Robot Task Activities
A Robot Task is built by dragging activities from the activity list into the task's Sequence. Each activity performs one well defined operation, such as clicking an element, reading a file, or setting a cell value in Excel.
Activities are organized into categories in the activity list. The pages below describe every activity in each category, along with its settings.
Flow Control
| Category | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Conditions | Branch the sequence with If and Switch |
| Loops | Repeat activities with While, Do While, For, and For Each, and control iteration flow |
| Error Handling | Catch, throw, and rethrow exceptions |
| Other | Assign, Sequence, and Wait |
UI Automation
| Category | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Mouse | Click, double click, move, and press mouse buttons |
| Keyboard | Send key events and key combinations |
| Text | Type text into a window or element |
| Controls | Interact with UI elements through automation patterns |
| Windows | Attach to, show, hide, move, and resize windows |
| Image | Capture screenshots of screens, windows, and elements |
| OCR | Find and read on screen text that is not exposed as a UI element |
Web Automation
| Category | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Web Macro | Drive a web browser: navigate, click, populate fields, extract data, download and upload files |
| Element Path | Reference for the three ways to identify an HTML element |
Excel
| Category | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Excel | Start, attach to, and quit the Excel application |
| Excel Workbook | Create, open, save, protect, and inspect workbooks |
| Excel Sheet | Create, select, rename, protect, and reorder worksheets |
| Excel Cell | Read, write, copy, merge, and clear cells |
| Excel Row | Select, set, insert, delete, and copy rows |
| Excel Column | Select, set, insert, delete, and copy columns |
| Excel Macros | Run a macro in the open workbook |
Data and System
| Category | Purpose |
|---|---|
| File | Read, write, copy, move, archive, and wait for files |
| Folder | Create, copy, empty, enumerate, and wait for folders |
| List Variable | Build and manipulate tabular List Variables, including rows and columns |
| Variables | Set the value of a Job or User variable |
| Clipboard | Set, get, and clear the Windows clipboard |
| Process | Start and close processes |
RPA Result Variables
Several activities write their outcome to a Result property rather than to a Job or User variable. The value is an RPA variable that exists only for the duration of the Robot Task execution, and is referenced in later activities with:
{RPA(VariableName)}
For example, a Folder Exists activity with its Result set to Exists is read in a later If activity as {RPA(Exists)}, which resolves to True or False.
Activities that produce a Result variable are noted on each category page.
Naming Activities
Every activity has a Display name property in the Properties pane. Set it on each activity you add so the sequence reads clearly. A name such as Populate The Address Field makes a sequence far easier to maintain than a column of activities all named Populate field.