Navigate stage

In Object Studio, the Navigate stage allows you to perform navigation steps (or actions) in your target application, such as clicking buttons, opening dialogs, closing windows, and sending keystrokes. Navigate stages can only be added to business objects, not processes.

The Actions list in the Navigate Properties form displays the navigation actions available to be performed by the Navigate stage. Each navigation action consists of an application element, which is the target of the action (for example, the menu item to be clicked), and an action which describes what is to be done to the element (for example, click, open, or minimize).

The actions are performed in order, from top to bottom, so you must add the navigation actions in the correct order. For example, the first action might be to open the file menu, the second might be to click Save.

When you select a navigation action in the Actions list, the inputs for that action display in the list below. For example, if the action is Click, it may be necessary to supply coordinates as inputs for the Click action.

Add a navigation action

  1. Click Add.

    A new row is added to the Actions list.

  2. Drag and drop an application element from the Application Explorer into the Element field.

  3. If the match type of the application element was set to Dynamic when it was created, you must click the ... (ellipsis) in the Params field to supply parameters to the application element. This allows the element to be identified when your business object is run as part of a process. See Element parameters for more information.

    The button is only available when the match type of the application element is Dynamic.

  1. Choose an action from the drop-down list. This list varies dynamically according to the type of application element selected. If an action does not appear in the list, then it cannot be performed against the chosen application element.

The Inputs Set field indicates whether there are any inputs (items to be completed) in the lower list for the selected action, and if they have been supplied.

Invoke web event action type

The Invoke JavaScript Event action type allows you to trigger events (such as MouseEvents and KeyboardEvents) natively on web elements. This enables automated processes to include the same functionality as that which is available when users manually interact with web applications and their actions trigger events on elements. JavaScript events can be standard events, or custom events which may be specific to certain web applications.

Enter the following parameters:

  • Event Class – Select the parent group for the event type from the drop-down list, for example Mouse Event. This determines which standard event types can be entered in Event Type.
  • Event Type – Type the specific event type to be triggered by the action, for example "click". This can either be a standard event type that belongs to the selected event class, or a custom event type.
  • Event Arguments – Type a JSON formatted string that corresponds to the arguments required for the event, for example, “{ ““bubbles”” : ““true”” }". Any quotes in the arguments must be escaped.

Pause After Each Step

You can set a pause to occur after each of the actions configured in a navigate stage by adding an expression in Pause After Each Step. If this is not set, the process will not pause after the steps it encounters in a stage.

The expression in the field must resolve to either a number, representing the number of seconds to pause, or a timespan, representing the amount of time to pause. If a number is provided, fractions are honored by the process. Negative values are treated as zero, so no pause will occur.