Workflow Studio

Fixed Defects

  • If a JAVA application was started via the Action Step Run Program, which resulted in an error during the workflow execution, it took an unusually long time until the Run Result was displayed by the Workflow Studio.
  • When selecting web elements in the Web Automation Web Session Browser Wizard, it happened that long web page titles were recorded abbreviated during identification.
  • A quotation mark in the description of the new Session Based Variables caused an error during local workflow execution.

Global Pattern Gallery

The Global Pattern Gallery is a global repository for patterns used for searching in Action Steps Search Pattern and Pattern Select. Patterns in the Global Pattern Gallery are available to all users in the customer and are stored centrally in the Central Server repository. This means that the same patterns can be used several times and do not always have to be recorded again in different workflows, which may result in minimal differences. By providing already recorded patterns, workflow creation is accelerated and maintainability is simplified. The rights for editing the Global Pattern Gallery can be controlled by new privileges.

Pattern Groups

The patterns in the Global Pattern Gallery and the local Workflow Pattern Gallery can be grouped into Pattern Groups for better organization. A Pattern Group consists of a name, description and up to 50 patterns, and as such can be downloaded in its entirety from the Global Pattern Gallery to the Workflow Pattern Gallery or uploaded from the Workflow Pattern Gallery to the Global Pattern Gallery. This allows, for example, to create a ‘Login Buttons’ pattern group that contains all possible login buttons of different applications. Instead of using only single patterns for searching, a local pattern group can be linked in the Search Pattern Action Step, which automatically applies all changes of the pattern group.

Pattern Gallery (Workflow Initialization) extension with Pattern Groups

The Pattern Gallery in the Workflow Initialization of a workflow has been visually revised and supports the use of the new Pattern Groups. Patterns can be moved and copied between existing Pattern Groups. In addition to the use of individual patterns in Action Steps, the extended Usage dialog can also be used to view the linking of an entire Pattern Group. From the Pattern Gallery, Pattern Groups and individual Patterns can be downloaded from the Global Pattern Gallery for use in the workflow and uploaded to the Global Pattern Gallery for global distribution.

Extension of Search Pattern Action Step with Pattern Groups

The Search Pattern Action Step has been visually revised and supports the use of the new Pattern Groups. Instead of using several individual patterns for the search as before, a complete pattern group of the Workflow Pattern Gallery can be linked. All patterns of a linked pattern group are used for the search in the Search Pattern Action Step. Changes made to the linked pattern group directly affect the search of the Search Pattern Action Steps in the next Workflow run without any further adjustments.

Session Based Variables

New Session Based Variables allow direct data exchange by variables between workflows within a Schedule or Test Plan run. They can be defined in the Action Step of the same name in the Workflow Initialization, whereby all common variable types are supported. A new value can be assigned to the Session Based Variables during the workflow, so that a subsequent workflow can continue to work with the new value. This makes it possible, among other things, to reuse Web Automation Web Sessions across workflows by passing the Web Session ID on to subsequent workflows. Identification across workflow boundaries takes place exclusively via the name of the Session Based Variable.

Workflow Playlist

To test the effects of the Session Based Variables in the local Workflow Studio run, the new Workflow Playlist offers the possibility to automatically execute several workflows one after the other. All Workflows opened in the Workbench are available and the execution order can be determined. As in a Schedule or Test Plan, the Continue on Failure option can be used to determine whether to continue with the playlist in the event of a workflow failure. During the execution of the workflows, the user is informed about the current status and the results of the individual runs.

App Automation

New App Automation Action Steps allow direct control of Windows programs (Win32, WinForms, WPF, Windows Store Apps) by identifying individual program elements by XPath and Window Title.

App Session

Enclosure in which App Automation Action Steps are executed. Provides the ability to record an App Automation click path whereupon the corresponding App Automation Action Steps are automatically generated and configured.

Click App Element

Direct invoke or click of a control element. Can be combined with different mouse actions and keyboard combinations (Ctrl, Alt, Shift). Inspection mode in the wizard allows easy identification of the program element to be controlled.

Keystrokes to App Element

Sends keyboard input to a text or input field. Additionally enables the sending of known Windows macros and shortcuts (e.g. Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C). Inspection mode in the wizard allows easy identification of the program element to be controlled.

Set Text to App Element

Direct setting of a text string in an input field. Easy identification of the program element to be controlled by inspection mode in the wizard.

Read Text from App Element

Reading the contents of a text or input field. The read text can be further processed in subsequent Action Steps. Inspection mode in the wizard allows easy identification of the program element to be controlled.

Set Toggle App Element

Reliably sets the state of a toggle element to a defined state (Active or Inactive). Inspection mode in the wizard allows easy identification of the program element to be controlled.

General improvements

Workflow tags for structuring in the Repository Explorer

The Repository Explorer has been extended by the new Tags column. Freely assigned Workflow tags are displayed here, which are also considered in the filter search. The new Manage Workflow Tags button can be used to manage tags of a workflow. New tags can be created, and existing tags can be reused or removed. The Workflow Upload dialog also includes the option to customize the workflow tags during the upload. The Workflow tags are also available on the Central Server user interface. The Workflow tags increase the overview and enable a structuring of the workflows in the repository.

Export and import of Action Step templates

A set of Action Steps can be saved independently of a workflow as a local user template. These templates can be exported and imported in the Templates Manager. When exporting, a file is created from the template, which in turn can be selected when importing. This enables the transfer of Action Step templates to other users, customers or systems.

Extension Excel Session

In addition to the different file path, a different file name can also be specified for the workflow runtime.

Extension Excel Controlled Loop

The Excel Controlled Loop Action Step has been extended with the option Process matching line before termination for the Terminate loop option On Regex match in the cell value. This allows to control whether the line matching the regular expression should be processed in the loop or not.

Extension Iterate Over Files

The Iterate Over Files Action Step has been extended by the option Force error if no file found. If this option is enabled, the action step will be terminated with an error if there are no files to process under the defined folder path.

Extension Workflow Based Variables

The Workflow Based Variables have been extended by the User Account Variable. The User Account Variable consists of Username and Password and can be used e.g. in the Mail Session Action Step.

Extension Generate and Modify Date and Time

The Generate and Modify Date and Time Action Step has been extended with the possibility to additionally add years, months and weeks to the date. Three new outbound variables also offer the calendar week as an integer and the day of the week as a string variable, where the format (Mon. or Monday) and the language (English, German, French, Spanish or Italian) can be selected. Furthermore, the date can also be overridden to e.g. the last day or first Friday of the month.

Extension Website Load Time

A HAR viewer has been added to the Website Load Time Action Step, allowing the generated HAR file to be analyzed directly in the Workflow Studio after a local run. A test button in the wizard can be used to immediately trigger a check of the entered website URL, which also displays the HAR viewer with the result.

Extension Coordinates

The Coordinates Action Step for generating and changing Coordinates variables outputs X and Y as individual outbound variable values in addition to the coordinate.

Extension Mail Session

Sending e-mails via SMTP is also possible without specifying an incoming mailbox.

Central proxy setting

The new tab Network Settings is available in the Settings of the workflow initialization. Here, proxy settings can be made at a central location. The following selection can be made:

  • No proxy – No proxy is used.
  • Use system proxy settings – Use the proxy settings of the operating system
  • Manual proxy configuration – The connection data to the proxy can be entered manually.

If a proxy has been selected in the network settings, the communication of the REST Call Action Steps goes through the defined proxy.

Context-sensitive help button and online manual

In each Action Step Wizard, a Help button is available, which can be used to open the Action Step chapter in the new online manual directly by clicking or pressing F1. In addition, the new online manual is also available under the Help menu.

Improvements

  • New Action Step User Account – A new User Account Action Step allows the creation and definition of a User Account Variable at workflow runtime. The user account variable can then be used as before, for example in the Mail Session Action Step.

Fixed Defects

  • AI OCR (Screen Based) DPI error message in “Last Action Step was” message – In the “Last Action Step was” Run Result message, a DPI error message was displayed in certain case

Improvements

  • Performance improvement for validating workflows – The processing time for validating workflows – especially for very large processes – has been reduced by up to 90%.
  • Web Automation Browser Wizard substring search for InnerText – A new search option for the InnerText attribute has been implemented in the Web Automation Browser Wizard, which enables a substring search.

Fixed Defects

  • Copying and pasting the Runtimes Variables Action Step caused an error – If the Runtime Variables Action Step was copied and pasted in the same workflow or in another workflow, this caused an error.
  • Web Automation Browser Wizard XPath is not displayed correctly after an error and setting of attributes – If an error was detected when setting an attribute, the XPath was not corrected correctly when correcting and setting other attributes.
  • Improvement of the error message in the Web Automation Browser Wizard in case of errors in the XPath – If an error is detected in the modified XPath when setting an attribute to restrict the search of the element, the error message shows this more clearly.

New Design

New colours and new icons for a modern appearance.

New Action Steps

AI-supported OCR

  • recognizes text on scanned images. By pre-processing and AI support, even scanned images of poor quality can be read.
  • AI OCR (file-based) recognizes texts based on image files..
  • AI OCR (screen-based) recognizes texts directly on the screen.

Mail Operations
enable retrieval, processing and sending of e-mails from mailboxes without a pre-installed mail program.

  • Mail Session kconfigures access to the mailbox. Supports Exchange, IMAP, POP3 and SMTP.
  • Read Mail reads a mailbox specifying a folder (except POP3). Various filter criteria can be combined to define the e-mails to be read. In addition, the number of e-mails to be read and the output order (sort by newest/oldest) can be specified. Read Mail allows the iterative reading of the filtered mails, making the content of an e-mail available in outbound variables during each run. Attachments of an e-mail can also be saved.
  • Send Mail sends e-mails with attachments, specifying recipient, CC and BCC. Subject and body can be generated dynamically at runtime using inbound variables.
  • Set Mail allows you to change a mail from ‘Read’ to ‘Unread’ and move it to a destination folder.

PDF Operations
allow you to read a PDF file without a pre-installed PDF program.

  • Read PDF File reads complete text, text on specific pages or in a specific area from a (password protected) PDF file.
  • Extract Images from PDF File extracts all images, images on specific pages or in a specific area from a PDF file. Images can be saved as no-loss PNG or compressed JPEG.

REST Call
accesses any REST interface by executing REST calls with methods Get, Post, Put, Patch, Delete, Head and Options. The REST call can be customized and the answer can be processed.

JSON Query
processes a REST call response in detail using a JSON Path Expression.

Excel Controlled Loop
iteratively processes an Excel file within an Excel session. Column contents and iteration counter are available as output variables.

Recalculate Excel File
recalculates formula values of an Excel sheet or the entire Excel file.

Workflow Finalization
New finalization block. Is automatically inserted at the end of a workflow. Enables the execution of further action steps after the actual workflow execution. Depending on the Run Result of the workflow, different Action Steps can be executed. For checkpoints or stopwatches not achieved, the previous status Warning can be switched to Successful.

String Operations
modify an input variable string. String Replace – find and replace certain characters in the given string. String Trim – trim the given string at the beginning or end by a defined number of characters. String Left / Right – extract a part of the given string by a defined number of characters, counted from left or right.

String to Array
converts a string into an array variable by specifying the separator character within the string.

Web Automation

New functions and technology update.

Web Session ID
new variable type, allows reuse of web sessions. An opened web session can be reused in a subsequent web session of the workflow.

Update Browser Wizard
Redesign of the Web Automation Browser Wizard for compatibility with current web technologies.

Web Session by browser type
separate Web Session Action Step for each browser type, containing all configuration parameters in the wizard, that can now also be bound by inbound variables.

Close Web Session
new Action Step, closes an open Web Session so that a new Web Session can be opened for its ID.

Quality of Life

Debugger
Hotkeys for convenient operation.

Inbound Variable PINs
Action Step Wizard Inbound Variables PIN Icons permanently visible. Previously, these were only visible if a suitable variable type was available.

3rd Party Folder
Workflow Project folder “3rdParty” supports subfolders.

Robot

Improvements

  • Latest TSplus version 12.70.9.22 included in setup
  • Robot Update Package (*.STU) for central robot update via Central Server now available (requires at least Server 2021.1 SR1)

Fixed Defects

  • Workflow runtimes on the robot were longer than when run locally in Workflow Studio.
  • The login of a secure session with activated Custom Logon Message setting did not work reliably.

Central Server

Improvements

  • Security update: new version Log4j 2.18.0 included

Fixed Defects

  • Servicetrace TV not working properly for schedules in continuous mode
  • Cannot start Secure Sessions after changing Secure Session user password through Central Server Robots page
  • Viewing test run details was not possible for customer users without Test Automation workplace license

Improvements

  • When creating and editing schedules in the Control Center and test plans in Test Automation, the new Predefined Resolution of 1680×1050 is available for direct selection under Environment.

Fixed Defects

  • The Select Robots list when initializing a Robot Update in the Control Center or Test Automation remained empty, which prevented a central Robot Update from being started.
  • Public REST API – Test Automation – Update a test plan – interface returned an error 500 as response, although it was performed correctly.
  • Public REST API – Test Automation – Create a new test plan – interface incorrectly returned the opposite value for requiresShell.
  • Public REST API – Test Automation – Update a test plan – interface incorrectly returned the opposite value for requiresShell.
  • During an update installation it happened that under certain circumstances not all configuration files were correctly set to HTTPS. This was previously resolved by re-running the Server Config Tool.
  • The local repository path for patterns of the Global Pattern Gallery has been adjusted so that they are also part of the automatic repository backup. Already existing patterns are moved automatically by the setup.
  • The local repository path for Robot Update Packages has been adjusted so that they are also part of the automatic repository backup.

Control Center

Central Robot Update

A new update function can be called up via the Robots list, which makes it possible to update the Servicetrace Robot software (optionally also TSplus). The robot performs the update on its own, so the user does not have to run the setup manually on the robot system. The Robot already has all system permissions to perform its update, so no additional installation permissions need to be granted. The manual administrative effort is reduced to a minimum. The update packages are uploaded and managed in the administration. The automatic robot update is supported for robots from version 2021.1. Workflow structuring through tagging

The workflow list in the Control Center has been extended by a Tags column. Via an additional Tags panel it is possible to assign tags to workflows. New tags can be created and existing tags can be reused or removed. This increases the overview and enables a structuring of the workflow list. The new Tags column is available in various workflow selection lists and can be filtered.

Visibility improvements

In the Robots – Administration Panel, when scheduling individual schedules, it is more clearly visible when the entire Robot Scheduler is stopped.

Administration

New section System Updates

The update packages required for the central robot update can be uploaded and managed in the new System Updates section of the Administration. During the upload, the update packages provided by Servicetrace are verified and listed with the included Robot and TSplus version. Administrators can thus control which Robot versions on the entire system are released for an update and delete Robot update packages that are no longer required.

Reporting

New Stacked Widget

The new Stacked Workflow Runtime per Workflow Widget shows a stacked diagram with the workflow runtimes at different locations. The runtimes until a checkpoint is reached in proportion to the total runtime are displayed as individual areas on top of each other, resulting in the stacked diagram at the end. To ensure that the display is correct, always make sure that all checkpoints of the workflow are also available in the service as data sources. The widget is also available for automatic report generation and sending in the Report Automation module.

Open service report via direct link

A service report can now be opened directly using the URL in the address bar. In addition, the new Share Service Report button in the Report Properties allows copying the link directly to the clipboard.

Alerting

Email alerts in HTML format

Email Alert Targets can now be customized with the help of an HTML editor. Besides the formatting of the text, own links or tables can be embedded. Furthermore, it is also possible to insert your own images, such as a company logo, to make the sent email alerts CI-compliant.

Different severity messages in Run Result Alerting

As in End-to-End Alerting, three different messages can now be defined in Run Result Alert Rules for the severities Normal, Warning and Error. The new alert target keyword SeverityMessage passes the content of the message in the alert sent. The previous custom message is still used for all severities.

SNMP alarms extended by Trap PDU Specific Type

SNMP Alert Targets have been extended to allow a Specific Type to be specified for the Trap PDU.

Dashboard

Access restriction of the Public Dashboard

By default, a Public Dashboard is visible to all users with Dashboard Open Privilege. When publishing or editing a Public Dashboard, access can now be restricted to specific users of the customer. Administrators with Edit Public Dashboard or Delete Public Dashboard Privilege can still see all Public Dashboards for management purposes.

Usability and visibility improvements

The Current Robot Status widget now shows more clearly and in color the number of robots in each status.

The Response Time per Timer and Response Time per Location widgets have been extended with explanations of the respective aggregation algorithms.

Test Automation

Workflow structuring through tagging

The workflow list in the Test Automation has been extended by a Tags column. Via an additional Tags panel it is possible to assign tags to workflows. New tags can be created and existing tags can be reused or removed. This increases the overview and allows a structuring of the workflow list. The new Tags column is available in various workflow selection lists and can be filtered.

Improved overview and management for the use of workflows

The new tab Contained in User Story is available in the workflows list. When selecting a workflow, Contained in User Story shows in which user stories, test cases and in which revision this workflow is used. The user story can be navigated to immediately via a direct link. The Update to latest Revision button can be used to immediately raise the linked revision to the test case to the current head revision for the selected user stories.

Improved overview and management for the use of Test Plans

The Test Plans list has been extended and now also shows the respective test cases of the user stories in addition to the contained user stories of the test plan. Furthermore, the information about the linked workflow, the linked revision and the head revision of the workflow are included per test case.

Master Data

Management of Planned and Unplanned Down Times

Managing Planned and Unplanned Down Times across multiple services has been simplified. Planned and Unplanned Down Times can be added directly to multiple services via a new Add button in the Services list. In addition, existing Planned and Unplanned Down Times of a service can be copied to other services.

Hide data sources that are no longer used

As soon as all workflow revisions in which a Data Source exists are deleted, a Data Source is no longer in use. Deleting these unused Data Sources is not possible for reasons of data consistency. Instead, they can now be hidden in the Data Sources list of the Master Data using the Hide Data Sources no longer in use option.

Setup and security

Two factor authentication (2FA)

Servicetrace user accounts for logging in to the Central Server and Workflow Studio can be additionally secured via two-factor authentication. Users can activate, set up and deactivate the 2FA themselves via their personal profile page. An administrator with the privilege User Create / Edit can deactivate an activated 2FA in the User Management.

Azure SQL database support

In addition to the normal Microsoft SQL database, the cloud-based Microsoft Azure SQL database is now also supported. A specially adapted DB setup is provided for this purpose.

Environment Update

The Servicetrace Central Server now uses Java 11 and Apache Tomcat 9 for operation.

Fixed Defects

  • With the new “Run Result Validation” in the Control Centre introduced with version 2020.1, a cross-customer view of the run results was possible.
  • The timestamp of the Schedule End Time could in some cases be younger than the last Workflow Data Source. This led to problems in third-party software when retrieved via the External REST API.

Control Center

  • New clear view for quick and easy error analysis. Lists all workflow warnings or failures in a defined period for which Analysis Packages are available.
  • Error images and logs are displayed directly, without the need to download and open the Analysis Package ZIP file as before. This applies to all places where the Analysis Package ZIP File is displayed.
  • Workflow runs can be evaluated as error. These erroneous run results are excluded from reporting. You can also comment on the workflow run with instructions for action.

Schedule Run Results Update
Redesign and enhancement. The Schedule Run Result Timeline can now display schedule runs for multiple robots simultaneously.

Resolution
Increase of the supported resolutions for schedules to also monitor 4k resolutions.

New Predefined Resolutions 2560×1080, 2560×1440, 2560×1600, 3440×1440, 3840×2160

Dashboard

New Widgets.

Response Time per Timer
displays the measured response times of a timer at different locations.

Response Time per Location
displays the measured response times of different timers at one location.

Reporting

Last Weeks / Months
new analysis intervals

Renaming Reporting Widgets
The widgets in a service report can be named individually.

Change Analysis Intervall
new privilege. Allows separate customizing of the analysis interval without changing the service report.

Report Automation

Update Highchart Export Server
Update of the used Highcharts Export Server to the newest version. Requires the installation of the NodeJS server.

Alerting

Name fields for Event/Alert Rules
For better differentiation of individual event and alert rules, names can be freely assigned that can be searched in a column.

Status Alert Rules
Visualization improvements of active/inactive alert rules. Active/inactive alert rules can be filtered and sorted by a new Active Status column.

Analysis Package Security
Protection of Analysis Packages contained in Alerting E-Mails. Previously, analysis packages could be downloaded directly via the keyword link in the alert, but now you have to authenticate yourself as a Servicetrace user first.

Test Automation

Test Plan Protocol Logo
Assign an image that replaces the standard Servicetrace logo in the Test Plan Protocol PDFs.

Analysis Package View
At the download location of the Analysis Package as a ZIP file, a new view allows to open and view the error images and the trace log directly on the server.

Head Revision
Workflow revision information in User Story and Test Case views is extended displaying the Head Revision.

Resolution

  • Increase of supported resolutions for test plans to also test 4k resolutions.
  • New Predefined Resolutions 2560×1080, 2560×1440, 2560×1600, 3440×1440, 3840×2160

User Story Link
links directly to the User Story in the current Test Plan View.

Projects Drop Down
As with Versions and User Stories, it is now possible to switch between Projects directly via drop down selection in the breadcrumb navigation.

User Management

Password policy
To support users in using strong passwords, a new password must contain at least 12 characters. Additional visual indication of password strength while password is entered.

External REST Api

New Interfaces
Extension of the external REST API – More than 20 new external interfaces, e.g. in test automation (see REST API documentation for details).

Quality of Life

Browser Title Info
Module icons and info about breadcrumb navigation in the browser window title. Depending on the opened module and submenu, the browser window title lists the icon and information about the opened page.

Master Data
displays the data sources usage in services.

Usability
Numerous visibility and usability improvements in all modules.

Setup and Security

System Account Name
Free allocation of the initial System Administration account for new installations. Previously, the System Administrator account ‘Servicetracer’ was created automatically. The user can now define the initial system administration account with user name and password during the setup of a new installation.

Trusted Connection
Support for the setup of a ‘Trusted Connection’. With a trusted connection, an Active Directory account is used to connect between the application server and the external database, increasing the level of security.

End of Life TraceManagementServer

EoL Legacy Module ‘TMS’
As announced, the legacy module TMS, which is no longer required, will be finally shut down and removed. When installing an update to the new version 2020.1, all old TMS components and database tables used exclusively by the TMS are automatically uninstalled.