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Lab 4: Implementation - Automate Data Entry into Legacy App

Step 1: Prerequisites

Before starting

Should you haven’t completed the previous lab, you can import the solution into your RPA Builder. This way, you’ll make sure to continue the module from the right step.

Yes, I want to import the previous lab solution and I have created NO process yet.

Yes, I want to import the previous lab solution and I have an existing process to overwrite.

No, I managed to finish it. Let’s start with this lab!

Start from previous lab solution

Create process to overwrite

  1. First of all you need to locate the category to use when creating your process, please follow instructions in Lab 1: Step 1: Locate the workshop’s Process Category if you do not know how do it, then continue with following steps.

  2. You have now to create a new process named <your name and surname/initials>-Module 1-Automate Data Entry into Legacy App, please follow instructions in Lab 1: Step 2: Create the Process if you do not know how do it, then continue with following steps.

  3. Last but not least you have to move the process to the Build phase, this in order to have it showing up in RPA Builder. Please follow instructions in Lab 1: Step 4: Move Process to the Build Phase if you have no idea how do it.

Import process from previous lab solution

  1. Connect to your Windows EC2 Instance

    If you need help connecting to the Windows EC2 Instance, please follow instructions in Lab 2: Step 1: Connect to Windows EC2 Instance, then continue with following steps.

  2. Open RPA Builder.

    If this is your first time opening RPA Builder, then you need to configure it as explained in Lab 2: Step 2: Configure RPA Builder and Open the Process until you see your process in the Repository Explorer.

  3. Open the project you want to overwrite with the lab solution. Make sure you open YOUR project not to overwrite other’s.

    module01 lab03 001

  4. From the Windows VM, download the Module_1_Lab_3_completed.crpa file referred to the solution of the previous lab.

    You should have the Google Drive link sent to you along with the credentials and other workshop material. This drive contains the solution for all Labs. If you do not have access, ask the instructor.

  5. Once opened, click the Import Project option under the File menu:

    module01 lab03 002

  6. Click Yes in the confirmation dialog, locate your just downloaded .crpa file and click Open to import it.

You can now continue with the lab.

Step 2: Set up the basics

  1. Open the Insert Data in the system existing activity. Configure all the Activity Parameters that will be used:

    module01 lab04 009

  2. Drag and drop three Group steps and name them as follows:

    Start Legacy Application
    Login
    Go To New Invoice Form

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Step 3: Start the Legacy Application

We will be working on the Start Legacy Application group.

  1. Drag and drop a Run Program step and open its wizard.

  2. Name it as Open Legacy Application and click on the Select File path dropdown menu option on the File name field:

    module01 lab04 011

    Navigate to the Desktop\LegacyApps\Java folder and select the start.bat file.

    Expand the Insert Environment Variable dropdown list and select the %USERPROFILE% one. It will be added at the beginning of the just populated File name path. Remove the C:\Users\workshop entry to leave the path as follows:

    %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\LegacyApps\Java\start.bat

    module01 lab04 048

  3. Set the Start mode to Minimized. Expand the Wait on Creation section, check the Wait for window to appear option and set the Window Title exactly to NTO Login:

    module01 lab04 012

    Click OK to save and close.

  4. Let’s test everything works as expected. Click the activity’s Run button and see what happens:

    module01 lab04 013

    The Legacy App is opened and once the login window (with title NTO Login) is displayed, the execution finishes and RPA Builder is restored to the foreground.

    Note

    Do not close the just opened Legacy Application as we will be working on it in the next steps

Step 4: Login

We will be working on the Login group.

  1. For the login we will use the systemLogin activity parameter which is of type user account. user account type contains user credentials and are always encrypted at rest. The only way to use the underlying data (username and password) in an activity is by first decrypting them at runtime.

    Drag and drop a User Account Decrypter, name it as systemLogin and select the Activity Parameters.systemLogin variable for the User account:

    module01 lab04 018

    Click OK to save and close.

  2. Bring the Login window to the foreground.

    You can notice that the Username input box is already focused (a blinking cursor is on it). We could inject the credentials right away, but we’re going to ignore that and pretend the focus is not yet there. Why?, to show you how you can make sure to set the focus on the field of your election for future use cases.

    Drag and drop an Image Search step and open it. Name it as Search for Username.

    Click the Start from scratch button to capture your pattern image.

    Move and resize the capture window to select the Username label as follows:

    module01 lab04 014

    Press F10 to validate the capture window.

    Click the Full Screen button and Capture to confirm the selection.

  3. Back in the wizard, select the Contour Plus algorithm, check the Wait until image is steady option and click OK to save and close:

    module01 lab04 015

  4. Now that we locate the Username label in the application, we want to left-click on the input box that is located slightly on its right, to set the focus on it.

    To do so, drag and drop a Mouse Actions step and open it. Name it as Click on Username input box.

    Notice how the Relative To setting is automatically set to the X/Y coordinates of the previous Image Search. This means that any click captured will always be based on such coordinates.

    Click on the Start button to capture the mouse actions:

    module01 lab04 019

    When the Login window appears, simply left-click anywhere on the Username input box as follows:

    module01 lab04 020

    Press F10 to end the capture. The mouse event will have been saved. Click OK to save and close.

  5. We’re now ready to inject the username and password and perform the login.

    Drag and drop a Keystrokes step and name it as Perform Login. The Keystrokes activity allows you to simulate keyboard entries.

    In the wizard window, click on the + button to enter a number of keystrokes as follows:

    module01 lab04 049
    Keystroke type Value

    Script Variable

    systemLogin.Username

    Special Character

    TAB

    Script Variable

    systemLogin.Password

    Special Character

    TAB

    Special Character

    SPACE
    module01 lab04 021

    Click OK to save and close.

  6. Let’s test what we have done so far.

    First close the Legacy Application.

    Then, click the Run button and see what happens:

    module01 lab04 025

    Login is performed, RPA Builder is restored in the foreground and you can see how the main application window is then loaded. We will be doing the rest of the operations on such main window, but it takes some time to get loaded. We do need to wait until it gets loaded before entering the invoice data!

  7. Going back to RPA Builder drag and drop a Window Wait step still in the Login group.

    Name it as Wait for main Window.

    As the legacy application main window is already loaded as we did the previous test, we can click on the Collect window titles to get all the current window titles in our Windows box. Once clicked, you can open the Window title dropdown list and locate the NTO Financial Module (normal) one.

    module01 lab04 026

    Leave the rest of the settings as default and click OK to save and close.

    If you do a new test (remember to first close the existing instance of the app), you will see how RPA Builder is not restored to the foreground until the main window is displayed and detected by this last Window Wait step.

  8. The Login group is now fully completed and this is how it should look like:

    module01 lab04 027

Step 5: Go to New Invoice Form

We will be working on the Go to New Invoice Form group.

  1. This one is easy. To move from the current tab to the New Invoice one, we just need to press ALT-3 and an additional TAB to set the focus to the first input field.

    Do so using a single Keystrokes step. Dreag and drop one, name it as Move to New Invoice Form and set focus and add an ALTDOWN, 3 and ALTUP keystokes followed by a TAB:

    module01 lab04 028

  2. Close the legacy app first and then click on Run once again to see everything works as expected. Notice how the cursor is moved to the first input field at the very end.

Step 6: Insert Data

  1. Now that we have the focus on the first input field (Invoice Number), we can proceed to enter the data.

    Drag and drop a new Group and name it as Insert Data.

    module01 lab04 050

    Within a single Keystokes step, you will be adding all data and moving the focus between all the input boxes. Again, all in a single step.

  2. Drag & drop a Keystrokes step inside. Name it as Enter All Data.

    Double-click on it to open the wizard window. Click on the + button to start adding data/keystrokes:

    module01 lab04 059

    First, you need to enter the Invoice Number data.

    In the Keystrokes Editor expand the Insert Script Variable dropdown list and locate and select the Activity Parameters.invoiceNumber variable.

    Expand the Insert Special Character dropdown list and locate and select the TAB entry.

    This is how it should look like so far:

    module01 lab04 061

    Click OK to finalise. See how the invoiceNumber variable and TAB keystroke looks like:

    module01 lab04 062

  3. Repeat the previous operations to add the following:

    ${Activity Parameters.invoiceDate}{TAB}

    ${Activity Parameters.invoiceDueDate}{TAB}

    ${Activity Parameters.invoicePurchaseOrder}{TAB}

    ${Activity Parameters.invoiceTotals} (no {TAB} is needed here)

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Step 8: Save and Close

We have entered all data however we haven’t saved it yet!

  1. Drag and Drop a new Group and name it as Save and Close.

  2. Add a Keystrokes step and name it as TAB to Save button and click.

    Add the following keystrokes one after the other:

    TAB, SPACE and SPACE (this last one to close the informative dialog box)

    module01 lab04 056

  3. Finally, we need to close the Legacy application.

    There are many ways to close an application: use keyboard shortcut, mouse clicking, ask window to close or kill the app…​ all these can be done with MuleSoft RPA. On this case, we’ll use the ALT-F4 keyboard shortcut.

    Drag and drop a new Keystrokes step and name it as Close the app.

    Add an ALTDOWN, F4 and ALTUP keystokes:

    module01 lab04 057

    This is how the activity should look like now:

    module01 lab04 058

  4. If you want run a last test on the Activity and see how everything is working, including the application closure:

    module01 lab04 047

Please proceed to Lab 5 - Implementation - Clean Up & Share

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