The capabilities described on this page are included in Appian's standard capability tier. Usage limits may apply. |
This page covers some options for setting up an integrated development environment (IDE) to develop and debug robotic tasks.
Visit the Eclipse website to download Eclipse. It is advisable to use the last stable version.
After the Eclipse installer executable has finished downloading, start the installer and follow the instructions. Once the installation is completed, you can now launch Eclipse and make some configurations.
As an example, we will create the workspace directory C:\software\eclipse.projects to store your source in a project directory.
In the following steps, we will choose a workspace directory folder where we have decompressed our robotic task code.
Configure the following settings:
Expand the Java item and verify that in Compiler, 1.8 is selected in the Compiler compliance level menu.
Make sure a JDK is associated. You can add a new definition pointing to the Java directory you just installed and select it here.
After you've created your Maven project, you're ready to import it to Eclipse.
You can see the loaded project in the window Package Explorer, with all the necessary dependencies.
Among the files of our new project, there is a basic file pom.xml with everything we need to start developing our robotic task.
This file contains the necessary information to include any of the Appian RPA modules available in the platform into the robotic task.
The dependencies with these modules will appear commented and the versions will point to the latest available version of such modules.
The different modules are in continuous improvement and enhancement process, hence the Appian RPA team may release new versions of them over time. The software will be backward compatible in the vast majority of times. Nevertheless, when necessary, the Appian RPA team will also provide the guidelines to adapt the source code, if such compatibility did not exist.
If we observe in the project some errors related to Maven with a text like Project build error: Non-resolvable parent POM for…, it is likely to be solved by updating the Maven project.
To perform this update, we must go to the project root in Eclipse and press ALT + F5, which will request an Update Maven Project. When the pop-up window shows up, we can also mark the option Force Update of Snapshots/Releases to be even more sure.
You can download IntelliJ IDEA from the JetBrains website. Once the file has finished downloading, launch the installer.
Configure these settings after IntelliJ is installed:
Next, associate a JDK:
IntelliJ will automatically sync the Maven project. Additional information about Maven import settings can be found at the JetBrains website.
IDE Setup