Actions

Use the following actions to perform operations on files, directories, and other items in the file system.

List Directory

Opens a new application representing the contents of the directory.

Specify the following parameters:

• File Access

• Directory

• Application Name

Notes on this action:

• The action can take a significant amount of time to complete.

• For more information, see Applications and Directories, Directory Tree.

Delete File

Deletes a file.

Specify the following parameters:

• File Access

• File

Create Directory

Creates a directory.

Specify the following parameters:

• File Access

• Directory

Notes on the action:

• The action uses the create directory semantics of the underlying storage.

Delete Directory

Deletes a directory.

Specify the following parameters:

• File Access

• Directory

Notes on the action:

• Depending on the underlying storage, the action can fail if the directory is not empty.

Exists

Tests if an object exists, and returns the result as true or false.

Specify the following parameters:

• File Access

• Item

• A variable to store the result in the Result field.

Lock Status

Performs a test for read/write locks on Windows files, and returns a numerical status indicator.

• 1 File exists and is not locked.

• 0 File exists and is locked (reading and writing).

• -1 File does not exist.

• -2 Feature is not supported.

• -3 Failed for another reason. (Use Get Last Error step to retrieve the underlying error.)

Notes on this action:

• Lock Status is not available on RFS and Linux.

Copy File

Copies a file to a new location. Also use to copy files between RFS and the local file system.

Specify the following parameters using paths with file names:

• File Access

• Source

• Destination

Notes on this action:

• This action uses the copy semantics of the underlying storage.

• If you copy the file c:\a\b\c.txt into the directory d:\destination, the Source field must contain c:\a\b\c.txt and the Destination field must contain d:\destination\c.txt. If you omit the file name in the Destination field or the destination directory does not exist, the results may be unpredictable.

Move

Moves or renames an object.

Specify the following parameters using paths with object names:

• File Access

• Source

• Destination

Notes on this action:

• The action cannot be used to move objects between RFS and the local file system.

• The action uses the move semantics of the underlying storage.

Rename

Renames an object in its current location.

Specify the following parameters:

• File Access

• Item

• New Name

Get Type

Retrieves the type of an object.

• file Object is a file.

• directory Object is a directory.

• other Object exists, yet is not a file or directory. The exact type of object depends on the underlying storage but it can be other objects, such as devices or symbolic links.

Specify the following parameters:

• File Access

• Item

• A variable to store the result in the Type field.

Notes on this action:

• A DeviceIssue exception is generated if the object does not exist.

Get Path

Retrieves the path to the item.

Close All Directories

Closes all applications associated with directories opened by the robot.

Close Directory

Closes the application.

Count

Counts the number of objects matching the component finder.

Notes on this action:

• The action performs existence checks and wildcard searches.

Get Last Error

Retrieves an error message from the last action performed by the file system driver.

Specify the following parameters:

• A variable to store the result in the Error field.

Refresh

Scans and reloads the directory contents represented by the application, then updates the tree.

Notes on this action:

• The action can take a significant amount of time to complete.

Zip

Creates a ZIP archive or adds files to an existing archive.

Specify the following parameters:

• Source: a file, a directory or a file-name pattern. If a directory is specified, the directory itself and all its contents are added to the ZIP archive.

  See the note below for pattern matching explanation.

• Destination

• Access type for both Source and Destination

• If Destination Exists: select the behavior when the ZIP archive already exists:

  • Overwrite - a new archive is created.

  • Append - a new archive is only created if it does not exist.

  • Fail - the operation fails with an error message.

• Error If Nothing Added: when using a file-name pattern, select this checkbox to raise an error if no files match.

  If the source does not contain a wildcard, the operation always raises an error if the specified file or directory cannot be found.

Notes on this action:

• A ZIP archive can contain multiple entries with the same name and path. Adding files does not overwrite entries, new entries are appended.

• If Destination is Direct Access with Overwrite and the operation fails, partially created archives are removed. With RFS, the original archive remains unchanged.

Unzip

Extracts files from a ZIP archive.

Specify the following parameters:

• Source

• Destination

• Access type for both Source and Destination

• Extract Matching Pattern: select to specify a file name, a directory or a file-name pattern to extract. Leave blank to extract the entire archive.

  If the field does not contain a wildcard, the operation always raises an error if the specified file or directory cannot be found in the archive.

• Error If Nothing Added: when using a file-name pattern in the Extract Matching Pattern field, select this checkbox to raise an error if no files match.

Notes on this action:

• When extracting from an archive with multiple entries of the same name, only one random entry is extracted.

The following applies to both Zip and Unzip:

• Pattern matching supports the "*" wildcard. It matches zero or more characters and can be used only in file names, not directory names. Examples: "*.txt", "*a*z*", "/dir1/dir2/*".

• Symbolic links and case rules follow the operating system: on Linux links are followed and matching is case-sensitive, on Windows matching is case-insensitive.