The below "decision helper" can come in handy when you are evaluating which automation method to employ for your workflows/wizards, during development. Note: The below places an emphasis on keeping wizards understandable and maintainable for RPA developers with perhaps limited to no coding/programming experience.
Ask yourself:
- Can the action/step be automated using dedicated Advanced Commands in Kryon Studio? If yes (e.g. Excel, SQL, HTML, UI, and so on) → Go for that option! If not →
- ... Can the action/step be automated using keyboard actions, such as shortcuts, arrow/tab keys, etc.? If yes → Go for that option! If not →
- ... Opt for the "visual approach" (object detection). Fine tune detection for expected location, screen layout and element type. Does this work reliably and offer sufficient speed/performance? If yes → Go for that option (easiest to maintain, esp. for "non-coders")! If not →
- ... Use a script (Python, JS, VB, etc.) to achieve the desired automation. Tip: This is also worth a try in cases where speed/performance is of the utmost importance and process-critical! Does this route lead to success? If yes → Go for that option! If not →
- ... Last Option(s):
- Custom plugin/application
- Command line tool(s) or other 3rd party application(s)
- Stick with "visual approach" (object detection)
Additional questions to consider when trying to extract/work with data in the UI of an application:
- Can the UI data being interacted with be selected (in the UI) using "CTRL+A"? This would allow (in most cases) to copy data to the clipboard for easier and faster parsing/reading!
- Can the UI data being read from the screen be exported using a built-in application feature (for example "export to CSV/Excel/TXT")? Again: This would lead (in most cases) to easier and faster parsing/reading of the data!
- Do fields support "copy & paste" (shortcuts)? If so, you can work with clipboard (Advanced Commands) which can make things easier if other options don't yield results!
- Can data be accessed/queried directly via respective DB queries or REST/SOAP? If so, this can - in many cases - save a lot of hassle and speed up automation, considerably!