Discussion
Pegasystems Inc.
US
Last activity: 30 Sep 2024 15:14 EDT
Ask the Expert - Pega Robotics with Thomas Sasnett (2024 Edition)
We are back with our 2024 Edition of Ask the Expert on Pega Robotics with @ThomasSasnett!
If you have Robotics questions, Thomas is here to answer them!
Make sure to Favorite and Follow for updates via the Notification bell and/or weekly digest!
Session dates: 16 September - 27 September
Session opens to questions on 16 September!
Meet Your Expert, Thomas:
Thomas is a Lead Robotics Architect for Healthcare and Life Sciences. He has been developing robotic automation projects for almost 20 years using Pega Robotics Studio (formerly OpenSpan Studio). He has worked with clients in varying industries, including Healthcare, Financial Services, Insurance, Telecommunications, Manufacturing, and Logistics. He has created many unattended and attended robotic automations across each of these industries.
Message from Your Expert, Thomas:
I am excited to answer as many questions as you have regarding Pega Robotics or Robotic Process Automation in general.
Ask the Expert Rules
- Follow the Pega Support Center's Rules of Engagement
- This is not a Live Chat - Thomas will reply to your questions over the course of the session
- Questions should be clearly and succinctly expressed
- Questions should be of interest to many others in the audience
- Have fun!
Updated: 18 Sep 2024 9:17 EDT
Accenture
MX
Hello, is it possible to obtain data from an Excel file with Pega Robot Studio v22 and then use it in a form in an application?
I have an Excel file with the following form:
I want each piece of data to be added to a form in an application that I have. I have the fields ID that must be filled with the data from the Excel file in the Item ID column and so on with the other 2 remaining data. Then, I must repeat the same action, only with the following data from my Excel table.
Pegasystems Inc.
US
@MisaelIvanY17249820 Certainly. Here is an example using the latest version of Pega Robotics 22.1. You would use the ExcelConnector to read the file and use the GetCellValue method to acquire the value for a given cell address (or row and column).
Here is an example of how I open the Excel file.
Updated: 30 Sep 2024 15:10 EDT
Pegasystems Inc.
US
Happy Tuesday! I wanted to share a few of the tips and tricks we have created for 22.1. Here is one that I like to show everyone I work with. I will share a few more of the course of the session, but this is one of my favorites.
https://support.pega.com/discussion/robotics-tip-day-insert-block-execution-link
Updated: 18 Sep 2024 9:17 EDT
Pegasystems Inc.
US
Thanks for pointing out the Tips of the Day series we did with @jeffbadger @ThomasSasnett!
Updated: 19 Sep 2024 11:08 EDT
Shuurgan
CN
I am designing an automated process to get the corresponding store name in a web page, I am now getting the web page control “htmlTable” which contains multiple store names “ctlSiteName”. What I want to do now is to read each store name and store it in the corresponding collection, but every time when I execute webControlProxy2, it will prompt “”Is there any problem with the use of my control? Even if I replace the getValue method with getClones method, I still get an unknown error like 00
000000000000, what is the reason for this?
Updated: 19 Sep 2024 11:08 EDT
Pegasystems Inc.
US
@BAOX17175074GetClones is the method you would use to iterate a control that you have enabled UseKeys on. For an HTML table, you would normally do this on the row element (TR tag). Tables can also be composed of other types of elements, but there should be one that represents a row of data. The best way to identify which one, is to perform interrogation with the option to Select Element enabled on the Interrogation Form. This allows you to select the specific element from the hierarchy to serve as the parent.
Once you have interrogated the "row" control, change its UseKeys property to True. After that, you would need to adjust your match rule(s) to allow this control to match every one of the rows you are interested in. You should see multiple rows matched in the Targets section of Studio. You can use this list to connect the Palette (or Object Explorer in the older versions of Studio) to a specific row by right-clicking the target and selecting Make Prototype.
After you have the rows properly matched; you can interrogate the fields within the row. Make sure that the match rule(s) you use for each field in the row apply to every row. This is where the Make Protype can help you visualize which elements need match rules adjusted.
@BAOX17175074GetClones is the method you would use to iterate a control that you have enabled UseKeys on. For an HTML table, you would normally do this on the row element (TR tag). Tables can also be composed of other types of elements, but there should be one that represents a row of data. The best way to identify which one, is to perform interrogation with the option to Select Element enabled on the Interrogation Form. This allows you to select the specific element from the hierarchy to serve as the parent.
Once you have interrogated the "row" control, change its UseKeys property to True. After that, you would need to adjust your match rule(s) to allow this control to match every one of the rows you are interested in. You should see multiple rows matched in the Targets section of Studio. You can use this list to connect the Palette (or Object Explorer in the older versions of Studio) to a specific row by right-clicking the target and selecting Make Prototype.
After you have the rows properly matched; you can interrogate the fields within the row. Make sure that the match rule(s) you use for each field in the row apply to every row. This is where the Make Protype can help you visualize which elements need match rules adjusted.
Shuurgan
CN
@ThomasSasnett Hello,Thomas.As you said I have categorized these controls hierarchically, from top to bottom they are the html of all the rows of that popup, the html of the individual rows within that popup, and the store name in the form of unclickable text within the rows. What I want is to read and save the store name for each row into a store for subsequent use, what should I do to do this? Or what method of these controls should I use?
BAO
Pegasystems Inc.
US
@BAOX17175074 In this screenshot, it looks like you would need to enable the UseKeys property for the control you have named "htmlTableRow".
Shuurgan
CN
@ThomasSasnett Incidentally, the method in scriptSiteName was written by me to collect all the siteNames read, so if there is a way to do it without external methods then I would appreciate it!
Pegasystems Inc.
US
@BAOX17175074 I cannot see what code you wrote for the script. Are you able to provide that?
Updated: 30 Sep 2024 15:09 EDT
Pegasystems Inc.
US
Here is another one of my favorite and lesser-known tips in Studio 22. When opening a project, Studio will open all of the existing project artifacts that you had open previously. If you wish to open faster, simply hold the Control key and it will prevent these from opening.
Updated: 20 Sep 2024 16:17 EDT
BCBS Florida
US
I'm upgrading pega19.1.115v project to Pega22.1.27v. During upgrade process some of the steps are failing.
when i see the log file where the upgrade is failing i noticed this message "because it is being used by another process."
i checked for any duplicate files inside the process, bit found none. anyone have experienced this during upgrade process from pega19 to pega22
roadtaxcalculator
US
Thanks dear for sharing the screenshort for this problem solution to us
Pegasystems Inc.
US
@SrinivasR3193 I take that as a literal message; that some other process is interacting with the files as they are being created. Are you running the upgrade locally, or are you saving the output to a network share?
BCBS Florida
US
@ThomasSasnett Yes i'm running the upgrade locally and im sure its not interacting with any other process.
Pegasystems Inc.
US
@SrinivasR3193 Do you get this error upgrading any project or only certain ones? Can you create a new 19.1 project with a few items and upgrade it to see if it returns the error?
BCBS Florida
US
@ThomasSasnett this is the first project im getting errors with. I already upgraded around 10 projects no issues.
and in this project we used Activities, not sure if Activities from Pega19 causing issues during upgrade.
Pegasystems Inc.
US
@SrinivasR3193 I don't believe so. I have upgraded several with activities. I think in this case, I would need the project to investigate. The best way to get that would be to open a support request as they can provide a file exchange link and acquire the project from you (or look at it on your machine). Please provide the support request here when opened so that we can add any resolution.
BCBS Florida
US
@ThomasSasnett Thank You.
I opened Ticket with Pega Support, waiting for their response and the ticket # is INC-B39576
Scotiabank
CO
I am migrating projects from Pega 19.1.118 to version 22.1.36, but I am encountering conflicts with projects that use the OLDB Access component, as it does not recognize them and I do not know how to reference the OLDB Provider for these components. I have attached screenshots of the problem. I am not sure if there is a solution. I look forward to your assistance.
Pegasystems Inc.
US
@JuanG158 I do not believe any changes were made to the connectors regarding what drivers they support. As far as I know, when you install MS Access, it installs the necessary drivers for you to setup the connection to the database (your second screenshot). From your screenshot, it does not appear these drivers are present. You might need to install that ACE OLEDB driver. Is MS Access installed on this machine? Is this the same machine you had 19.1 on? Was it working here?
Updated: 30 Sep 2024 15:08 EDT
Pegasystems Inc.
US
One item I wanted to highlight this week was the ease with which unit tests can be created. 22.1 brought with it the ability to interrogate an application and while in interrogation, you can create an automation and then test it. When you test an automation, you have the ability to convert that test you just ran into a unit test to be executed later. These are very helpful when you want to evaluate changes in either your application or changes with the type of data you are using.
Unit tests can call setup and cleanup automations that run before and after the unit test automation, which means that you can write more targeted automations that do very specific parts of your use cases. When you create an automation, it is always a good idea to consider how you might test it in the future should any changes happen. This also helps you think about the possible scenarios in which it might not operate as intended.
Updated: 30 Sep 2024 15:08 EDT
Pegasystems Inc.
US
Thank you everyone for the questions. Please feel free to ask for help whenever you need assistance.
Pegasystems Inc.
US
Thank you to everyone who has asked a Pega Robotics question and those that have stopped by to view this Ask the Expert session!
Thank you to @ThomasSasnett for always being willing to participate in our Ask the Expert series!
This session is now closed to further questions. If you have a Pega Robotics question, please create a new post and tag it with Pega Robotic Process Automation.
Bookmark our Ask the Expert homepage to stay up-to-date on future sessions!