Blue Prism 7.0: May 2021

Database

444

The release requires the Blue Prism database to be this version. This is the first Blue Prism release to use this database version.

Login Agent

7.0

The version of Login Agent that is provided with this release of Blue Prism has the same functionality as the version provided with Blue Prism 6.7.

Browser extensions
(Chrome, Firefox, and Edge)

7.0.0

See the browser extensions section for the latest versions of each browser that has been verified with this release.

For the latest compatibility information, see the browser compatibility matrix in the Blue Prism online help.

If a previous version of the Edge browser extension has already been manually installed from the Chrome store, this should be manually removed and the new version installed from the Edge store, see the upgrade notices for more details.

Data Gateways engine

1.3

The Data Gateways engine version 1.3 must be installed to use Data Gateways with Blue Prism 7.0.

Download the installer from the Blue Prism Portal via Product > Blue Prism Enterprise > Extras.

Known issues

A list of any prominent issues with this release is maintained in the knowledge base – click here for more information.

Important notices

Please review the upgrade notices for more details and before upgrading to this release.

Secure development policy

As part of our secure development policy, Blue Prism products are evaluated against the following security standards:

  • OWASP Top 10 –The security vulnerabilities that pose the most risk to applications development. Further information

  • SANS CWE Top 25 – The most common software security vulnerabilities found throughout the software development industry. Further information

  • Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) Publication 140-2 – U.S. government standard that defines minimum security requirements for cryptographic modules in information technology products.

  • Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

  • Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

  • Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA).

A compliance highlight summary report is available upon request via Product Support.

New features

An overview of Blue Prism 7, including installation path options and links to additional documentation can be found here .

Core components

The following features have been added to the Blue Prism core functionality in version 7.0:

  • Digital Workers at Scale – The new Application Server Controlled Resources (ASCR) feature increases the number of runtime resources that Blue Prism can interact with. With ASCR, interactive clients communicate with available runtime resources via the application server, meaning that individual connections don’t need to be made. This increases efficiency and enhances the potential for greater scale allowing users to deploy more than double the number of digital workers into a single Blue Prism environment compared to Blue Prism version 6. Learn more...
  • Native Citrix Automation – Applications presented in a Citrix Virtual Desktop Environment (VDE) can now be natively automated using Blue Prism. Users who are able to install Blue Prism directly into the Citrix VDE can now take advantage of native spying techniques in addition to the previously available surface automation approach. Learn more...

  • Native Messaging Host for Browser Extensions – Blue Prism now uses a native messaging host application to communicate with each of the browser extensions (Chrome, Edge, and Firefox). A native messaging host application is started behind the scenes when a Chrome, Edge, or Firefox browser is launched from Blue Prism and then listens for any incoming messages from Blue Prism to send them to the browser extension. Learn more...

Additional components

In addition to the new core features, the following additional components can be configured to extend the capabilities of Blue Prism version 7.0:

  • Browser-based Control Room – Provides dashboards and data views that allow users to view and manage Blue Prism activity for all their environments – run schedules, monitor work queue activity, oversee session activity, and more. The browser-based Control Room has four features available in this release:
    • Work Queues – Monitor the status of work queue items and track queue activity.
    • Schedules and Tasks – View, run, and monitor schedules and tasks.
    • Sessions – View, filter, and organize session activity in each environment.
    • Digital Worker Health – View and monitor the digital workers in each environment.

    The browser-based Control Room is supplementary to the Control Room in the Blue Prism interactive client and requires the installation of Blue Prism Hub version 4.3 and later. Learn more...

  • Blue Prism API – Provides a common interface for components such as the Blue Prism browser-based client to connect with the Blue Prism database. It also provides a series of predefined capabilities that can be used by custom solutions to interact with Blue Prism programmatically using a RESTful API, such as:
    • Access to monitoring data such as sessions, work queues, and schedule information.
    • Schedule management control.
    • Adding items to Blue Prism work queues ready for processing by your digital workforce.

    The Blue Prism API is installed independently of Blue Prism. Learn more...

  • Authentication Server – A centralized way of providing common authentication for users across three key components of the Blue Prism platform: Blue Prism Enterprise, RESTful API, and Hub.

    • Authentication Server is installed as part of the Blue Prism Hub installation (4.3 and later) and is required if using the Blue Prism API and/or browser-based Control Room with Blue Prism 7.0 and later.

    • Authentication Server can only be used with Blue Prism environments configured for multi-authentication, but where users log into the interactive client using Blue Prism native authentication.

    • Once Authentication Server has been configured and enabled in a Blue Prism environment, all user access via the interactive client for Blue Prism will be directed via Authentication Server where users will only be able to use basic authentication (username and password) and LDAP authentication to log in via Authentication Server.

    • When using Authentication Server for Blue Prism user authentication, Blue Prism native and Active Directory authentication can still be used to authenticate runtime resources, AutomateC commands, and when calling web services exposed on runtime resources.

    • Blue Prism environments which are not configured to use Authentication Server cannot use the Blue Prism API and/or browser-based Control Room. Hence, users can continue to use native and Active Directory authentication to log into the interactive client.

    • The external authentication capability via Authentication Gateway introduced in Blue Prism 6.10 is not supported in the first version of Blue Prism version 7 irrespective of whether Authentication Server is used or not. Learn more...

Enhancements

In addition to the new features described above, the following enhancements have been made to this release of Blue Prism:

Description of change

Reference

A new license key is required for all upgrades to Blue Prism 7.0. During an upgrade, existing Blue Prism 6 licenses will be deleted from the Blue Prism database. Users will be prompted to apply their new license when first logging into Blue Prism connected directly to the database following an upgrade before it will be possible to start Blue Prism application server services.

It is recommended that users have the required licenses before installing this release and upgrading their Blue Prism 6 database. Details of how to get a Blue Prism license are available on the portal.

BP-3524

A new Resource details menu option has been added to the right-click shortcut menu in the Resources panel in Control Room. The new menu option is available for public and private runtime resources, including those within resource pools, but not for the resource pool itself. The menu option displays the following details for the selected resource:

  • The resource name (FQDN).
  • The port that the resource is listening on.
  • The Blue Prism version that is installed.
  • The date and time the first TCP connection was made with the resource.
  • The date and time the status of the resource was last updated.
  • The application server to which the resource is connected.
  • The resource’s environment type. This will display client if the resource is a personal runtime resource started as part of the client, or resource if the private or public resource is a separate machine.

The Resource details menu option is only available if the Save environment data for clients, runtime resources and servers to the database option on the System > System - Settings screen is enabled. This option is enabled by default.

Users will need to be granted specific permissions to be able to see this information. Users need to be granted with the new View Resource Details permission to access this information. By default, only System Administrators are automatically granted this access.

BP-1495

A new Use time zone option is enabled by default when configuring schedules in Control Room. The required time zone can be selected from a drop-down list and will be applied when schedules are run.

This enhancement will benefit organizations that have Blue Prism interactive clients and application servers in different time zones. It is also of benefit to environments that have runtime resources configured to run in specific time zones in order to meet operational needs.

If the Use time zone option is disabled, the schedule will use the time zone of the application server where the scheduler is operating as per previous behavior.

An additional Adjust for daylight savings option ensures the schedule automatically updates to reflect daylight savings changes in the selected time zone.

BP-669

BP-679

BP-3084

The scheduler Run Now option now triggers a schedule immediately regardless of whether the schedule has been configured to run in a specific time zone or not. Previously, if the Run Now option was selected and the Blue Prism application server and interactive client were not in the same time zone, schedules did not necessarily run immediately.

BP-1217

BP-3183

Additionally, schedule execution times now display in the time zone of the interactive client in the following Scheduler areas of Control Room:

  • Reports – Recent Activity
  • Timetables – Today and Tomorrow
  • Schedule Log View

BP-2343

A new Stop option is now available when right-clicking a schedule in Control Room to allow users to stop a schedule from running. When selected, any active sessions created by the schedule that are running will be terminated and the current instance of the schedule will be stopped, preventing any further associated tasks from being performed.

BP-1227

BP-3149

New search and filter functionality has been added to the Resources panel in Control Room to enable users to easily find and filter resources and pools.> BP-1131

The following enhancements, to support the new Application Server Controlled Resources (ASCR) functionality have been added:

  • When using Application Server Controlled Resources (ASCR), a new connection status of Disconnected now displays in the Resources panel in Control Room for resources that are online, but with which the application server cannot currently communicate. If users attempt to create a session on an disconnected resource, a warning message displays informing the user that the application server cannot currently communicate with the resource.
  • A new AutomateC command line argument AutomateC /ascrconfig <servername> <conntype> <hostname> <port> <connectionmode> <certificatename> <clientcertificatename> <servercertstore> <clientcertstore> has been added to allow users to configure Application Server Controlled Resources (ASCR) settings via the command line. Learn more...

BP-3170

BP-2603

Fixes and minor improvements

Description of change

Reference

Blue Prism 6.5 introduced a change of behavior in work queues when a runtime resource session terminated. Work queue items with an exception were marked incomplete by the clean up process and an automatic retry was not attempted if a work queue item was left locked.

From this release, a new option called Retry items in this queue in the event of an unexpected session termination, which is disabled by default, has been added to the System > Workflow - Work Queues screen. If this option is enabled and a work queue item is left locked as a result of a runtime resource unexpectedly terminating during a session, a retry for the queue item will be automatically created when the runtime resource is restarted – this depends on the configured value of maximum retries on the queue.

As part of this enhancement, exceptions that are applied as a result of an unexpected session termination now include the description Automatically set exception on session terminated.

BP-1061

BP-3779

An issue introduced in Blue Prism 6.9 has been corrected so that the Data items are no longer reset when the process or object is being run in debug mode if Check Code has been applied. Previously, when Check Code was used on a Code stage, the Data items on the current page were reset to their initial values.

BP-2747
Users can now add descriptions for response/output parameters in Web API Services. The descriptions display when hovering over a Web API output parameter in Process Studio in the Action Properties > Outputs tab. Previously, this was only possible for request/input parameters. The descriptions are included when exporting Web APIs in a release package. BP-2045

The Rows Per Page drop-down list displayed on the System > Audit > Process Logs and the Object Logs screens no longer displays invalid options. Previously, selecting an option of 1500 rows or greater resulted in an error.

BP-395

Error messages relating to processes that contain only a single exception stage and no other stages now display in the center of the screen and remain in the foreground until closed. Previously, such error messages displayed at the top-left side of the screen and did not remain in the foreground of Blue Prism if the user navigated to another application.

BP-2368
After using and then clearing the tree view filter in Application Modeller, the Add Element and Child buttons now correctly display as active. Previously, after the filter had been cleared, the buttons displayed as inactive despite being functional. BP-570

The filter fields at the top of the System > Workflow - Environment Locks screen now remain fixed while scrolling through the table and no longer incorrectly scroll with the table.

BP-547

All expired schedules are now marked as inactive in Control Room to make users aware they have expired. Users can still edit expired schedules and extend their expiry date to make them active again.

BP-2764

In the Control Room Queue Management screen, the default ordering of work queue items in the Last Updated column is now in descending date/time order. This corrects the change to the ordering that was made in Blue Prism 6.10.0.

BP-2825

A change introduced in 6.8.0 under BG-4494 that prevented Action stages from adding item tags to locked work queue items, incorrectly prevented sub-processes and objects from tagging work queue items locked by its parent process. A fix has been applied to allow sub-processes and objects to successfully tag work queue items that are locked by its parent processes.

BP-4044

An error no longer occurs when right-clicking a retired schedule and selecting Run Now and then attempting to unretire the schedule.

BP-3295

Users are now prompted to confirm the deletion of a schedule to prevent schedules from being unintentionally deleted.

BP-2170

If a scheduled session is not successfully created, details of the cause of the failure and the status of the session can now be accessed for troubleshooting purposes. Customer Support are able to advise how to enable this logging, as required.

BP-2548

The display of the logging level for each resource has now been re-introduced in the Resources list in the Resources - Management screen. This functionality was first introduced in 6.6 and incorrectly removed in 6.10.0.

BP-2613

Session logs are now successfully created regardless of the number of session IDs in the database tables. Previously, a System.OverflowException occurred when attempting to write additional session logs to the database once 2.1 billion logs had been created.

Update April 2023: Following investigation in Blue Prism 7.2, it was established that this issue still exists in all Blue Prism 7 versions. A fix is planned for Blue Prism 7.3.

BP-2503

To improve performance, the check whether an environment requires Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) compliance or not is now performed before evaluating which of the encryption schemes are currently used to encrypt data stored within the database.

The review of which encryption schemes are actually used to encrypt data now only occurs if FIPS compliance is required. Previously, the check occurred before it had been determined if FIPS compliance should be enforced.

BP-2296

To improve performance, the stored procedure UpdateWorkQueueItemAggregate which runs when Management Information (MI) is enabled in Blue Prism has been updated to execute in a timely manner regardless of the number of work queue items in the BPAWorkQueueItem table.

BP-2297

Minor performance improvements have been made to the handling of authentication tokens between a user and a runtime resource created by Blue Prism. The improvements include more efficient sorting and searching of the tokens within the database; and the deletion of used tokens, preventing an unnecessary buildup of redundant data within the database.

BP-1998

BP-2035

Performance improvements have been made to the Select dependencies function in the Create Package wizard and Modify Package wizard in the Release Manager. The improvements include a significant reduction in the time taken to display all components associated to a selected item (such as processes, objects, work queues, credentials and environment variables) in large environments.

BP-4436

The Session Management enforces permissions of controlling user (recommended) option has been removed from the System - Settings screen. The option remains enabled by default, as recommended since version 6.3.0. Customer Support are able to advise how to disable this setting for troubleshooting purposes if required.

BP-4158

A warning message indicating that a schedule has been set to run in an infinite loop no longer incorrectly displays when creating a schedule, assigning a common task to both the On Complete and On Exception fields and attempting to apply the changes. For example, a schedule that is set to run process A, with process B configured to run both on complete and on exception.

BP-3311

Browser extensions

Browser extensions allow Blue Prism to interact with web pages and applications presented in a browser, so that business processes that include such applications and web pages can easily be modeled.

Browser extension versions

The table below shows when each Blue Prism extension, compatible with this release was introduced and the browser version against which they were evaluated. See browser extension release notes for details of key capabilities.

Browser Blue Prism extension versions Date available

Chrome

7.0.0

18 May 2021

Edge Chromium

7.0.0

18 May 2021

Firefox

7.0.0

18 May 2021

For full details of the browser extension versions and compatible browsers, see Browser extension compatibility.

How updates are applied

The latest browser extensions are automatically installed with Blue Prism. Browser extensions that are made available after a release are automatically updated when the browser is loaded if there is an active internet connection. Alternatively, if your devices are not connected to the internet, updates can be pushed per user to each device manually. See the Chrome, Edge, and Firefox integration guide for details of how to install the extension using an offline package.

Browser extension release notes

Browser extension 7.0.0

Description of change Reference

Blue Prism now uses a native messaging host application to communicate with each of the browser extensions (Chrome, Edge, and Firefox). A native messaging host application is started behind the scenes when a Chrome, Edge, or Firefox browser is launched from Blue Prism and then listens for any incoming messages from Blue Prism to send them to the browser extension.

The Blue Prism installer has been updated to automatically install the configuration settings for the native messaging host, regardless of whether the user selects to install any of the browser extensions or not. As a result of these enhancements, the system settings related to browser connectivity (for example Use fixed browser extension port) are no longer required and have been removed from the Blue Prism interactive client.

Native messaging supports all existing browser automation functionality, including:

  • Attaching to and detaching from a browser.
  • Automating pop-up windows and new windows without having to re-attach.
  • Automating multiple browser instances of the same type at the same time.
  • Using multiple Blue Prism instances of the same type to automate multiple browser instances on the same device.

Further improvements to the browser extensions include:

  • The Attach action of the Navigate stage now has an optional tracking ID output parameter which can be used to allow Blue Prism to automate multiple instances of the same web page across multiple processes.
  • Untracked browser windows whose parent windows cannot be determined because they are not strictly associated with any launch or attach event and therefore not associated with a tracking ID, are included in a browser interaction that includes a tracking ID. Should no matching element be found within any untracked windows, an error message notifies the user that the element has not been found.

BP-709

BP-2282

BP-2283

BP-2596

BP-2818

After having spied an element via the active accessibility (AA) spy mode, the Screen Bounds attribute identifier no longer displays twice.

BP-2461

Previously, when launching an Edge browser via the Application Modeller, the browser launched but Blue Prism could not connect to it to spy the elements. If the initial browser window remained open and the user attempted to launch Edge again via the still active Launch button in the Application Modeller, Blue Prism could successfully spy the elements, however, only in a second browser window. The issue no longer occurs and the elements can now be spied successfully the first time the Edge browser is launched.

BP-3553

BP-3462

An issue has been fixed where after launching an Edge browser window successfully via the Application Modeller, Blue Prism could not connect to the Edge browser extension, which resulted in Blue Prism not being able to spy some elements of the browser window.

BP-3462