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Execution actions allow you to control steps a robotic process must take to successfully start, execute, and complete on a resource. These default steps often require communication with the Appian RPA server. The Execution actions enable a robotic process's communication with the server, whether to retrieve information or send it to help a developer understand what's happening and when.
This page describes how to integrate Execution actions into your robotic process, which provide an easier and more robust development experience.
If you need to extend Appian RPA capabilities, you can use Java to create workflow libraries for robotic processes.
Execution actions are helpful throughout a robotic process execution. As an execution completes, a robotic process may have to send resulting files to the server. These actions are often used in the robotic process's clean up workflow to help reset the resource. Use the communication actions to send messages to the execution log throughout the robotic process, which may be helpful for debugging.
While these actions can be called using actions in the Java code, using the actions from the robotic process workflow is both easier and more robust. When you build the robotic process workflow, you'll see the following actions available in the Actions Palette:
This action lets you add the file to the clean up process and returns it as a result in the Appian RPA console.
You can configure CONFIGURATION and AFTER COMPLETION parameters for this action.
In the CONFIGURATION area of the action pane, configure the following parameters:
text
. Enter a path using plain text, a robotic process variable, or an expression.To access the file after the robotic process finishes execution, go to the Appian RPA console. The files appear in the OUTPUTS column on the List of executions page, where you can download them.
In the AFTER COMPLETION area of the action pane, configure the following parameters:
The Execute robotic subprocess action lets you configure and launch a robotic subprocess from within another process. It specifies which robotic subprocess to call and indicates the data to be passed in and out of the subprocess. To learn more, see Robotic Subprocesses.
You can configure CONFIGURATION and AFTER COMPLETION parameters for this action.
In the CONFIGURATION area of the action pane, configure the following parameters:
In the AFTER COMPLETION area of the action pane, configure the following parameters:
A robotic process may need to send a message to the server as part of its clean up workflow. Although this is a common clean up action, you can use these actions at any time in the robotic process. The type of message you send depends on the type of event. For example, you may want to build logic into your robotic process to send an ERROR message when a particular action isn't completed successfully, but not send a message when it proceeds as expected.
You can configure CONFIGURATION and AFTER COMPLETION parameters for this action.
In the CONFIGURATION area of the action pane, configure the following parameters:
text
. Enter a message using plain text, a robotic process variable, or an expression. This field is required.In the AFTER COMPLETION area of the action pane, configure the following parameters:
To send a message to the execution log:
if()
statement in the expression. Note that the expression changes the message content, not the message type.To send a different type of message (INFO vs. ERROR, for example) based on a condition in your robotic process, integrate a conditional action into the workflow:
In the CONFIGURATION field of the ACTION CONFIGURATION area, type an expression for the condition. In this example, the expression simply evaluates if a robotic process variable exists. If it is null, we want to send an error message to the console:
1
2
3
if(isnull(pv!stockPrice),
true,
false)
Yes
flow.This action adds a pause in the robotic process execution. A pause can be useful between two actions if the resource needs time to load before further action. For example, if a large report takes a few extra seconds to load, you can use the Pause action to ask the robotic process to wait before proceeding to the next action in the workflow.
You can configure CONFIGURATION and AFTER COMPLETION parameters for this action.
In the CONFIGURATION area of the action pane, configure the following parameters:
text
. Enter a path using plain text, a robotic process variable, or an expression.In the AFTER COMPLETION area of the action pane, configure the following parameters:
This action reserves a credential entry to ensure the robotic process has access to that credential during runtime and can pass it to a robotic subprocess.
See Robotic Subprocesses for guidance on how to use the reserved credential in a robotic subprocess.
You can configure CONFIGURATION, OUTPUTS, and AFTER COMPLETION parameters for this action.
In the CONFIGURATION area of the action pane, configure the following parameters:
Note that this action uses the Credential
data type, which is unique to RPA and can't be used in expressions, casting, or referenced as a parameter in an Appian process model.
Save the reserved credential to a variable so you can reference it in a robotic subprocess.
In the OUTPUTS area of the action pane, configure the following parameters to store this result:
is stored as
) or add the result as a multiple-value variable (is appended to
).In the AFTER COMPLETION area of the action pane, configure the following parameters:
This action sends a screenshot of the resource to the console. The screenshot is taken immediately when this action begins, and you can add an optional description to include with it.
You can configure CONFIGURATION and AFTER COMPLETION parameters for this action.
In the CONFIGURATION area of the action pane, configure the following parameters:
text
. Enter a path using plain text, a robotic process variable, or an expression.In the AFTER COMPLETION area of the action pane, configure the following parameters:
The Set pause duration action allows you to set a variety of pauses in a workflow.
You can configure CONFIGURATION and AFTER COMPLETION parameters for this action.
In the CONFIGURATION area of the action pane, configure the following parameters:
text
. Enter a path using plain text, a robotic process variable, or an expression.In the AFTER COMPLETION area of the action pane, configure the following parameters: