What's new in IBM Robotic Process Automation as a Service 23.0.0

Bots and Bots API

IBM RPA now provides a new way to deploy your scripts: Bots. On the IBM RPA Control Center, you can now organize your bots under Projects.

As of IBM RPA 23.0.0, you can use bots to create asynchronous integration with external systems by leveraging the new Bots API. You can also export bots as Bot Skills for IBM Watson Orchestrate™, see Tutorial: Creating a bot skill to extract passport data for more information.

Support for Microsoft Outlook email

The new Connect to Microsoft Outlook (microsoftMailConnect) command supports the new Microsoft™ email API following the deprecation 🡥 of their previous email services. See Adding a Microsoft Outlook Email application to add an application to your server environment.

Support for shared mailboxes in emails

You can now access and search through shared mailboxes in your email accounts using the Apply Search Filters (emailApplySearchFilters). Some of the email connection commands also have support to read from shared mailboxes during the connection stage, see the Connect commands of the Email category for details about each command.

Server-side fixes

• The server now returns a 404 error instead of a 500 error when you call the API with an invalid project ID.

Client-side fixes

• [APAR DT168669] The Start Screen Recording (startRecording) command no longer crashes on Windows Server 2012 R2.
• [APAR DT169390] The terminal emulator built into IBM RPA Studio now properly hides password characters.
• [APAR DT172175] The Open Excel File (excelOpen) and Open Office File (officeOpen) now show an error message if the file is already opened elsewhere.
• [APAR DT172258] Fixed an issue where the algorithm to click a cell in a GridView control of SAP was trying an unsupported method that caused an error.
• [APAR DT172273] The IBM RPA recorder now properly recognizes Java selectors with Java Runtime Environment version 1.5.
• [APAR DT172280] The IBM RPA recorder now properly recognizes Java selectors in a remote session.
• [APAR DT172545] The Wait for Control to Enable (waitEnabled) and Wait Control (waitControl) commands no longer click a combination box automatically.
• [APAR DT172871] Chatbots now terminate a session after a runtime error occurs. The user can restart the chat session to continue the conversation.
• [APAR DT173544] The Wait for Window to Appear (waitWindow) command now respects the timeout when handling an SAP window.
• [APAR DT173554] The Find Windows (findWindows) command now properly initializes the window handling drivers.
• [APAR DT173962] Fixed the japanese translation on the client installer.
• [APAR JR64405], [APAR JR64758] The silent client installer now validates the provided API before proceeding with the installation.
• The computer list no longer displays credentials. They are only displayed when you add or edit a computer.
• The IBM RPA recorder now works properly with Windows™ Paint.
• You can now properly access the license and proxy configuration page from the RPA icon tray.
• The Answer Question (answerQuestion) and Bot Ask and Answer (botAnswerQuestion) commands now properly return values from a data table.
• The Add to Collection (add) command now supports string concatenation in the Items added parameter. See the command's documentation for an example usage.
• The fields in the Queue providers in the IBM RPA Control Center no longer accept invalid input values.
• You can now create Chat mappings in the IBM RPA Control Center. Previously, a bug would disable a button in the chat mapping creation form.
• The Save Office File (officeSave) command now contains a file selector option in the Path parameter.