Task Mining Agent

You can use the Task Mining Agent (TM Agent) to record actions and collect user interaction data such as keystrokes, mouse clicks, and data entries on your system's selected applications. The user interactions on the allowed applications and webpages are automatically captured until the recording is stopped or paused.

The TM Agent sends the recorded data to the Task Mining Backend (TM Backend) where a TM businness analyst can create task analytics on the Task Mining Web user interface. The recordings can help you monitor the desktop activities and provides a complete analysis of each step that is captured. It helps you to understand the user experience of a workflow.

The TM Agent is installed as a desktop application that runs locally on your system. The installer itself includes all the prerequisites needed to install the agent. See Installing the Task Mining Agent for the installation steps.

The IBM Task Mining Agent provides you the following features:

- [Task Mining Agent User interface](#task-mining-agent-user-interface)
- [Apply translation](#apply-translation)
- [Project overview](#project-overview)
- [Record your interactions](#record-your-interactions)
- [Create an allow list](#create-an-allow-list)
- [Allowed applications](#allowed-applications)
- [Allowed webpages](#allowed-webpages)
- [Blocked pages](#blocked-pages)
- [Delete entries from allow list](#delete-entries-from-allow-list)
- [Start a new recording](#start-a-new-recording)
- [Configuration files](#configuration-files)
- [Configuring proxy authentication](#configuring-proxy-authentication)

Prerequisites

Before you use TM Agent, the Administrator must add your profile and select the Agent enabled checkbox on the User Management page in the IBM Process Mining application.

For more information on authorization procedures, see Users.

Task Mining Agent User interface

TM Agent login screen

To log in to the Task Mining Agent application, complete the following steps:

  1. Open TM Agent to view the Log in page.
  2. Click Log in using your web browser to open the task mining login on the web browser.
  3. In the browser login, fill in the Username and Password for IBM Process Mining. Login to TM Agent by Browser
  4. Click Log in.

If you are already logged in and wish to login with a different user, click Not you? Login with another user. Login to TM Agent browser using a different user

The application menu and actions are easily discoverable on the TM Agent user interface.

Apply translation

You can translate the user interface content to your preferred language using the following steps:

  1. Click the user icon.
  2. Click the Open menu drop-down.
  3. Choose the language from the list.
    The user interface content will be updated in the selected language.

Project overview

All the projects you created under IBM Task Mining is displayed in the TM Agent user interface. See Creating a task mining project to create a Task Mining project.

To view the project overview page:

  1. Select the project you want to open from the list of projects.
  2. Search, select, and expand the required project.
  3. Click Open project to see the project overview.

The project overview provides the following information:

  • Help and information section to give you an in-app application introduction tour.
  • View allow list link to add or remove applications or webpages to the allow list.
  • Start a new recording to record your task workflow.
  • The number of recordings captured in each project along with the status of the recording.

Record your interactions

Using IBM Task Mining Agent, you can record your process or workflow. On your system desktop, the TM Agent records, analyzes, and generates insights about your interactions with the applications and webpages before entering the information into IBM Process Mining.

Create an allow list

Before you start recording the user interactions using the TM agent, ensure that you have added applications or webpages to your allow list. Only applications or webpages on the allow list are included in the recording. Refer the Task mining agent compatibility matrix to get more details on the applications types that TM Agent supports.

You can only edit an allow list if the Monitoring list has the write permission in the Authorization tab. The administrator can grant the permissions from the User Management page. If you do not have the write permission for your recording, you can view the allow list in the read-only mode.

The following video shows how to create an allow list. It is an overview of the written steps. You can use both the video and the written steps to walk through the process.

Create an allow list

You can create an allow list by using the following steps.

  1. From the projects list, click expand icon next to the required project.
  2. Click Create allow list to display the Settings page of the selected project.
  3. Add the list of allowed applications.
  4. Add the list of allowed webpages.
  5. Specify the list of blocked pages.

Allowed applications

You can select the applications to be captured in the Allowed applications tab.

Following are the steps to create an allowed applications list.

  1. Under Settings, select Allowed applications.
  2. Search the required application.
  3. Select the application from the search results and click Add to list +.
  4. Click Apply preferences to recorder.

The selected applications are added to the allow list.

Allowed webpages

You can select the webpages to be included during recording using the Allowed webpages.

To capture any web pages, a browser must be added in the Allowed applications list.

Following are the steps to create an allowed webpages list.

  1. Under Settings, select Allowed webpages.
  2. Search the required webpage.
  3. Select the webpage from the search results and click Add to list +.
  4. Click Apply preferences to recorder.

The selected webpages are added to the allow list.

Blocked pages

In the allowed applications or webpages, you can block specific pages that should not be captured during recording. Following are the steps to block pages.

  1. Select Allowed applications or Allowed webpages.
  2. Expand the required application or webpage.
  3. Specify the page to be blocked and click Block.
  4. Click Apply preferences to recorder.

The recorder ignores the specified pages under blocked items while recording.

Delete entries from allow list

You can delete an application or webpage from the allow list using the following steps.

  1. Go to Allowed applications or Allowed webpages tab.
  2. Click the Remove element icon next to the entry to be deleted.
  3. Click Apply preferences to recorder.

Start a new recording

You can start a new recording to capture actions and collect user interaction data. The recorded data are temporarily saved on your file system while it is being sent to the back-end server, and then it is deleted.

The recordings are in JSON format. It might possibly include a few screenshots that were taken. Nevertheless, none of them can be viewed because they are all in encrypted form.

You can find the details of each recording in the Task Mining Web Audit page. Only the authorised users of the TM web platform are permitted to access, use, and analyse the recorded data.

Start a recording

Following are the steps to record your interactions and data entries with the allowed applications or webpages.

  1. Open the project to be recorded.

  2. Click Start a new recording.

    The countdown starts in the IBM Task Mining Agent widget. The status Recording is in progress is displayed when the recorder starts capturing.

  3. You get the following options in the IBM Task Mining Agent widget:

    • Click Pause to pause the recording and then click Resume to restart the recording.
    • Click Return to project to return to the project overview.
    • Click Record to start the next recording for the same project. The activities captured by the recorder are shown in the last activity field.

  4. Click Stop to stop the recording.

  5. If the recording is stopped in between (for example: system restart), then you can click Continue recording to resume.

Configuration files

The file appsettings.json under the TM Agent installed directory (for example, C:\Program Files\IBM Task Mining Agent\appsettings.json) holds the TM Agent configuration settings.

The configuration options in the appsettings.json file are self-explanatory. You are not allowed to change the values of openrpaChromeExtensionId, myinvenioChromeExtensionId, and ibmChromeExtensionId in the appsettings.json file. Following is an example:

{
  "agentOptions": {
    "endpoint": "https://brunelleschi.automationcloud.ibm.com/",
    "allowUntrustedCertificate": false,
    "openrpaChromeExtensionId": "xxxxxxxx",
    "myinvenioChromeExtensionId": "xxxxxxxx",
    "ibmChromeExtensionId": "xxxxxxxx"
  }
}

Configuring proxy authentication

Task Mining Agent enables you to configure the authentication method used by the proxy. Starting from IBM Process Mining 1.14.0, TM Agent supports all basic authenticated proxies.

The proxy can be enforced to TM Agent by adding proxy key in appsettings.json. Following is an example:

{
  "agentOptions": {
    "endpoint": "https://brunelleschi.automationcloud.ibm.com/",
    "allowUntrustedCertificate": false,
    "openrpaChromeExtensionId": "hpnihnhlcnfejboocnckgchjdofeaphe",
    "myinvenioChromeExtensionId": "gmpnnjghibofefmnppkgkadiijlblhia",
    "ibmChromeExtensionId": "ikgbbcgkljolbooedlbifopnmecdbphk"
    "proxy": "proxy.example.com"
  }
}

If the proxy requires an authentication, you must specify the credentials for your proxy server. For example, see 'Figure 1. Enter proxy credentials for proxy.example.com'.

Enter proxy credentials

Starting from IBM Process Mining 1.14.0, TM Agent supports New Technology LAN Manager (NTLM) proxy by default and does not require further configuration. Also, you don't need to manually authenticate the proxy in TM Agent because NTLM proxy uses Windows authentication for access.