Combined Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub release notes for upgrades from Vancouver to Xanadu

Consolidated page of all release notes for Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub from Vancouver to Xanadu.

How to use this page

To help you prepare for your upgrade, we have combined the cross-family Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub release notes onto one page. Read this summary of the new features, changes, and updated information for your product from Vancouver to Xanadu.

Tip:

If there were no updates for a release notes section in a certain family release, we included a short note for your reference. For example, if a product did not have any updates in Tokyo, the row says "No updates for this release."

Important information for upgrading Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub to Xanadu

Before you upgrade to Xanadu, review these pre- and post-upgrade tasks and complete the tasks as needed.

Release	Release notes
Vancouver	Ensure that you upgrade the current installed Microsoft Software Installers (MSIs) (RPA Desktop Design Studio, Attended Robot, Unattended Robot, and Unattended Robot Login Agent), by downloading the RPA applications. For more information, see Download the RPA applications from RPA Hub. The following upgrade steps are applicable only when you’re upgrading from San Diego or Tokyo to Vancouver. Based on the number of records in the application file table, you could experience a potential delay while upgrading the RPA Hub applications from Tokyo or before to Vancouver. Before upgrading RPA Hub to Vancouver, you must set the value of the glide.rollback.blacklist.TableParentChange.change system property to false. If this property doesn't exist in the System Property [sys_properties] table, add the property and set its value to false. After you upgrade to the Vancouver, the bot process definitions change to the new structure, that is, the bot process configuration. Although the bot process configuration doesn't replace the bot process completely. Most fields are moved from bot process to bot process configuration. If you upgrade to the Utah version without updating the system property value, the tables don’t extend the Application File table. Manually to update the table changes, see the Restructuring RPA Hub tables to sys_metadata in Utah article in the Now Support Knowledge Base.
Washington DC	Ensure that you upgrade any of the following currently installed Microsoft Software Installers (MSIs) by downloading the RPA applications: RPA Desktop Design Studio Attended Robot Unattended Robot Unattended Robot Login Agent For more information, see Download the RPA applications from RPA Hub. The following upgrade steps are applicable only when you’re upgrading from San Diego or Tokyo to Washington DC. Based on the number of records in the application file table, you could experience a potential delay while upgrading the RPA Hub applications from Tokyo or before to Washington DC. Before upgrading RPA Hub to Washington DC, you must set the value of the glide.rollback.blacklist.TableParentChange.change system property to false. If this property doesn't exist in the System Property [sys_properties] table, add the property and set its value to false. For more information on how to add a property, see Add a system property. After you upgrade to the Washington DC, the bot process definitions change to the new structure, which is the bot process configuration. Although the bot process configuration doesn't replace the bot process completely, most fields are moved from bot process to bot process configuration. If you upgrade to the Utah version without updating the system property value, the tables don’t extend the Application File table. To update the table changes manually, see the Restructuring RPA Hub tables to sys_metadata in Utah article in the Now Support Knowledge Base.
Xanadu	No updates for this release.

New features

Between your current release family and Xanadu, new features were introduced for Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub.

Release	Release notes
Vancouver	Code quality check RPA release managers or RPA admins select code quality check rules from a pre-defined set in the RPA Hub instance. Then, the RPA Desktop Design Studio performs an in-built code quality check before publishing a package. RPA developers can also perform a pro-active code quality check on a package in the RPA Desktop Design Studio, by inspecting an activity or a complete automation project for any issues by using the Code Quality Check feature. The issues and their details are displayed in the Code Quality Check Results window. Troubleshoot the issues before you publish the automation project to RPA Hub. For more information on how to perform the code quality check in RPA Desktop Design Studio, see Code quality check in RPA Desktop Design Studio. If an error or a warning occurs in the automation, a decision is derived if the package can be published successfully or not, based on the system property configuration (error, warning, or no restrictions). To view a list of the pre-defined code quality rules in the RPA Hub instance, see Code quality rules list. View a code quality rule form along with the type and description. For more information, see Code quality rule form. In the code quality rule form, RPA release managers and admins can edit the Severity, Regular Expression, Active, and Value fields. To enable the code quality check at the instance level, ensure that you mark the new system property sn_rpa_fdn.enable_code_quality_check as true. Additionally, configure the following system properties: sn_rpa_fdn.restrict_package_by_severity - To set a restriction on publishing a package from RPA Desktop Design Studio and publishing a bot process in RPA Hub. sn_rpa_fdn.code_quality_check_timeout - To enter a maximum duration, in minutes, for the completion of the code quality check. These system properties are effective only when the code quality check feature sn_rpa_fdn.enable_code_quality_check is enabled. For more information about these properties and values, see Configure RPA Hub properties. Track scheduled maintenance days on robot calendar Track scheduled maintenance (SM) days on the robot calendar for an optimum functioning of the bot processes and to take preventive measures. After a change request is created, it reflects as a scheduled maintenance day on the robot calendar, only when the change request is either in Scheduled, Implement, or Review states. An associated scheduled maintenance event card appears on the robot calendar to track the scheduled maintenance day. RPA release managers and RPA admins have visibility to the potential impacts on the current or future automation executions. They can take an appropriate call to action. Such as, either to accept or reject an associated scheduled maintenance event card of the configuration item (associated robot or a bot process) on the robot calendar. As a result of this action, a maintenance request is created for tracking purposes. For more information, see Manage scheduled maintenance days in RPA Hub and View maintenance requests in RPA Hub. Robot pool in RPA Hub Create a robot pool record in RPA Hub from the Robot Pool menu for an optimum utilization of robots to execute the bot processes. Enable the robot pool option for a bot process on the Bot Process form to allocate robots dynamically, for the bot process execution. For more information, see Enable robot pool for a bot process in RPA Hub. Associate a queue with a bot process before you enable the robot pool option. For more information, see Associate a queue to the bot process from the related list. Select and configure the robot pool fields on the Bot Process form to define the allocation type. For more information, see Bot Process form. Configure the robot pool related fields for Average Handling Time (AHT) calculation on the Queue form. For more information, see Queue form. Calculate the number of robots required with a new UI button Calculate. Based on allocation type, Service Level Agreement (SLA) or percentage reduction, the robots are allocated from the selected robot pool to execute the bot process. For more information, see Calculate the number of robots in RPA Hub. Access the robot calendar for the robots assigned to a robot pool. On the ribbon of the robot calendar, you can see the associated robot pool name along with robot type, robot state, and so on. New ways of creating schedules on robot calendar Right-click or double-click an empty slot of the robot calendar to create a schedule. These options are available along with the New Schedule button on the robot calendar. However, the RPA support user or developer must be a part of the Managed By Group list to access this functionality. View, edit, and delete a schedule from an event pop over card On the event pop over card, select the following icons to view, edit, and delete a schedule: Select the view bot process details icon () to get the bot process details in a new tab. Select the view event details icon () to view more details about the schedule in the contextual side panel. Select the edit schedule icon () to edit an existing schedule. Select the delete schedule icon () to delete a schedule that you no longer need. For more information, see View robot events in RPA Hub.
Washington DC	Embedded Task Automation in RPA Hub Trigger attended bot processes, also known as attended automations, from the ServiceNow forms, playbooks, workspaces, and so on. To trigger this bot process from the ServiceNow form, select the Enable Embedded Task Automation check box in the Attended Bot Process form. After enabling this check box, two additional tabs, Process Field Parameters and Attended Configuration, are available on the Bot Process form. For more information about the Bot Process form, see Bot Process form. On the Process Field Parameters tab, create dynamic parameters that are used in the bot process. Process field parameters are used for setting a value or getting the value of a field on a particular form. For more information about creating process field parameters, see Create a process field parameter in RPA Hub. You can also create a parameter from the Field Parameter Mappings tab by selecting the Create parameter button from the Attended Configurations menu. For more information, see Map a table field to a bot process field parameter in RPA Hub. In the RPA Hub workspace, create an attended configuration record. For more information about creating an attended configuration record, see Create an attended configuration record in RPA Hub. On the Field Parameter Mappings tab, map the form fields to the process field parameters that are used in the automations. This process enables an easy data flow during the execution of a bot process. For more information about mapping field parameters, see Map a table field to a bot process field parameter in RPA Hub. Activate the attended configuration record to trigger the attended bot process. For more information, see Activate an attended configuration record in RPA Hub. New components for Embedded Task Automation The following four new components are added to the new Forms section in RPA Desktop Design Studio. These components are available under the new ServiceNow category in the Toolbox pane. AttendedConfigurations component: Segregate the execution of the automations in a single automation project and call the respective logic according to the action invoked. For more information, see Use the AttendedConfigurations component. GetProcessFieldParameters component: Fetch the values of the ServiceNow form fields associated in the Field Parameter Mapping of the corresponding attended configuration record in RPA Hub. For more information, see Use the GetProcessFieldParameters component. GetRecordContextID component: Fetch the current record sys_id of the ServiceNow form, from where the automation is triggered. For more information, see Use the GetRecordContextID component. SetProcessFieldParameters component: Update the values of the ServiceNow form fields associated in the Field Parameter Mapping of the corresponding attended configuration record in RPA Hub. For more information, see Use the SetProcessFieldParameters component. External credential vault in RPA Hub In RPA Hub, you can retrieve robot credentials, application credentials, or Time-based One-time Password (TOTP) seeds from the external credential vault. Create an external credential vault record in RPA Hub to register your external credential vault for further usage by the robot. For more information, see Create an external credential vault record in RPA Hub. A new External Credential check box is available in the credential set form, an application credential form, and a TOTP authenticator form. If this check box is selected, the credentials or TOTP seed is fetched from a configured external credential vault. If the check box is selected in the TOTP authenticator form, the seed is fetched from a configured external credential vault. For more information about these forms, see Create a credential set within a bot process, Create an application credential set in RPA Hub, and Create a TOTP authenticator in RPA Hub. If the application credential record has the External Credential check box enabled, then the SetApplicationCredential component in RPA Desktop Design Studio doesn’t set the credentials and displays an error. For more information about the SetApplicationCredential component, see Use the SetApplicationCredential component. Use the steps listed in the Steps to configure an external credential vault in RPA Hub topic to guide you through all the tasks of configuring an external credential vault in RPA Hub. Storage of process execution data in flat files In RPA Hub, you can configure the output type as flat files for the execution logs that are generated on the robot machine. On the Bot Process form, select an output type of the execution log file from the Output Type field from the Log Settings section. This field appears when the Track Execution Logs option is selected and when the Robot Machine is selected from the Storage field. The location of the flat files is Users\<Userprofile>\ServiceNow RPA Logs\.executionlogs\{InstanceName}\.archive\{ProcessJob number} in the machine on which you have installed the attended or unattended robot. If the size of the flat file exceeds 10 MB, it splits into multiple flat files with the log sequence appended to the file names until it executes the automation. A flat file doesn't log the data of input or output ports in a component or method that you have selected as Mark Data as Sensitive in the RPA Desktop Design Studio. New Actions and Subflow Invoke the following new actions and subflow in : Change Life Cycle Stage Status of a Bot Process Action to modify the life cycle stage status of a bot process that is not retired. Stop Process Action and Stop Process subflow to stop a bot process. If the robot pool option is enabled for the bot process, it stops all the robots assigned to the pool. If Graceful Stop is enabled, it provides a capability for robots to exit the automation smoothly. Graceful Stop is not applicable for bot processes with the robot pool option enabled. Wait for any screen method at the Universal App Connector level In RPA Desktop Design Studio, the WaitForAnyScreen method appears in the Object Explorer pane when you double-click the Universal App connector object under the Global Objects pane. The WaitForAnyScreen method finds an application screen within a specified duration, and then you can enable it to pass the control to another method. You can set up multiple application screens that appear in an order on the method, and the WaitForAnyScreen method tries to find a screen starting from the first application screen by matching the screen match rules. If the method doesn't find a screen, it tries to find the next screen in the order. However, if the method finds a screen, it completes execution and doesn't proceed to the screens next in the order. If the method doesn't find any screen within the specified duration, you may optionally enable it to pass the control to another component through the ELSE port. SetPassword Method In RPA Desktop Design Studio, the SetPassword method automates securely entering a password in the password field of a web-based, Java, or Windows application. It accepts the password as a SECURE STRING type and then enters it in the password field. SimulateMouseEvent Method In the RPA Desktop Design Studio, the SimulateMouseEvent method automates simulating a mouse event on an element on a web-based application. For example, automate the right-click mouse event on a button to open a context menu. The screen element on which the mouse event occurs must priorly have the mouse event defined in the HTML. The method supports a list of mouse events and mouse button types. IEnumerable data type port in connectors The IEnumerable input data type enables methods to accept arrays, array lists, and lists. This input data type port is available in multiple connectors. Universal App connector supports Shadow DOM elements The XPath and the CssSelector locators in the Universal App connector shows the full XPath and CSS path with the Shadow DOM elements, if a web application uses Shadow DOM.
Xanadu	No updates for this release.

Changes

Between your current release family and Xanadu, some changes were made to existing Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub features.

Release	Release notes
Vancouver	View access to business users robot calendar In RPA Hub, business users can view the robot calendar along with schedules for robot pool enabled bot processes and scheduled maintenance days. View access to business users for bot process form In RPA Hub, business users can view the bot process form. View access to business users for Shared Parameters, Packages, and Authenticators RPA business users can view the Shared Parameters, Packages, and Authenticators in the RPA Hub navigation menu. View access to developers, support users, business users for Queues RPA developers, support users, and business users can view the list of queues. They have access only those queues and work items that are associated to a bot process, assigned to them. However, they must be a part of the Managed By Group list to access this functionality. Change to process job record creation Previously for unattended automations, the process job record for a bot process was created only when the unattended robot logs in to the robot machine successfully or unsuccessfully. Now, a process job record gets created as soon as the unattended robot starts initiating the bot process in the robot machine. The Message field is updated during the different stages of the process that provides insight and visibility regarding the status of your bot process. For more information on how to run an automation by using Unattended Robot, see Using Unattended Robot. Selection of Flow Designer items in Flow Designer components View and select only the items such as flows, subflows, or actions in component that has the application scope set to All application scopes. The application scope is set in the Accessible From field in your instance. If the application scope of the item is set as This application scope only, then the item wouldn’t be available in the drop-down list while you configure the component. For more information on how to use components in RPA Desktop Design Studio, see Flow Designer components
Washington DC	Manage plugins from a single location In the RPA Desktop Design Studio, install, view, update, or remove plugins from the Plugin Manager window or the Plugins node in the Project Explorer pane. New location for the Attachments and components in the Toolbox pane In RPA Desktop Design Studio, the Attachments and components are available under the new ServiceNow category in the Toolbox pane.
Xanadu	No updates for this release.

Removed

Between your current release family and Xanadu, some Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub features or functionality were removed.

Release	Release notes
Vancouver	You can no longer upload a zip file of the automation package in the RPA Hub Workspace. Instead, you can import the attachment automatically. For more information about the automatic import, see Import a package version attachment in RPA Hub. Manually to migrate the package from a lower (non-production) to a higher (production) environment, perform this task in the classic environment. For more information, see Upload an automation package attachment in RPA Hub. You can no longer verify the HashCode of a package version in the RPA Hub Workspace. Instead, you can perform this task from the classic environment. For more information, see Verify the HashCode of a package version in RPA Hub.
Washington DC	No updates for this release.
Xanadu	No updates for this release.

Deprecations

Between your current release family and Xanadu, some Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub features or functionality were deprecated.

Release	Release notes
Vancouver	No updates for this release.
Washington DC	No updates for this release.
Xanadu	No updates for this release.

Activation information

Review information on how to activate Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub.

Release	Release notes
Vancouver	Install RPA Hub by requesting it from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes. For cumulative release notes information on RPA Hub, see RPA Hub release notes. For cumulative release notes information on RPA Desktop Design Studio, see RPA Plugin Bundle release notes. For cumulative release notes information on RPA sample templates, see RPA sample template release notes. If you have previously downloaded the application from the ServiceNow Store and a new version is available, you can update it in your ServiceNow AI Platform instance at All > System Applications > All Available Applications.
Washington DC	Install RPA Hub by requesting it from the ServiceNow Store. For cumulative release notes information on RPA Hub, see RPA Hub release notes. For cumulative release notes information on RPA Desktop Design Studio, see RPA Plugin Bundle release notes. For cumulative release notes information on RPA sample templates, see RPA sample template release notes. If you have previously downloaded the application from the ServiceNow Store and a new version is available, you can update it in your ServiceNow AI Platform instance at All > System Applications > All Available Applications.
Xanadu	No updates for this release.

Additional requirements

If any additional requirements were introduced or changed for Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub we have noted them here.

Release	Release notes
Vancouver	To use the Unattended Robot application, the minimum requirements are: Intel Processor (1vCPU) 4-GB RAM Minimum 20-GB free disk space (after installing the OS, patches, and base software) Microsoft Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2019 .NET Framework 4.7.1 or higher DPI scaling setting must be deactivated. To use the Unattended Robot application, the recommended requirements are: Intel Processor (4vCPU) 8-GB RAM. Minimum 50-GB free disk space (after installing the OS, patches, and base software). Microsoft Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2019. .NET Framework 4.7.1 or higher. DPI scaling setting must be deactivated. An unattended robot is mapped to only one machine. Virtual Machines (VMs) that are used for the Unattended Robot application must be persistent and always on. To use the Attended Robot application, the minimum requirements are: Intel Processor (1vCPU). 4-GB RAM. Minimum 20-GB free disk space (after installing OS, patches, and base software). Microsoft Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2019. .NET Framework 4.7.1 or higher. DPI scaling setting must be deactivated. To use the Attended Robot application, the recommended requirements are as follows: Intel Processor (4vCPU). 8-GB RAM. Minimum 50-GB free disk space (after installing the OS, patches, and base software). Microsoft Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2019. .NET Framework 4.7.1 or higher. DPI scaling setting must be deactivated. To use the RPA Desktop Design Studio application, the minimum requirements are as follows: Intel Processor (Core i5 or higher) 4-GB RAM. 20-GB free disk space. Microsoft Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2019. .NET Framework 4.7.1 or higher. Monitor with 1920x1080p resolution is preferred. DPI scaling setting must be deactivated. An attended robot is mapped to only one user. To use the RPA Desktop Design Studio application, the recommended requirements are as follows: Intel Processor (Core i7). 8-GB RAM. 50-GB free disk space. Microsoft Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2019. .NET Framework 4.7.1 or higher. Monitor with 1920x1080p resolution is preferred. DPI scaling setting must be deactivated.
Washington DC	To use the Unattended Robot application, the minimum requirements are as follows: Intel Processor (1vCPU). 4-GB RAM. Minimum 20-GB free disk space after installing the OS, patches, and base software. Microsoft Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2019. .NET Framework 4.7.1 or later. DPI scaling setting must be deactivated. To use the Unattended Robot application, the recommended requirements are: Intel Processor (4vCPU). 8-GB RAM. Minimum 50-GB free disk space after installing the OS, patches, and base software. Microsoft Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2019. .NET Framework 4.7.1 or later. DPI scaling setting must be deactivated. An unattended robot is mapped to only one machine. Virtual Machines (VMs) that are used for the Unattended Robot application must be persistent and constantly on. To use the Attended Robot application, the minimum requirements are as follows: Intel Processor (1vCPU). 4-GB RAM. Minimum 20-GB free disk space after installing OS, patches, and base software. Microsoft Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2019. .NET Framework 4.7.1 or later. DPI scaling setting must be deactivated. To use the Attended Robot application, the recommended requirements are as follows: Intel Processor (4vCPU). 8-GB RAM. Minimum 50-GB free disk space after installing the OS, patches, and base software. Microsoft Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2019. .NET Framework 4.7.1 or later. DPI scaling setting must be deactivated. An attended robot is mapped to only one user. To use the RPA Desktop Design Studio application, the minimum requirements are as follows: Intel Processor (Core i5 or later) 4-GB RAM. 20-GB free disk space. Microsoft Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2019. .NET Framework 4.7.1 or later. Monitor with 1920x1080p resolution. DPI scaling setting must be deactivated. To use the RPA Desktop Design Studio application, the recommended requirements are as follows: Intel Processor (Core i7). 8-GB RAM. 50-GB free disk space. Microsoft Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2019. .NET Framework 4.7.1 or later. Monitor with 1920x1080p resolution. DPI scaling setting must be deactivated.
Xanadu	No updates for this release.

Browser requirements

If any specific browser requirements were introduced or changed for Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub we have noted them here.

Release	Release notes
Vancouver	ServiceNow workspaces don’t support mobile devices. For more information about the list of supported browsers, see Browser support.
Washington DC	ServiceNow workspaces don’t support mobile devices. For more information about the list of supported browsers, see Browser support.
Xanadu	No updates for this release.

Accessibility information

Review details on accessibility information for Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub, such as specific requirements or compliance levels.

Release	Release notes
Vancouver	No updates for this release.
Washington DC	No updates for this release.
Xanadu	No updates for this release.

Localization information

If there are specific localization considerations for Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub we have noted them here.

Release	Release notes
Vancouver	RPA Hub supports international languages. For more information, see Internationalization support for RPA Hub.
Washington DC	RPA Hub supports international languages. For more information, see Internationalization support for RPA Hub.
Xanadu	No updates for this release.

Highlight information

If there are specific highlight considerations for Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub we have noted them here.

Release	Release notes
Vancouver	Use the Code Quality Check feature to perform a code quality check for your automations in RPA Desktop Design Studio. Also, configure and manage the pre-defined code quality check rules in the RPA Hub instance. Track the scheduled maintenance days on the robot calendar in RPA Hub, to know in advance about the days when the robot or the bot process is unavailable for execution. Use the new robot pool feature in RPA Hub, to distribute and manage the workload among multiple robots, dynamically. See Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub for more information.
Washington DC	Use the Embedded Task Automation feature to trigger attended bot processes, also known as attended automations, from ServiceNow forms, playbooks, workspaces, and so on. Retrieve sensitive information, such as usernames and passwords, securely from various external vaults by enabling the external credential vault feature in RPA Hub. Store the logs of a process execution in a readable format through flat files. New actions and subflow such as Change Life Cycle Stage Status of a Bot Process Action, Stop Process Action, and Stop Process Subflow are available in the that further refine RPA integration via flows, subflows, and APIs. Enhanced Universal App Connector. See Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub for more information.
Xanadu	No updates for this release.