Open Browser

UiPath.Core.Activities.OpenBrowser

A container that enables you to open a browser at a specified URL and execute multiple activities within it.

Attention:

Internal URLs cannot be opened using this activity when the browser does not directly accept them as command-line arguments.

You cannot open Chrome (chrome://) or Edge (edge://) internal pages. You can open, however, Firefox (about:) internal pages.

In the body of the activity

In the designer panel, the activity is presented as a container, in which you can add activities to interact with the specified browser.

The URL field allows you to provide the link to which the browser opens.

Clicking the button next to the URL field opens a new browser session with the current configuration settings. This makes it possible to use a new browser user data set while keeping the existing configuration. It can be especially useful when you automate browsers in Picture-in-Picture.

A sequence is also present, which is where the actions performed on the browser are added.

Properties

Common

• ContinueOnError - Specifies if the automation should continue even when the activity throws an error. This field only supports Boolean values (True, False). The default value is False. As a result, if the field is blank and an error is thrown, the execution of the project stops. If the value is set to True, the execution of the project continues regardless of any error.

  Note: If this activity is included in Try Catch and the value of the ContinueOnError property is True, no error is caught when the project is executed.
• DisplayName - The display name of the activity.

Input

• BrowserType - Choose the type of browser you want to use by using the dropdown button. The following options are available: IE, Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Custom. The Custom type is suitable for other Chromium-based browsers, such as JxBrowser. The Hidden property is not supported when using the Custom browser type. For more information on configuring the custom browser, view the Custom Browser section.

  Note: If the BrowserType property is set to Custom, the CommunicationMethod property must be set to WebDriver for the activity to work properly.
• Url - The URL that you want to open in the specified browser.

Misc

• Private - If selected, the values of variables and arguments are no longer logged at Verbose level.

Options

• AutomaticallyDownloadWebDriver - If selected, automatically downloads from the Internet the required WebDriver executable into the %localappdata%\UiPath\WebdriverExe folder. By default, this check box is cleared.
• CommunicationMethod - Choose the communication method. The following are available: Native, WebDriver.
• Hidden - Open a hidden browser.
• NewSession - Starts a new session of the selected browser. This option is specific to Internet Explorer.
• Private - Open a private/incognito session.

• UserDataFolderMode - The UserDataFolderMode you want to set. It is used to start the browser with a specific user data folder.

  • UserDataFolderMode.Automatic - Picture In Picture mode uses a different folder than the default mode, automatically generated if UserDataFolderPath is not set.
  • UserDataFolderMode.DefaultFolder - Uses the default browser folder, no matter if it runs in the main or PIP session.
  • UserDataFolderMode.CustomFolder - Uses the folder specified in UserDataFolderPath or an auto generated path if UserDataFolderPath is not set.
• UserDataFolderPath - The user data folder that the browser will use. Defaults to %LocalAppData%\UiPath\PIP Browser Profiles\BrowserType if not set.

More details about UserDataFolderMode and UserDataFolderPath can be found here.

Output

• UiBrowser - The result of the activity as a UiBrowser object. Stores all the information regarding your browser session. Only Browser variables are supported.

Custom Browser

A Custom browser is a browser that is different from the widely used browsers (Chrome, Chromium Edge, Firefox, IE etc.) and that is built on top of Chromium project. We support two categories of such browsers: browsers built with Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) and browsers that use the JxBrowser framework.

These custom browsers can be automated by using the WebDriver communication method.

For this to happen, they must support the --remote-debugging-port command line parameter, the same way all Chromium-based browsers support it.

Configuring a Custom Browser

The custom browser you want to use must have a chromedriver.exe executable suitable for the Chromium version on top of which the Custom browser was built in PATH.

In the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, under Software\UiPath\UiPath Platform\CustomBrowser the Command value must hold the path to the custom browser executable, or a command that starts that custom browser.

Optionally, in cases when you need to run only a single instance of the custom browser and, for security reasons, want to specify the remote-debugging-port on which communication with the custom browser is done, a registry value called RemoteDebuggingPort must be added in the same registry key where Command was specified.

Selectors from pages of such a custom browser have the browser app name custom_browser.

Example of using the Open Browser activity

Here you can see how the Open Browser activity is used in an example that incorporates multiple activities.