Welcome to Kofax RPA > Robot Building > Edit Robot

Edit Robot

When you work on a Robot, several panes are available. For more information, see the following topics.

You can undock and move any of the editor's windows to make editing more convenient.

Editor

Contains a workflow of steps as well as variables, expressions, and tree mode settings. Buttons on the toolbar below the menu help you navigate through the steps of the workflow. You can go forward in the workflow using the Start Execution, Step Into, Step Over, and Step Out buttons; you can also pause or reset the execution of the robot. Use the following key combinations to select several steps:

  • Shift+click: selects a range of steps

  • Ctrl+click: adds/removes selection of steps

  • Ctrl+Shift+click: adds a range selection

Toolbar Buttons

Button

Description

Open project

Opens a project.

Save All

Saves changes in the workflow.

Undo previous change. Undo

Reverts the last change.

Repeats the reverted change Redo

Repeats the reverted action.

Copy button Copy

Copies a selected element or elements of the workflow to the clipboard. For example, several steps or a finder.

Cut button Cut

Cuts selected steps.

Paste button Paste

Pastes the content of the clipboard into the workflow at the selected element. For example, a flow point or a finder.

Delete button Delete

Deletes selected steps.

Leave Robot

Stops and leaves the Robot without executing it to the end or returning a result.

Start execution of the device automation workflow Start Execution

Starts executing the workflow from the current flow point.

Pause execution workflow Pause

Pauses automation workflow execution.

Step Into execution workflow Step Into

Executes to the next flow point. In case the next flow point is inside a collapsed step, this step will be expanded. This is essentially related to single stepping case.

Step over one step Step Over

Executes the step immediately following current flow point. If there is no such a step, it executes to the next flow point.

Step out of the execution workflow Step Out

Executes to the flow point immediately following the step containing the current flow point. When the workflow is executed until the end, clicking this button steps out of the Robot.

Go to next iteration in the loop Go to Next Iteration

Enabled when the current flow point is inside a Loop step. Press the button to execute until the same flow point is reached again. The loop can be executed more than once if the flow point is skipped in some iterations. If there are no more iterations, the execution stops at the flow point outside the Loop step.

Reset the current execution workflow Reset

Resets the execution of the Robot.

Go to Location

Opens a dialog box where you can paste the step location code to go directly to the step or copy the location code of a step.

To go directly to a step, open the robot and click the Go to Location button or press Ctrl+G. A dialog box opens where you can paste the code. This can be useful when an error is logged for a particular step, and you can use the step location code from the log to navigate to it in the robot.

To copy the location code of a step, in the robot, select the step and click the Go to Location button or press Ctrl+G. A dialog box opens where you can copy the code. This can be useful when you need to share the step location with someone else.

Button

Description

Shows location of the flow point. Go To Current Flow Point

Brings to view the current flow point location.

Collapse all steps button Collapse

Collapses all steps and other elements in the editor pane.

Expand all steps button Expand

Expands all steps and other elements in the editor pane.

Collapse all but selection button Collapse all but selection

Collapses all steps and other elements except the selected ones.

Newly inserted steps are not executed unless you click Step Into or Step Over on the toolbar.

Zoom in the workflow view

For your convenience, you can zoom in and out in the workflow view the same way you zoom in a web browser.

  • To zoom in: Ctrl+plus sign (+) or Ctrl + mouse wheel scroll up

  • To zoom out: Ctrl+minus sign (-) or Ctrl + mouse wheel scroll down

Attributes Pane

Contains the Robot attributes.



  • Input: Lists inputs that a Robot takes.

  • Devices: Use this element to provide a reference to one or several required devices.

  • Output: Lists outputs that a Robot delivers to the Basic Engine Robot.

  • Exceptions: Lists unhandled exceptions that may be thrown when a Basic Engine Robot is calling.

  • Tree Modes: Use this element to configure the application tree type for different applications to deliver.

  • Variables: Use this element to configure the Robot variables.

Find Usage

For Input, Devices, Variables, and Exceptions, you can use the Find Usage feature to find where they are used. Right-click the required element and click Find Usage.

This feature is similar to the text search with the only difference: the list in the Search Result panel shows instances of a particular element only.

Recorder View

Shows tabs with open application windows and a tree with available elements. You can select elements in the interface or select images and insert steps by right-clicking the selected element or image. The bottom part of the Recorder view shows the coordinates of the mouse relative to the top left corner of the application window as well as the live streaming status of the device state.

When you select an element in the view, along with the window coordinates, it shows the coordinates relative to the top left corner of the selected element as well as the path to the element in the bottom bar.

All tag paths in the Recorder View are interactive. Left-click a tag in the path to make the node a selected tag, right-click a tag to open the context menu for the node.

Tags are marked with colored boxes in accordance with their current state:

  • A green box around a tag: currently selected tag.

  • An orange box around a tag: secondary tag.

  • A blue box around a tag: ternary tag.

To switch between elements of different levels, use Select Outermost Tag, Select Tag One Level In, Select Tag One Level Out, Select Innermost Tag, Select Previous Sibling Node, Select Next Sibling Node buttons.

Note Sometimes it is not possible to select cell elements in tables in the application view. You can select cell elements in the application tree and add step actions from the tree view.

Zoom in the Recorder View

You can zoom in and out in the Recorder View either by selecting a zoom level in the toolbar or the same way you zoom in a web browser.

  • To zoom in: Ctrl + mouse wheel scroll up

  • To zoom out: Ctrl + mouse wheel scroll down

Toolbar Buttons

Button

Description


Streaming is active button in the Recorder view


Streaming is paused button in the Recorder view

Pauses or resumes live streaming of the device state. Click to pause or resume streaming in the Recorder view.

When streaming is active, the following is shown under the Recorder view: .

When streaming is paused, the following is shown under the Recorder view: .

Create finder for selection button Create finder for selection

Replaces the selected in the editor pane finder with a finder that matches the selection in the Recorder View.

Show next location found button Show next location found

Shows the next element that matches the finder. The button's tooltip also provides the number of matched elements.

Select Next Node Matching Click button Select Next Node Matching Click

Moves selection to the next node that matches the selection in the Recorder View.

Select zoom level in Automation Device View Select zoom level

Zooms in and out in the Recorder View.

Select parent node Select Tag One Level Out

Changes selection to the node, which is parent to the selected one.

Select first child node Select Tag One Level In

Selects the first child node of the selected one.

Select Outermost Tag

Changes selection to the top node in the application tree.

Select Innermost Tag

Selects the last child node of the selected one.

Select previous sibling node Select Previous Sibling Node

Selects the previous node located on the same level in the application tree.

Select next sibling node Select Next Sibling Node

Selects the next node located on the same level in the application tree.

Copy Sub Tree As XML

Copies the subtree element selected in the tree view.


Auto Execute button in Recorder view

Immediately executes and streams newly added action steps. When enabled, the circle on the button is red.

Prior to adding a step or a number of steps, click this button. If a step opens a new application or a dialog, a respective tab appears in the stream view and becomes the active tab. To stop automatic execution, click this button again.

Application-level Actions

Application-level actions are actions applied to the entire application and available by right-clicking the application tab in the Recorder View. The list of application-level actions and steps includes the following:

Search Results

Shows the overview of the search results. See Search.

Comment

Shows comments for selectable items in the automation workflow, such as steps, Group steps, variables, finders, input types, conditional branches, and so on.

To write or change a comment, click an item and add/change your notes in the Comment window. You can use the Undo and Redo buttons here. The comment is automatically saved when you click outside the window.

An item that contains a comment is marked with a comment sign.

State

Shows the state of the workflow execution, such as variable values. When Kofax RPA detects that a binary variable contains an image, the image is displayed in the view. Kofax RPA detects GIF, JPEG, BMP, TIFF, and PNG images. The image tooltip shows the MIME type of the image and its size (width and height).

Output Log

Contains workflow execution messages.

Tips

Put focus on errors in workflow
When a step is inserted from a flow point in the Robot, and that step contains an error or multiple errors, the location of the first error is indicated in the expanded step. If the robot execution is stopped due to errors in a step, that step is also expanded to show the location of the first error. If any steps were inserted in the workflow using the "Surround with" type of steps, those steps are expanded, too, for convenience.
Make instant mouse clicks that are not recorded

You can perform an instant mouse click on an element without adding it to the robot workflow. For example, this can be useful to close an unnecessary or accidentally opened tab. To perform this action, right-click an element in the Recorder View, click Unrecorded Instant Click, and select the mouse click type to use.