SAP intelligent robot process automation (IRPA) solution sharing

Famous model 《 The terminator 》 In the world view of series structure , Human beings and artificial intelligence programs with Skynet as the core cannot coexist , Either you die or I live . And in the real world , Robot process automation based on artificial intelligence is a good assistant for smart enterprises .

The so-called smart enterprise , One feature is the ability to automate complex but low value-added repetitive processes . Through automation , So as to put valuable human resources into higher value-added work , For example, the quality of products and services , Enhance user experience .

about ABAP For the old drivers ,SAP Script recording and SAP eCATT(extended Computer Aided Test Tool) Are powerful tools for functional automation testing , Unfortunately, it can only work in SAP GUI Under the environment .

As the trend of global enterprise digital transformation continues to deepen , A large number of intelligent robots have emerged for Process Automation (Intelligent Robotic Process Automation, Referred to as iRPA) Solution provider , For example, the leader in this field UIpath,Blueprism,AutomotionAnywhere, And the domestic supplier yisaiqi 、UiBot、 Hongji Cyclone 、 Cloud expansion technology .

Last year, ,SAP Also released their own iRPA Solution ：

The solution is based on SAP Cloud platform CloudFoundry Environmental Science , Support cloud deployment , By writing , Dispatch , Manage and monitor robot workflow , To complete the repetitive operations that originally need to be carried out manually .SAP iRPA The intelligent , Embodied in its relationship with SAP Leonardo Conversation AI Seamless integration of services . except iRPA Outside the solution itself ,SAP Also released a predefined based on SAP Multiple products , such as S/4HANA Intelligent robot process script , Help customers accelerate the automation of enterprise processes .

With a lot of RPA The implementation principle of the solution based on screen recording is different ,SAP iRPA be based on API And metadata to realize robot automatic operation , The possibility that the original process script will not work after the change of the product interface is avoided from the root .

Let's follow the author , From a Hello World The project begins to understand SAP iRPA.

The scenario of my example is very simple , use SAP iRPA Drive the calculator application in the local computer , Auto click 4 + 2 = These buttons . as for SAP iRPA How to drive S/4HANA Run some automated processes , Leave it for future research .
Look at this example first demo, This video demonstrates how to single step test SAP iRPA Developed robot automation script .

To SAP Official website Two tools are needed to download this scenario ：

SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation Desktop Studio and SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation Desktop Agent.

seeing the name of a thing one thinks of its function ,Studio Robot development tools , and Agent Is the running environment of the robot program .
Start by opening Studio, Create an app . This application is what I expect to be SAP iRPA Driven calculator application , I call it host application .

Click on Add Application after , Select... From the drop-down list UIAutomation, This list represents SAP iRPA Through what underlying technology , To identify , Connect and drive the host application .

Open locally Windows Built in calculator application calc.exe, stay SAP iRPA Refresh in , You can see the corresponding process of this application .

Select... In the process list Calculator, The preview window on the right can immediately see its interface . Click on Save and Capture Page, such SAP iPRA It establishes a connection with the calculator application .

Always remember that our goal is to use SAP iRPA Click the button on the calculator application , So first we have to locate on the calculator 4, + , 2 and = These buttons .

up to now ,SAP iRPA The calculator in is an empty page , Click on Capture a New Page:

Hold down Ctrl Key not put , Put the mouse on the calculator application ,SAP iRPA Will intelligently recognize the handle of the calculator application window ：pWindowCalculator, Click here Scan And Capture:

Look for the , At this time, the left Calculator Below the node , The window handle just captured appears pWindowCalculator, And the interface of calculator application appears in the middle area of the screen .
Let's double-click 4 This button ：

Now? 4 This button also appears in the tree structure on the left of the screen , This represents 4 This button is also marked as needing to be SAP iRPA Operation of the UI Element .

For the rest +,2,= These buttons repeat the above operation , After completion, the interface is as follows .

Now we need to write some logic based on these captured buttons .
Switch to workflow view , Create a new workflow Workflow：

After the workflow is created , There is only one default start node ：

On the right side of the workflow editing page , There is one Activities panel , The whole calculator application we captured before is maintained . Apply this calculator UI Drag it to the workflow editing page ：

At this point, double-click the calculator application UI, Can be inside UI Element is edited .

stay Activities In the panel , find Click This action , Drag them to the middle of the screen in turn 4,+,2 and = These buttons .

After dragging , These buttons display the corresponding sequence number and Click Name of event .

thus , We have completed the modeling of the robot . As can be seen from the process , Even if the modeler does not have programming skills , Can also successfully complete this task .
We also need to click Build Button , Generate runtime code .

Build When the button is clicked , Appear one node.exe The operation interface of , Hint at us SAP iRPA The underlying operation is based on nodejs.

Build After completion , We can see the automatically generated robot script code . As teacher Hou Jie said ,“ The source code in front , No secret ”, Automatically generated by reading JavaScript Source code , We can SAP iRPA The working principle of is the same as another popular browser automation testing framework Selenium Make an analogy ： Both are located after an element of the application interface , Call the method corresponding to the element , The difference is ,Selenium adopt web Apply page tags ID To locate elements , And in this case SAP iRPA adopt UIAutomation To locate the button of the calculator application .

As you can see from the picture above ,SAP iRPA Automatically generated JavaScript Scripts can be debugged in one step . Click on Debug Button , Pop up SAP iRPA The debugger .

If you set a breakpoint before , Now it can be debugged JavaScript code , Single step debugging ：

Of course ,SAP iRPA There is much more that can be done Hello World So simple , Its most valuable part , It's still based on SAP Cloud Platform Cloud deployment , As well as SAP Seamless integration of standard products , That is, the integration and application of enterprise software .

summary

This article first introduces SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation(iRPA) The applicable scenarios of , Then use a practical example , Demonstrates how to write iRPA Steps for the program to interact with the local calculator application , Let the beginner to iRPA There is a most intuitive understanding of the use of .