Activity designer

Overview

Activity designer is a new Connector Builder feature. Activity designer lets you preview the layout of your custom Integration Service activities as they will appear in UiPath® Studio.

Its key features include:

• Preview layout: preview the design of your custom activities and see how they will appear in Studio. You can visualize the setup and make necessary adjustments before deploying your connector.
• Parameter settings: create and manage parameter fields, for more flexibility in customizing your activity. This includes input, output, in/out arguments, and properties that are used in your workflow.
• Request and Response fields: add request and response fields. This helps you define the information required by the activity (request) and the information that will be returned by the activity (response).

Input fields

To configure a custom connector's resources, you use the Parameters tab to add fields specific to your request type. Now, Activity designer retrieves all the parameter fields and displays them under the Input section.

The following image shows the resource's Parameters tab. Only one field is marked as required:

The following image shows the resource's Activity designer tab. The same parameters are listed on the left, but only the field marked as Required is displayed in the Preview window:

Editing parameters

Edit or delete parameters from the Activity designer tab by clicking the More options menu.

Change how the parameter is displayed in the Preview window (its Display name and Description) by clicking the Edit icon next to the parameter's name.

Input parameter values

In the Activity designer tab, you can mark each input field as either Required, Main, or Additional. Each option dictates the parameter's behavior and where it is displayed on the activity canvas.

• Required: The parameter is marked as required using the asterisk (*) symbol. This means it's always visible on the canvas and a value must be provided for it.

  
  

  

  
  
• Main: The parameter is displayed in the primary section of the activity. It may be left blank when using the activity in an automation.
  
  

  

  
  
• Additional: The parameter is hidden from the main canvas. It is displayed under the Show additional options section. These fields are optional and may be left blank.
  
  

  

  
  

Ordering input parameters

The order of input parameters dictates the location of the parameters in the activity's Preview window. You can change the order by using the Drag icon located next to each parameter.

For example, to move the When field to the top of the Input section, drag the corresponding icon up.

In the activity's Preview window, fields are displayed in the order listed in the Input tab depending on the group they are assigned to (Required, Main, and Additional).

Request fields

Request fields allow you to populate the body of an HTTP request.

Request fields are most often associated with POST, PUT, or PATCH requests (insert, upsert, or update record activities). If you add a request field to a GET or DELETE request (list, get, or delete activities), an error message is displayed, notifying you that the field will not appear for that operation.

The following image shows the error message displayed when trying to add a request field to a DELETE resource:

Populating Request and Response fields

There are two ways to populate the request and response fields.

Option 1 (recommended)

Use a properly formatted JSON.

1. Click on a resource's Send Request button.
2. Add the JSON.
3. Make sure the Overwrite fields on send request option is enabled.
4. Click Execute.

If the response is successful, the Input fields are populated with the JSON properties used for the request and the Output fields are populated based on the response.

Note: If you use this method, make sure to make a request that is exhaustive of all the fields you want to use in your activity.

The following image shows an example payload for a POST request. Note that the Overwrite fields on send request field is enabled:

Option 2

You can manually add each request and response field from the Activity designer tab.

1. Navigate to the Activity designer tab.
2. In the Input tab, click the More options menu.
3. Select Add request field.
4. Add the details of the request field in a similar manner to adding a parameter.
   
   

   

   
   
5. To add response fields, go to the Output tab and select the Add response field option.
   
   

   

   
   

Output fields

The Output fields in Activity designer are pulled from the Response fields. The values can be populated by successfully making a request to the resource.

Curated fields

You can mark output fields as Curated. The field value is specifically extracted from the response object and can be assigned to a variable, making it easy to access and use in other activities when used in an automation.

The following image shows how Url, the curated field, is directly displayed in the activity's Output section: