Using Graceful Stop functionality in RPA Hub

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Using Graceful Stop functionality in RPA Hub

    The Graceful Stop functionality in RPA Hub allows robots to exit an automation process smoothly by defining secure termination points. This feature enables robots to complete ongoing tasks and perform necessary clean-up activities, such as closing applications, ensuring data consistency and operational integrity. It applies to both assigned robots and those within a robot pool.

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    Challenges before Graceful Stop

    Previously, stopping a bot process caused robots to terminate abruptly, which led to incomplete transactions, data inconsistency, and prevented RPA developers from performing essential housekeeping tasks.

    Benefits

    • Maintains data integrity by allowing robots to complete current transaction items before stopping.
    • Allows RPA developers to implement housekeeping activities like closing downstream applications properly.

    How Graceful Stop Works

    Consider an automation that processes shipping orders from a spreadsheet into a downstream Shipping Management application. Without Graceful Stop, stopping the process abruptly may leave some data columns unprocessed and applications open. When Graceful Stop is enabled in RPA Hub:

    • The robot completes processing all data items (e.g., all spreadsheet columns).
    • It performs housekeeping tasks such as closing applications.

    In the RPA Desktop Design Studio, using the GracefulStop component in the automation logic ensures all ongoing work is completed before stopping.

    Important Configuration for Robot Pools

    To enable Graceful Stop for robots in a robot pool, the latest Washington DC release-specific Unattended Robot MSI must be installed. Without this upgrade, stopping processes for robot pools will terminate all robots abruptly, disabling the graceful stop capability.

    Graceful Stop functionality provides a capability for robots to exit the automation smoothly. You can define a secure termination point within an automation process. It also enables you to perform clean-up tasks such as closing in-use applications. It is applicable for assigned robots as well as robots in a robot pool.

    Challenges prior to Graceful Stop functionality

    • Prior to Graceful Stop, when you select the Stop Process button on a bot process, the robots exit the automation abruptly leading to data inconsistency and data inefficiencies.
    • RPA developers cannot perform the house-keeping activities.

    Benefits of Graceful Stop functionality

    • Data sanity is maintained as the robot completes the existing transaction items.
    • RPA developers can perform the house-keeping activities, such as, closing the downstream application.

    How Graceful Stop works

    Let's consider a shipping order use case that contains 10 order detail records in a spreadsheet. These order details are populated into a downstream application, for example, Shipping Management application.

    RPA developer builds an automation for this use case in the RPA Desktop Design Studio. Since the spreadsheet has 10 records, queues are used in the automation to synchronise the data to be populated into the Shipping Management application.

    Each robot picks the work item, performs the logic, and pushes the data into the Shipping Management application.

    If the bot process is stopped by selecting Stop Process for all or a subset of robots and the Graceful Stop is not enabled, then the robots end the automation execution abruptly. For example, if there are 6 columns in the spreadsheet, the robot stops at column C abruptly, without populating the information in columns D, E, and F. The application which is open, might not be closed.

    In the RPA Hub, when you enable the Graceful Stop toggle switch in Stop Process section, the data in all the columns (D,E,F) are populated and the downstream application is closed. For more information, see Stop an unattended bot process in RPA Hub.

    In the RPA Desktop Design Studio, when you use the GracefulStop component in your automation logic, it ensures that the automation is completed. For more information, see Use the GracefulStop component. It completes the existing work items, populates the data into the downstream application, and helps the developer to perform house-keeping activities such as closing the application.

    New MSI for Unattended Robot

    For the graceful stop functionality to be applicable on robots in a robot pool, upgrade to the latest Washington DC release specific Unattended Robot MSI. For more information, see Download the RPA applications from RPA Hub.

    If the latest MSI is not installed and if the robot pool is enabled for a particular bot process, then the execution is stopped for all the robots of the robot pool. For these bot processes, you can't use a graceful stop for robots in a robot pool.