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Supporting Bots

A bot needs to know who it belongs to. You create API keys which the bots use to connect to RPA Manager. If a bot only needs to work at specific times, you assign it service times.

Before You Begin

  • Ask an organization administrator in Access Management to assign you the required permissions:

    Action RPA Permission Deprecated RPA Permission

    Open the Bot Management module.

    RPA Bots Manager, RPA Operations Viewer, RPA Operations Manager, RPA Administrator

    Bot Management Open

    Manage service times.

    RPA Bots Manager, RPA Administrator

    Servicetime Create, Servicetime Edit, Servicetime Delete

Manage API Keys

An API key is required during installation of a bot. The bot connects to RPA Manager with its API key. For security reasons, RPA Manager shows the API Key only during creation. Copy your API Key and save it to a secure place. If you lose an API Key, create a new one.

Create an API Key

Create a new API key for each bot before installation or when you lose access to one.

To create an API key:

  1. Open the API Key view of the Bot Management module.

  2. Click New API Key.

  3. In the Create Bot API Key window, enter a name and description and click OK.

  4. In the Key Created! window, click Copy to clipboard.

  5. Copy the API key to a secure place.

  6. Click Close.

Copy your saved API key into the configuration settings of the bot during installation. You can change the bot API Key with RPA Bot Configurator.

Edit an API Key

Edit an API key to change its name or description.

To edit an API key:

  1. Open the API Key view of the Bot Management module.

  2. Click Edit (pen-to-paper symbol) in the row of the API key to edit.

  3. In the Edit Bot API Key window, change the name or description and click OK.

Remove an API Key

Remove API keys you no longer need.

When you delete an API key, the system does not check whether the key is assigned to a bot. If you deleted an API key that is in use, the bot can no longer connect to RPA Manager until a new API key is assigned.

To delete an API key:

  1. Open the API Key view of the Bot Management module.

  2. Click Remove (trash symbol) in the row of the API key to remove.

  3. Confirm the removal.

Manage Service Times

Service times are repeatable time intervals that define when a service is available. Assign them to bots to determine when a bot can execute processes.

You can use a service time to simulate the regular weekly working hours at your company, for example. The bot can then work at the same time as its human colleagues if tasks are interdependent, or at different times if you want it to use resources that other employees are not currently using.

Bots execute processes deployed to them only if they are within one of their service times.

You can assign multiple service times to a bot. If you do not assign service times to a bot, it works 24/7.

Specify the service time in one time zone. If the bot that you assign the service time to is installed on a computer that uses a different time zone, the service time interval is converted to the bot’s time zone. If you assign the service time to multiple bots in different time zones, all bots execute processes simultaneously. The time intervals might change, depending on daylight saving time.

For example, if you specify a service time that starts at 9:30 AM and ends at 5:30 PM in Buenos Aires time (ART (UTC -3)) and the bot is installed on a computer in Berlin (CET (UTC +1)), the bot executes processes between 1:30 PM and 9:30 PM in Berlin time.

You can create, edit, and remove service times.

Learn how to assign service times to a bot.

Create a Service Time

Create service times to coordinate bot working hours.

The names of the service times do not have to be unique. To avoid misinterpreting the effective schedule runtimes, include the time zone in the name of the service time.

For example, name your service time Regular working hours - 9 AM - 5 PM - Mystical University - Buenos Aires (ART (UTC -3)) or Low resource usage time - 5 PM - 9AM - Mystical University - Berlin (CET (UTC +1)).

  1. In the Service Times view of the Bot Management module, click Create.

  2. In the Create Service Time window, complete the form:

    • Timezone: Specify a downtime in the time zone in which it occurs. If the bot that you assign the downtime to is installed on a computer that uses a different time zone, the downtime interval is converted to the bot’s time zone. If you assign the application to multiple bots in different time zones, all bots pause executing processes that use that application simultaneously. The time intervals might change, depending on daylight saving time.

      For example, if you specify a service time starting at 9:30 AM and ending at 5:30 PM in Buenos Aires time (ART (UTC -3)) and the bot is installed on a computer in Berlin (CET (UTC +1)), the bot executes processes between 1:30 PM and 9:30 PM in Berlin time.

    • Interval:

      • From:

        Start of the time interval. As of this time, the scheduled action is executed. The start time must not be in the past and it must not be later than the end time. Even if you specify a Repeat on a specific day of the week or month that does not correspond to the start time, the schedule is started at this time anyway. The day specified under Repeat is then taken into account from the first repetition onward.

      • To:

        End of the time interval. As of this time, the scheduled action is no longer executed. The end time must not be earlier than the start time. If you use the Repeat option, the duration of the time interval is defined by the difference between the From and To times.

      • All day:

        Select the checkbox All day to execute the action throughout the day. It then begins on the first day at 12:00 midnight and stops being executed at 12:00 midnight of the next day (in the case of one-day intervals) or at 12:00 midnight on the day after the last day (in the case of multi-day intervals).

      • Repeat:

        Select the checkbox Repeat if the selected time interval is to be used repeatedly.

        Then, under Repeats, you can choose whether the From-To time interval is to be repeated every minute, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly.

        The duration of the contained time interval and the start time are taken into account. The duration of the time interval is defined as the difference between the From and To times. The From time is the start time of the first execution. The start time of repetitions depends on the other set values.

        To execute the repeats only with reference to the time of day, you should ensure that the start and end dates are identical. If the interval specified covers multiple days, a new multi-day interval begins with every repetition. This can lead to a situation in which the scheduled time interval lasts longer than expected because the full number of days contained in the From-To interval is executed once again during the last repetition.

        With schedules that are not all day, the actions in each repetition are executed for the duration of the interval specified in the From and To fields.

        • Repeat minutely:

          If you select Repeat minutely, the planned action is executed every minute during the interval specified in the To and From fields.

          You can select whether you want to repeat the action every minute or only every n-th minute. n here stands for any integer number between 1 and 59.

        • Repeat hourly:

          If you select Repeat hourly, the planned action is executed hourly during the interval specified via To and From. You can select whether you want to repeat the action every hour or only every n-th hour, where n here stands for any integer number between 1 and 23.

        • Repeat daily:

          If you select Repeat daily, the planned action is executed daily during the interval specified via To and From.

          You can select whether you want to repeat the action every day or only every n-th day. n here stands for any integer number between 1 and 31.

        • Repeat weekly:

          If you select Repeat weekly, the planned action is executed weekly during the interval specified via To and From.

          You can select whether you want to repeat the action every week or only every n-th week. n here stands for any integer number between 1 and 52.

          You can also select the weekday on which the scheduled action is to be executed.

        • Repeat monthly:

          If you select Repeat monthly, the planned action is executed monthly during the interval specified via To and From.

          You can select whether you want to repeat the action every month or only every n-th month. n here stands for any integer number between 1 and 12.

          You can also choose whether the repeat refers to the day of the month or the day of the week.

          If the selected day is the last day of a month, you can also choose whether the execution day is always the last day of a month, as the number of days in each month is different.

          If the selected day is the fourth such weekday of a month, you can also choose whether the execution day is always the fourth or last such weekday of a month, as the number of weeks in each month is different.

        • Repeat yearly:

          If you select Repeat yearly, the planned action is executed annually during the interval specified via To and From.

          You can select whether you want to repeat the action every year or only every n-th year. n here stands for any integer number between 1 and 20.

      • Ends:

        If you select Never under Ends, the time period is repeated over and over.

        If you select After n occurrences under Ends, the time period is repeated n times. n here stands for any integer number between 1 and 100.

        If you select Ends on <date>, the time interval is no longer repeated after this date.

Edit a Service Time

Edit a service time if it has changed. If a changed service time is already used by a bot, it is updated automatically there.

  1. In the Service Times view of the Bot Management module, click Edit (pen-to-paper symbol) in the row of the service time to edit.

  2. In the Edit Service Time window, change the data and click OK.

Remove a Service Time

Remove service times no longer effective.

The deleted service time is also removed from the service times of a bot. If the deleted service time is the only one that was used by a bot, the bot uses the default service time (24/7).

  1. In the Service Times view of the Bot Management module, click Remove (trash symbol) in the row of the service time to remove.

  2. Confirm the removal.

See Also