Install IA Cloud Developer to VDI · WorkFusion Documentation

First, let's consider why you may need to install IA Cloud Developer on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).

The recommended approach is to use a local workstation for IA Cloud Developer. Though sometimes, you can access a corporate network from VDI only. The virtual machine has access to all applications within the network. In this case, the preferred approach is to develop on a VDI machine.

Set up environment

To set up a development environment on a VDI machine, perform the following steps:

Request the IT team to create an account and provide a VDI machine, and set up a connection to the VDI machine.
Get access to your corporate Git system.
Check access to remote Control Towers (DEV, QA, PROD).
Install IA Cloud Developer.

note

Usually, you don't have Administrator rights on your VDI for auto-installation of IA Cloud Developer. In this case, download the IA Cloud Developer package and create a request to install IA Cloud Developer on your VDI.
Configure Maven settings. You need specific Maven settings to work in your corporate environment. For configuration, change the Maven settings.xml file as appropriate.
Configure JDK settings. Import all certificates and set up the local Java home variable for the current user.
Get a link to the project repository.
Obtain parameters to connect to remote DEV RPA servers needed for RPA bots to test and troubleshoot Business Processes after deployment to the server environment.

Troubleshoot major problems

The main issue you can have with VDI usage is the one with Administrator rights. If the company policy allows, get the permissions assigned to you. Otherwise, request the IT team for any installations.
Perform a basic environment setup. For more information, refer to Tips and tricks for Maven setup on VDI | Set up local system variable. Then, choose the IDE to create bots. The options are Eclipse IDE (WorkFusion Studio) or IDEA IDE.
To use Java and Maven from the command line (optional), make sure you have Java 8 SDK and Maven 3 installed. Then set several Windows environment variables:
- To set up a local Java home variable for the current user, run the setx JAVA_HOME "C:\..." command in the Terminal window.
- To use Maven from the command line, run the setx -m PATH "%PATH%;%MAVEN_HOME%\bin" command. The command may not work without administrator rights, in which case define the path using the UI.
Configure Maven in the settings.xml file. For more details on how to configure custom repositories, refer to Tips and tricks for Maven setup on VDI | Set up Maven profile. Set up WorkFusion dependencies that should link to repository.workfusion.com.
When you try to access the needed repository and have an error, adjust the proxy settings. For example, this could be an issue when Nexus is available from the browser, but unavailable during the Maven build. For the error description and step-by-step resolution, go to Tips and tricks for Maven setup on VDI | Set up proxy.
When you configure proxy on VDI, sometimes Maven, IDEA, or WorkFusion Studio have no access to certain repositories. In this case, configure proxies for each application separately. Use the provided guide both for Maven and WorkFusion Studio. If you use IDEA, set up via the IDEA UI.
Mind a common issue with certificates. First, add certificates to Java certs. To access Control Tower or Nexus, refer to Tips and tricks for Maven setup on VDI | Set up Java certificates for Nexus and Control Tower. If you want to use Maven Central, do the same steps for it.
An issue with Maven transferring dependencies from the Maven Central Repository can occur because of old plugins that refer to HTTP, not to HTTPS. For the error example and solution, see Tips and tricks for Maven setup on VDI | Exception during build: HTTPS required.

Verify VDI

To verify the VDI configuration, do as follows:

Build a project. If the mvn clean install command is successful, the setup is correct.
To deploy to Control Tower, run the mvn bundle:import command for pom.xml located in the [ARTIFACT]-package module. For more details, refer to Publish Asset Bundle with Maven | Deploy Asset Bundle to local Control Tower.

A successful deployment means that certificates are settled, and there are no issues.