My "Top 5" Kryon RPA Wizard Development Tips!

The following list represents my current "top 5" tips for getting the most out of Kryon RPA (when developing wizards). "The most" in this case pertains to wizard reliability and performance. This list is by no means exhaustive, but considering the points listed below will be very beneficial to your workflows/wizards! Please note (intended audience): My assumption is you are proficient using Kryon Studio and have (been) trained, accordingly:

1. Whenever possible, make use of keyboard commands and shortcuts to achieve your automation goals (using the corresponding Advanced Commands in Kryon Studio). In general, doing so is just quicker, more reliable and more comfortable than using visual elements/objects on the screen. Tip: Some applications support keyboard commands/shortcuts, even if they do not openly document them to the user. Just try it out and opt for this approach, whenever possible. Make sure the application in question has focus/is in the foreground! Some examples/ideas:
   1. Tabbing from field to field
   2. Arrowkeys to navigate some table items or similar data
   3. Home/Shift/End keys to select and then Ctrl+C shortcut to copy data in a text field (as opposed to reading it - visually - from the screen)
   4. Dedicated shortcuts to turn on filters, options, etc. in applications.
2. Avoid static (hard-coded) pauses in your workflows/wizards, whenever possible! Though there are exceptions, you generally shouldn't use long "pauses" (via pause Advanced Command) in your workflows/wizards, because the time being waited/paused is static. This is not efficient and can cause unnecessarily long runtimes. Instead, consider the following options, depending on what you are trying to achieve:
   1. Create a loop of some fashion that only waits for a second or so and exits the loop once the given result (i.e. whatever you are waiting for) is done. Warning: Avoid possibly infinite loops!
   2. The best solution (if - as ist mostly the case - you are waiting for some visual information, such as an application window or object): Use the Window/Object property "Wait x seconds for Window/Object to appear". Using this option will allow your wizard to dynamically only wait a maximum of X seconds for a window/object, which in turn is very efficient!
3. Optimise your visual object search areas and options! There are many different configuration options you can (and should!) use to fine-tune your object detection. Make use of these (depending on the applications you are working with), as doing so can drastically improve runtime performance and reliability. Some ideas:
   1. If the element you are looking for might potentially be located anywhere on the entire screen, be sure to set your search area to "click, stripe, full."
   2. If an element is (reliably) always located at the same position it was recorded, be sure to set your search area to "click."
   3. If you are looking for a particular text, set the search option(s) to "text" (only) as opposed to image and text - and increase the threshold percentage to something closer to 100%. Use the "last run results" tab to fine-tune this, while testing.
4. Make sure your resolution, zoom/scaling/colour/theme and font/text settings (in your operating system) match that of the robot system (VM or physical) that will be executing the actual wizard, at runtime! Doing so is critical since if there are substantial mismatches here, the robot will not be able to find visual elements on the screen. Always remember: What works in your Kryon Studio need not also work on the actual robot system. So please pay close attention to this!
5. When inserting text with potentially language-specific (special) characters, work with copy and paste (as opposed to using the "input text" advanced command), if possible! Example: Let's say you need to enter a persons' name into a text field. This name could perhaps contain language-specific special characters. You already have the name in a variable, and now you want to insert it into the text field. Instead of using the "input text" command, first place the name/variable in the clipboard (using the corresponding Advanced Command). Then (with the field selected/ready for input) use the keyboard command/shortcut "CTRL+V" to paste the text into the field (again using the corresponding Advanced Command). Note: This assumes the field/input element in questions allows for pasting from the clipboard, of course. Doing so circumvents some problems that can arise from different character-sets (charsets) and is generally the safer option.