Access Websites

When creating a Robot workflow, you can open websites in the built-in browser and use action steps to extract information and navigate sites. The built-in browser is based on the selected engine, such as Chromium (CEF). To navigate, use Robot steps. For more information about choosing a browser for your application, see Types of browsers.

Chromium browser in Kofax RPA supports the following protocols:

http:
about:
https:
file:

To open a website, insert the Browse step, select a browser engine in the Browser list, select Load Page as an action, and then specify all necessary parameters, such as the address in the URL field. Use the Tree Stops Changing guard after any step that includes loading a page or when other changes occur on a web page. We recommend that you add a timeout to the Tree Stops Changing guard to avoid indefinite waiting. See Guarded Choice for more information.

Command timeout for browsing websites is set either on the Desktop Automation tab of the Design Studio Settings window for executing the workflow in Design Studio, or in the Automation Device section on the Security tab of the RoboServer Settings application for RoboServer execution. See Runtime > Security in the Kofax RPA Administrator's Guide.
Currently, it is not possible to use the system clipboard to copy and paste content inside one or multiple robots while using the built-in browser. We recommend that you use the Extract Value step instead to copy and paste content.

Use the following links to quickly navigate among the subtopics:

Browser interface

The built-in browser contains the following controls.

Button	Description
	Go back: Navigates one page back.
	Go forward: Navigates one page forward.
	Reload: Reloads the current page. When the page is loading, the button displays a cross to notify that the browser is busy.
	URL field: Contains either the URL of the currently loaded page or the URL you pasted before navigating to the page.
	Navigate: Goes to the URL entered in the URL field. If you cannot see the button, scroll the Recorder View window to the right.
	Save page button: Saves the currently open page in HTML format. If you cannot see the button, scroll the Recorder View window to the right. For more information, see below.
	Configure proxy: Opens proxy configuration dialog box. If you cannot see the button, scroll the Recorder View window to the right. For more information, see below.
	Print to PDF: Saves the currently open to a PDF file. If you cannot see the button, scroll the Recorder View window to the right. For more information, see below.

URL in the built-in browser

Browser window contains the URL text field in the toolbar. It shows the URL of the loaded web page. You can select the URL and extract the value into a variable using action steps. The tree view shows the URL as well.

To select the text in the URL field, click the URL field using the Click.
To change the address, click the URL field by using the Click step and enter the address using either the Enter Text step or from a variable.
To go to the entered URL, click the Navigate button to the right of the URL field.

Configure proxy

By default, all robots of the Desktop Automation Service use Kofax RPA global proxy settings. The Desktop Automation Service uses the same proxy settings as the Design Studio and Management Console. See Configuring Proxy Servers in Design Studio and Configuring Proxy Servers in Management Console for more information on proxy server properties.

Remember that the local proxy settings of the built-in browser in Desktop Automation Service have a higher priority than the Kofax RPA global proxy settings. Make sure the Robot uses the Kofax RPA global proxy settings, unless the task requires it to use local proxy settings.

To change proxy settings for the built-in browser in the Robot, click the Configure proxy button on the browser toolbar. The following proxy options are available:

Direct: Proxy is not used.
Fixed: Specify fixed proxy settings, such as host, port, and a bypass list.
PAC: Specify the URL of the proxy auto-configuration script file.
Auto: Click this option if your network provides for automatic proxy configuration, such as the Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Protocol.
System: select this option to copy proxy settings from the computer running your robot.

Once proxy settings are set, click OK to save the settings and close the dialog box.

Negotiate authentication for proxy: Negotiate authentication is supported for use with proxy servers. When a proxy server is configured for a robot, the Negotiate protocol is automatically used if it is supported by the server.

Print to PDF

You can save a web page in the PDF format using the Print to PDF button on the browser toolbar.

Click the Print to PDF button using the Click step.

Once you execute the step, the browser opens the Save page as PDF document dialog box.
Specify the full path including the file name using the Replace Text step. By default, the file is stored in the temporary files folder configured for the current user.

Click OK.
- Optionally, you can save the file to a robot file system by selecting Robot File System in the dialog box. In the RFS file name field, enter the path to the configured file system and the file name, such as myshare/downloaded.pdf. The file system name must correspond to that specified in the Robot File System section in the Management Console.
Click Save.

To adjust the PDF file settings, such as page orientation, paper size, and scale, specify necessary options in the PDF Settings property of the Browse step.

If you want to send an opened HTML page or a document to a hardware printer, due to limitations with handling of pop-up dialog boxes for printer selection, the system automatically opens the Save page as PDF document dialog box instead, which enables you to save your document in PDF format on a file system or a Robot File System for further use.

Save page in HTML

You can save the currently opened page in HTML format using the Save page button on the browser toolbar.

Click the Save page button using the Click step.
Once you execute the step, the browser opens the Save As dialog box.
Specify the full path including the file name using the Replace Text step. By default, the file is stored in the temporary files folder configured for the current user.
Click OK
Click Save.

Application actions

Application-level actions are actions applied to the entire application and available by right-clicking the application tab in the Recorder View. The following table lists application-level actions for the Chromium built-in browser.

Action	Description
Set Application Name	Adds a value to the name tag of the browser application. Specify a name that can help you identify the application and create robust and dependable finders. When a web page loads in a new browser window using a link on the opened page, the name tag of the newly opened browser application includes the name of the parent application with a number in brackets, for example name="mainpage(2)". Assign different application names to applications in a robot to avoid errors.
Close Window	Adds a step to close an opened application window.
Duplicate Window	Adds a step to duplicate an application tab and open it in a new tab. The state of the application is preserved.
Execute JavaScript	Adds a step to execute JavaScript on the current page in the main window context. JavaScript: Enter the code to execute. JS Execution Result: Specify a text variable to store the result. When Wait For Result is selected, the robot waits until the code is executed and the result is written into the "JS Execution Result" variable. The default timeout is 30 seconds. If the action is not completed within this time period, an exception is thrown. Also, if the JavaScript code contains errors, an exception is thrown. If you clear this option, the robot proceeds to the next step immediately after the code execution is started (without waiting for the execution to finish).
Navigate	Adds a step to open a specified URL. Enter the URL in the URL field.
Reload	Reloads the current web page.
Go Back	Navigates one page back. Similar to clicking the Go Back button on the browser toolbar.
Go Forward	Navigates one page forward. Similar to clicking the Go Forward button on the browser toolbar.

Component actions

Component actions are actions applied to the selected component or element and available by right-clicking an element in the Recorder View or the tree view. The following table lists component-level actions for the Chromium built-in browser.

Though RPA automatically detects CEF browser and switches to the appropriate tree mode, you can change the tree mode to ISA for the entire application by right-clicking it and selecting Tree Mode > ISA.

Action	Description
Open Link In New Window	Used on links present on a web page. Adds a step that opens the selected link on a new tab in the Recorder View.
Scroll To	Adds a step that scrolls the page to the selected element, so the element appears in the middle of the window.
Select Option	Adds a step that enables you to select a single option or multiple options from a menu: You can select a single option from a list of items, a group of items, or a drop-down list. If you need to select an option from a collapsed drop-down list, click the menu in the Recorder View and select the required option in the tree view. You can select multiple options from a list of items or a group of items, which is similar to using Ctrl+click. Given that you already have a single option selected from a list or a group, add a Select Option step for another item on this list or group and check Multiple Selection in the step properties. After you execute the step, both options will appear selected. To select more options, perform the same procedure for each additional option to select. If you need to remove multiple selection, use the same setting.
Extract Target	Can be applied to the Anchor HTML element with an href attribute that has a data URL value. It enables the user to extract the data URL value into a binary variable. The value is decoded from the base64 format into binary if necessary. The available types of binary variables include Binary, Image, and PDF. They are all equivalent except that you can preview the Image in the State pane, and the PDF can be opened in the Recorder View from the variable saved in the Extract Target step by using a PDF step.

Debugging with Chrome Inspector

Kofax RPA supports debugging in the Chromium browser engine using Chrome Inspector in the Browse step. The Inspector can help you extract and save information necessary to analyze the interaction between the website and the browser and errors occurred during processing of the web content. Information is saved in the HTTP Archive (HAR) format. To save the log to a file, perform the following steps.

Open cef.cfg file located at <Kofax RPA installation folder>\nativelib\hub\windows-x64\<hub version number>\node_modules\cef in a text editor.

For example: C:\Program Files\Kofax RPA 11.3.0.0\nativelib\hub\windows-x64\1267\node_modules\cef
Set show_dev_tools property to true, save the file, and reload your robot.

Once you execute the Browse step that loads a web page, the Chrome DevTools window attached to the corresponding web page opens.
In the Chrome DevTools window, select the Network tab, click Preserve log, and press Ctrl+R. The network trace loads in the window.
Right-click the trace and select Save all as HAR with content to save the network trace in a file. Now you can open the file in a HTTP Archive inspector.