2022.4.1

Release date: 9 May 2022

What's New

Studio has migrated to .NET 6

Studio now uses the latest .NET release, .NET 6. Windows and cross-platform projects now also target .NET 6.

Add tags to projects

Organizing your automations is now easier with the introduction of project tags. Tags you add to projects are included in the published packages and can be applied to Orchestrator processes, making them easier to find. You can define two types of tags - labels and properties (key-value pairs) from the project settings or from the publish wizard by creating new tags or reusing tags that are already defined in Orchestrator. See Organizing resources with tags to find out more about tags in Orchestrator.

Prevent sending projects with Workflow Analyzer errors to remote repositories

We’ve added a new way in which you can ensure automation best practices are followed. You can now prevent projects with Workflow Analyzer errors from being sent to remote repositories by enabling the option Enforce Analyzer before Push/Check-in located in Studio Backstage View > Settings > Design. Organizations can control this setting using governance policies.

Update dependencies when importing workflows

To help you avoid unresolved activities when you import a workflow into a project, Studio now checks the dependencies of the project from which the file is imported, notifies you if any discrepancies are found, and prompts you to install missing packages and update packages that use an older version in the current project. For more information about importing files, see Context Menu for Projects.

OAuth 2.0-based framework for robot authentication

In this release, we ship a new robot authentication mechanism that uses the OAuth 2.0 framework as the basis for its authentication protocol, meaning unattended robots can connect to Orchestrator using a client ID - client secret pair generated via machine template objects. The client ID - client secret pair generates a token that authorizes the connection and provides the robot with access to Orchestrator resources.

Client credentials allow the UiPath Robot to access resources by using its own credentials, instead of impersonating a user. When the robot requests resources from Orchestrator, Orchestrator enforces that the robot itself has authorization to perform an action since there is no user involved in the authentication.

More on robot authentication.

Instructions for administrators on how to manage client credentials (create new credentials, revoke access).

Instructions for RPA developers and attended users on how to connect their robots to Orchestrator from the Assistant and from.Studio.

UI Automation in cross-platform projects

The UI Automation activities package now supports cross-platform projects and is a default dependency in all projects with the cross-platform compatibility. You can use the activities in this package to automate tasks performed in the Chrome web browser. Please note that the package does not support cross-platform projects for which the Starts in Background project setting is enabled. For more information, see Chrome Automation on Linux Robots.

Introducing customizable fields for templates

We’ve added customizable fields to our templates, allowing a template to become a sample task with activities in place that you can configure by filling in the blank fields with your data.

When creating a template, you can mark and unmark fields as customizable by using the Plus menu and selecting Mark as customizable or Unmark as customizable. Customizable fields are marked with an icon and the data inside is cleared when the template is published.

New test automation features

Data-driven testing with Data Service

Data-driven testing expands its data source types through UiPath Data Service. You can aggregate data for your test cases from Data Service entities. You filter the data by your criterion and use it as arguments in building test cases.

Important: This feature requires an Automation Cloud license.

For more information, see Testing through Data Service.

Data-driven testing with auto-generated data

Auto-generated data comes as an additional data source for your testing efforts. You can generate values to solve workflow conditions and achieve high activity coverage.

Test workflows using auto-generated values.

Descriptor coverage

Validation across Selectors and Object Repository items is now available with Descriptor coverage. See if your targets are indicated correctly by looking at the selector coverage of your test executions.

Improvements

Performance and usability

• We've made a number of enhancements that enable Studio to start 33% faster, improve the speed of opening and creating projects by 14%, and improve the speed of sending changes to source control in projects with a large number of files. To improve the user experience while projects are loading, more information is now displayed regarding the progress of adding and restoring dependencies.
• Compilation is now faster for Windows and cross-platform projects, both at execution time and at publish time. In addition, when you execute a project, only the files that have changed since the last execution are recompiled, even if you close and reopen the project between executions.
• Full project analysis and validation is now performed only the first time the Workflow Analyzer runs after a project is opened. Subsequent analyses check only the files that have changed since the last time the analysis was performed.
• The Studio icon in the Windows taskbar now flashes when a debug operation stops, making it easier for you to see when execution ends successfully, reaches a breakpoint or suspend activity, or encounters an exception.
• When a breakpoint is reached and debugging pauses, a Continue button is now also available in the Studio thumbnail preview in the Windows taskbar, enabling you to quickly continue execution.

• We’ve made the Tools page in the Studio Backstage View more useful and easier to navigate:

  • Apps and extensions are now available on separate tabs.
  • If an extension is already installed, an Installed label is displayed for it.
  • You can now also uninstall extensions, not just install them. When you hover over an extension, depending on the current status, an Install or Uninstall button is displayed for that extension.
  • A new Plugins tab is now available. It contains settings for source control plugins (moved from Settings > Team) and test automation plugins.
• The Studio window now has a default size of 1280x680 pixels and a minimum size of 1024x640 pixels.
• If the Capture all elements wizard doesn't identify certain elements correctly, a Report issues option is now available directly in the wizard. This enables you to send UiPath a report containing an image of the area with unexpected results, which can help us improve detection in the future.
• The menu displayed when you click the Plus button on the right side of activity fields now includes the option to create a variable.
• A new option called Choose Date/Time has been added to the Plus menu for fields that support TimeSpan values.

Studio installer

The Studio installer has received a few updates:

• You now have the option to install Studio and Robot for the current user or for all users on the machine in custom installations.
• The local activities feed is now always installed and the option to disable it is no longer available in the installation wizard.
• To reduce the size of the Studio MSI installer, the UiPath.IntelligentOCR.Activities package is no longer included in the installer, and therefore not available in the local activities feed. The package is available for installation in the Official UiPath feed. If Studio is installed on a computer that is not connected to the internet, you can download UiPath.IntelligentOCR.Activities v6.0.1 on another computer and copy it to the Studio computer. For more information, see Managing Activities Packages.
• We've removed unnecessary prompts to close certain open applications that were displayed when uninstalling or updating.
• When the options you select in the Studio installer cause the installation to require elevated privileges, the icon is now displayed on the Install button to indicate administrator rights are needed to continue.

Remote debugging

• Remote debugging with an unattended robot connection now supports remote robots that are not the same version as Studio. For remote machine connections, the Studio and Robot versions must match.
• The remote debugging agent on a machine with which you establish an unattended robot remote debugging connection is now automatically stopped if you close Studio without starting remote execution.

Test automation

Test explorer

• The Test Explorer panel shows data-driven test cases already collapsed so you can quickly glance over test automation folders with a large number of files. You can use the two new buttons to extend or collapse workflow and test case panel information. Additionally, the number of variations for each test case is now visible.
• Adding, updating and removing test data is now at hand, in the Test Explorer contextual menu.
• You can filter by Editing Status to see either the number of workflows that have been ignored from execution, or in progress test cases.

Background process support

Test Automation projects support background processes, meaning that you can execute test cases in parallel, using a single robot.

Accessibility shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts have been added to help you find Test Automations features that you need.

User experience

• You can view the duration of each executed test in the Test Explorer panel.
• Data variations are shown based on their corresponding index order, while hovering the cursor over each item displays a list view of all arguments, and associated values.

UiPath Activities API release notes

The UiPath.Activities.Api SDK package now has its own release notes page where you can see what's changed starting with version 21.10.3.

Upcoming Deprecations

Studio 2022.10 will be the last release to support the creation of projects with the Windows-legacy compatibility. In Studio 2023.4, you will be able to create Windows or cross-platform projects, and only open and edit Windows-legacy projects created in previous versions of Studio. A migration tool will be available starting with Studio 2022.10 to allow you to convert Windows-legacy projects to the Windows compatibility.

Important: Erratum 21 July 2022: The end of support for creating Windows-legacy projects was initially announced for Studio 2022.10. This change is now planned for Studio 2023.4.

Breaking Changes

When sending Studio usage data to Application Insights was enabled in Studio 2021.10, the NewProject event was generated twice, first when the user selected to create a new project in the Studio Backstage View, and again when the user clicked the Create button in the new project dialog. For better clarity, the event generated when the user clicks the Create button in the new project dialog has been renamed NewProjectCreated.

Bug Fixes

• Using keyboard shortcuts such as AltGr + C to write special characters in expressions did not work as expected on the Polish keyboard.
• A System.IO.IOException: Connection closed error could occur when creating a project.
• The option to enable/disable Compile Activities Expressions incorrectly appeared in the Project Settings window for Windows and cross-platform libraries where compilation is always enabled.
• A compilation error occurred when you published a library that contained a private workflow file that invoked another private workflow file.
• When you ran the UiPath.RemoteDebugging.Agent.exe enable command to initiate a remote debugging session on a remote robot, the confirmation message of the command did not display the hostname and port that must be provided for setting up the remote machine connection in Studio.
• Opening a Robotic Enterprise Framework template in Studio version 2021.10.4 resulted in an error. This issue occurred in scenarios where all online feeds were disabled and the packages folder was deleted.
• Rest API exceptions generated due to Orchestrator connectivity issues did not provide user-friendly error messages.
• When the interface language in Studio was set to German, selecting Remove Unused Variables also removed the variables that were used.
• When a workflow contained two variables with the same name created in different scopes, one being used and the other unused, selecting Remove Unused Variables removed both variables, not just the unused one.
• An error occurred when you edited expressions that contained surrogate pairs.
• When the interface language in Studio was set to French, the label of the Enable Activity option in the Designer panel context menu incorrectly indicated CTRL + D as the keyboard combination for the action.
• When the installation failed due to the current user not having access to the C:\Windows\Temp folder, the error message did not clearly indicate the cause of the error.
• The Run from this activity feature behaved unexpectedly when used for an activity placed inside two nested Attach Window activities.
• The Workflow Analyzer sometimes returned different results when run from Studio versus when run from the command line.
• File changes were not identified correctly in GIT after you performed GIT Init in projects with Object Repository elements.
• When you opened a workflow that had no corresponding project.json file (for example, by double-clicking a XAML file that was not in a project folder), the language for expressions in the newly created project was always set to C#. Studio now uses the Use C# language Studio design setting to determine the language of the project.
• Remote debugging with an unattended robot connection failed in Orchestrator multi-node environments when using the default configuration.
• Execution did not pause when a breakpoint placed on a Comment activity was reached during debugging.

Known Issues

When you add a Use Application/Browser activity in a workflow using a screen from the Object Repository, you cannot edit the application arguments for the activity. As a workaround, unlink the activity from the Object Repository, edit the arguments, and then add the screen to the Object Repository again.

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	v22.4.4
UiPath.System.Activities	v22.4.1
UiPath.Web.Activities	v1.11.1
UiPath.Excel.Activities	v2.12.3
UiPath.Mail.Activities	v1.15.1
UiPath.Word.Activities	v1.10.1
UiPath.ComplexScenarios.Activities	v1.1.6
UiPath.Presentation.Activities	v1.3.3
UiPath.Testing.Activities	v22.4.2
UiPath.MobileAutomation.Activities	v22.4.4
UiPath.Persistence.Activities	v1.3.4
UiPath.PDF.Activities	v3.6.0
UiPath.Terminal.Activities	v2.4.0
UiPath.Form.Activities	v1.9.6