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Module 1: RPA Foundations

1.1 What is RPA?

 RPA stands for Robotic Process Automation.

 It is the technology used for software tools that automate human tasks, which are manual, rule-based,
or repetitive.
 Typically, it is like a bot that performs such tasks at a much higher rate than a human alone.
 These RPA software bots never sleep and make zero mistakes, and can interact with in-house
applications, websites, user portals, etc.
 They can log into applications, enter data, open emails and attachments, calculate and complete
tasks, and then log out.

 The word 'Robot' in 'RPA' is not a physical robot but a virtual system that helps in automating the
repetitive manual computing or business process tasks.

Why RPA

 Robotic Process Automation is economically capable as compared to any other automation

solutions.

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 It is the new buzz word in the IT industry. It has shifted the traditional way of doing the business task
manually into an automatic task within an organization.
 RPA technology uses bots that interact with web applications, web sites, excel worksheets, and
emails to automate the tasks just like a human.

BENEFITS OF RPA

Robotic Process Automation technology provides the following benefits:

Cost Savings

RPA helps organizations to save a huge amount of cost as it is typically cheaper than hiring an employee to
perform the same set of tasks.

Less Error

RPA works on standard logic and does not get bored, distracted, or tired. Hence, the probability of making
errors reduces to a great extent, which means less re-work and an enhanced reputation for efficiency.

Faster Processing

RPA works faster than human employees as computer software does not need breaks, food, rest, etc., and
can perform repetitive operations tirelessly. With RPA, processing time becomes predictable and consistent,
which ensures high-quality customer service across the operations.

Better Regulatory Compliance

RPA software works on the logic and data fed to it and does what is only needed as per the given
instructions. Hence, there are minimal chances of not complying with the standard regulations.

Better Customer Service

When RPA is implemented in a business, it frees many of its employees who can spend their time working
on customer-related services. It is very beneficial for businesses that receive a lot of customer queries. It also
leads to increased productivity for employees.

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 Auditable & Secure

RPA bots will only access the data for which they are given permission and create a detailed audit trail of all
activity.

Low Technical Barrier

RPA does not require any programming skills to configure the software robot. Since it is a code-free
technology, any non-technical person can set up the bot using drag and drop features. It also includes the
'Recorder' to record the steps of automation.

1.2 Flavours of RPA

On a high level, you can divide the flavors into the following:

1) Attended RPA (which may be referred to as robotic desktop automation or RDA):

 This was the first form of RPA that emerged, back in 2003 or so.
 Attended RPA means that the software provides collaboration with a person for
certain tasks.
 Example: would be in the call center, where a rep can have the RPA system handle
looking up information while he or she talks to a customer.
2) Unattended RPA:
 This technology was the second generation of RPA.
 With unattended RPA, you can automate a process without the need for human
involvement – that is, the bot is triggered when certain events happen,
Example: such as when a customer e-mails an invoice.
 Consider that unattended RPA is generally for back-office functions.

3) Intelligent process automation or IPA (this may also be referred to as cognitive RPA):

 This is the latest generation of RPA technology, which leverages AI to allow the system to
learn over time
Example: would be the interpretation of documents, such as invoices.
 There may be even less human intervention .

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 1.3 History of RPA
During the past 70 or so years that computers have been a major catalyst for this trend. Along the way, there
have been different period’s of automation, based on the types of technologies available. They would also
provide a foundation for RPA platforms.

 Mainframe Era: These were huge machines developed by companies like IBM. They were
expensive and mostly available to large companies (although, innovators like Ross Perot
would create outsourcing services to provide affordable options). Yet they were incredibly
useful in helping manage core functions for companies, such as payroll and
customer accounts.

 PC Revolution: Intel’s development of the microprocessor and Microsoft’s development of

its operating system revolutionized the technology industry. As a result, just about any
business could automate processes; say by using word processors and spreadsheets.

 But the automation technologies – while powerful – still had their drawbacks. They
could easily result in complex IT environments, which required expensive and time-
consuming integrations and custom coding.
 From this emerged the key elements for RPA, which came about in the early 2000s.
 A big part of this was screen scraping, which is the automation of moving data among
applications, which turned out to provide a nice boost to efficiency and effectiveness.
 But the nascent RPA market got scant attention. It was mostly perceived as low-tech
and a commodity.
 Instead, investors and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley focused their attention on the
rapidly growing cloud market that was disrupting traditional IT systems.

But around 2012 or so, the RPA market hit an inflection point. There was a convergence of trends that
made this happen, such as the following:
 In the aftermath of the financial crisis, companies were looking for ways to lower their costs.
Simply put, traditional technologies like ERP were reaching maturation. So companies
needed to look for new drivers.

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 Companies also realized they had to find ways to not be disrupted from technology
companies. RPA was considered an easier and more cost-effective way to go digital.
 Some industries like banking were becoming more subject to regulation. In other words, there
was a compelling need to find ways to lessen the paperwork and improve audit, security, and
control.
 RPA technology was starting to get more sophisticated and easier to use, allowing for higher
ROI (return on investment).
 Large companies were starting to use RPA for mission-critical applications.
 Demographics were also key. As the millennials started to enter the workforce, they wanted
more engaging work. They wanted careers, not jobs.

 Fast forward to today, RPA is the fastest growing part of the software industry. According to
Gartner, the spending on this technology jumped by 63% to $850 million in 2018 and is
forecasted to reach $1.3 billion by 2019. Or consider the findings from Transparency Market
Research. The firm projects that the global market for RPA will soar to $5 billion by 2020.

1.4 The Benefits of RPA

When looking at RPA, the benefits are far more than just about the impact on the bottom line. The
technology can transform a company.
 The Impact of Small Improvements: On the surface, an employee who saves 10 to 20 seconds
on a task – even something as simple as a series of cut-and-paste actions –may seem trivial. But
it’s not. When scaled across thousands of employees across a global organization, the impact can
certainly be significant.

 For example, some companies will keep track of the metric of how many hours are saved
by using RPA, which becomes a part of the overall ROI calculation.

 Relative Ease of Implementation: Unlike traditional business applications like a CRM or ERP,
RPA generally does not involve an onerous implementation and integration. Why? Note that the
software sits on top of existing IT systems.

 RPA is also relatively easy for a person to use since there is no requirement for
understanding complex coding.

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 The bottom line: The people implementing RPA will get to their objectives quicker and the IT
department will have more time to devote to higher priority items. This is important as there remains
a trend of less investment in IT.
 Compliance: Just one violation of a government regulation can have a serious adverse impact on a
company. It could even be a threat to its very existence.

 Examples like Enron or Theranos:

 (While employees are usually diligent and trustworthy, they do make mistakes or they
may not understand some of the regulations. Yet this is not an issue with RPA. You can
easily configure a bot to make sure the actions are compliant with regulatory
requirements. Many RPA vendors also have built in their own compliance systems,
handling such laws as the Sarbanes–Oxley Act, General Data Protection Regulation
(GDPR), and HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996)).

 Another compliance benefit is that there will be less intervention with the data from
people, which lessens the possibility of fraud.

 Customer Service: Nowadays, people want quick and accurate responses from their companies.
But this is difficult to provide, especially when a company is overwhelmed from incoming
contacts.But this is where RPA can make a big difference. The bots are programmed to make
sure that all the necessary steps are taken – at scale. The result is often an increase in customer
satisfaction metrics, like the Net Promoter Score (NPS).

 Employee Satisfaction: Yes, your team should also enjoy the benefits of RPA. After all, it means
that they do not have to spend their valuable time on tedious activities. The result may be less
turnover and higher productivity.
 Wide Application: It’s common for an enterprise application to focus on a certain part of a
company’s departments or functions. But RPA is wide. It can be used for virtually any part of a
company, such as legal, finance, HR, marketing, sales and so on.

 Data Quality: It should be greatly improved as there will be less chance of human error. In fact,
there will probably be much more data because of the scalability of the automation. In other words,
the datasets for analytics and AI will be more robust and useful.

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 Digital Transformation: This is a major priority for CEOs. But many companies have legacy
systems that would be expensive to replace or integrate. However, RPA is an approach that can help
with this process, which is often quicker and less costly.
 Scalability: If there is a sudden jump in demand, it can be extremely difficult to hire new employees.
But RPA can be a solution. It is much cheaper and faster to ramp up new bots to meet the demand.

1.5 The Downsides of RPA

RPA is definitely not a cure-all. The software has its inherent limitations and complexities.
 Cost of Ownership: The business models vary. Some have a subscription or multiyear
license. Other vendors may charge based on the number of bots.
 But there is more to the costs. There is the need for some level of training and ongoing
maintenance. Depending on the circumstances, there may be requirements for buying other
types of software and hardware. Oh, and it iscommon to retain third-party consultants to help
with the implementation process.
 Technical Debt: This is an issue with RPA. As a company’s processes change, the bots may
not work properly. This is why RPA does require ongoing attention.
 Enterprise Scale :. It can be extremely difficult to manage the numerous bots and there also
needs to be strong collaboration among IT.

 Security : This is a growing risk with RPA implementations, especially as the technology
covers more mission-critical areas of a company’s processes. Let’s face it, if there is a breach,
then highly sensitive information could easily be obtained. Actually as RPA gets more
pervasive in manufacturing, there may even be risks of property damage and bodily harm.
This would likely be the case with attended RPA.

 Expectations:. According to a survey from PEGA, the average time it takes to develop a
quality bot was 18 months, with only 39% being deployed on time.
 Preparation: You need to do a deep dive in how your current tasks work. If not, you may be
automating bad approaches.
 Limits: RPA technology is somewhat constrained. For the most part, it works primarily for
tasks that are routine and repetitive. If there is a need for judgment – say to approve a

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payment or to verify a document – then there should be human intervention. Although, as AI
gets more pervasive, the issues are likely to fade away.
For example, insurance companies can use the technology to adjudicate claims for payments,
based on individual claims history and firm-wide payment policies.

 Virtualized Environments: This is where a desktop accesses applications remotely, such as

through a platform. However, some of the latest RPA offerings, such as from UiPath, are
solving the problem.

1.6 RPA Compared to BPO, BPM, and BPA

Business process management (BPM)

Business process outsourcing (BPO)

Business process automation (BPA)

They can get kind of confusing but they have key distinctions.

 BPM:
For example, FileNet introduced a digital workflow management system to help better handle
documents (the company would eventually be purchased by IBM). Then there would come
onto the scene ERP vendors, such as PeopleSoft
 .All of this would converge into a major wave called BPM .
 For the most part, the focus was on having a comprehensive improvement on business
processes. This would encompass both optimizing systems for employees but also IT
assets.
 There were also various business process management software (BPMS) solutions to
help implement BPM.
 One was Laserfiche. Nien-Ling Wacker founded the company in 1987, when she saw
the opportunity to use OCR (optical character recognition) technology to allow users
to search huge volumes of text.
So then how is BPM different from RPA?
With BPM, it requires much more time and effort with the implementation because it is about changing
extensive processes, not tasks. There also needs to be detailed documentation and training. Because of this

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rigorous approach, BPM is often attractive to industries that are heavily regulated, such as financial services
and healthcare.
However, the risk is that there may be too much structure, which can stifle innovation and agility.On the
other hand, RPA can be complementary to BPM. That is, you can first undergo a BPM implementation to
greatly improve core processes. Then you can look to RPA to fill in the gaps.

 BPO : This is when a company outsources a business service function like payroll, customer
support, procurement, and HR.
 The market is massive, with revenues forecasted to reach $343.2 billion by 2025
(according to Grand View Research). Some of the top players in the industry include
ADP, Accenture, Infosys, IBM, TCS, and Cognizant.
As should be no surprise, one of the big attractions of BPO is the benefit of lower wage rates in other
countries (this is often referred to as “labor arbitrage”). The employee bases will also often be educated and
multilingual.bases will also often be educated and multilingual.
BPO will have three types of strategies:
 Offshore: This is where the employees are in another country, usually far away.
 Nearshore: This is when the BPO is in a neighboring country. True, there are usually higher
costs but there is the benefit of being able to conveniently visit the vendor. This can greatly help with
the collaboration.
 Onshore: The vendor is in the same country. For example, there can be wide differences in
wages in the United States.

There are drawbacks with a BPO : Perhaps the most notable one is the quality issue (you know the situation
when you call a company and get an agent you can barely understand!).
Yet here are some others to consider:
 Security: If a BPO company is developing an app with your company’s data, are there enough
precautions in place so there is not a breach? Even if so, it can still be difficult to enforce and
manage.
 Costs: Over the years, countries like China and India have seen rising labor costs. This has
resulted in companies moving to other locations, which can be disruptive and expensive.
 Politics: This can be a wildcard. Instability can easily mean having to abandon a BPO
operator in a particular country.
 BPA : This is the use of technology to automate a complete process. One common use case is
onboarding.

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For example, bringing on a new employee involves many steps, which are repeatable and entail
lots of paperwork. For a large organization, the process can be time-consuming and expensive.
But BPA can streamline everything, allowing for the onboarding at scale.
OK, this kind of sounds like RPA, right? Yes, this is true. But there is a difference in degree. RPA is
really about automating a part of the process, whereas BPA will take on all the steps.

1.7 Consumer Willingness for Automation

The automation of consumer-facing activities, such as with chatbots on a smartphone or web site, are
becoming more ubiquitous.
Consider a report from Helpshift, an AI-based digital customer service platform automating 80% of
customer support issues for huge D2C (direct-to-consumer) brands including companies like Flipboard,
Microsoft, Tradesy, and 60 others. Its report is based on the analysis of 75 million customer service tickets
and 71 million bot-sent messages.
Here are some of the findings:
 A total of 55% of the respondents – and 65% of millennials – prefer chatbots with customer
service so long as it is more efficient and reduces phone time to resolve an issue and explain a
problem.
 A total of 49% say they appreciate the 24/7 availability of chatbots.- Granted, there is much
progress to be made. Chatbot technology is still in the early phases and can be glitchy, if not
downright annoying in certain circumstances. But in theyears to come, this form of
automation will likely become more important – and also a part of the RPA roadmap.

 According to the CEO of Helpshift, Linda Crawford: “Seeing as the vast majority of
Americans dread contacting customer support, there’s a huge opportunity here for chatbots to
fill the void and improve the customer support experience for consumers—and agents

1.8 The Workforce of the Future

 The interesting thing is that the fundamentals of work have not changed much since then. True, there
has been the trend of the gig economy, in which people get paid for offering services through Uber
and Lyft. Yet when it comes to office work, the structure has remained quite durable.
 . According to research from the McKinsey Global Institute, white collar workers still spend 60% of
their time on manual tasks, such as with answering e-mails, using spreadsheets, writing notes, and
making calls.

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
 In light of all this, RPA is likely to have a significant impact on the workplace because more and
more of the repetitive processes will be automated away. One potential consequence is that there may
be growing job losses.
 A survey from Forrester predicts that – as of 2025 – software automation will mean the loss of 9% of
the world’s jobs or 230 million. Then again, the new technologies and approaches will open up many
new opportunities.
 Its analysis shows that technologies like RPA could automate a whopping 45% of the activities of a
company’s workforce. Now when a company engages in an automation project, the CEO will usually
not talk about job loss. It’s something that will frighten the workforce and generate awful headlines.
Instead the messaging will be vague, focusing on the overall benefits of the transformation.
 This may make it sound like not much is happening. But it does seem like a good bet that the
reverberations will grow and grow, as RPA systems get increasingly robust. As we’ve seen in prior
periods where technology resulted in job loss – such as in the Industrial Revolution – there are
serious changes in politics and regulations.
 Companies really do try to avoid layoffs, since they are expensive and take a toll on the organization.
But in the years ahead, managers will probably need to find ways to navigate the changes from
automation, such as finding new roles or reskilling the workforce.
 All in all, the rise of automation has the potential for leading for a much better society. Again,
workers can focus on more interesting and engaging activities – not repetitive and mundane tasks.
There will also be ongoing renewing of knowledge and understanding. But there must be proactive
efforts, say from companies and governments, to provide for a smoother transition

The Technologies You Need to Know

While RPA does not require programming skills, there is still a need to understand high-level concepts about
technology. Unfortunately, the concepts can get extremely complex and confusing. It seems like there is an
endless number of acronyms like ACL, API, OCR, CPU, HTTP, IP, JSON, NOC, PCI, RAM, and SaaS.
Even tech veterans do not know many of the terms – or have just a vague understanding of their
meanings. For example, here’s how Kubernetes is defined:

Kubernetes (K8s) is an open-source system for

automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.1

Huh? To get a sense of this, you really need to have a deep understanding of computer and software
architecture.

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But the good news is that – to use RPA effectively – there are only a handful of terms and concepts you
need to know. So this is what we’ll cover in this chapter.

On-Premise Vs. the Cloud

The traditional IT system approach is the use of on-premise technology. This means that a company
purchases and sets up its own hardware and software in its own data center.

Some of the benefits include:

 A company has complete control over everything. This is particularly important for regulated
industries that require high levels of security and privacy.
 With on-premise software, you may have a better ability to customize the solution to your company’s
unique needs and IT policies.
However, the on-premise technology model has serious issues as well. One of the biggest is the cost, which
often involves large up-front capital expenses. Then there is the ongoing need for maintenance, upgrades,
and monitoring. And finally, the use of point applications like Excel can lead to a fragmented
environment, in which it becomes difficult to centralize data because there are so many files spread across
the organization.

 But as the Internet became more robust, there was a move to so-called cloud computing.
 One of the first business applications in this industry was developed by Salesforce.com, which
made it possible for users to use the software through a browser.

 Companies could pay per-user, per-month fees for the services they used, and those services
would be delivered to them immediately via the Internet, in the cloud.

The downsides with cloud software. Here are just some to consider:
 With less control of the platform, there are more vulnerability to security and privacy lapses.
 Outages do happen and can be extremely disruptive and costly for enterprises that need reliability.
 Cloud computing is not necessarily cheap. In fact, one of the biggest complaints against
Salesforce.com is the cost.
 Regardless, the fact remains that the technology continues to gain traction.
Besides the impact of Salesforce.com and other cloud applications companies, another critical development
was Amazon.com’s AWS platform.

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AWS essentially handles the complex administrative and infrastructure requirements like storage, security,
compute, database access, content delivery, developer tools, deployment, IoT (Internet of Things), and
analytics (there are currently more than 165 services).
This means the development of applications can be much quicker. The costs are generally lower and the fees
are based on a per-use basis.
The cloud also has different approaches, such as the following:
 Public Cloud: The cloud is accessed from remote servers, such as from AWS, Salesforce.com, and
Microsoft. The servers have an architecture known as multitenant that allows the users to share a
large IT infrastructure in a secure manner.
This greatly helps to achieve economies of scale, which would not be possible if a company created
its own cloud.
 Private Cloud: This is when a company owns the data center. True, there are not the benefits of the
economies of scale from a public cloud. But this may not be a key consideration. Some companies
might want a private cloud because of control and security.
 Hybrid Cloud: This is a blend of the public and private clouds. For example, the public cloud may
handle less mission-critical functions.

As for RPA, the cloud has different implications and impacts. One is that a platform needs to deal with
complex distributed applications, which can be difficult if a company develops custom programs on a cloud
service.

.In some cases, an on-premise RPA system may be loaded onto a cloud service like AWS. While there
are benefits with this, it is not cloud native. This is because you will still need to upgrade and maintain the
software.

Web Technology
The mastermind of the development of the World Wide Web – which involved the use of hyperlinks to
navigate web pages – was a British scientist, Tim Berners-Lee.

At the core of this was HTML or hypertext markup language, which was a set of commands and tags to
display text, show colors, and present graphics. A key was that the system was fairly easy to learn and use,
which helped to accelerate the number of web sites.

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For example, many of the commands in HTML involve surrounding content with tags, such as the
following:
<strong>This is a Title</strong>

HTML would ultimately be too simple. So there emerged other systems to provide even richer
experiences, such as with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets, which provides for borders, shadows, and
animations) and JavaScript (this makes it possible to have sophisticated interactivity, say, with the use of
forms or calculations).
RPA must deal with such systems to work effectively. This means it will have to take actions like identify
the commands and tags so as to automate tasks.

Programming Languages and Low Code

 A programming language allows you to instruct a computer to take actions.
 The commands generally use ordinary words like IF, Do, While, and Then. But there can still be lots
of complexity, especially with languages that use advanced concepts like object-oriented
programming.
 Some of the most popular languages today include Python, Java, C++, C#, and Ruby.
 To use an RPA system, you have to use some code – but it’s not particularly difficult. It’s actually
known as low code. As the name implies, it is about using minimal manual input.

For example, an RPA system has tools like drag-and-drop and visualizations to create a bot.

This is not to imply that low code does not need some training. To do low code correctly, you will need
to understand certain types of workflows and approaches.

OCR (Optical Character Recognition)

 A key feature for an RPA platform is OCR (Optical Character Recognition), a technology that has
actually been around for decades.
 It has two parts:

->Document scanner (which could even be something like your smartphone)

-> software that recognizes text.

In other words, with OCR, you can scan an image, PDF, or even handwritten documents – and the
text will be recognized. This makes it possible to manipulate the text, such as by transferring it onto
a form or updating a database.

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There are definitely many challenges with effective OCR scanning, such as:
 The size of a font
 The shape of the text
 The skewness (is the text rotated or slanted?)
 Blurred or degraded text
 Background noise
 Understanding different languages

Then how does this technology help with RPA?

 One way is with recoding a person’s actions while working on an application. The OCR can
better capture the workflows by recognizing words and other visuals on the screen. So, even if
there is a change of the location of these items, the RPA system can still identify them.
 Something else: Automation involves large numbers of documents.
Thus, OCR will greatly improve the processing. An example of this would be processing a loan.
With OCR, a document will use OCR to extract information about a person’s financial
background, the information about the property, and any other financial details. After this, the
RPA system will apply the workflows and tasks to process the loan, say, with applying various
rules and sending documents to different departments and regulatory agencies.

But there are OCR systems that can help out, such as HyperScience. The software leverages
sophisticated machine learning (ML) technology to quickly and accurately extract the information
(understanding cursive writing, for example).

Databases
 At the heart of most applications is a database, which stores data that can be searched and updated.
This is usually done by putting the information in tables (i.e., rows and columns of information).
 To interact with this, there is a scripting language called SQL (Structured Query Language), which
was relatively easy to learn.
 It was not until the late 1970s that relational databases were commercialized, led by the pioneering
efforts of Oracle.
 While relational databases proved to be quite effective, there were still some nagging issues. Perhaps
the biggest was data sprawl. Another problem was that relational databases were not cheap. And as

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new technologies came on the scene, such as cloud computing and real-time mobile applications, it
became more difficult to process the data.
 In the meantime, there have been new approaches that have gone against the model for relational
databases. They include offerings like MySQL (which is now owned by Oracle) and PostgreSQL.
Yet these systems did not get enough traction in the enterprise.
 But there is one next-generation database technology that has done so: NoSQL. It also began as an
open source project and saw tremendous growth. As of now, MongoDB has 14,200 customers across
100 countries and there have been over 70 million downloads.
 Where relational databases are highly structured, a NoSQL system is quite flexible. It’s based on a
document model that can handle huge amounts of data at petabyte scale.
 And going forward, there is likely to be much innovation with database technology. Yet relational
databases will remain the majority of what companies use – which also means that this will also be
what RPA interacts with as well.

APIs (Application Programming Interfaces)

 An API – which is the acronym for “application programming interface” – is software that connects
two applications.
For example: let’s say you want to create a weather app. To get access to the data, you can setup an
API, which often is fairly straightforward, such as by putting together a few lines of code to make
data requests (say, for the city). By doing this, you will increase the speed of the development.
 APIs are pervasive in enterprise environments since they are so effective. They also have different
structures. Although, the most common is a REST (representational state transfer) API.
 It’s true that APIs can be used as a form of automation.
 The technology requires having people with technical backgrounds. The development of an API can
take time and require complex integration.
 There is also the need for ongoing testing. However, there are third-party services that can help out.
There must be a focus on maintaining an API (it’s not uncommon for an API to break if there is a
change in the structure).
 APIs can still have bugs and glitches, especially when in complex IT environments.
Because of the difficulties, RPA has proven to be a very attractive alternative. Again, the development is
much easier and there is less of a need for integration. But, interestingly enough, an RPA platform can be a
vehicle for delivering advanced APIs within the enterprise.

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AI (Artificial Intelligence)
 A typical RPA system does not have much AI (Artificial Intelligence). The main reason is that there
is a literal carrying out of tasks, which does not require any smart system. But as AI gets more
powerful and accessible, RPA will increasingly start to use this powerful technology – which should
greatly enhance the outcomes.
AI: It’s software that ingests large amounts of data that is processed with sophisticated algorithms that help
answer questions, detect patterns, or learn. Interestingly enough, AI is actually made up of a variety of
subcategories
Machine Learning : This is where a computer can learn and improve by processing data without having to be
explicitly programmed. Machine learning is actually one of the oldest forms of AI and uses traditional
statistical methods like k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) and the naive Bayes classifier.

Deep Learning: Deep learning became a major force in AI. Some of the important factors for this included
the enormous growth in data, the use of GPUs (graphics processing units) that provided for ultrafast parallel
processing, and innovation in techniques like backpropagation.
Deep learning is about using so-called neural networks – such as recurrent neural networks (RNNs),
convolutional neural networks (CNNs), and generative adversarial networks (GANs) – to find patterns that
humans often cannot detect.

NLP (natural language processing): This is AI that helps understand conversations. The most notable
examples of this include Siri, Cortana, and Alexa.
But there are also many chatbots that focus on specific uses cases (say, with providing medical advice).

Figure 2-1 This is a high-level look at the key components of the AI world

Besides, AI has some major issues, such as the following:

Bias : According to IBM: “Bad data can contain implicit racial, gender, or ideological
biases. Many AI systems will continue to be trained using bad data, making this an
ongoing problem.”
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Causation: Humans have a strong grasp of this. We know what will happen if we use a hammer to hit a
glass. It’s pretty much instinctive. But AI is another matter. This technology is really about finding
correlations in data not causation – and this is a major limiting factor.
Common Sense: A human does not have to process many cases to understand certain rules of thumb. We just
naturally understand them. But with AI, common sense has been extremely difficult to code because of the
ambiguity and the lack of useful data for the seemingly infinite use cases.
Black Box : Deep learning can have an enormous number of layers and parameters. This means it can be
nearly impossible for a person to understand why the model is generating certain results. Now there
is more innovation in trying to find ways to understand deep learning outcomes – which is something called
“explainability” – but the efforts are still in the nascent stages.
Comprehension : An AI system cannot truly understand what it is reading or observing.
For example, if it read War and Peace, it would not be able to provide thoughts on the character
development, themes, and so on.
Static: It is also possible to conduct millions of simulations to learn. But of course, the real world is much
more dynamic, open-ended, and chaotic.
Conceptual Thinking: AI cannot understand abstract ideas like justice, misery, or happiness. There is also a
lack of imagination and creativity.
Brain: It’s really a miracle of evolution. A typical brain has 86 billion neurons and
.
Structured Data: This is data that is formatted (social security numbers, addresses, point of sale information,
etc.) that can be stored in a relational database or spreadsheet.
Unstructured Data: This is data that is unformatted (images, videos, voicemails, PDFs, emails, and audio
files).

 For the most part, RPA uses structured data. However, this represents about 30% of what’s available
in a typical organization. But with AI, an RPA system will likely be much more effective since it will
be better able to process unstructured data.
 Furthermore, there are other potential benefits of the technology: judgement, the use of reasoning,
and the detection of highly complex patterns. With these, the automation will be greatly enhanced,
helping with things like detecting fraud.

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Cognitive Automation
.Consider cognitive automation to be an application of AI, actually.
 First of all, it is automation uses a combination of technologies like speech recognition and NLP.
By doing this, the goal is to replicate human actions as best as possible, such as by analysing
patterns of workers and then finding patterns and correlations.
 Something else: Unlike other forms of AI, cognitive automation is usually effective with the use
of much less data. There may also be not as much reliance on highly technical talent, such as
data scientists.
Agile, Scrum, Kanban, and Waterfall
 In today’s world, software development has become even more difficult because of the
emergence of new platforms like the cloud and the hybrid cloud. This is why it’s important
to look at software management approaches.

 Agile
-One is called Agile, which was created back in the 1990s (a big part of this was the publication of the
Manifesto for Agile Software Development).

-The focus of this was to allow for incremental and iterative development, which begins with a detailed plan.
This also requires much communication across the teams and should involve people from the-business side
of the organization.
-Nowadays, Agile has gotten easier because of the emergence of sophisticated technologies like Slack and
Zoom that help with collaboration. “
 Scrum:
-This is actually a subset of Agile. But the iterations are done as quick sprints, which may last a week or two.
This can help with the momentum of a project but also make a larger project more manageable (just as a side
note: Scrum was first used for manufacturing but it was later found to work quite well with software
development).
Kanban:
-This comes from the Japanese word for visual sign or card (the roots of the system go back to Toyota’s
high-quality manufacturing processes).
So yes, with Kanban, there is the use of visuals to help streamline the process. What’s more, the general
approach is similar to Agile as there is iterative development.
Waterfall
-This is the traditional code development model, which goes back to the 1970s.
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-The waterfall model is a structured plan that goes over each step in much detail. To help this along, there
may be the use of a project management tool, say, a Gantt chart.
-While the waterfall approach has its advantages, it has generally fallen out of favor. Some of the reasons are
as follows: It can be tough to make changes, the process can be tedious, and there is often a risk of a project
being late.
DevOps
 DevOps has emerged as a critical part of a company’s digital transformation.
 The “Dev” part of the word is actually more than just about coding software.
 It also refers to the complete application process (such as with project management and quality
assurance or QA). As for “Ops,” it is another broad term, which encompasses system engineers and
administrators as well as database administrators, network engineers, security experts, and operations
staff.
 For the most part, DevOps has come about because of some major trends in IT. One is the use of
agile development approaches . Next is the realization that organizations need to combine technical
and operational staff when introducing new technologies and innovations.
 And finally, DevOps has proven effective in working with cloud computing environments.

Flowcharts
 An essential part of RPA is understanding workflows and systems, the use of flowcharts is common.
 It’s usually at the core of the software application.
 With a flowchart, you can both sketch out the existing workflows of a department. And then from
here, you can brainstorm ways of improving them. Then you can use the flowchart to design a bot
for the automation.
 The flowchart is relatively simple to use and it also provides a quick visual way to understand what
you are dealing with. As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.
 some of the basics:
Terminator: This is a rectangle with rounded corners and is used to start and end the
process, as seen in Figure 2-2

Figure 2-2 This is a terminator, which starts and ends a flowchart

Process: This is represented by a rectangle. With this, there is only one next step in the
process. Figure 2-3 shows an example:

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Figure 2-3 This shows a process in a flowchart

Decision: This is a square symbol that is at an angle. There will be at least two possible
paths. Figure 2-4 is an example:

Figure 2-4 This shows a decision process in a flowchart

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Module-2

RPA Platforms
2.1 COMPONENTS OF RPA

Any Robotics process automation platform provides some basic components, which together
build the platform.

The following are the basic or core components of RPA:

Recorder

Development Studio

Plugin/Extension

Bot Runner

Control Center:

Recorder
 The recorder is the part of the development studio that developers use to configure the
Robots.

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 It is like the macro recorder in Excel, the bot recorder in any platform, records steps.
 It records mouse and keyboard movements on the UI and this recording can be replayed
to do the same steps again and again.
 This enables rapid automation. This component has played a very big role in the
popularity of RPA.
Development studio
 The development studio is used by developers to create Robot configuration or train the
Robots.
 Using the development studio, a set of instructions and decision-making logic is coded
for Robots to execute.
 Some platforms provide flow-charting capabilities such as Visio, so it becomes very easy
to plot steps in a process, whereas some other platforms require coding.
 In most studios, in order to do commercial development, developers need to have a fair
amount of knowledge of programming,
Example, loops, if else, variable assignment, and so on.

Extensions and plugins

 Most platforms offer many plugins and extensions to ease the development and running
of bots.
 In many applications, such as Java SAP, it is not easy to individually identify controls of
the UI through traditional techniques.
 RPA vendors have developed plugins and extensions to help with these issues.

Bot runner
 This is also referred to as the Robot, other components make it run.

Control center
 The objective of the control room is to provide Robot management capabilities.
 It monitors and controls a Robot's operation in a network.

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 It can be used to start/stop Robots, make schedules for them, maintain and publish code,
redeploy Robots to different tasks, and manage licenses and credentials.

2.2 RPA Platforms

 RPA vendor market has been showing continual and steady growth.
 While the largest market is the US, followed by the UK, the market in Asia Pacific
Countries(APAC) is also showing considerable progress. Successful pilot projects and
increased customer satisfaction among the early adopters of RPA will encourage new
players to adopt this technology.
 There is growing demand for RPA, especially in industries that need large scale
deployments.
 The major markets for RPA are banking and finance, healthcare and pharmaceuticals,
telecom and media, and retail.
1.Automation Anywhere
Automation Anywhere helps to automate business processes for companies. They focus on RPA,
cognitive data (machine learning and natural language processing), and business analytics. Their
bots are capable of handling both structured as well as unstructured data.
The system has three basic components:
1. A development client for the creation of a bot
2. A runtime environment for the deployment of a bot
3. A centralized command system for handling multiple bots, analyzing their performance:
2. UiPath
 UiPath is an RPA technology vendor who designs and delivers software that helps
automate businesses.
 The RPA platform consists of three parts:
->UiPath Studio to design the processes
->UiPath Robot to automate tasks designed in UiPath Studio
->UiPath Orchestrator to run and manage the processes
3. Blue Prism
 Blue Prism aims to provide automation that enterprises can use according to their needs.

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 Blue Prism aims to do this by providing automation that is scalable, configurable, and
centrally managed.
 It sells its software through its partners, some of which are Accenture, Capgemini,
Deloitte, Digital Workforce Nordic, HPE, HCL, IBM, TCS, Tech Mahindra,
Thoughtonomy, and Wipro
4. WorkFusion
 Work Fusion offers automation that is based on RPA and machine learning.
 It delivers software as a solution for automating high volume data.
 Work Fusion enables man and machine to work in tandem while managing, optimizing,
or automating tasks.
5. Thoughtonomy
 Thoughtonomy delivers software that helps automate business and IT processes.
 It uses Blue Prism and other automation software and customizes it
6. KOFAX
 Kofax's RPA platform is capable of automating and delivering processes that are
repetitive and rule-based.
 It uses Robots for extracting and consolidating information.
 The software platform consists of a management console to deploy and manage bots,
Robot performance, and a monitoring system.
 This software can also group together high priority tasks that should be completed first by
the Robot during times of high workload. Kofax's software, however, doesn't have
machine learning.

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UiPath Blue Prism WorkFusion Thoughtonomy KOFAX

HQ Bucharest, Romania United Kingdom New York, London, UK Irvine,
USA California
Est 2001 2011 2013
CEO Daniel Dines Alastair Bathgate Max Terry Walby Paul Rooke
Yangkelivich,
Andrew Volkov
Key Atos, AXA, BBC, BNY Mellon, RWE Thomson Atos, Fujitsu, CGI, Arrow
Clients Capgemini, npower, and Reuters, Unite BT, and Electronics,
CenturyLink, Telefonica O2 Infogroup, Citi, Business Systems Delta Dental of
Cognizant, and Standard Colorado, Pitt
Middlesea, Bank Ohio, Audi
OpusCapita, and
SAP
Source of North America, More than half of its North America Around 70% of North America
revenue Continental Europe, revenue source comes provides more revenue comes accounts for
by region the UK, and APAC from the UK, followed than 80% of solely from the almost half of
by North America, Work Fusion’s UK. The rest its
Continental Europe, revenue,followe comes from revenue,
and APAC d by Europe, Continental followed by
APAC, and Europe, North Continental
MEA America, APAC, Europe, APAC,
and LATAM
(Latin America)
Source of BFSI, healthcare, BFSI, health, and Around 90% of A major part of its BFSI,retail,
revenue telecom and pharmaceuticals, retail its revenue revenue comes consumer,
by media, and retail and consumer, telecom comes from the from third party travel,
industry and media, BFSI sector, clients, followed by transportation,
manufacturing, public followed by the BFSI, public public sector,
sector, travel, and retail and sector, telecom, manufacturing,
transportation consumer healthcare, retail, and healthcare
sectors and consumer
sectors

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2.3 ABOUT Ui PATH

 UiPath is an RPA vendor that provides software to help organizations automate their
business processes. The company aims to do away with repetitive and tedious tasks,
allowing humans to engage in more creative and inspiring activities.
 UiPath was founded by Daniel Dines, who is the CEO. It has offices in London,
Bucharest, Tokyo, Paris, Singapore, Melbourne, Hong Kong, and Bangalore. With clients
spread across the world, from North America to the United Kingdom, Continental Europe
to Asia Pacific countries, the company has shown remarkable growth in the last year,
both in terms of revenue and its workforce.
 Today, its software is being widely used to automate business processes. However, the IT
sector is also gradually embracing UiPath's software. Major clients of UiPath in the
industry include BFSI, Telecom and media, healthcare, retail and consumer, and
manufacturing.
 With UiPath automation software, one can configure software Robots to mimic human
action on the user interface of computer systems.

The basic components of the UiPath RPA

. The components of the UiPath platform are UiPath Studio, UiPath Robot, and UiPath
Orchestrator, see the following sections.
1. UiPath Studio
 UiPath Studio helps users with no coding skills to design Robotic processes in a visual
interface.
 It is a flowchart-based modeling tool. Thus, automation is faster and more convenient.
 Multiple people can contribute to the same workflow.
 The presence of a visual signal that points out errors in the model, and a recorder that
performs what the user executes, make modeling much easier.
2. UiPath Robot
 UiPath Robot runs the processes designed in UiPath Studio.

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 It works in both attended (working only on human trigger) and unattended environments
(self-trigger and work on their own).
The following are types of Robots:
Attended: It operates on the same workstation as a human to help the user accomplish daily
tasks. It is usually triggered by user events. You cannot start a process from Orchestrator on
these type of Robots, and they cannot run under a locked screen.
Unattended: It can run unattended in virtual environments and can automate any number of
processes. In addition to the Attended Robot's capabilities, this Robot is responsible for remote
execution, monitoring, scheduling, and providing support for work queues.
Free: It is similar to Unattended Robots, but can be used only for development and testing
purposes, not in a production environment.
3.UiPath Orchestrator
 UiPath Orchestrator is a web-based platform that runs and manages Robots.
 It is capable of deploying multiple Robots, and monitoring and inspecting their activities.
 Orchestrator's main capabilities:
-It helps in creating and maintaining the connection between Robots
-It ensures the correct delivery of the packages to Robots
-It helps in managing the queues
-It helps in keeping track of the Robot identification
 It stores and indexes the logs to SQL or Elasticsearch
 Behind the scenes, Orchestrator Server uses:
-IIS Server
-SQL Server
-Elasticsearch
-Kibana
2.4 THE FUTURE OF AUTOMATION
 The buzzword today is the Fourth Industrial Revolution-the current age where
technology is embedded within societies and even the human body-be it Robotics, 3D
printing, nanotechnology, Internet of Things, or autonomous vehicles. This will
fundamentally change the way we live, work, and interact with one another.

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 Technological innovation has reached a stage where machines have now entered the
realm of what was once considered exclusively human. For these reasons, there is a wide
section of people who fear this age of Robots.

 There are various advantages of automation today; there are also fears surrounding its
advancement, which are not completely unfounded. This time automation is capable of
impacting a wide range of disciplines. Thus, unlike in the past where only blue collar jobs
were at risk of being replaced by machines, this time even white collar jobs are believed
to be at risk.
 While this is not untrue, reports suggest that only around 5% of the total jobs may be
totally replaced by automation. For other jobs, automation will only replace a part of the
job and not completely take over.
 There are, of course, those jobs in the 5% category that run the risk of being completely
automated. These are the jobs that are routine, repetitive, and predictable. A few
Examples: telemarketing, data entry operation, clerical work, retail sales, cashiers, toll
booth operators, and fast food jobs.
 However, like in the past, people should be able to find a way to adapt to the changes.
With each generation, humans become smarter, more adaptable to change, and also
progressive.
 Also, with automation mostly taking over routine and tedious tasks, humans are provided
the opportunity to make better use of their capabilities-be it reasoning, emotional
intelligence, or their creativity.
 What we can do is not fret over the inevitable rather prepare for it. One way of doing so
is to start changing the pattern of education. The next generation should be taught how to
recognize and adapt to changes quickly. An important aspect of their education should be
to learn how to learn.

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2.5 RECORD AND PLAY

The facility of recording user steps on a computer and playing them back has made Robotic
Process Automation (RPA) highly successful.
UiPath stack
There are three basic components in UiPath:
1. UiPath Studio
2. UiPath Robot
3. UiPath Orchestrator

The UiPath platform is available in two variations:

1. Enterprise Edition: This edition is suitable for large companies starting their RPA projects
and looking to scale their Robot deployments in the future. It is integrated with UiPath
Orchestrator (we will discuss UiPath Orchestrator later). This version can be updated by visiting
the UiPath website and by downloading the newest version of the UiPath platform installer.
Running the installer automatically replaces all the old files without modifying any of your
settings.
2. Community Edition: This is suitable for individual developers and small organizations with
fewer employees. The Community Edition is always up-to date, and it automatically updates
itself as soon as a new version is available

 The Community Edition can be used to learn UiPath free of cost.

UiPath Studio
 UiPath Studio is the development environment of UiPath. It is the primary tool to
develop UiPath Robots.
 It can be used to configure steps of a task or launch a full recorder to record a sequence of
steps. The recording facility in the Studio is a game-changing feature for RPA tools.
 Its simplicity lets even nontechnical business users design/record steps of a process. This
studio lets the user configure Robots, that is, develop steps to perform tasks visually.

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 Most of the configuration and coding in UiPath is visual. By using the drag-drop facility
from the toolbox, you may write a whole sequence of workflows to perform a set of tasks
by Robots.
 These steps look like a data flow diagram and are very easy to understand. It is one of
the simplest visual flow diagramming. The studio gives the same look and feel as a
workflow. The designer.
 An activity or action includes clicking a button, writing and reading a file, and so on.

2.6 DOWNLOADING AND INSTALLING UIPATH STUDIO

UiPath Community Edition is free to use in academia, nonprofits, and small businesses
The UiPath Community Edition has the following features:
Auto update
No server integration
Community forum for support
Online self-learning
No complex installation required
Online activation is mandatory

To get your Community Edition of UiPath Studio, type the following link in your Browser:
https://www.uipath.com/Community.

1. A Community Edition page opens. Click on Get Community Edition

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2. On the next page, you must register yourself in order to download the Community Edition.
So, use the correct details and remember them because the same email will be used to
activate the software.
---Fill in the following details: First Name*, Last Name*, and Email*. Filling in the
Twitter User field is not mandatory, but it is good to provide it:
---Click on REQUEST COMMUNITY EDITION.

3. You will be directed to a page that requests you to check your email for downloading the
link. Click on the link to download UiPath Studio.

You may also directly download UiPath Studio. Just click on the word here in download it.

4. Once the download is complete, open the downloaded file, UiPathtsudioSetup.Exe

5. The installation will then begin. Once the installation is complete, a welcome message will
be displayed. Click on the Start Free option.
6. Then, as requested, enter your Email Address once again and click on Activate. Please
remember to use the same email ID that you used to download the software. This email ID
will be bound to the computer. The activation will happen online. An offline activation
option is not available for the Community Edition.
7. A message will then be displayed on the screen informing you of the successful installation.
Close this window.

For more convenient use, you can pin it to your taskbar immediately; otherwise, you may have to
unnecessarily search for UiPath.Exe in your computer every time you wish to use it.
Your UiPath Studio is now ready for use!

2.7 LEARNING Ui PATH STUDIO

 The UiPath Studio platform helps to design Robotic processes with a visual interface.
 Automation in UiPath Studio requires no or very little prior programming knowledge. It
is a Flowchart-based modeling tool. Thus, automation is faster and more convenient.

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Projects
The main types of project supported by UiPath Studio are as follows:

Sequence: This is suitable for simple actions or tasks. It enables you to go from one activity to
another, without interfering with your project.
-It consists of various activities.
-Creating sequences is also useful for debugging purposes.
-One activity from a particular sequence can easily be tracked.
-The Basic type of project can be started using the Blank option in the start tab and then adding
the sequence in the diagram from the toolbox.

Flowchart: This is suitable for dealing with more complex projects.

-It enables you to integrate decisions and connect activities.
To start this kind of project, choose the Flowchart - Simple Process option from the new project
menu.

Assistant: This is suitable for developing attended or Front Office Robots: sometimes these
Robots are called assistants. To start this kind of project, choose the Assistant - Agent Process
Improvement option from the new project menu.
State machine: This is suitable for very large projects that use a finite number of states in their
execution, triggered by a condition.
-To start this kind of project, choose the Process - Transaction Business Process option from
the new project menu
 However, if you click on the New option in the DESIGN tab, you only get three options:
Sequence
Flowchart
State Machine
The preceding options selected from the DESIGN tab's New menu become part of an
existing project and are referred to as a diagram.

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THE USER INTERFACE
 When you first open UiPath Studio, you are directed to the page.
 You can either open an old project or create a new one. Let us say we are making a new
project.
 We click on Blank and name it. We will then be directed to a screen, which will display
the following:

1. The Ribbon
2. Quick Access Toolbar
3. Designer panel
4. Properties panel
5. Outline panel
6. Arguments panel
7. Variable panel
8. Import panel
9. Activity panel
10. Library panel
11. Project panel
12. Output panel
1. The Ribbon
 This panel located at the top of the user interface and consists of four tabs:

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1. START: This is used to start new projects or to open projects previously made.
2. DESIGN: This is to create new sequences, Flowcharts, or state machines, or to
manage variables:
3. EXECUTE: This is used to run projects or to stop them, and also to debug Projects
4. SETUP: This panel is for deployment and configuration options; it has three tools
available:
-Publish: This is used to publish a project or create a shortcut for it and schedule tasks
-Setup Extensions: This is used to install extensions for Chrome,
Firefox, Java, and Silver light
-Reset Settings: This is used to reset all settings to defaults:

2. The Quick Access Toolbar

 This panel gives the user a shortcut to the most used commands.
 One can also add new commands to this panel. This is located above the Ribbon on the
user interface.
 The Quick Access Toolbar has been circled in the following screenshot and is indicated
by the arrow:can be moved above or below the Ribbon. By default, there are two buttons
available,Save and Run, which are also available in the DESIGN tab of the Ribbon.

3.Designer panel
 This is the panel where one defines the steps and activities of the projects.
 It is where a developer does most of the things to record activities or manually drop
activities on the canvas.
 In UiPath, this is equivalent to the code windows of Microsoft Visual Studio. When we
develop a Robot, this is the window where we will be organizing various activities in a
flow or chain to accomplish a task.
 The project a user makes is clearly displayed on the Designer panel and the user has the
option of making any changes to it.

4. Properties panel

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 The panel located on the right-hand side of the user interface is for viewing the properties
of the activities and for making any changes, if required.
 You need to select an activity first and then go to the Properties panel to view or change
any of its properties

5. Activities panel
 Located on the left-hand side of the user interface, this panel contains all the activities
that can be used in building the project.
 The activities can easily be used in making a project by simply dragging and dropping the
required activity into the required location in the Designer panel.

6. Project panel
 With the Project panel, you can view the details of your current project and open it in a
Windows Explorer window.
 It is located on the extreme left-hand side of the design panel,below the Library panel

7.Outline panel
 As the name suggests, this panel gives a basic outline of the project.
 The activities that make up the workflow are visible in this panel.
 Using this, you may see a high-level outline of the project and you can drill down to see
deeper.
 This panel is especially helpful of large automation projects, where one may otherwise
have a tough time going through it

8. Output panel
 This panel displays the output of the log message or writes line activities. It also displays
the output during the debugging process.
 This panel also shows errors, warnings, information, and traces of the executed project. It
is very helpful during debugging. The desired level of detail can be changed in Execute |
Options | Log activities

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9. Library panel
 With this panel, you can reuse automation snippets. It is located on the extreme left-hand
side of the Designer panel:
10. Variable panel
 This allows the user to create variables and make changes to them. This is located below
the Designer panel.
 In UiPath Studio, variables are used to store multiple types of data ranging from words,
numbers, arrays, dates, times, and timetables.
 As the name suggests, the value of the variable can be changed.
 An important point to note is that variables can only be created if there is an activity in
the Designer panel.
 To create new variables, you can go to the DESIGN tab on the Ribbon and click on
create variable, and then choose the type of variable. Otherwise, one can simply go to
the Variable panel located below the Designer panel and create a variable.

Argument
 While variables pass data from one activity to another in a project, arguments are
used for passing data from one project to another.
 Like variables, they can be of various types-String, Integer, Boolean, Array,
Generic, and so on.
 Since arguments are used to transfer data between different workflows, they also
have an added property of direction. There are four types of direction:
In
Out
In/Out
Property
These depend on whether we are giving or receiving data to or from another workflow

2.8 TASK RECORDER

 The task recorder is the main reason for RPA's success.

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 With the task recorder, we can create a basic framework for automation. The user's
actions on the screen are recorded by the recorder and turned into a recording sequence in
the current project.
 That's how Robots are able to mimic human actions.
 The recording is collection of execution steps that has to be taken, on the applications in
the scope, in order to accomplish a task.
 These steps can be recorded one by one (manually) by pointing it on the screen or many
steps in a go that is, automatically.
There are four types of recording in UiPath Studio:
Basic
Desktop
Web
Citrix
Basic recorder: Basic recorder is used to record activities on the desktop. This ype of recorder is
used for single activities and simple workflows. The action here is self-contained and not
contained in separate windows.
Desktop recorder: The desktop recorder, like the basic recorder, is used to record activities on
the desktop. However, it is used to record and automate multiple actions and complex
workflows. Each activity here is contained in an Attach Window component
-The Attach Window component is especially important to ensure that other windows of the
same application do not interfere in the workflow.

Web recorder: The web recorder, as the name suggests, is used to record actions on web
applications and browsers.
Citrix recorder: Citrix is used to record virtual machines, VNC, and Citrix environments. This
recording allows only keyboard, text, and image automation.

 Some actions are recordable while others are not:

Recordable actions: Left-click on buttons, check boxes, drop-down lists, and other GUI
elements. Text typing is also recordable.

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Actions that cannot be recorded: Keyboard shortcuts, mouse hover, right-click.
Modifier keys such as Ctrl and Alt cannot be recorded.

 There are two types of recording:

 Automatic recording: This is for recording multiple actions in one go. This is a very
good feature for preparing a solid foundation for automating a task. It can be invoked
with the Record icon available in basic, desktop, and web recorders.
Example, hotkeys, rightclick,double-click, and a few more.

 Manual recording: This type of recording is used to record each step one at a time and
hence offers more control over the recording.
 Also, it can record all actions that cannot be recorded using automatic recording such as
keyboard shortcuts, mouse hover, right-click, modifier keys, such as Ctrl and Alt, finding
text from apps, and many other activities.
 Citrix recorder can only record a single action (manual recording).

Shortcut keys:
F2 key: This pauses the recording for 3 seconds. The countdown menu is also shown on the
screen.
Right-click: Exits the recording.
Esc key: Exits the recording. If one presses the Esc key again, then the recording will be saved.

Recordings
The functions of these recordings. The operations that can be completed with the help of
recording are as follows:
 Click (clicking a UI element: button, image, or icon)
 Type (typing any value into the available text field)
 Copy and paste
Basic Recorder
Recording. For example; Start App, Click, Type, Copy, and so on.

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 Start App: This is used to start an application. When we left-click on this option, we are
asked to point to an application that we want to open. When we are done, we can click on
the Save & Exit option.
 Click: Another option is Click, which is used to click on a UI element. This feature is
used as a mouse input. That is, it is used for clicking, checking, or selecting an item.
When we click on this option, we are asked to indicate the location of the UI element we
want to click. We can change the type of click to right-click or double-click in the Click
Type property from the Properties panel.

 Type: Another option shown in the recording panel is Type. As the name suggests, it is
used for typing something inside the indicated element. All you need to do is to indicate
the area where you want to type. Then, you need to type your input in the popup that
appears for typing
 After you are done typing, do not forget to press the Enter key. When the Enter key is
pressed, the step is recorded.
 You can then click on Save & Exit to view the recording sequence.
 The recording sequence is shown in the following screenshot. You can change the text
you have written (by changing the value of the Type in the block). You can write the
desired text in double quotes (“ “), or you can simply use a variable to store the data
 There are UI three more options in the recording panel:
Element
Text
Image

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Advanced UI interactions
Advanced UI interactions are input and output interactions. In other words, it refers to the
types of input methods and output techniques that are used while automating.
Input methods
The input that we give in the form of text can be of three types:
1. Default
2. Simulate
3. Window message
-Default is the generated method, while the other two are available in the Properties panel..
-The other two methods work in the background. Out of these three methods, the simulate type is
the fastest method and is mostly preferred because in the window message input type, it types
only the lowercase characters.
Output methods
These are the methods we use for getting our output, which can be in the form of text or images.
The available methods are:
Native
Full text
OCR
Native is, by default, the generated method to extract data from the window. When you indicate
to any element, the scraping window appears, and here all of the options can be found.
In OCR, there are two types of OCR engine: One is Google OCR and the other is Microsoft
OCR. We can choose whichever displays better results. Also, we can adjust the scale mentioned
in the properties of the OCR.

Step-by-step examples using the recorder

We will illustrate two examples of using the UiPath recorder:
1. Emptying the trash folder in Gmail (web-based application)
2. Emptying Recycle Bin (Windows based aplication)
The first one is to show a recording of a web-based application, and the second is Windows based.

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1. Emptying trash in Gmail

 This is an example of how we can empty a folder in Gmail with the help of a UiPath
Robot, solely on the basis of recording.
 To do this, we are going to record all the actions that have to be performed to empty this
Trash folder so that our Robot understands the sequence to be performed.
 The process flow of this simple activity in the following diagram:

Process flow for emptying Gmail trash

.
 First and foremost, we begin with a blank project in UiPath Studio and then choose Web
recorder from the Recording drop-down list:

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 To click on the Recording option and select the type of recording. We will use Web
recording for this process since we are working on a website.
 Just click on the Recording icon at the top of the page. From the four types of recording
that appear, choose Web recording. A Web Recording panel will appear, as shown in
the above screenshot.
 Notice Open Browser between Record and Click; this is available with web recorder to
record steps in browser-based applications.
 Preparation: Open your favourite browser, navigate to https://gmail.com, and keep this
browser open.
The following are the six steps in our process flow:
1. Open Browser: Although we have already opened Gmail in the browser, we did not
record that step. Here, we will note that step in the recorder using the Open Browser
button in the recorder. A drop-down menu will appear. Again, choose Open Browser
from the drop-down menu. It will ask to highlight the browser, highlight the already
opened browser and click on the top of the browser.
2. Go to gmail.com: You will be prompted to enter the URL of the website to navigate to.
Type https://gmail.comor gmail.com and press OK:

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3. Sign In: Start recording by clicking on the Record icon of the recording panel. Go to the
already open Gmail and click on the Email or Phone field. UiPath will pop up a prompt
for typing the email:

 Type Email in the box provided by the UiPath recorder and press Enter. The Gmail
textbox will automatically fill up with your typed content. Click on the NEXT button of
the Gmail interface; it will also get recorded.
 Now, you have recorded an entry in the password field. For simplicity, you may the
password in the prompt provided by UiPath. Type your password in the text field of the
popup that appears.
 Then, click NEXT to log in to your account. Clicking on the NEXT button will also get
recorded.
4. Locate Trash Folder: In this step, we have to click on the search box of Gmail and type
in:trash in the UiPath prompt and hit Enter:

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