What's New in Appian RPA 8.3?
This content applies solely to Appian RPA, which must be purchased separately from the Appian base platform.

This page describes what's available in this release of Appian RPA. Some capabilities may not be available if you're using an older version of the Appian platform.

Version 8.3 (Release date: 24 June 2022)

Automate processes in Windows applications quickly with task recorder

In this release, you can use the task recorder to record common interactions such as click and set value in Windows applications (including Microsoft Office applications). If you use Windows applications in your business, the task recorder can now help you quickly and easily automate those processes using RPA.

You don't have to rely on separate or manual development tools to create actions and capture data needed for Windows automation. Instead, you can build your robotic processes even faster and automatically without interrupting your flow.

Recording Windows automations with the task recorder

Capture interactions across applications in the task recorder

Speaking of uninterrupted flow, we've also made it easier to start recording in both Windows applications and browsers, as well as switch between them in a single recording. To start, launch the task recorder and then choose to launch either a browser or Windows application. While you're recording, you can switch between applications or launch new ones so you don't have to interrupt your flow. The task recorder captures your interactions in each of these applications and lets you know which application you are recording in.

Switching applications within the task recorder

Performance protections within the Queues Java module

Appian RPA now imposes limits on Java-based queue methods that consume too much memory. To ensure queues remain performant during a robotic process execution, we're deprecating two methods within the Process Queues module: reserveQueue and downloadQueue. reserveQueue is being replaced by reserveQueuePaged, which allows you to control the amount of data (and consequently, memory) the robotic process consumes.

If your robotic process uses either of these methods, additional warnings will appear in the execution log to let you know your queue exceeds a certain size. These methods will be unsupported in a future release, so we advise customers to update their robotic processes to use alternative methods for working with queues.

Warning in the Execution Log regarding Queue method

Preparing for IE11 end of life

Microsoft is ending its support for IE11 this summer, and ​​Appian will also end support for IE11 shortly afterwards, in November 2022. To prevent disruptions, we encourage customers to refactor robotic processes that use IE11 as soon as possible. Appian will continue to support Edge (IE Mode).

Refer to Appian's supported web browsers for more information in choosing a new browser to use.

About Appian RPA releases and upgrades

Appian RPA is a feature of the Appian platform. RPA is released independently from the rest of the platform, and the latest version is applied to your site upon restart. This means you get access to new features, bug fixes, and improvements faster and more easily.

All RPA versions are backwards compatible with the Appian platform, so you aren't required to upgrade Appian any sooner than you want to. However, RPA feature availability may rely on feature availability in Appian. Therefore, if you're using an older version of the Appian platform, Appian RPA may not be able to take advantage of those features. In these cases, you may not have access to some of the latest features prior to upgrading Appian. Your robotic processes will continue to work with your current version of Appian.

We want to be clear when some of these features may require a more recent version of Appian. Where applicable, we'll note where certain features might not be available for older versions of Appian.

RPA support period

Appian regularly addresses bugs and other issues in RPA with hotfixes to the latest available version of RPA. For this reason, we encourage customers to plan to upgrade Appian RPA regularly to access these new features, bug fixes, and improvements faster.

You can use a particular version of Appian RPA until your site is restarted, at which point you'll be upgraded to the latest version. No matter what version of Appian RPA you're using, we encourage you to report issues so they can be addressed. Fixes and enhancements will be available in the latest available version of Appian RPA.

Documentation support period

Appian RPA documentation is available for six months after the version release date. Refer to the table below to learn more about release dates and documentation availability.

RPA Release Release Date Docs Removal Date
8.5 16 September 2022 16 March 2023
8.4 5 August 2022 5 February 2023
8.3 22 June 2022 22 December 2022
8.2 13 May 2022 13 November 2022
8.1 1 April 2022 1 October 2022
8.0 9 February 2022 9 August 2022
7.14 21 January 2022 21 July 2022
7.13 10 December 2021 10 June 2022
7.12 29 October 2021 29 April 2022
7.11 16 September 2021 16 March 2022
7.10 6 August 2021 6 February 2022
7.9 24 June 2021 24 December 2021
7.8 20 May 2021 20 November 2021
7.7 16 April 2021 16 October 2021
7.6 5 March 2021 5 September 2021
7.5 22 January 2021 22 July 2021
7.4 15 November 2020 15 May 2021

Find your Appian RPA release number

You can see your site's RPA version in the About Appian dialog. Both designers and system administrators can access this dialog at any time from the navigation menu.

about-appian-rpa.png

Open in Github Built: Fri, Nov 04, 2022 (07:10:52 PM)

On This Page

FEEDBACK