What's new?

An overview of the new features introduced in each release. For more detailed information about each release, see the release notes.

Version 7.1

Core components

The following features have been added to the Blue Prism core functionality in version 7.1:

  • Supported transition from Internet Explorer 11 to modern browsers via the:

  • Increased robustness and accuracy when using native character recognition with new OCR Plus options and RegEx-based disambiguation.

  • Extended Citrix integration capabilities with the ability to also automate Java, Mainframe, Win64, and Internet Explorer applications, and to use a lightweight Citrix agent to install only the files necessary to automate applications on a Citrix VDE.
  • Improved user experience and security for Active Directory Single Sign-On (SSO) integration – It is now possible to configure the system to support users from across multiple forests within a common Active Directory network infrastructure, with options for role management either in Blue Prism, Active Directory, or both. A single Blue Prism database now covers all environment types and authentication methods.
  • System timeout parameters and browser extension settings used in Blue Prism automations can now be updated to optimize automations across environments. Any changes should only be made under guidance from Blue Prism and tested in a Development environment.

Additional components

The following features have been added to the additional components which can be configured to extend the capabilities of Blue Prism version 7.1:

  • Blue Prism API 7.1 – Our API-first development approach has seen a number of new endpoints and requests, which greatly enhances the management of schedules and sessions.

  • Hub Control Room 4.6 – Reduced hardware and ownership costs with the ability to reallocate digital workers by adjusting schedules.

  • Authentication Server 4.6 (installed as part of Blue Prism Hub) – Improved scalability for Active Directory integration in multi-forest environments, as well as an improved user mapping tool for upgrades from Blue Prism 6.x or 7.0.

For more details, see the Blue Prism 7.1 and the Blue Prism Hub 4.6 release notes.

Version 7.0

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 optional 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 4.3 or 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, with other new services planned in the future.

    • Authentication Server is installed as part of the Blue Prism Hub (version 4.3 or later) installation 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. Learn more...