Appian RPA provides several actions to make it easier to develop a robotic process. You can use low-code actions to configure a robotic process more quickly and easily. Java modules are also available for specific actions and use cases.

Low-code actions

Low-code actions streamline the robotic process development process. You don't need to use Java to set up and configure actions in a robotic process workflow. Instead, you'll select options from a menu and configure which variables to use. If you're an Appian developer getting started with Appian RPA, you'll find the low-code actions familiar. Although your robotic process may be complicated, development using low-code actions is simple and accessible.

Similar to the Interface Designer, the Actions Palette shows you the actions that are available to add to the robotic process. Use the search bar to quickly find an action by name or browse the list of actions. You can find these low-code actions in the Actions Palette on the Robotic Process Designer:

• Appian Services
• Browser
• Execution
• File System Module
• Image Recognition
• Items
• Keyboard
• Mouse
• Operating System
• Windows Automation

Just getting started? Use the following table to find the action that can help you automate common tasks:

I want to…	Suggested action
Capture text from a website	Get attribute (Browser)
Capture text from an application	Get attribute (Windows Automation)
Log in to a website	Interact with element
Fill out a web form	Interact with element
Start an Appian process	Start process
Evaluate business logic	Evaluate expression
Send or retrieve application documents	Upload document Download document
Start a robotic subprocess	Execute robotic subprocess
Move files on the resource	Move a file or folder
Delete files on the resource	Delete a file or folder
Find and click an icon on the desktop	Locate image
Paste text	Set clipboard value and Press keyboard shortcuts

There are also general actions that help make your processes more organized and flexible: Action Groups, Loops, and Conditions.

Action groups

Action groups help you organize actions that work together to achieve a desired outcome. For example, you may want to organize your workflow so that login actions are contained in an action group.

To add an action group to the workflow, click and drag Action Group from the Actions Palette to a section.

Loops

Loops repeat actions until a condition is satisfied. Use the Loop action to process items in a list such as files in a directory or line items on an invoice. RPA supports the following loop types:

• While: Executes the loop until the loop expression returns false.
• Repeat: Executes the loop a fixed number of times, equal to the integer in the Iterations field.
• For Each: Executes the loop for each item in a list.

In the following example, the loop will execute the Create a folder and Copy a file or folder actions until the Loop Expression returns false.

To add and configure a Loop action:

1. Click and hold the Loop action in the Actions Palette.
2. Drag and drop the action to a section or action group.
3. Select a loop type from the Configuration Pane.
4. Configure additional properties from the Configuration Pane depending on the loop type.
   • While loops must have a loop expression.
   • Repeat loops must have a number specified in the Iterations field.
5. Drag and drop additional actions from the Actions Palette into the loop action. Actions will only repeat when inside the Loop action.

Action expressions in loops can reference function variables. Supported function variables in loops include:

Function Variable	Description	While	Repeat	For Each
fv!index	The current iteration of the loop, starting at 1.	Yes	Yes	Yes
fv!isFirst	true for the first iteration of a loop, otherwise false.	No	Yes	Yes
fv!isLast	true for the last iteration of a loop, otherwise false.	No	Yes	Yes
fv!itemCount	The total number of loop iterations.	No	Yes	Yes
fv!item	The current item.	No	No	Yes

To add an action to the workflow:

1. Click and hold an action in the Actions Palette.

   

2. Drag and drop it to the section or action group where you want to add the action.
3. Click and drag the action to reorder it relative to the other actions in the section or action group.

Conditions

To make your robotic process more dynamic and responsive, you can integrate conditional actions. These actions route the robotic process in different ways to perform different actions based on the condition it evaluates. Conditional actions are Booleans, meaning they evaluate to true or false.

Conditional actions are listed in the Conditions area of the palette. Configuration information for these actions can also be found within their respective low-code modules:

Action name	Module
Is expression true?	Appian Services
Does browser window title match?	Browser
Is web attribute present?	Browser
Is web element present?	Browser
Does next row exist?	ExcelMap Data Provider
Is robot available?	Execution
Does file or folder exist?	File System
Does desktop window title match?	Operating System
Is application element present?	Windows Automation
Is unique application element present?	Windows Automation

Example

Suppose you want a robotic process to use the information stored in a variable (pv!myVariable) to fill a form field on a website. But before you do that, you want to check that the variable is populated.

Using the conditional action Is expression true?, you can evaluate if a robotic process variable is empty or not. You'll write an expression such as a!isNotNullOrEmpty(pv!myVariable). If the variable is populated, you can configure the robotic process to proceed to the next action and use the variable text to fill the form field. But if the variable is empty, however, you can configure the robotic process to try to retrieve that information before it proceeds.