Get Started

The following instructions assume that you have downloaded and installed Kofax RPA on one of your computers. See "Quick Start Guide" in the Kofax RPA Installation Guide to start using Kofax RPA.

1. Download the KofaxRPADesktopAutomationService-11.3.0.0.msi installation file from the Kofax download portal. Make sure your devices meet the requirements listed in "Desktop Automation requirements and prerequisites" in the Kofax RPA Installation Guide.

2. Install and configure the Desktop Automation Service on a remote computer that run the applications you wish to automate. If you only need to automate terminal applications, skip this step.

3. Open Design Studio.

4. Create a Robot.

   1. Click File > New Robot.

   2. Specify a name for the robot and select a project. Click Finish.

      The new robot appears on a new tab in the editor window. As opposed to Basic Engine Robots that are identified by a blue icon , Robots are identified by a green icon .

      At this point, you can perform basic editing of the Robot workflow, but you will not be able to follow its state in the Recorder View and the state of the variables in the State Pane. To be able to automate external applications and interact with data as well as run a Robot, it needs to be called from a Basic Engine Robot.

5. Open an existing Basic Engine Robot or create a new one by clicking File > New Basic Engine Robot.

6. To allow execution for the Basic Engine Robot, click Prepare Execution on the toolbar or in the Applications pane.

   Only one Basic Engine Robot at a time can have the execution privilege, so to take the execution privilege from one robot to another, open the tab with the required robot and click Prepare Execution. Also, while multiple Basic Engine Robots can execute in Debug mode at the same time, only one Basic Engine Robot at a time can have the privilege to execute in Design mode. The robot that has the execution privilege in Design mode can also run in Debug mode at the same time, so you can switch between the two modes. For more information, see Debug Mode.

   When a robot has the execution privilege, the tab of this robot is marked with a red dot. All other robots that are currently executing have their tabs highlighted as shown below.
   
   

7. Insert a Call Robot step in the Basic Engine Robot.

   1. In the Robot drop-down list for the step, select the Robot created in Step 4.

      In the future, you can also create a new Robot from here by clicking Create New in the Robot drop-down list. If you are creating a new Robot after specifying the values and mappings for the Basic Engine Robot, the new robot will inherit these properties.

   2. Configure input values, output mappings, and required devices. See Reference to Automation Device and Automation Device mapping. If you want to automate terminal applications only, skip the configuration for required devices.

8. When the execution is allowed, to start editing the Robot, execute the workflow to the Call Robot step and then click Step Into Robot on the toolbar.

   The tab with your Robot is opened, and you can now perform full editing and execution of the robot.

9. If you are planning to automate external applications, specify the automation devices configured in Step 7b in the Devices box on the left. If you only need to automate terminal applications, skip this step.

   • The number of devices specified in the Basic Engine Robot and the Robot must match.
     
     

   • The devices names that you set in the Robot may differ from those in the Basic Engine Robot. In the Robot editor, you can rename the device from the context menu if needed. When the device is renamed here, the name change is reflected in all of the steps where the device is used.
     
     

   • A static device in a Robot is a device to which the connection is already established. If a dynamic mapping is specified for a Call Robot step in the Required Devices property of the Basic Engine Robot, and the device has previously been connected to, this dynamic mapping can be passed to a static device. In other words, if the device is previously connected using the dynamic mapping, in the Devices pane in the Robot, you can select to use a static device and reuse the connection established with the dynamic mapping. This is convenient when you need to reuse this Robot in different Basic Engine Robots.

     
     
     
     
     

10. You can start designing the automation workflow of the Robot. You can also run the workflow to see it in action.

11. Once you finish designing your Robot, you can run it to automate the devices.

    • To step out of the Robot and switch to working on the Basic Engine Robot, execute the entire Robot workflow and then click Step Out on the toolbar. In the Basic Engine Robot, the Call Robot step is now shown as executed.

    • To close the Robot without executing it to the end or returning a result, click Leave Robot on the toolbar. In the Basic Engine Robot, the Call Robot step is now shown as not executed.