Robusta RPA Process Initiation and Tracking Guide

This guide explains how to run and track the processes in Robusta RPA.

1. Scheduler Module

The following operations can be performed on Scheduler module pages under the Robusta Orchestrator application:

• Starting the processes with or without scheduling
• Tracking completed, running, waiting processes, and displaying information about these
  processes
• Displaying the errors in the process runs

Scheduler module can be accessed by clicking the Scheduler icon on the Orchestrator application homepage. The orchestrator application homepage can be opened with the link “https://<>:<>”. (e.g. https://127.0 0.1:8443)

The applications defined in the design studio (Modeler) are listed on the Scheduler module homepage. By selecting an application, operations related to the processes under this application can be performed, or by selecting the Task App application, the information on the process runs under all applications can be accessed.

1.1. Starting a Process

The following page is opened by selecting the relevant application (App) on the Scheduler module homepage. On this page, the processes under the selected application can be started and the previous run(s) of these processes can be seen. Click the Start a process button to run a process under the application.

On the page that opens, select the process to run and fill in the run parameters. The processes can be set to run one-time or periodically based on an interval by setting the parameters properly. Also, the process start time can be set as immediately or scheduled for a future time. Parameters are divided into two sections: Scheduling Properties and Working Properties. To display the relevant section, click on the headings and the fields in the relevant section will be displayed. After setting all the necessary parameters, click the Start Process button to start a process.

Scheduling Parameters	Explanation
Every	This parameter enables scheduling by minute, hour, day, week, month and year. Depending on the selections made in this area, the detailed selection screen with minute/hour/day values appears on the right side. Multiple values can be selected by holding down the control (CTRL) key on the detail screen. For example, for a process that will run every 15 minutes, this parameter should be selected as Hour and 0/15/30/45 selections should be made at the same time on the right pane.
Start Date	The date to start scheduling is selected.
End Date	The date the scheduling will end is selected.
Run Once	If the process is to be run only once, this field is selected without entering any scheduling parameters. If the Run Immediately is not selected, the process will begin on the date selected in the Start Date field.
Run Immediately	This field enables the process to run immediately once there is an available and appropriate Robusta worker.

In the Working Properties section, options other than the parameters that determine when the process starts can be defined.

Run Parameters (Working Properties)	Explanation
Retry Count	If the process ends with fail status, it will be retried as many numbers as given in this field (E.g., if 3 is given in this field, it is ensured that it is run 3 more times if the process fails.).
Worker	The worker on which the process will work is selected from the list. Which worker is assigned to a given process is chosen at the RPA-Admin module. Only the workers whom the application of the process is assigned are listed here.
Pre-Event	It is the area where the pre-requisite needed to run the processes is assigned. After the event definitions are made in the RPA-Admin module, the event is selected from the predefined Pre-Event list (Options: FTP, MAIL, FILE).
Post Process	It is the area where a process is selected to be run after the process ends. By clicking the Selection field, the process(es) to be run is selected from the list for both success and fail statuses separately.

The following table provides examples of how to assign the parameters for processes that are intended to be run at different intervals and durations.

1.2. Process Tracking from Scheduled Process Tab

On the Scheduled Process tab, a lot of information can be displayed for the scheduled processes in the selected application, such as statuses, scheduled times, and frequency. If the processes in all applications are to be displayed on one screen, the Task App application should be selected on the homepage of the Scheduler module.

On the left side of this page, there are query criteria that enable running/scheduled processes to be found. After the criteria fields are populated, the matching process schedules are listed in the table on the right by pressing the SEARCH button. Inquiries can be made according to the following search criteria:

PROCESS NAME	In order to reach any process in the list on the right, the name of the process is entered in this field.
PROCESS KEY	Key information is entered in this field to search according to the keys used in the processes in the list on the right.
PARAMETERS	Parameter information is entered in this field to search according to the parameters used in the processes in the list on the right. Parameteres be given in json file format.
PROCESS STATUS	It allows to search according to the status of the processes in the list in the right pane. The desired status information is selected from the list. (INITIAL, SCHEDULED, PAUSING, PAUSED, RESUMING, RESUMED, CANCELLING, CANCELLED, COMPLETED, WAITING).
START DATE	It enables the processes in the list on the right to be searched according to their starting dates. Date information is selected from the opened calendar. If you want to give a range, other date information is entered in the second field.
END DATE	It allows the processes in the list on the right to be searched according to their end dates. Date information is selected from the opened calendar. If you want to give a range, other date information is entered in the second field.
SCHEDULED DATE	It enables the processes in the list on the right to be searched according to their planned dates. Date information is selected from the opened calendar. If you want to give a range, other date information is entered in the second field.
Recurring processes	It allows the recurring processes to be searched.
Processes with waiting instances	It allows the waiting processes to be searched.
Processes with running instances	It allows the running processes to be searched.

After the processes are queried, the table on the right displays the scheduling information for the processes. This table contains one row for each schedule. If the process runs multiple times for a given schedule, the detail table should be displayed by clicking on the icon in the Instances column to get the details for each run.

Click the icon in the Parameters column on the corresponding row to display the starting parameters of the process.

To view the process runs, the detail table is displayed by pressing the icon in the Instance column. This table contains the start/end time of the process, which robot is assigned, and its status. For recurring processes under a schedule, this table contains multiple rows.

For the runs with the WAITING status, the waiting reason is shown at the pop-up window that appears when hovering over the icon under the Waiting Reason column.

The flow of processes is displayed in the window that opens by clicking the icon under the Show Diagram column. If a step in the flow is marked with blue border color, it means the step is completed successfully. If the border color is green, it means that the operation in this step is in progress. This allows you to follow the performed steps in the flow after the process is completed or while it is running. In addition, the window contains the values of the variables in the process on the table below.

A detailed log is created for the operations of each step in the process. These logs can be accessed from the window that opens by clicking the icon in the Show Logs column.

If the scheduled processes are to be canceled or paused, select the process run is selected and click the Select an action button. Then, Pause or cancel options can be selected from the drop-down list. If paused or cancelled, the process will not start even if the start time for the run is passed. If there are processes in waiting or running statuses before cancelling or pausing, these processes will continue to run or start to run when the start time is over. Thus, pause and cancel actions only apply to the process(es) that will be added to the queue afterwards.

1.2.1. Processes in WAITING Status

Processes in WAITING status are the processes that have not yet started running, even though the start time is over. The process may be in waiting status due to the absence of a suitable worker to run the process or the worker(s) on which the process can run might be busy running another process.
Processes in waiting status can be queried by selecting WAITING in the STATUS field, as shown in the first picture below. As seen in the second picture below, the waiting reason can be displayed by clicking the icon under the Instances column on the relevant row. If a process in waiting status needs to be canceled, select the process by clicking the checkbox next to it and click the Select Action button to list possible actions. Then, click the Cancel instance from the list to cancel a process. If the process priority is desired to be changed, click the Change priority from the same list.

1.3. Process Tracking on the Processes Page

Once the processes are running, they can also be tracked on the Processes tab. Unlike the Scheduled Process tab, this page does not include processes that are scheduled and have not yet started working on a robot. Therefore, the processes with WAITING status are not displayed here. As in the Scheduled Process tab, process flow and logs can be displayed by clicking on the Show diagram and Show log buttons after the process is selected.

By clicking on the filter icon on the tab above, inquiries can be made according to the status, process name, and running dates.

If the running is selected in the filter window, only on-going processes are displayed. To cancel a running process, click the Cancel process button on the page after the process run is selected. Therefore, the operation of the process can be terminated at any step if desired.

If any filtering is applied by process name or date, runs with different statuses are displayed. Failed process runs are indicated in red color.

1.4. Process Run Errors

Errors may occur at different steps in the processes while they are running. If the errors taken are not managed in the process (exception handling), the process run ends with an error status (FAILED). Process runs that are terminated with an error status are displayed by selecting failed in the filter window in the Processes tab.

When a failed process run is selected, the run details are shown on the right side of the page. The detailed error message can be checked here. The cause of the error can be understood by interpreting the process step in which this error message is taken. If the error message is not enough to understand why the error is caused, it is necessary to check the detailed logs.

By checking the flow of the process run, it can be determined at which step the error was taken. By clicking on the Show diagram button, the error definition and the step of the process with the error message can be seen. While successfully completed steps are shown in blue color, the color change is not observed in the error step.

To see the error details by checking the logs, click the Show Log button. The step that takes an error is again highlighted in red color. Log content includes which component received which error.