Introduction

Robotic Workforce Manager (RWM) includes an extract, transform, load (ETL) process that loads data from each RPA vendor based on a configurable time interval.

This page describes the ETL historic load process and best practices to keep in mind when configuring the historic load for Appian RPA, Automation Anywhere, UiPath, and Blue Prism.

Learn more about the RWM background processes that keep your data up to date in the application.

What is a historical load?

When the RWM app is deployed, it needs to populate data from the vendor's server. This is known as the historical load. Users can bring up to 12 months of data, but this number can be decided based on their company policy.

Appian RPA, Automation Anywhere, and UiPath

The steps to configure the historic load for Appian RPA, Automation Anywhere, and UiPath are very similar. The process is generally the same, but you'll use different objects based on the chosen vendor.

RWM uses a process model to populate the initial or historical load:

• For Appian RPA users, this is the RWM JD ETL Wrapper Model Process.
• For Automation Anywhere users, this is the RWM AA ETL Wrapper Model Process. It also takes the following details from Automation Anywhere any time the ETL runs (every 15 minutes by default):
  • Bots
  • Executions
  • Resources
  • Queue
  • Queue Items
  • Scheduled Details
  • Work Item
• For UiPath users, this is the RWM UI ETL Wrapper Model Process. It also takes the following details from UiPath any time the ETL runs (every 15 minutes by default):
  • Robots
  • Jobs
  • Session
  • Process
  • Queue
  • Queue Items
  • Scheduled Details
  • Release
  • Work Item

To configure the historic load:

1. Enable the historic load: Modify the load flag constant to be True. If it is not true, the historic load process will not run:
   1. Appian RPA: RWM_JD_HISTORIC_LOAD_FLAG
   2. Automation Anywhere: RWM_AA_HISTORIC_LOAD_FLAG
   3. UiPath: RWM_UI_HISTORIC_LOAD_FLAG
2. Set the duration: Modify the start date and end date constants to specify the time period. We recommend that customers load at least 3 months of data for dashboards to be meaningful:
   1. Appian RPA: RWM_JD_HISTORIC_START_DATE and RWM_JD_HISTORIC_END_DATE
   2. Automation Anywhere: RWM_AA_HISTORIC_START_DATE and RWM_AA_HISTORIC_END_DATE
   3. UiPath: RWM_UI_HISTORIC_START_DATE and RWM_UI_HISTORIC_END_DATE
3. Disable the historic load: Modify the load flag constant (listed above) to be False after running the historic load. This will ensure that the historic load is turned off and does not interfere with the daily ETL load.

The historic load process is resource-intensive and may impact performance. We recommend that users not run the historic load more than once daily or during business hours.

Blue Prism

The process RWM ETL Scheduler Process is used to populate the initial or the historic load.

To configure the historic load:

1. Enable the historic load: Modify the RWM HistoricUpdate environmental variable to be True. If it is not true, the historic load process will not run.
2. Set the duration: Modify the RWM HistoricQuery StartDate and RWM HistoricQuery EndDate environmental variables to specify the time period. We recommend that customers load at least 3 months of data for dashboards to be meaningful.
3. Disable the historic load: Modify the RWM HistoricUpdate Flag environmental variable to be False after running the historic load. This will ensure that the historic load is turned off and does not interfere with the daily ETL load.

The historic load process is resource-intensive and may impact performance. We recommend that users not run the historic load more than once daily or during business hours.

Login agent

The login agent is a Windows service installed on every runtime resource. Its main functionality is to lock the resource when not in use and unlock it when it should be running a process. Blue Prism has provided an object with the following functionality:

• Login
• Logout
• Is Locked
• Is Locked In

Whenever a process needs to be executed, that process would be usually occur between the login and logout process for Blue Prism.