RPA Stands for Robotic Process Automation, the formal definition includes,
“Robotic process automation (RPA) is a software technology that makes it easy to build, deploy, and manage software robots that emulate humans actions interacting with digital systems and software”
In simple words, we develop bots that perform mundane repetitive tasks like interacting with websites or applications for us to complete them progressively. These bots are responsible for interacting with applications and even perform tasks like excel analysis and sending email notifications. For some people, the process of bot development might seem like a big deal but there are ready-to-work tools out there that make our task super easy. Few RPA tools are Blueprism, UI Path, Automation Anywhere etcetera.
What does an Automated Bot Do?
Automated Bots can be used to complete mundane tasks using a computer bot. The Bot can interact with applications by using pre-fed data and thus complete the task without human intervention. This can be understood by a simple case scenario.
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The above-mentioned example is a simple case statement. In this article, we are going to focus on the tool Blueprism. The main interface of the application looks like this:
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Fig1: Blueprism Application
It’s a paid Application but you can install this application for free for a few days from their website. Everything in a Blueprism bot design seems like a flow diagram, Each step in the flow diagram represents a task or activity. The progress of the bot can simply be tracked via following the flow diagram. Blueprism consists of two major components present under the studio tab,
- Process Studio
- Object Studio
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Fig2: Studio Tab
Process Studio
Place where the actual process is created. It allows business logic, control loops, variables, and object calls to be sequenced and tested in a visible business flow. It is responsible to connect business objects to a full-blown bot. In simple terms, the Process studio is the main place where you design your entire bot and handle its exceptions from the underlying implementation
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Fig3. Process Studio
Object Studio
Object studio is the place where we can create the Visual Business Object. It is abbreviated as VBO. VBO is created to interact with other applications. Each object is assigned a certain task. A bot designed to perform specifically is divided into tasks like launching the application, entering the credentials, interacting with excel, so in order to make the functionality of the bot more comprehensible we divide each small task into different objects.
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Fig4: Object Studio
The thing to note down is both Process studio and object studio might look the same but have different roles in the bot functionality. When we look at the components present in both we realize the difference.
Difference Between Process Studio and Object Studio
| Process Studio |
Object Studio |
| Represents the whole flow of the application |
Used to create Objects graphically |
| Stages: Alert stage |
Stages: Read, Write, Navigate, Code, and Wait Stages |
| Only Main Page exits initially |
We have initialized and clean up Page |
| Interacts with object studio and control room |
Object Studio interacts with external applications using Application Modeller. |
| Launch and Application Modeller is not present |
Launch and Application Modeller are present |
For in-depth knowledge, you can check out Blueprism’s website from here.