Table of Contents

Release Notes

Version 24.0.3 is bug fix release addressing the following issues from 24.0.2

Upgrading from 24.0.x- Uninstall before installing. The license activation will be retained.

Fixes

  • CommonUtils was not correctly registered on install this prevented the use of DatabaseGeneric
  • BrowserLib was not correctly registered on install. You will need to manually extract C:\ProgramData\BrowserLib\BrowserLib.zip so that the directories in the zip file are added as sub directories of C:\ProgramData\BrowserLib\ prior to use
  • Add/Remove programs incorrectly offered a Modify option.
  • AEV icon would cause IDE to generate unhandled exception and shutdown

The below is content for upgrading from Boston WorkStation 20 to LGI RPA.

Upgrading existing versions

Uninstall (Boston WorkStation , Boston WorkStation 20 prior to installing. The Setup.exe will block installing over existing software.

If this this is upgrading from Boston WorkStation 20 have your Activation Code handy as the software will need to be licensed using the new license management system after installation.

Product name, start menu and install directory changes

The software is now branded as LGI RPA.

In the Start menu you will see LGI RPA IDE and LGI RPA Runtime. LGI RPA\Utilities folder in the start menu contains shortcuts to license management and other utilities.

LGI RPA is installed in Program Files(x86). Required configurations and webdrivers are installed in ProgramData\LGI_RPA\

The install will set for Users FullControl rights to ProgramData\LGI_RPA. Any changes to rights on this folder, its files or subfolders will break the software.

The install will move your existing c:\bss70\Lib\IDEConfig.db into ProgramData\LGI_RPA\

Breaking changes upgrading from Boston WorkStation 20:

  • The install directory and executable names have changed for the Runtime and IDE. Existing shortcuts, scheduled tasks or batch files or any references in code to previous install directories that use renamed or moved files or folders must be updated. Please contact support for assistance! References in VBA are automatically updated, references in .NET will need to be updated.
  • WebView has been removed from WorkStation assembly and is now in a separate dll/tlb. Any automations that use WebView must add a reference to BrowserLib.tlb (VBA), BrowserLib.dll (.NET). BrowserLib is in Program Files (x86)\LGI_RPA\BrowserLib. No other changes are anticipated.
  • The feature to select a different .BWSX file other than the default AutomationTemplates.BWSX for automation templates displayed in the New Project wizard has been removed. If you used this feature to library your own templates in a separate .BWSX file please contact Support.

Possible breaking change due to a fix upgrading from Boston WorkStation 20:

Maximized windows that have square windows report back negative position information. ContentObject Behavior Region calculations were using this information and this caused the Behavior Region to be high and to the left by the negative position amounts. Now negative positions are converted to 0. It is situationally possible you may have inadvertently or implicitly adjusted for this change by fighting this behavior with offsets or offset Behavior Regions or simply through muscle memory when building your Behavior Regions.

This can be rolled back to the original (bad) behavior using:

C.Utilities.SetUseOldGetWindowRect true

And toggled back to the current default fixed behavior using:

C.Utilities.SetUseOldGetWindowRect false

Possible breaking change due to speed improvements

ContentObjects now evaluate perhaps hundreds of milliseconds faster than previous versions. This could have unintended consequences since everything ContentObject related will run perhaps many times faster - especially if you had evaluations inside of loops, you may have relied on a intrinsic delay without knowing about it.

You can introduce a delay using:

C.Utilities.SetPostCOExistsDelay 200 ' slow down ContentObject evaluations by 200 milliseconds.

Set to 0 to return to default speed.

Enhancements and additions

License management

  • All installs use the new license management system. Your organization now has a personalized license portal for managing entitlements.

Ribbon

  • Build->ContentObjects From Last button - reloads your last Quick Capture screen to allow learning from that screen capture

  • Build ->Settings ->Turn Off Logging - Toggle button that allows temporarily stopping Log_ commands from writing to the log

Project Explorer

  • Added Project Logging tab and logging enhancements

AutomationProject

  • AssureTargetWindowFitsDesktop - Settable from Project Explorer Advanced tab, when set to 1 during ContentObject evaluation whose Window property=1, a check is first made to see that the foreground window is either within the bounds of the desktop or is maximized, if not within, the window will be moved so that it is within the bounds of the desktop. The default is 0 (the feature is not enabled). Be sure to understand possible ramifications text changes its fringing colors. The setting will be applied on the next project load. In code you can toggle this behavior (it will not save the setting) using C.Project.SetAssureFitsDesktop
  • UseDelayedLeftClick / ClickDelay - Settable from Project Explorer Advanced tab. When UseDelayedLeftClick is set to 1 (the setting will be applied on the next project load), ContentObject.LeftClick methods and MouseDevice.LeftClick will hover over the click location for the specified delay in ClickDelay before sending the click. This can be very useful for Citrix sessions. You can tune the delay interval by setting ClickDelay (the default is 100 ms). In code you can toggle this behavior (it will not save the setting) using C.Project.SetClickDelay

ContentObject Editor Additions

  • Behavior Region Auto Pick - very useful for creating a behavior region inside a textbox or grid cell. The logic draws the behavior region to be expand from the clicked point to the first connected shape it finds.
  • Edit LookFor Mask Fringing - Attempts to mask common text fringe colors. Note this may not be perfect for handing situations where text changes its fringing colors but it can be very helpful and reduces the number of Compare -> Add Difference Map Mask cycles.
  • Add/Show Comments button to allow adding timestamped lines to ContentObject's Comments property.
  • Test Lookfor now attempts to activate target window using stored ActivateCaption property. If the Activate wasn't successful (but the test was) the caption mismatch will be reported in the status bar.
  • Test Timeout - Allows setting a duration for how long a Test Lookfor will attempt to locate lookfor. This is very useful for testing screen transitions. Back up a screen, set the duration a long time, press Test and then navigate the screen forward.
  • Behavior Region Editor Advanced Properties ContentObject Lookfor settings. Supports new ContentObject methods that evaluate if a behavior region contains image content.

ContentObject

  • New commands especially useful for Meditech Expanse or any other system that uses color fills to indicate focus. Note these methods require setting FocusColor in the Behavior Region editor Advanced Properties tab. For Meditech Expanse, use the Add Meditech Expanse Textbox Features button to do this.
    • ClickPauseForFocusColor
    • ClickPauseFocusColorTabData
  • HasContentObjectLookfor and related methods - Allows detecting if the specified behavior region has a ContentObject's lookfor in it.
  • ContentObject.ActivatePosition - uses newly added ScreenSizeRectString property to size and position the window.

WindowUtils

  • Activate commands more aggressively attempt to set the foreground window. LastError will indicate possible cause for failure to force the window to the foreground.

VBA (cApplication)

  • ShowImmediate - allows displaying the Immediate window visibility from code
  • ClearImmediate - allows clearing the Immediate window from code. Note this is sending keyboard event messages and requires the Immediate window is able to accept and keep focus during execution.

Deprecated Functionality

BehaviorRegion supports storing a static Byte[] array to be evaluated for existence. This concept is now implemented using the methods described here.

The following methods use this stored static Byte[] approach and should be considered as depreciated. These will be subject to removal in a subsequent release and should not be used

  • LeftClickableLookfor
  • RightClickableLookfor
  • DoubleLeftClickableLookfor
  • DoubleRightClickableLookfor
  • TripleClickableLookfor
  • HasBitmapLookfor

Fixes

Installer

  • The installer now detects and warns if a prior version of software is installed and prevents the install until prior version is removed.

General

  • The Behavior Region editor may not draw the Behavior Region correctly, while this does not impact your automation it can cause problems editing the Behavior Region boundaries. In upper right of the Behavior Region Editor Edit Behavior Region tab there is a link label Fix Selection Rectangle. Clicking this will fix this issue.
  • KeyboardDevice Copy/Paste only tried once which made them susceptible to internal exceptions based on environmental conditions impacting the System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard object. A retry/timeout approach is now implemented on the commands by default, timeout intervals are configurable via optional parameters.
  • WindowsUtils Activate commands were not as aggressive as they could be at forcing the specified window to the foreground.
  • Maximized windows that have square windows report back negative position information. ContentObject Behavior Region calculations were using this information and this caused the Behavior Region to be high and to the left by the negative position amounts. Now negative positions are converted to 0.
  • DataStation View dragged code for data entry was not correct
  • Unhandled exception of the last item in Autoclose on shutdown editor was deleted.
  • If multiple Behavior Regions are defined, deleting on and performing a test read when editing another could cause an unhandled exception.
  • Utilities.CreateAutomationCommandLine was missing optional parameter for passing arguments.
  • On small displays the save button on ContentObjects Properties tab would be hidden and not accessable
  • Rarely an unhandled exception could occur when clicking a ContentObject in the ContentObjects's list
  • Creating or deleting a Crosswalk now immediately updates the ContentObjects class in VBA

Browser

  • Browser ribbon tab group Show Learner icon is constantly displayed. This does a better job of re-launching the browser learner if there was an activate browser session started by the the learner or in code.

  • Browser learner returned xPath findstrings that evaluate text correctly use contains of needed.

  • Browser learner now buttons (upper right corner below the standard Windows form icons) to allow re-expanding or contracting the window.

  • EdgeOptions/ChromeOptions AddUserProfilePreference was appending leading pipe to the stored setting, causing this to be ignored if multiple values were set.

  • Automatic syncing of Chrome/Edge drivers logs wrote spurious entries. The logs themselves have improved. Chrome/Edge drivers are now stored in ProgramData/LGI_RPA/WebDrivers. This will prevent possible permissions issues.

  • StartBrowser did not have the ability to close webdrivers. Detection if Chrome is installed was improved.