RPA Bot Demo Recorder

Theme -

Surprise Me !!!

Inspiration -

The idea of creating RPA Bot Demo Recorder was basically popped up because of two major reasons -

Many a times the RPA (A2019) Bot created works well in attended mode, but often fails in unattended mode due to some unknown issue. It becomes very difficult some times to track or identify root cause for such kind of failures and consumes a lot of time on investigation.
Once the development of bot is completed and UAT is successful, the developer needs to record the operation of the bot by starting any kind of screen recorder, record the bot’s operation for demonstration purpose while sitting ideal in front of the screen which consumes some time of the developer.

What it does -

RPA Bot Demo Recorder assists the developers/users to perform the recording of bots automatically in unattended (scheduled)/ attended mode by accepting the Bot full path whose actions need to be recorder (eg: Bots/Sample bots/Master_01) as an input and stores the recording in a Microsoft PowerPoint (.pptx) file/.MP4 file.

How we built it -

This bot was created using the very simple Automation Anywhere commands of Open Program File, Recorder, Simulate Keystrokes and Mouse Clicks and a bit of VB Script.

Challenges we ran into -

The first challenge that was faced was to find a kind of recording tool that could be used to record the actions, which could be easily available and adheres to the organization's policies. After doing relevant research, some tools were shortlisted, but that had additional costs involved. Then one fine day, I was just creating a presentation and suddenly I saw the feature of Screen Recording in Microsoft Power Point and then it became like a ray of hope to start the project.

The next challenge was a small technical challenge of capturing the components of Screen Recorder of PPT through A2019 recorder, which also was overcome by use of combination of keystrokes.

Then another tech challenge that appeared was how to capture the screen for recording, which was achieved by use of Mouse Clicks.

Accomplishments that we're proud of -

The final product that was created proved to be a major accomplishment. And the major proud moment was exploration and utilization of MS PowerPoint for screen recording.

What we learned -

There were quite a few learnings which made this project a combination of fun and learning. Some of them are as under -

Improved the searching and exploring of relevant tools.
Patience and hope were the biggest things that was learnt.
Though the mouse simulations commands of A2019 were known, but for the first time they became handy adding to the success of the product.

What's next for RPA Bot Demo Recorder -

To make the product more robust by adding some enhancements (if found suitable). For now there are no future plans of enhancement/improvements that I foresee.