Robotic Power Automation With Microsoft Power Automate by Shantha Kumar || Lightup Conference

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Uh, is that my screen visible? Yeah, your presentation is visible

OK. Then it's top of the hour, so you can get started

OK, thank you. Welcome everyone to the light of virtual

conference and so and so we are going to we are going to see about how to use Microsoft power automate

to enable the automation on legacy desktop application using the robotic process automation technology. So before jump into

our slides, so we have to try I'll say thank to C Sharp Corner

and our sponsors for providing the great opportunity and then. and then also uh thanks to unicef uh for the support and so while watching this maybe uh you

can donate uh to the unicef for our our conference and also to support for the unicef okay so just

please uh and then uh you can just you can also share your uh feedback on speaker by scanning this

Contributor is contributing to PNP and office six way office six way CLI in github so and you can also catch me on in the name of KTS Kumar in Facebook Twitter and YouTube

So what is a robotic process automation? This is nothing but a technology of creating and training a software bot to emulate the human interactions

Okay, and then based on human interactions, it will automate the business processes

So this is nothing but it just imitates the human's actions and enables that on a digital

platform in a sequence steps to generate the valuable output. And this helps us to automate lot of repetitive tasks, a lot of complex tasks to reduce the

human effects. Okay so we see how the Microsoft Power Automate which uses this robotic process technology to enable this kind of automation So currently at the Microsoft Power uh previously they had automated flow for uh just automating the entire flow of if the application has a api and all and then instant flow

you can just click on or click on the button or that will trigger that uh the actual automation

flow and schedule for you can just schedule the automation everywhere anything of from a device

to automate the flow actual flow of that is workflow process or business process the business

process flow is nothing but it's just a sequence of steps you have to for that we can enable to

automate the certain things but in addition to that microsoft have added uh flow there's a ui

flow which brings the robotic process automation capabilities to the power automate because this

enables us to automate any repetitive tasks in windows and web applications because this will

track all the human actions and playbacks those by capturing what are all the actions actions we

have done by clicking or clicking the mouse or just entering some text in a keyboard or

inputting any text to the text boxes or some input controls okay okay and this this view flow

which enables us to automate anything which may give it which application doesn't have any api

and which is very complex in doing a lot of human actions so this view flow which you easiest that

way and then because this this will record all the human actions and automate the playback of

one manual steps on legacy software because we microsoft and recommends this uiflow for

running uh just automating the repetitive task mostly on legacy software because the legacy

software doesn't have any i think in decade previous decade application doesn't have uh

much APIs to access access through web services or this API so during those applications we can use

the UI flow for automating those repetitive tasks on those softwares and mostly Microsoft have

recommended to use a UI flow to run the desktop and web applications that do not have APIs available

for automation because if there is the apis available we can use other flows like automated

flow instant flow because that contains lot of actions within it and that by using that action

we call any api and we can run that flow but this view flow which mostly we can use it on

legacy software or any applications which doesn't support much apis So this VA flow which brings that robotic process automation feature to the Microsoft Power Automate

So what we can do with VA flows? We can automate the two types of applications

mostly desktop application and web applications. The desktop application mostly this view flow which will enable to run on which mostly compatible with the Windows 10 Pro and Windows Server 2016 and 2019 machines

Because this mostly this view flow which contains the DLL or this code which mostly run on these servers

So we can use this way we can run this view flow on these desktop machines

For the web applications, we can also create a web application, automate the web applications, even though those web applications support the API, but some previous a lot of the legacy based applications or if you want to just do some automation work in your websites so that we can do with creating a UI flow for web applications

mostly with this web application UI flow which is compatible with Microsoft Edge

chromium version and a latest version of Google Chrome okay so that desktop UI

flow so as as we saw we have two type of applications we can create with you

go desktop and web flow so how we can create that desktop UI flow so there are

two options available there are two tools is available in uiflow under the microsoft power

automate one is uiflow record app and another one is win automation the uiflow to use the uiflow

record app we have to install uiflow installer that is setup.microsoft.powerautomate.uiflow.exe and after installing that we have to enable uiflow browser extension to the appropriate uh

browser that those browser extension also available from the store microsoft edge store or google

chrome store so once you enable it you have to launch it as a record app because once it's

installed the record app it gets uh gets start running so by using the browser in the browser

itself we can just launch it as a card app through the ui flow so once the record app is launched we

have to record the human actions and then after capturing the human actions we have to just save

it to the uiflow that's it the uiflow the card up uiflow is created using the uiflow recorder

next one is win automation we know for for using that window automation we have to install this

uiflow installer and then we have to create a gateway okay which enable which enables this

attended RPA because if you have if you are using a paid or trial edition trial edition of Microsoft

Power Automate attended RPA, you will get this Win Automation tool. So once you get it, you can install and you have to install this Win Automation to your desktop machine

And then you have to create your on-premise gateway. OK, in the Microsoft Power Automate site itself, you have to install, you have to download that on-premise gateway and then enable it

OK, after that, you have to sign into Win Automation tool, which you have already installed

So after that, you have to run that window automation. You have to create a process inside of window automation tool and then run the process

And then you can save it. That gets saved to Power Automate. So that's it

So this is the two tools it uses to enable the desktop automation

Next one is Web UI flow. So we saw two tools is available for desktop automation

but for WebViewer flow we can have Selenium ID tool so we can use this tool to enable to automate the web flow so if you want to automate

maybe if you want to capture all the images from the site you have open in the chrome or open edge

or if you want to get all the search records which have which have searched for certain keyword

so if you want to capture those things automatically you want to capture those things and then you want

to send it to some mail or send it to some uh mobile id so this web ui flow definitely helps

and if you want to just uh calculate the currency for the current every day you can create a scheduler

scheduler auto automated flow to launch this web ui flow to capture a daily uh currency rate that's

also possible we can use it use this will be a flow order so to enable this to create a web ui

flow we have to install uiflow installer and then we have to install and enable the selenium ide

browser extension this enables us to automate the or capture the elements within a website and then

it helps us to automate also so once this is enabled we have to launch the selenium recorder

in this will open the selenium recorder application from there you can start recording

or the start recording from selenium ide so once the whatever you have you whatever actions you

want to capture capture it after capturing it you can stop recording from selenium ide once it's

stopped it's automatically gets saved and then updated to the microsoft power automate flow

So these are the two applications and then how to create these flows

So let's see how to create a desktop, how to automate a legacy application

actions related to legacy applications. So let's move on to demo now

So let me share okay so i have i have uh i have already logged into office.com

and here you can see uh the list of apps available in my office uh this to be tenant

let me select the power automate okay so uh currently i'm in a power automate uh home page and then i am going to go to just click

create you can see the list of flows under the power automate these are the list of the flows

we can create using the microsoft power automate so i'm going to select this ui flow

so you can see the two applications desktop app and web app click on the desktop app click next

Next, you have to give some name for the flow be light up

Flow demo. Click on next. You have to give, because currently I am maybe we have a scenario like you want to migrate

some legacies of the contents to the share point. okay let's take that example so it has lot of appointment information in it so we have to

capture all the appointment information and move it to sharepoint so so we have some we have uh

information about some uh appointment id so okay based on that appointment id we have to capture

the patient information and then we have to move that information to sharepoint so i am having the

input as appointment ID and then

I'm doing some appointment ID number and so click on next so this is a start your

uiflow so below to that we have to click new step and then we can see the two tools available okay

under the uiflow for the desktop recorder and window automation just click on recorder

click on the record app action now we can see we have to download and install the uiflow's installer after installing it we have

to enable the browser extension right i have already installed and have the browser extension

in my uh microsoft edge i have to enable it so just go to my uh extension section

so and then i'm enabling this enable extension once uh it gets any enabled

where to come here maybe I saw it automatically gets sink but it's not

doing that so what I'm doing is I'm disclosing this entire browser and then

I'm going to re-login okay so just close this this is a SharePoint site here we

are going to store that information the appointment ID patient ID and gender so

okay then select them up power automate

same create we flow desktop app next so before that we have to ensure this ua flow services running or not

if it is not run we have to start it manually so because if it doesn't run we are unable to launch it as a recorder app

so just ensure this this is running select a desktop app next and then write up demo

or pa the ID which is available in that application so that I have just copied and pasted here

Click next. The same step, new step. Click on the recorder, the choice in action and then select the recorder app

So we have enabled that extension so that we got this launch recorder button

So just click on this launch recorder. so wait for a few seconds you can see now there is a record uh recorder app is open

in the top of the screen okay so if you want to just run this maybe i'll i'll minimize

this browser so there is a legacy of application is there okay so and then just use

start sorry so just click on this record to start recording the human actions i have just

selected it and then just select the title of that application a wait until that blue

bar should come so then only the application captures it so just click on this and i have

we have already have input so i'm just entering that input here okay so it's and then search

click on the search you can get the information so to get the output just

click this appointment ID and then get selected text on screen click on that number and

And then get appointment ID. As output. Save

And then if you want to get a patient ID, just. Select click on the output, select text on screen

Then select the text box. It's automatically the value is captured and we have to provide the output name variable name

patient ID. Okay and then click save. So to capture the gender, click go to output, select

text on screen, click on that gender text box. We have got it. Gender. Click save. So we

We have three output variables now once it is done just click on done

OK, so this. This is captured now. So once this is captured, you can see it here

Launch legacy appointment tab left click. So what are the actions we have done

So that is visible here. That is selecting the title bar. So selecting the title bar means we are just focusing to that

application so after that we have selected clicked on the particular text

box and then we have given a input to the text box oh there's some problem in

it because it's not captured the actual one so I think we have to repeat the

same thing once again so because it's it's not captured that particular text

box so it's it's uh it's select on that uh the recycle bin icon so i think we have to just

otherwise we have to delete this particular one and then we have to redo it so instead of that

we can just delete the entire option and then we can start from scratch click on new step record

record app launch recorder Okay, so I think before this we will close this

Open this launch app. Click the record and then select the title box

Select the text box. Give the appointment ID value here

on then search you got output click on the appointment id value select select

text from screen appointment id then

select text from screen and then patient ID save and then get click on the outputs select text on screen click on that

and then click the gender text box got it send that save it then done so once it's

done just close the application so i think uh you have got the successful now

yeah i think in the input text input we have uh got a screenshot which shows that we have

selected that text box once this is done this this is what we can ensure it so everything is

uh we have successfully got it okay so and then let us if you want to test it so maybe uh we can

add in the end of that we have to add a close action so it automatically closed that application

the open application close application that's it yeah so that's it click on the next

so we have captured the three outputs click next so this is a one maybe i'm just giving the six

just now click on the text just so i'm not doing anything right now so i have just uh

taken my uh hand from the keyboard and mouse you see the open the application gets open and the most uh the most most selected a title

or the focus it it focuses the application and then it automatically enters the given input

after that it will automatically click on the search and then it captures each data

and then it automatically closes it you'll see that just wait for just few seconds

okay now it selecting the patient ID or it copying that patient ID information and then it moves to its it moves to focus to the gender text box and capture that information

You wait for it. It won't take much time

Because for each action the UI flow takes some few seconds to run it

So it waits for a few seconds. You can see everything is run successfully

And then you got this output. um it's not showing here okay maybe uh

yeah you can see the output text one appointment id this is patient id and then this is gender

then save and exit yeah that's it we have automated the the human actions using this eiflow so because this kind

of applications windows desktop application doesn't have api so because uh mostly uh the clients also

uh didn't provide access to those those environment or the where they store the data or

maybe that gets uh trickier they the data gets trickier strictly saved so we couldn't be able to

capture it so for those kind of applications we can use this view flow to capture that okay so we

have just automated this human actions so now we'll see uh the next one uh we'll move on to slide

again this is again so

okay i've just missed that so let's move on to the presentation i just want to show one slide now

one second okay so now we have done that the automation of human interactions but if you want to automate

those the actual human interactions from outside so that's how we can do it so for that the microsoft

power automate provider two options one is attended and another one is unattended okay

so these two options two automation options enables us to run the humans run this via flow from

other other microsoft power automate flows like we can use the instant flow or button flow or

to trigger this uh ui flow or we can use the schedule for to trigger this uh this ui flow or

we can use the automated from somewhere else for sending email through the sender through the uh

email also we can trigger this a flow that's where it comes attended and unattended because whatever

whenever we want to run this vi flow we have to use some desktop to run this application okay so

first one is attended attended means we have to uh we have to run the particular ui flow on a active

active session that is the user should always open that windows windows environment so that this

attendant flow that ui flow which configured with attended can run otherwise it constant because it

always the uh run in the user session only so this user session always should be active if you want

to run this attended wayflow so and then this will be always useful to automate enough repetitive

tasks or the user the human interaction somewhere needed or human need to monitor those actions

for those UA flows we can use the attendant. For unattended, it's simple

So if the user, no need to log into the system. So if you trigger that, it automatically, the UA flow, it automatically log into the user session

and then it runs or runs every, runs whatever the human actions need to do, it runs

and then it automatically closes the application and then it automatically sign out from that

windows environment windows session so during that time no one should log into that particular target

machine so and then this will be useful for fully automated tasks so because if you have you have

a separate vm and then you can run any kind of automation task that is uiflow related task this

for those things you can use this unattended uiflow automation option so we'll see how to do that

so let i'll i'm going to just create a button flow from that button flow that is instant flow

by using that instant flow that if i click on that button it will trigger that ui flow so whatever

the ui flow we have created that would automatically get triggered from up outside of that particular ui

flow see this i'm i'm going to share my share my remote desktop comes again

okay so we are in our environment and then i'm going to my flows so because i have already created

a sample demo yeah okay so this is a but an instant flow app so let me show you how to create

at instant flow just click on new flow and then click on instant from blank you have to give some

demo light if

automation demo click on this manual trigger manually trigger a flow and then click create this was created in here we have to add our actions So after click on that button whatever we need to do so we have to add the steps here

So I have already created some sample flow, so I'm going to use this

So this is a light wave flow attended automation demo. So I'm going to use the attended because we have already logged into the system

So I have this created this. So we want to just use this attended automation or unattended automation

So we have to create an on-premise gateway for the on-premise gateway

We have to install the on-premise gateway from here. Maybe I'll show you that

So under the data, you can see gateways. Click on that gateways

And because in the gateway we have to provide the machine domain name, user name and credentials that is password information to that so that it will allow it automatically log in to the system and then it will run this human actions

Just click on this new gateway, it reads to that. You have to install this on-premise data gateway in your machine

So I have already installed it so I am just closing it so here after installing it you

have to just create it and you should have active one here

I am going to my flows. Edit this light up view flow attended automation demo click on this

So I have already just created and then I have initially have provided an initial variable

five six four two nine one zero and then i'm giving some loops so i want to just run for

some three times or two times so i have added like this you can see uh the variables i have added

the two to the appointment id so i have i want to look two two times and then i have this

check do until the appointment id should be greater than this appointment loops so it will

run at three times so and then incremental variable so i'm each running i'm just incrementing

this appointment id so that it checks with this appointment loops and run it okay so here i'm

going to add an action to call that uiflow so uiflow run a uiflow for a desktop click on it

so you can see the uiflow what uiflow you want to run it i'm going to select the light up rpa demo

click on that and then run mode there are two options attended and unattended i'm going to

select an attended and appointment id i am going to give it from the appointment id okay we have

given the input also as well okay so once it is done if you want to save it to sharepoint i'm just

moving up okay and then i'm going to add to save it to sharepoint so just add an action and then sharepoint

okay and then create a new uh list item just click on this create item select site

I have this maybe I will check it there so legacy appointments so this is that this is at least we are going to use select the list name

legacy appointments okay and then title we are going to use the output appointment ID

put the appointment title patient ID to patient ID and then gender selects and gender these are

the values is coming from this run a ui flow for a desktop so once everything is done just click save

Okay. Once it is saved, let me, we can test it by triggering that button. So I'll perform that trigger action. Just select this. I'll perform that trigger action and save and test

Just click on it. Okay, this enables us to check. First, it's connecting to that VA flow

It's connecting to that gateway. You can see this gateway I have used

And then the SharePoint. Then click on continue. Run flow. And then don't do anything in the system

So that this application gets automatically, it gets triggered, triggered it and it automatically runs its UI flow which you have created

So just wait for just a few seconds, the application gets open and then it will add details to the SharePoint list

We will wait for just a few seconds. so the same way we can just automate because currently this is a legacy application i want

to migrate some legacy content to the sharepoint so like the same way we can also add some

information to the legacy application using this or if you want to just capture some legacy

application information or the uh to maybe for preparing some report that also it it will be very

useful to that so it's triggered one time and it's catching this data so once it's captured it will

close the application and it will open the application one more time so instead of that

you can still you can just modify that uiflow actions to open always open the application and

then you have you can just do the changes or if you want to do some actions that that we can do

that we have to just modify it in the uiflow so it's just one time is completed so it's open

and capture that information and closes it so it it go for another one loop so it open once again

you can see it's open once in you can in the you can see in the dash

box you can see that application gets open and now it's trying to focus to that application yeah it's

get focused. If you run this in unattended, so if you want to run for a million record

so the million that unattended session, if you if you run this in unattended

unattended session, definitely helpful because it's the million times it will automatically get so banned and then it's automatically close it

So once if you want don't want to close it, if you have to just modify it in the uiflow actions to not close that application

maybe we can create a two uh uh two two access to uiflow actions and the uiflow

so and then that is two recorder app uh that's it create two recorder app actions

and i gave flow that that will do it so it's added one more time so you can see 9 11

and then it gets it and then it gets the same save those items so we wait for one more time

so until it gets open let me Okay, it should get open, so I'm not focusing on anything

So because if you interact at all, whenever that UFOs and if we interact at all, if we

change anything and the actions it gets confused, the UFO gets confused, maybe this kind of

limitations gets solved in future. So you can see the another one 1210 11 12 9 10 9 11 9 2

The third time it's running. Once it captured and closed, I think everything gets completed

So if it for this for this demo I just stated as some sample application but if we

have the actual the production based legacy application definitely it will be very useful

to catch a number of data so can't they have this captured the three and three values but

if you want to catch a more information this is what definitely helps you all right so I think

is captured and then it's closed i think we'll go to the sharepoint site and we'll see uh the

two items get saved here just refresh this okay maybe the third one gets still gets running

wait for the second okay let me click on this done you see the uef flow runs successfully and you can see this the three times is done okay one

two eleven since created in a sharepoint come and then i have just go to three you can see this

also is created in a sharepoint list you can see that's it so so by the way instead of click on

that insert button we can also trigger trigger through sending the email or just messaging

via thing or if you have some other automation actions or some other automation triggers you can use that to just trigger this via flow and complete this automation so i just

let me share my our point so uh this gets done so any questions

Moving on to next slide. This is closing note, so thank you for now

OK, Sally close it or the. Yeah, yeah, if you don't have anything further

OK, OK, so yeah, thank you. Thank you for watching this session

and I hope we'll share this video. Uh, later. And then, uh, just if you want to learn more

information on robotic process automation with, uh, by Microsoft Thank you

Thank you