Quick Start: The 5 Minute Activity Set

Important: This document refers to a deprecated version of the UiPath Activity Creator for Visual Studio. Please see the new documentation here.

Intro

An activity is the building block of process automation. UiPath Studio includes built-in Core Activities and other dedicated activities (PDF, mail, Excel) that you can install through the Package Manager. You can read The UiPath Activities Guide for more details and examples, as well as how to Manage Activities Packages. Additionally, you can create custom activities to better automate processes based on your needs. The steps below will give you the foundation to build custom activities in 5 minutes flat.

What You'll Need

Visual Studio Community/Professional/Enterprise (2019 recommended)
UiPath Studio

1) Add the UiPath Activity Creator Extension to Visual Studio

Open Visual Studio and click Extensions > Manage Extensions.

In the wizard that appears, click Online and then Search (Ctrl+E) for UiPath. Download the UiPath Activity Creator extension.

Close Visual Studio and, once the VSIX Installer appears, complete the installation.

2) Create a Solution

Visual Studio organizes project files, settings, and build configurations into containers called Solutions. Go to File > New > Project (Ctrl+Shift+N) to create a new solution.

In the New Project wizard that comes up, select Other Project Types > Visual Studio Solutions > Blank Solution and click Next. Give the solution a name and click Create.

Notice that, in the Solution Explorer, a new solution has been made.

3) Add a New Activity Project

Custom activities require a number of standard files organized in a specific way. Rather than add them all manually, right-click your solution in the Solution Explorer, and select Add > New Project.

Within the wizard that comes up, search for uipath, select UiPath SDK Project, and give your activity set a name (the conventional format is <Company Name>.<Product Name>; UiPath.Orchestrator, for example).

Notice that 3 projects, a Shared folder, and many files have now been added to your solution.

4) Build the Activity Set

Within the Solution Explorer, right-click your solution and select Rebuild Solution. You now have a working set of two activities!

5) Add the Activities to Studio

In order to use your activities, UiPath Studio has to know where to find them. In the build Output, take note of the location of your newly created activity set. This will come at the bottom after Successfully created package:.

Open UiPath Studio and navigate to the Package Manager's Settings. From here, tell Studio to look for new packages in the output folder copied from above. Once you click Add, you'll be able to see your new activity and import it into future workflows.