Activities

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Open URL

Description

This activity has quite a simple purpose: it opens a new web browser window and then automatically navigates to the specified page. Steps necessary to define this page will be described below in the ‘Parameters’ section.

This activity is necessary for interacting with browsers by using other more advanced activities.

Choosing a browser to use

Before using this activity, you might want to choose the browser that will be opened by using it. There are two ways to do it:

Go to the ‘Settings’ tab and then click ‘Interaction with browser’.

In the activity properties section, click the ‘Change’ button. The same menu will be opened.

This is what you will see:

This menu has the following options:

1. Browser to use. It defines the browser that will be used with this activity. Currently Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Internet Explorer are supported.
2. Load user profile with cookies, extensions etc. This option indicates whether the data associated with the profile will be loaded.
3. Don’t close the browser after execution of a bot. If it is checked, the browser window will not be closed after the execution process is finished.
4. Command line arguments.

Parameters

Now let us have a look at the parameters of this activity. In this case they define the page to open, browser to use and the browser tab.

URL parameter defines the page to open. This is a required parameter.

1. Set a value option lets you input the page address manually. In most cases this is the most practical way.
2. Calculate a value enables you to use available JS methods to form a URL. It is useful when it is required to form a URL dynamically
3. Save the previous step result picks the previous activity result and defines it as a URL here.

The next parameter is Browser to use. This is a required parameter. We have already described its details above.

Browser tab parameter defines the serial number of the tab in which the required page will be opened. That being said, tab number will be 'remembered' here. For example, if you have set the tab number to 1 and then moved this tab to the second position in the browser, it will be Tab 1 anyway. Basically, it does not refer to the actual tabs order. Currently up to five tabs are supported.

On tab. This parameter allows you to specify the name of the tab that you want the bot to interact with. The name of the tab is assigned in the "Open URL" activity.

1. Set a value allows you to manually specify the name of the tab.
2. Calculate a value allows you to use a special formula or a special method to determine the name of the tab.
3. Save the previous step result takes the result of the previous workflow action as the name of the tab.

Use tab name in order

This checkbox allows you to specify a sequential number of a tab in the browser. It is worth using if a new tab opens not manually, but automatically after clicking on some element.

Wait before, sec and Wait after, sec parameters simply indicate how much time will pass before or after executing this activity.

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Close browser

Description

Closes the browser opened via Studio Pro.

Parameters

Comment

Contains an annotation to the activity. The input text will be displayed above the activity name.

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Find iframe

Description

When interacting with web pages in your workflows, you need to identify some types of elements you may face. A good example is an iframe: an HTML element that is able to load another HTML element within a page. Want an example? You can see some iframes on ElectroNeek's home page:

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Note

Iframes can be whether visible or not to users. So, if your bot struggles to interact with an element on a web page, you may be dealing with an iframe.

Your Studio Pro workflows can interact with these elements. You just need to make sure you are dealing with an iframe, then tell your workflow how to work with it. You can do that in two different ways using the "Find iframe" activity.

1. Using the "Pick New Element" functionality

To make it easier, follow these steps in your Studio Pro, so your bot identifies an iframe within a web page (make sure the URL is open in your Google Chrome):

• Click "Web Automation" → "Web Browser"
• Double-click or drag & drop "Find Iframe" to add the activity to your workflow
• Click on the activity block
• Click on "Browser element" → "Pick New Element" on the Properties tab
• When Studio Pro minimizes and the browser appears, select the iframe you want your bot to identify
• With the cursor over it, press Ctrl + x to pick the element
• When the pop-up appears, click on "Save".

The process looks like this:

As an alternative, you can also inform the Iframe attribute manually, as we show next.

2. Getting the XPath

The alternative you have is to manually get the iframe XPath (or the CSS). To do that, open the web page on Google Chrome, then press Ctrl + Shift + C to open the DevTool tab on the right side of the screen. If you hover your mouse over the page, elements are highlighted along their respective line codes. Here is an example:

So, click on the desired iframe to have its line codes highlighted. Right-click the selected lines → "Copy" → "Copy XPath".

Parameters

You are able to select a specific element inside an iframe. In the following example, you can see the Pick New Element function being used to select a field from a web page. In this case, each of the available fields is a unique element within an iframe — and Studio Pro tracks them:

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Note

Iframes can be tricky to work with, since there may be an iframe inside another. If so, make sure you pick the specific element you need, instead of the bigger iframe.

Advanced options

As soon as you pick an element, this Browser Picker window opens. This indicates that the element was found and recognized. You can set the element name here as well.

Expand the "Advanced options" menu or the selector of the indicated element. It contains the iframe tab with its own attributes and values which represent the hierarchy of how the interface element is developed. You can check or uncheck the attributes to achieve better accuracy or stability of interaction with the element.

For each of the iframe attributes you can select one of the following options: "Is", "Calculate", or "Contains" using the Browser Picker. They work as follows:

• Is — allows you to define the attribute with the declared String or Number as its value.
• Calculate — allows you to pass the value through a previously declared variable.
• Contains — allows you to define the attribute that contains the string as part of the value.

On tab

In this parameter you can specify the name of the tab that you want the bot to interact with. The name of the tab is assigned in the "Open URL" activity.

1. Set a value allows you to manually specify the name of the tab.
2. Calculate a value allows you to use a special formula or a special method to determine the name of the tab.
3. Save the previous step result takes the result of the previous workflow action as the name of the tab.

Use tab name in order

Use this checkbox to specify a sequential number of a tab in the browser. It is worth using if a new tab opens not manually, but automatically after clicking on some element.

Iframe

In this parameter, you specify the number for the found iframe element.

Comment

Contains an annotation to the activity. The input text is displayed above the activity name.

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Execute JavaScript

Description

This activity allows you to execute separately written JavaScript code in relation to the currently opened page in the browser. In some cases, using JavaScript code makes it much easier to develop a workflow. You can debug the code separately in your preferred IDE and compare versions.

The code itself should be a single function with no more than one argument of any type and, if necessary, return some value.

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Note

It is preferable to use UTF-8 encoding in the .js file. Other encodings, such as UTF-16 LE, may cause errors.

Parameters

JavaScript file

1. Set a value option allows you to set a path to the .js file manually. By clicking PICK you can find the desired file using file explorer.
2. Calculate a value option lets you use a special formula or method to set a path to the .js file.
3. Save the previous step result option takes the path to the .js file from the result of the previous step in the workflow.

Input parameter

This parameter allows you to pass a single argument as a string or integer. Use an array or a JSON object to pass multiple arguments.

1. Set a value option allows you to set the input parameter manually.
2. Calculate a value option lets you use a special formula or method to set the input parameter.
3. Save the previous step result option takes the input parameter from the result of the last step in the workflow.

This activity supports having async functions in the JavaScript code:

async function () {  
  // here goes your code  
}

On tab

This parameter allows you to specify the name of the tab that you want the bot to interact with. The name of the tab is assigned in the "Open URL" activity.

1. Set a value allows you to manually specify the name of the tab.
2. Calculate a value allows you to use a special formula or a particular method to determine the name of the tab.
3. Save the previous step result takes the result of the previous workflow action as the name of the tab.

Use tab name in order

This checkbox allows you to specify a sequential number of a tab in the browser. It is worth using if a new tab opens not manually, but automatically after clicking on some element.

In iframe

This parameter allows you to select a specific iframe on a page where the JavaScript code is to be executed.

Timeout, sec

This parameter allows you to set the timeout for the activity's execution.

Wait before, sec

This option allows you to set the delay before the execution of the activity. The delay is set in seconds.

Wait after, sec

This option allows you to set the delay after the execution of the activity. The value is set in seconds.

Comment

This parameter allows you to create an annotation of the activity. The input text will be displayed above the activity name.

How to use it?

Using the JavaScript code activity on a particular webpage allows you to extend your automation capabilities, and make the best out of the power of JavaScript and interaction with DOM elements. This will make it possible to handle some tricky scenarios pretty easily.

Here you can find an example of the workflow with the JavaScript code implemented:

google.zip
2 KB Download

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Scrape structured data

About the Feature

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This feature is currently in the beta stage.

The purpose is to conduct testing and receive feedback. The final version may dramatically change as well as the sales policy with respect to this feature. Should you encounter any bugs, glitches, lack of functionality, or other problems with the beta feature, please send an email to our technical support.

Description

This activity extracts data according to a given structure. It is especially useful for scenarios that require extracting table data from a website, extracting search results, or, for example, extracting product prices from online-shops pages. Follow this link to find a detailed tutorial on how to work with this activity.

Parameters

Data structure

This option allows you to create a .rel file that will contain the extracted data structure, or set the path to an existing .rel file.

The button "Create new data relations file" allows you to create a .rel file.

Clicking on it will open an empty canvas. Note that when you save a .rel file created by clicking the "Create new data relations file" button, the path to it will be automatically substituted in the "Data structure" parameter.

If you already have a .rel file created, you can set the path to it manually in the input field or click the "PICK" button to find the file through explorer.

There are three ways to manually set the path to the .rel file:

1. Set a value allows you to manually specify the path.
2. Calculate a value allows you to use a special formula or a special method to determine the path.
3. Save the previous step result takes the result of the previous workflow action as the path.

On tab

This parameter allows you to specify the name of the tab that you want the bot to interact with. The name of the tab is assigned in the "Open URL" activity.

1. Set a value allows you to manually specify the name of the tab.
2. Calculate a value allows you to use a special formula or a special method to determine the name of the tab.
3. Save the previous step result takes the result of the previous workflow action as the name of the tab.

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Note

Studio Pro supports two ways of working with the browser - through the ElectroNeek Chrome Automation extension and through Selenium.

Depending on the selected method, the bot will search for the item in the browser tabs differently:

1. Chrome Native - if you don't specify a tab number, the bot will search for the item on all tabs.
2. Edge Native - works the same way as Chrome Native.
3. Chrome Selenium - if you don't specify a tab number, the bot will search for the item in the tab that was opened using the "Open URL" activity. In other words, the absence of a labeled tab is the tab ID for Selenium.

Use tab name in order

This checkbox allows you to specify a sequential number of a tab in the browser. It is worth using if a new tab opens not manually, but automatically after clicking on some element.

In iframe

This option allows you to select a specific iframe on a given page in which to perform an activity.

Timeout, sec

This parameter allows you to set the timeout for the activity's execution. By default it is 30 seconds.

Wait before, sec

Allows you to set a delay before the activity is performed.

Wait after, sec

Allows you to set a delay after the activity is performed.

Comment

Contains an annotation to the activity. The input text will be displayed above the activity name.

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