Classic vs. Modern in Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace activities

About

Activity packages such as Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 include activities grouped under a Classic category.

In this section, you'll learn what the main differences between the "classic" and "modern" activities are, and why we recommend you start using modern activities in all your automations.

Why use Modern activities?

UI Improvements

The Modern activities bring significant UI improvements which makes them more business friendly:

• Easy to use file and folder browser widgets, which help you navigate through your folder structure in Google Drive, OneDrive and SharePoint sites, to choose the right folder or file that you need for your workflow.
• Easy to use filters and condition builder.
• Automatically generated dynamic DataTables, which include additional file metadata.
• Other features which reduce additional steps when building processes.

Additionally, the Modern activities bring enriched features. The Microsoft 365 package includes SharePoint List activities which are not available in the Classic version, as well as SharePoint List triggers.

Trigger-based automations

With the Modern Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 activities, you can build trigger-based automations. Each package includes more than ten trigger activities, covering all applications: Calendar, Gmail and Outlook, Sheets and Excel Online, Google Drive and OneDrive, as well as SharePoint Lists.

On-premises vs. Cloud

If you're using UiPath Automation Cloud, we recommend the modern activities, which authenticate via UiPath Integration Service. These activities are available in cross-platform and Windows projects. Cross-platform project compatibility means you can use them regardless of your operating system, on Linux, Mac, or Windows. You can use them in Studio Desktop, Studio X, and Studio Web, and you can move projects across the three Studio flavors, depending on your needs.

If you're using the on-premises version of UiPath Orchestrator, use Classic activities, which are available for Windows and Windows – Legacy projects. These activities are available only in Studio Desktop. Starting with version 2.5.5, you can use modern activities inside the Scope activity, without Integration Service.

Connections

Classic activities use different authentication methods, through the Application Scope activities. Modern activities use OAuth 2.0 protocol, through Automation Cloud – Integration Service connectors.

The Integration Service experience brings additional connection features, such as connections binding, connection sharing, and override possibilities.

• Connection sharing: the possibility to share a connection between multiple projects in your Personal Workspace or Shared Folders.
• Connection and properties, bindings and override: the possibility to update the connections and some activity proprieties after deployment, to suit the needs of each user. This facilitates an easier mechanism to distribute automations across the company and to move from development to production environments.

This means you can share and govern your Integration Service connections across individual users and groups within your organization. You can:

• Create, manage, and govern system connections in specific, sharable folders.
• Share connections with individual, groups, attended, or unattended executions and robots.
• Manage connections through UiPath Assistant, Apps, Studio, and Studio Web by reusing Orchestrator’s folder structure and permission management.

Security

When using Integration Service connectors, authentication credentials are no longer stored at activity or project level. They are stored at platform level in a dedicate system, where the connection is created and managed. You can also easily distribute roles and permissions, and maintain connection authorization control across users, folders, and folder connection contents.

Cloud vs. Serverless

You can use Modern activities for seamless unattended deployments. When you use Modern activities with Integration Service connections, you can set up and share connections across your team, to be used during design time or runtime, without having to store those credentials as assets in Orchestrator. As Integration Service is a Cloud-first offering from UiPath, this effectively opens up all types of robot setups, including attended, unattended, serverless, etc. As long as the connection is created in your Orchestrator tenant, the connection is still good, and your robots have access to Orchestrator, you’re all set.

Performance

Through activity caching and batching, you benefit from better performance both at runtime and at design time.