Steps

This topic provides an overview of the available steps.

You can add the most commonly used steps directly to the Insert Step menu that is available when you right-click a connection in the Robot view in Design Studio. See General Editing for details.

Standard

This category contains the most commonly used steps.

Step	Description
Assign Variable	Assigns a value to a variable.
Call Robot	Creates a step to call a Robot from a Basic Engine Robot.
Create Page	Creates a new page.
Desktop Automation	Deprecated. See Call Robot.
Open Variable	Opens a variable attribute - or a variable of simple type - in the view.
Load Page	Loads a web page from a URL.
Return Value	Returns a value from the robot.
Store in Database	Stores a value in a database.
Test Value	Causes execution beyond the step to stop or continue depending on a boolean value.

Assign/Transform Variable

This category contains the most commonly used steps.

Step	Description
Assign Variable	Assigns a value to a variable.
Convert Variables	Converts the values of one or more variables by running them through data converters and storing the results in the same or other variables.
Transform XML	Transforms XML using XSLT.

Browser Session

This category contains steps for saving and restoring entire browser sessions, as well as for extracting and manipulating cookies and HTML 5 web storage.

Step	Description
Save Session	Saves a session in a variable for later restoration by another robot run.
Restore Session	Restores a session in a variable previously saved by another robot run.
Extract Cookie	Extracts the value of a cookie matching patterns for name, domain, and path.
Create Cookie	Creates a cookie with the specified domain, path, name, and (optionally) value.
Remove Cookie	Removes one or more cookies matching patterns for name, domain, path, and value.
Extract Web Storage	Extracts data from the local and/or session storage. The data is stored in a variable in JSON format.
Load Web Storage	Loads data into the local and/or session storage. The data must be specified in JSON format.
Clear Web Storage	Clears data in the local and/or session storage.

Browser Windows

This category contains steps for opening, selecting and closing browser windows.

Step	Description
New Window	Creates a new window.
Set Current Window	Selects another window as the current window, such as the window that subsequent steps will work on.
Close Window	Closes a window.

Call Web Service

This category contains steps for calling REST and SOAP web services.

Step	Description
Call REST Web Service	Calls a REST web service and loads the result into the current window or stores it in a variable.
Call SOAP Web Service	Submits a SOAP XML request to a web service and returns a SOAP XML response.

Click/Move Mouse

This category contains steps that mimic clicking or moving the mouse to and from elements in the browser view.

Step	Description
Click	Emulates a mouse click on the found tag.
Move Mouse To	Emulates a mouse move to the found tag.
Move Mouse From	Emulates a mouse move away from the found tag.
Scroll	Emulates scrolling a document or tag.
Scroll To	Emulates scrolling the found tag into view.

Database

This category contains steps that can store, retrieve, query or delete items in databases.

Step	Description
Store in Database	Stores a value in a database.
Find in Database	Finds a value in a database.
Calculate Key	Calculates the key used to store the value of the selected variable.
Delete from Database	Deletes an value in a database.
Query Database	Submits an SQL query to a database, and loops through the results.
Execute SQL	Executes an SQL statement on a database.

Enter Data in Form

This category contains steps for entering data in web forms.

Step	Description
Enter Text	Enters a text into a text field in a form.
Enter Password	Enters a password into a password field in a form.
Press Key	Emulates pressing a key in a form.
Select Option	Selects an option in a drop-down box or a list box in a form.
Select Multiple Options	Selects multiple options in a list box in a form. Note: This step can only be used for list boxes, not drop-down boxes.
Set Checkbox	Selects or clears a check box in a form.
Set Range Value	Sets a numeric value that must be no less than a minimum given value, and no more than a maximum given value.
Select Radio Button	Selects a radio button in a form.
Select File	Selects a file to upload in a file field of a form.

Extract

This category contains steps for extracting data. Data may be extracted in text or HTML form from a website, or from other formats such as PDF, CSV, Excel and Flash. It is also possible to extract images or specific data about the HTML or XML source such as attribute values or link URLs.

Step	Description
Extract	Extracts some text, runs it through a list of data converters, and stores the result in a variable.
Extract Binary Content	Extracts binary content from the Browser View.
Extract Cell	Extracts content from an Excel page, runs it through a list of data converters, and stores the result into a variable.
Extract Column in Data Row	Extracts data from a cell in the current range to a variable.
Extract from E-mail	Extracts information from a saved email.
Extract Form Parameter	Extracts a form parameter from a form URL in the found tag.
Extract Flash Content	Extracts content from a Flash object.
Extract from PDF	Extracts text from a PDF document contained in a variable.
Extract Image	Extracts an image and stores it in a variable or a file. It can optionally store the content type and file name of the image in other variables.
Extract JSON	Extracts the part of a JSON value found by the JSON finder as a JSON value into a variable.
Extract Path	Extracts the absolute path of the element found by the finder.
Extract Property Name	Extracts the property name of a JSON value found by the JSON finder into a variable.
Extract Screenshot	Extracts an image from the current page and saves it in a variable.
Extract Selected Option	Extracts the text or value of the selected option, runs it through a list of data converters, and stores the result in a variable.
Extract Source	Stores the previewed data in a variable.
Extract Tag Attribute	Extracts a tag attribute from the found tag, runs it through a list of data converters, and stores it in a variable.
Extract Target	Extracts data from a URL target and stores it in a variable or a file. It can optionally store the content type and file name of the loaded data in other variables.
Extract URL	Extracts a URL from the found tag and stores it in a variable.

File System

This category contains steps for accessing the file system. You may read, write and modify files and directories, loop over files in a directory, or test for the existence of a given file.

step	Description
Load File	Loads data from a file, either into the browser window or to a variable.
For Each File	Loops through the files in a directory.
Write File	Writes a new file or appends to an existing file.
Test File Existence	Causes execution beyond the step to stop or continue depending on whether a specific file exists.
Get File Info	Fetches metadata about a file in the file system.
Copy File	Copies a file on the local file system where the robot is executed. The step generates an error if the destination file exists.
Delete File	Deletes the specified file or directory.
Make Directory	Creates a new directory.
Rename File	Renames a file or directory on the local file system where the robot is executed. The step generates an error if the destination (New Name) exists.

Loop

This category contains steps for looping. You may loop through HTML structures, windows, comma-separated values, form values, Excel ranges, or crawl entire domains. For looping through HTML structures, you have two options: For Each Tag and For Each Tag Path. The For Each Tag step is the simpler of the two; it is used to loop through the immediate children of the found tag, while the For Each Tag path can loop through similar tags at any depth within the found tag. To loop through a number of pages connected by Next links or the like, you must use the Repeat and Next steps.

If the selected element does not contain any sub-elements to loop through, all For Each steps throw an error. For example, the For Each Tag Path step throws an error if the found tag does not contain any tags to loop through.

However, when using the For Each File step to loop through files in a directory, if no files are present in the directory, this is not regarded as an error, and no error is thrown.

Step	Description
For Each Tag	Loops through tags contained immediately inside the found tag.
For Each Tag Path	Loops through tags contained at any level inside the found tag.
For Each URL	Loops through the URLs contained in the found tag.
For Each Option	Loops through the options in a drop-down box or list box in a form, selecting one option in each iteration.
For Each Radio Button	Loops through a group of radio buttons, selecting one of the radio buttons in each iteration. The found tag must be one of the radio buttons in the group.
Loop Field Values	Loops through the specified values, entering one value in the text field in each iteration.
Repeat	Creates a repeat loop together with the Next step.
Next	Requests another iteration in a repeat loop created using the Repeat step.
Loop in Excel	Loops over the rows, columns, cells in the found range or over all the sheets in the Excel page.
For Each Data Row	Loops through data rows in a CSV file.
For Each Property	Loops through all properties of a JSON object.
For Each Item	Loops through a group of tags.
For Each File	Loops through the files in a directory.
For Each Browser Window	Iterates through the browser windows, setting each in turn as the current window.
For Each Text Part	Splits a text at a specified delimiter and loops through the parts.
Get Iteration	Gets the current iteration of an enclosing loop step.

Load Page

This category contains steps for loading pages from a given URL or creating a new page based on already extracted content. If required, you can also specify the page load request at the basic HTTP level.

Step	Description
Load Page	Loads a web page from a URL.
Create Page	Creates a new page.
Raw HTTP	Performs a Raw HTTP request of the selected method.
Open Variable	Opens a variable attribute - or a variable of simple type - in the view.
View as Excel	Opens downloaded Excel content in an Excel view.
View as JSON	Opens downloaded JSON content in a JSON view.
View as XML	Opens downloaded XML content in an XML view.
View as CSV	Opens downloaded CSV content in a CSV view.
Extract Source	Stores the previewed data in a variable.

Make Snapshot

This category contains steps for saving offline snapshots of web pages. To save an offline HTML copy of a page and its resources, use Make Snapshot. To save multiple interlinked HTML pages, use Rewrite Page and Rewrite Style Sheet.

Step	Description
Make Snapshot	Creates a snapshot of the current window, including its frames and resources.
Rewrite Page	Extracts the HTML content of the current window and additionally rewrites and outputs the links to style sheets, images and other pages.
Rewrite Style Sheet	Acts as a helper for Rewrite Page. It task is to rewrite links to other style sheets or images in a given style sheet.

Modify Page

This category contains steps for modifying the current web page, such as by removing, replacing or inserting content.

Step	Description
Insert Tag	Inserts a new tag.
Replace Tag	Replaces the found tag with a new tag.
Remove Tags	Removes tags from found tags. The Remove rules are executed in the order listed below. Any tags matching one or more of the Except rules are not removed. Defining no Remove rules defaults to removing all tags.
Remove Tag Range	Removes a range of tags.
Hide Tag	Hides the found tag.
Unhide Tag	Unhides the found tag.
Divide Text	Divides the text in the found tag into pieces.
Remove Table Rows	Removes from the input <table>-tag all rows (<tr>-tags) that do not have a specified number of columns (<td>- and <th>-tags).
Transpose Table	Transposes (flips) the input <table>-tag by mirroring its <td>-tags along the top-left to bottom-right diagonal.
Normalize Table	Normalizes a table by inserting extra cells to eliminate rowspan and colspan. The content from the original cell is copied to the new cells.

Output

This category contains steps for returning values to the API that called this robot, sending e-mail and writing to files or logs.

Step	Description
Return Value	Returns a value from the robot.
Send Email	Sends an email. Note that the email is not sent during execution in Design mode in Design Studio.
Write File	Writes a new file or appends to an existing file.
Write Log	Writes a message to the log. This is useful when debugging a robot.

Test

This category contains conditional steps for testing, such as stopping the execution down the current branch if some condition is satisfied. This condition may depend on the contents of the found tag, a variable, or the existence of a given window.

Step	Description
Test Tag	Causes execution down the current branch to stop or continue, depending on the contents of the found tag.
Test URL	Causes execution down the current branch to stop or continue, depending on the URL contained in the found tag.
Test Value	Causes execution beyond the step to stop or continue, depending on a boolean value.
Test Variables	Causes execution beyond the step to stop or continue, depending on one or more variable values.
Test Row	Tests the number of columns in a table row.
Test Window	Causes execution beyond the step to stop or continue, depending on whether a specific window exists.
Test Page Type	Causes execution beyond the step to stop or continue, depending on the type of the page.
Test Cell Type	Tests the cell type, such as Blank or Number of the found range and causes execution beyond the step to stop or continue depending on whether all cells in the range are of the given type.
Test JSON Type	Tests the type of a JSON value.

Excel

This category contains steps that are specially designed for Excel pages.

Step	Description
Extract Cell	Extracts content from an Excel page, runs it through a list of data converters, and stores the result into a variable.
Extract Sheet Name	Extracts the name of a sheet in a spreadsheet document and stores it in a variable.
Extract Hyperlink	Extracts a hyperlink from a cell in a spreadsheet.
Loop in Excel	Loops through different elements of a spreadsheet.
Extract As HTML	Extracts a part of a spreadsheet document as an HTML table and stores it in a variable.
Set Content of Cell	Inserts the specified content to a spreadsheet cell.
Set Value of Cell	Sets the value of a cell.
Set Content of Column	Sets the content of a column in a spreadsheet from a variable of complex type.
Set Content of Row	Sets the content of a row in a spreadsheet from a variable of complex type.
Set Format of Cells	Sets the format of one or more cells in a spreadsheet.
Set Sheet Name	Sets the sheet name.
Set Hyperlink on Cell	Inserts a hyperlink to a cell.
Set Column Width	Sets the width of a column in a spreadsheet.
Set Row Height	Sets the height of a row in points.
Set Information Property	Sets the value of an information property in a spreadsheet.
Insert Sheet	Inserts a new sheet in a spreadsheet.
Insert Rows	Inserts one or more rows in a spreadsheet.
Insert Columns	Inserts one or more columns in a spreadsheet.
Remove Sheet	Removes the selected sheet from a spreadsheet.
Remove Rows	Removes the selected rows from a spreadsheet.
Remove Columns	Removes the selected columns from a spreadsheet.
Test Cell Type	Tests the type of one or more cells.
Set Named Range	Marks the found range as a named range, so that it can be used as a reference when finding ranges in subsequent steps.
Set Evaluation Mode	Changes the auto evaluation option for an Excel value of an Excel variable, allowing to enter any unsupported function into a cell, not causing an error.

JSON

This category contains steps for managing JSON values.

Step	Description
Extract JSON	Extracts the part of a JSON value found by the JSON finder as a JSON value into a variable.
Extract Property Name	Extracts the property name of a JSON value found by the JSON finder into a variable.
For Each Property	Loops through all properties of a JSON object.
For Each Item	Loops through a group of tags.
Set JSON	Replaces the entire found part of a JSON value with a new JSON value.
Set Property Name	Replaces the property name of the found JSON object with a new name.
Insert JSON	Inserts a new property into a JSON object or a new item into a JSON array.
Remove JSON	Removes the found JSON from a JSON value.
Test JSON Type	Tests the type of a JSON value.
Set Named JSON	Marks the found JSON as a named JSON.

XML

This category contains steps related to XML.

Step	Description
Extract	Extracts text and stores it in a variable
Extract Tag Attribute	Extracts a tag attribute from the found tag, runs it through a list of data converters, and stores the result in a variable.
For Each Tag	Loops through a group of tags.
For Each Tag Path	Loops through all tags of a given type in the subtree of the found tag.
Set Tag	Replaces the entire found tag with new content.
Set Content	Sets the specified content on a tag.
Set Text	Replaces the content of the found tag with a text.
Set Tag Name	Replaces the name of the found tag with a new name and optionally copies the attributes of the found tag to the new tag.
Set Attribute	Inserts or updates an attribute on the found tag with a specified name and value.
Insert Content	Inserts the specified content into a document relative to the found tag.
Remove Tag	Removes the found tag from its parent node.
Remove Content	Removes all the content of a tag.
Remove Attribute	Removes an attribute from a tag in XML.
Test Tag	Makes a test to determine whether execution should be allowed to continue down the current branch.
Set Named Tag	Marks the found tag as a named tag, so that it can be used as a reference when finding tags in subsequent steps.

Other

This category contains various other steps.

Step	Description
Set Named Tag	Marks the found tag as a named tag, so it can be used as a reference when finding tags in subsequent steps.
Set Named Range	Marks the found range as a named range, so that it can be used as a reference when finding ranges in subsequent steps.
Set Named JSON	Marks the found JSON as a named JSON.
Clear Named Tags/Ranges	Unmarks a selected named tag or range, or all named tags/ranges, so they are no longer be named in the subsequent steps.
Do Nothing	Does nothing.
Wait	Waits for a specified period of time.
Resume Browser	Resumes the browser and lets it run after either specified wait criteria are met or the browser becomes idle (whichever comes first).
Stop	Causes the execution of the robot to stop without errors.
Generate Error	Generates an error.
Execute Command Line	Executes a command line or shell script. Ensure a RoboServer has sufficient privileges for this operation
Change Proxy	Changes the proxy server.
Execute JavaScript	Executes JavaScript.
Lookup Password	Retrieves a user password from the Password store.