2024.10.1

Release date: 1 July 2024

What's New

Unleash your productivity with Autopilot™

Autopilot™ offers a set of AI-powered capabilities designed to help you create and test automations faster and easier. To see what Autopilot offers across the UiPath Business Automation Platform, check out the Autopilot guide.

To enhance productivity and streamline the automation development process, you can now generate complex expressions using natural language. An integral part of the new Autopilot™ developer capabilities, AI-generated expressions enable you to describe the desired outcome for a particular activity input, while an AI-based model will generate a valid expression based on the request. For more information, see Designing Automations.

With Autopilot, you can use natural language to describe the structure and outcome of a workflow. Autopilot will then process your instructions and create a preview of the resulting workflow. If you want to modify the structure created by Autopilot, you can further refine your instructions and generate a new preview. After confirming that the automation works as expected, Autopilot automatically creates the workflow. You can also generate a workflow from annotations added to Sequence activities. For more information, see The User Interface.

With its summarization capabilities, Autopilot can also describe the inner workings of activities and sequences by creating meaningful names that take into account the elements that define the activity or sequence. To learn more, see The User Interface.

Autopilot is enabled by default for all users. However, organizations can use governance policies to control Autopilot capabilities.

Edit activities during debugging

Debugging your projects just got easier with the ability to dynamically edit activity properties, variables, and arguments directly from the Designer panel or the Properties panel. As a faster alternative to the Locals panel, changing an activity property no longer requires you to stop the debugging process, implement the change, and restart debugging.

When debugging is paused (either by a breakpoint, an error, or by manually pausing execution), you can select the current activity and modify selectors, input or output values, timeout settings, or other activity-specific properties either from the Properties panel or directly from the designer. Upon resuming execution, the modified activity will run with the updated properties.

At the end of the debugging process or when debugging is manually stopped, a message window will ask whether to keep the changes performed during debugging. Discarding the changes will revert the activity to its original properties.

New project navigation shortcuts

You can now go back or forward inside project files and between project files using new shortcuts. You can also use the new Navigate forward and Navigate backward buttons and keyboard shortcuts in the Command Palette.

Studio bookmarks

To make it easier to navigate large workflows, you can now set bookmarks by right-clicking an activity and selecting Toggle Bookmark. The Breakpoints panel has been redesigned to include bookmarks and is now named Breakpoints & Bookmarks. New keyboard shortcuts are also available for enabling, disabling, and navigating bookmarks. For more information about the redesigned panel and how to use bookmarks, see The Breakpoints and Bookmarks Panel.

New Coded automations features

Dynamically invoke workflows within coded automations

The workflows object can dynamically execute all workflows in a project, including coded (CS) and low-code (XAML) automations. The object automatically adjusts to changes in the invoked files across a project, such as a new name or updated arguments, ensuring a smooth way to create hybrid automations. Visit Creating hybrid automations using the Workflows object to learn how to invoke workflows more efficiently in your coded automations.

Invoking coded automations using libraries

You can now publish your coded automations as a library and easily reuse them in different projects, allowing you to save time and effort. Whether you're working with low-code (XAML) or coded automations (CS), you can use the published coded automations from the library directly into your project. Visit Invoking coded automations using libraries to learn how to invoke coded automations in different projects and streamline your processes.

Connections for services in coded automations

We have introduced a feature that allows you to use existing Integration Service connections within your coded automations. This feature helps you to access APIs from corresponding services more efficiently. Visit Creating Connections for services in coded automations to learn how to recreate and use these connections in your coded automations.

Auto-importing namespaces in coded automations

You can reduce the time taken when building coded testing automations by activating Enable Import Completion in the Code editor settings. This setting automatically imports namespaces that include a selected symbol, so you don't have to manually add the using statements in your CS file. Visit Studio IDE to check the available code editor settings.

New Test Automation features

AI-powered test data generation

You can now generate synthetic test data using AI capabilities offered by Autopilot^TM. Use prompts to customize your test data so it suits your specific testing needs. Visit AI-generated test data to check how to use AI-powered test data generation.

Generating coded test cases using AI

You can now generate a fully automated coded test case from your manual tests using Autopilot^TM. Connect Studio to Test Manager, and generate the entire code for your manual tests, with the manual steps as comments before the automated steps. Visit Generating test cases using AI to check how generate coded test cases using Autopilot^TM.

Converting text into code

You can now generate code from multiple sources within your coded automation, to streamline your processes. You can directly generate code from comments, specific lines in your automation, or using custom prompts. Visit Generating code to check how to leverage the capability.

Creating low-code test case from manual test

To ease your automation efforts, you can convert your manual tests into low-code test cases, with the manual steps displayed as Comment activities. Visit Creating a low-code test case from a manual test case to learn how to use the feature.

The testCase.json file

You can now find valuable metadata about your packaged RPA testing projects in the testCase.json file. The file is automatically generated in the .tmh directory of the project's NUPKG file.

Windows projects saved to the cloud

To facilitate access to automations and improve collaboration between developers without the need to share project files or to set up a source control environment in advance, Windows projects can now be saved as cloud projects.

Cross-platform cloud projects are integrated seamlessly with Studio Web, giving you the flexibility to start working on a project in Studio and continue in your browser, while Windows projects can be stored in the cloud but not edited in Studio Web. For more information, see Designing Cross-platform Projects.

Organizations can use governance policies to determine if projects are saved locally or to the cloud by default.

Other new features

• Studio now supports C# 11.
• In Azure Active Directory SSO setups, user-mode UiPathStudio.msi installation now includes an Automatically sign in checkbox for Automation Developer and Attended Robot packages. For more information, see Install Studio.
• Global variables and constants now appear as search results when using the Universal search bar and in the Current File, All Files, and Variables options. Selecting a global variable or constant from the search bar highlights it in the Data Manager panel.

Improvements

Flowchart improvements

Flowcharts have received a visual and functional overhaul. The changes that improve the experience of designing and using flowcharts include:

• The Flow Decision and Flow Switch activities have been redesigned and now support adding breakpoints, bookmarks, and annotations.
• The Start node has a new design.
• The Designer panel is now an infinite canvas, expanding as you build your workflow. The Designer now also features a grid system with snap to grid functionalities to help you position activities with precision. Additionally, we have removed the sequence surrounding the flowchart in Windows and cross-platform projects.
• Activities added in a flowchart have an improved design, are easier to link, and are highlighted when selected. Additionally, all activities added in a flowchart are now collapsed by default in the Designer panel. If an activity has validation errors, the error icon is now visible in the collapsed activity card.
• Activities copied from sequences retain their order and are pasted at your current focus point in the flowchart.
• You can now add labels between steps in a flowchart by selecting the connecting arrow and setting the label from the Properties panel. Labels can be added to all connecting arrows, except for the first one originating from the Start node.
• Selected connection arrows are now highlighted and can be renamed and deleted by right-clicking them.
• In case the Flowchart canvas becomes difficult to read due to overlapping nodes or activity cards, you can right-click the Designer panel and select the new Declutter Canvas context menu option to rearrange the cards and improve the flowchart's readability. Declutter Canvas replaces the Auto Arrange option.

Simplified ribbon layout

A simplified ribbon layout is now available, allowing you to increase the size of the Designer panel. For information on how to enable the new layout, see The User Interface.

Streamlined Designer panel context menu

The context menu when right-clicking inside the Designer panel now has a slimmer design. Some changes include:

• The Open Workflow option has been removed.
• The Disable Activity and Enable Activity options are now dynamically displayed.
• The Run to this Activity, Run from this Activity, and Test Activity options have been consolidated under a single Debug option.

For an updated list of available context menu options, see The User Interface.

More information about argument properties

Studio now offers access to additional argument information in Assistant and Automation Ops - Pipelines after publishing a project. You can now use the new Argument Properties window to configure argument properties (name, associated tooltip, and whether the argument is required), as well as set the order in which arguments appear. For more information, see Managing Arguments.

Customize connections used within libraries

To take advantage of the full potential of Integration Service activities, you can now customize the connections used within a Windows and cross-platform library. This allows you to manage specific connections in a project when adding a library which uses connections or invokes workflows with connections, regardless of initial configurations. For more information, see About Libraries.

Copy error messages directly from the Properties panel

You can now use the new clipboard icon in the Properties panel to copy error messages that appear in activities prior to execution or debugging.

Improved workflow readability and navigation

To improve workflow visibility and usability, you can now see all activity properties in the Properties panel when collapsing an activity, including advanced properties, even if the Show activity properties inline design setting is selected.

You can now also rename and annotate activity containers in activities such as If, Else If, While, Do While, or For Each.

Auto-collapsed namespaces in coded automations

To easily navigate within coded automations, their namespaces are now collapsed by default in the Code editor.

Open recent projects from the taskbar

To quickly navigate between multiple projects, you can now open recently accessed projects directly from the taskbar by right-clicking the Studio icon. You can also pin recent projects in the same way as from Backstage view.

Improved source control authentication options

We have consolidated the options to authenticate in projects managed through GIT and SVN. For more information, see Managing Projects with GIT and Managing Projects with SVN.

Improved control over prerelease versions of activities packages

Organizations now have more control over prerelease (beta) versions of activities packages. Using new governance policies that restrict access to prerelease packages, the Include Prerelease filter options in the Manage Packages window can now be hidden, which means that users can have access only to stable versions of an activity package.

If access is not restricted via governance, a new Activities panel filter option, Preview, is now available. Selecting this filter option displays installable activities that are marked as preview in the Activities panel and in the Add activity search bar.

Installation and upgrade

• To improve security and reduce installer size, PDB files have been removed from the UiPathClipboard.MSI installer.
• The Studio MSI installer now performs an additional cleanup step, which removes files, settings, and scheduled tasks stored by previous failed installations.

Other improvements

• Studio now uses less RAM resources.
• Opening workflows containing many activities is now faster.
• Variables automatically generated from activity outputs now have more readable names. If a variable with the same name already exists, the output variable’s name is incremented by 1.
• The Object Repository now automatically updates all selector references within coded automations whenever a selector name is edited, reducing maintenance efforts.
• The Test Explorer panel now offers a better overview of your test cases, allowing you to view more than 100 test cases from your connected Test Manager project.

Bug Fixes

• Using the Ctrl + Z keyboard shortcut to undo the last action in a workflow that contained multiple Log Message activities did not work as expected.
• The ST-NMG-004 - Display Name Duplication Workflow Analyzer rule incorrectly detected repetitive display names in workflows that contained While and Do While activities.
• Performing Step Into and Step Out debugging actions caused the values of some activities properties to be evaluated twice in the Locals panel if the values were expressions.
• Object Repository UI elements used in a library that had the Separate Runtime Dependencies project setting enabled were not visible after installing the library as a project dependency.
• Studio did not indicate that validation errors could not be solved after automatic reference import in projects that contained read-only files. The Project panel now displays a message that the read-only status of project files may hinder project cleanup.
• Studio failed to give accurate validation error details when publishing a project migrated from Windows - Legacy to the Windows compatibility if the project contained an incorrectly set ImageDpi activity field in an Export PDF Page As Image activity.
• Enforcing per-user governance policies using an Orchestrator asset did not work as expected if Studio was connected to an on-premises Orchestrator.
• Compilation errors were not cleared after correcting a variable type mismatch using an Assign activity.
• Studio used more memory than expected after editing and closing projects in which multiple interdependent libraries were installed.
• Creating a project using a Windows - Legacy template did not work as expected when using a governance policy that set the default project target framework to Windows and allowed the creation or opening of Windows - Legacy projects.
• Publishing some projects to Orchestrator or locally caused unexpected changes to the .local folder and failed without an error message.
• A validation error occurred in some projects when adding a custom activity from a library that contained state machine transitions.
• In workflows with activities that contain child activities (for example, Multiple Assign), child activities were incorrectly focused from the Universal Search bar.
• Enforcing a governance policy using an asset created in a previous version of Orchestrator did not work as expected when upgrading Orchestrator to a newer version.
• Selecting and deleting activities in a Try Catch field also deleted activities in another expanded field.
• In some Windows and Windows - Legacy projects, changing the value of the In configuration field in a For Each activity reset breakpoints, annotations, the value of the TypeArgument field, and the name of the activity.
• Some projects were incorrectly reported as published after successfully updating dependencies using the Project Dependencies Mass Update Tool.
• Flowcharts were incorrectly displayed in some Windows - Legacy projects when upgrading Studio.
  Note: Access to the original project files is needed. Avoid initially opening the affected project in a Studio version where this issue is visible.
• While adding existing test data from files, the dropdown list cut off and lost focus starting with the sixth file.
• Variables or arguments used in some Windows and cross-platform projects were incorrectly removed when using the Remove Unused Design tab option.
• The SY-USG-013 - Private File Invoke rule was incorrectly triggered from a disabled Invoke Workflow File activity or from an Invoke Workflow File activity that invoked a file which was ignored from publishing.
• The Locals panel did not load information when debugging reached a breakpoint placed on a Log Message activity in some Windows projects.
• An error related to unresolved dependencies occurred when opening some projects from the Main.xaml file.
• You could not retrieve columns using the Get List Items and Get Single List Item activities in some Windows projects.
• Clicking OK in an error message caused by two cases having the same value in a Flow Switch activity generated a loop of error messages.
• The Locals panel did not load information when debugging reached a second breakpoint placed on a Log Message activity in some Windows projects.
• Pushing changes to a remote GIT repository caused an unexpected error in some projects.
• A Could not load file or assembly error occurred in some Windows projects that had the Microsoft Identity Web package added as a dependency.
• Erratum - added August 7, 2024: An argument named BreakTriggerScopeInArgument was visible in some projects that contained a Break activity or invoked a workflow containing a Break activity.

Erratum

.NET 8 support

Added 23 September 2024

Windows and cross-platform projects now use .NET 8, the latest version of the .NET framework. Please note that Windows and cross-platform projects created with Studio 2024.10 now require robots that use .NET 8 (Robot 2024.10 or later).

Introducing AI Trust Layer governance policy capabilities for Studio

Added 13 August 2024

The AI Trust Layer governance policy now includes control over AI-powered features in Studio, allowing you to prevent calls to third-party AI models. To learn more, see Settings for AI Trust Layer policies in the Automation Ops guide.

Note: To disable Autopilot UI features in Studio, you need to define a Studio governance policy that disables Autopilot capabilities.

Command line arguments for proxy settings

Added 15 July 2024

A new set of command line arguments allows you to set the proxy configuration during installation of your robots. These proxy-related parameters are available for both Studio and Robot installers.

Known Issues

• Important: Erratum - added August 21, 2024: Debugging a XAML file in a project that contains CS files, results in the following error: "Unexpected error has occurred during the library compilation process: Value cannot be null. (Parameter 'type')".

  Workaround: Rename the project to a string different than the Data Service entity that you are referencing in your project.

• The message window asking to automatically import missing references appears when reopening a project that references non-existing variables, even after accepting to add the missing references.
• Breakpoints are removed when editing a project in Studio Web.

Upcoming Deprecations

Deprecating serviceContainer in coded automations

The serviceContainer in coded automations will be deprecated with Studio 2025.10, and will be replaced by the alternative, ICodedWorkflowServices services.Container. This new method offers resource management for coded workflows, automatic import of namespaces and types, and specific service instance provision using the Resolve method.

Visit the Deprecation timeline to stay up to date with upcoming deprecations.

Removed Features

• The classic design experience, which includes the activities, wizards, and recorders that were available by default in Studio 2021.4 and older releases, is no longer an option at the project level or as a global setting. UI Automation and Excel classic activities are still available under the Classic category and can be added to a project from the Activities panel or the Add activity search bar.
• Starting with this Studio release, you can only create new projects using the Windows and cross-platform compatibilities. This includes new processes, libraries, test automations, and templates. We continue to support editing existing Windows - Legacy projects and organizations are still able to use governance policies to restore the option of creating Windows - Legacy projects. For more information, see About the Windows - Legacy compatibility.
• Starting with this release, the task to Run/Debug with Data Variations in the context menu of data-driven test cases within the Project Explorer was removed, because it didn't support dynamic test data variations. Instead, you can run/debug your data-driven test cases from the Test Explorer. If the static or dynamic data is run at least once, you can see all the data variations as child elements within your data-driven test case, within the Test explorer. Then, you can individually select the child elements and trigger their execution.

Activity package versions

The following activity packages and versions are included in the UiPathStudio.msi installer and can be found in the local feed.

Activity package	Version
UiPath.UIAutomation.Activities	v24.10.0
UiPath.System.Activities	v24.10.3
UiPath.Excel.Activities	v2.23.4
UiPath.Mail.Activities	v1.23.1
UiPath.Word.Activities	v1.19.3
UiPath.ComplexScenarios.Activities	v1.5.0
UiPath.Presentations.Activities	v1.13.1
UiPath.Testing.Activities	v24.10.0
UiPath.WebAPI.Activities	v1.21.0
UiPath.Form.Activities	v24.10.2
UiPath.Callout.Activities	v24.10.2