Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Spoke
Summarize
Summary of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Spoke
The Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Spoke for ServiceNow Zurich release empowers flow designers to integrate and manage attended and unattended automation processes within their workflows. It provides a collection of actions and subflows that enable assigning users to attended automation, managing work items in queues, monitoring process jobs, and controlling bot lifecycle stages directly from ServiceNow. This integration streamlines automation orchestration by allowing ServiceNow customers to trigger, track, and control RPA processes hosted in the RPA Hub.
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Key Features
- Work Item Management: Add, update, and fetch work items in specified queues with support for encrypted sensitive data, ensuring secure handling of automation inputs and outputs.
- User Assignment: Assign and unassign users to/from attended automation processes and attended robots, facilitating proper user-robot collaboration.
- Process Lifecycle Control: Change the lifecycle stage of bot processes (e.g., from Build to Published or In Maintenance), enforce policies on process states, and verify package version integrity via HashCode checks.
- Process Job Monitoring: Fetch details of created jobs, execution status of specific jobs, and work item statuses asynchronously to enable real-time process tracking.
- Process Control Actions: Start and stop bot processes with options for graceful stopping, including handling of robot pools and management of failed robots.
- Subflows: Predefined subflows to automate common RPA tasks such as importing package version attachments, starting processes, and stopping processes while reporting detailed job and robot statuses.
Practical Use and Benefits
ServiceNow customers can leverage these RPA Spoke capabilities to seamlessly embed robotic automation within their ServiceNow workflows, enabling:
- Automated assignment and management of attended bots to users, enhancing operational efficiency.
- Robust handling and tracking of work items and process jobs to maintain visibility and control over automation tasks.
- Lifecycle management of bot processes to ensure that only validated and appropriately staged automations are in use.
- Secure data handling with encryption options for sensitive work item content, aligning with compliance requirements.
- Integration of RPA deployment workflows via subflows that facilitate package deployment and process execution with detailed feedback.
By incorporating these actions and subflows, customers can expect streamlined automation operations, improved collaboration between human users and robots, and enhanced governance over automation lifecycle and execution within the ServiceNow platform.
With Robotic Process Automation, your flow designers can use actions to assign and unassign users to and from an attended automation process, add work items to a queue, update work items, fetch process jobs, get the status of a process job, and trigger a bot process.
| Action | Description | Action inputs | Action outputs |
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| Add WorkItem to Queue Action | Adds WorkItem in a specified queue in the RPA Hub application and returns the WorkItem ID. |
The maximum limit for Content field (Request Content and Response Content) is 8000 characters. If the Is Work Item Name Sensitive check box on the associated work queue form is selected, the data in the Request Content field is encrypted. Sensitive data with encryption is stored in the work item, so that it can be passed to the RPA Desktop Design Studio or robots. |
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| Assign User to Attended Automation Process Action | Assigns a user to the attended automation process. |
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| Assign User to Attended Robot Action | Assigns a user to the attended robot. | Username: Record |
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| Change Life Cycle Stage Status of a Bot Process Action | Changes the life cycle stage status of a bot process that is not retired. If a bot process is in Build life cycle stage status, if you have the required role, you can update it to Published state, but you cannot update it to In Maintenance. If a bot process is in Published life cycle stage status, if you have the required role, you can update it to In Maintenance state, and vice versa. |
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| Fetch Created Jobs Action | Fetches the process jobs in RPA Hub. |
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| Fetch Execution Status Action | Fetches the execution status of a specific process job in RPA Hub. | Process Job Number: String |
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| Fetch Work Item Status Action | Fetches the status of specific work queue items, asynchronously. | Work Queue Item ID: GUID |
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| Start Process Action | Triggers a specific bot process in RPA Hub and returns the status. |
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| Stop Process Action | Stops a bot process. If Graceful Stop is enabled, this action gracefully stops the bot process. |
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| Unassign User from Attended Automation Process Action | Unassigns the user from the attended automation process. |
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| Unassign User from Attended Robot Action | Unassigns the user from the attended robot and retires the attended robot. | Username: Record |
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| Update Process Parameter Action | Updates the Value field for the process parameter. |
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| Update WorkItem Action | Updates work queue items. |
The maximum limit for Request Content and Response Content fields is 8000 characters. If the Is Work Item Name Sensitive check box on the associated work queue form is selected, the data in the Request Content field is encrypted. Sensitive data with encryption is stored in the work item, so that it can be passed to the RPA Desktop Design Studio or robots. |
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| Verify HashCode of a Package Version | Verifies the HashCode of a package version in RPA Hub to validate the HashCode of the manually uploaded automation zip file with the associated package version record. For more information about verifying the HashCode of a package version, see Verify the HashCode of a package version in RPA Hub. |
Package Version: Record |
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| Subflow | Description | Subflow inputs | Subflow outputs |
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| Import Package Version Attachment Subflow | Imports the package version attachments automatically for a package version. To automatically migrate the package attachment (automation zip file) from a lower (non-production) to a higher (production)
environment. For more information about importing a package version attachment in RPA Hub, see Import a package version attachment in RPA Hub. |
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After the attachment is uploaded successfully or if an error occurs while uploading the attachment, an email notification (if email is provided as an input) is sent to the user who performs this import attachment action. |
| Start Process Subflow | Triggers a specific bot process in RPA Hub. Returns process job details. |
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| Stop Process Subflow | Triggers a specific bot process to stop in RPA Hub. Returns robots details and process job status. If Graceful Stop is enabled, this subflow gracefully stops the bot process. |
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