
Conclusion
Every Automation 360 release seems to bring a host of meaningful changes for bot developers that can further enhance developer experiences and ultimately automation outcomes. If you haven’t had a chance, take a look at the Automation 360 .24 Release notes on the documentation portal. They are helpfully organized by subproduct and by “What’s New” vs “What’s Changed” – which makes reading through them and understanding the cool new features as painless as possible.
Haven’t tried out the Automation 360 platform yet? Head over to the Automation 360 product page to learn more about product features, request a demo, or try out a free trial.