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Version: 10.2.9

Build Business Process from Bot Task

The guide illustrates the implementation of a schemaless Business Process (BP) for website rating from a Bot Task using the Work.AI Developer and Control Tower capabilities. For exact steps, watch the video recording below.

info

The video recording below gives a comprehensive overview of the BP creation steps. However, mind that the application screens in the video might differ, depending on the Work.AI version you are using:

Here are the materials you can download and use to implement the rating BP:

Below, you can find a detailed guide on publishing your recordings to Control Tower and implementing a BP step by step.

Publish recording to Control Tower​

To publish a recording to Control Tower, do as follows:

  1. In the recording window menu, click the Publish to Control Tower button and enter the BP name.

    To publish a recording as a different BP, use the As new business process option from the button's drop-down menu.

    Publishing the recording as a new BP removes the connection between the recording and the previously published BP and creates a connection to the new BP. If the recording is published again, only the new BP is updated.

  2. Click Finish. If the recording has been published successfully, the following dialogue window appears:

    To open the BP draft in Control Tower for editing, click Open in Control Tower.

note

Each recording is published both as a ready one-step BP you can run in Control Tower and as a BP step (Bot Task) you can use in other BPs.

To update a published recording, publish it again using the Publish to Control Tower button. You will be prompted with the following message:

Click Finish to update both the BP and the Bot Task in Control Tower. It will also update all BPs that include this Bot Task.

Publish Bot Task to Control Tower​

To publish a Bot Task created in Eclipse to Control Tower, follow the scenario below:

  1. Open the Configs folder of your project.

  2. Right-click the Bot Task you need to publish.

  3. Select Publish Bot Task.

  4. Enter the URL of the Control Tower instance you are using as Instance URL and the BP name.

  5. Click Finish.

To update an already published Bot Task, publish it again. To publish without updating the previously published Bot Task, select the Publish Bot Task to new BP option.

Design Business Process​

Besides running the one-step BPs published from Eclipse or Recorder, Control Tower allows you to create complex BPs with multiple steps (both Bot and Manual Tasks) and various workflows.

To create a BP in Control Tower, do as follows:

  1. Go to Business Processes > Create.

    You can also click the Create New button on the Business Processes page.

  2. Go to Other > Miscellaneous Tasks > Select This Operation.

    You are redirected to the Data tab where you can upload input data if it is required.

tip

The sample BP in this guide is based on the rating BP that collects information about a number of companies online. The BP includes the following steps:

  • The rating_website_validation Bot Task checks if a provided web page URL is valid.
  • The rating_website_scraping Bot Task extracts information from the web page.
  • A Manual Task in which a human can review the URL that was marked as wrong and provide the correct URL for the second Bot Task.

In the Manual Task, you see which web pages return the Not found status (saved in the is_valid variable) in Bot Task 1, find the correct URL manually, and pass it to Bot Task 2.

Add input data​

Using input data in a BP is optional. If data is needed, follow the steps below:

  1. Navigate to the Data tab of the BP.

  2. Make sure the No Data box is unchecked and click Upload Data.

  3. In the displayed popup windown, click Add, select an input data file, and click Upload. The file is uploaded, and its name becomes visible in the popup.

    Click Clear to remove the selected file and select another one.

  4. Change the data settings, if needed. The default values are as follows:

    • The file separator is a comma.
    • The file encoding is UTF-8.

    You can change the settings by clicking the Show options link.

Once the input data file is uploaded, its content is displayed on the Data tab, including existing columns headers. You can remove the uploaded data by clicking the Remove Data button.

In case the headers do not correspond to the variables used in the BP, the following notification appears:

Click Map columns to see the exact error and remap the columns.

Input data file​

The input data file is always a CSV file. The column headers in the file should correspond to the variables used in the BP. Meet the following requirements to create a valid input data file:

  • The List variables values should have the following format: ["1", "2", "3"].
  • The Table variables values should have the following format: [["1", "2", "3"], ["a", "b", "c"]], where ["1", "2", "3"] and ["a", "b", "c"] are table rows.
  • The Boolean variables values are to be preceded with an apostrophe: 'true, 'false.

To download a sample data file, click the link.

Create workflow​

To create a workflow for the BP, navigate to the Workflow tab and do as follows:

  1. Add the BP elements to the canvas in one of the following ways:

    • Drag them from the toolbar or right-click the canvas and choose an element from the context menu. In this case, an empty element is created that needs to be configured.

    • Drag them from the Reusable components side panel. In this case, the already existing element is added to the workflow, and you don't need to configure it additionally.

    To edit a step in the workflow, double-click the respective element in the canvas and make required changes.

  2. Create connections between the elements by dragging the arrow icon from one element to the other. If the line is green, the connection is allowed. If the line is red, the connection is not allowed (an error message is displayed in this case).

    Rules for creating connections:

    • The Start element must have 1 outgoing connection.
    • The End element must have at least 1 incoming connection.
    • All tasks and rules must have at least 1 incoming and 1 outgoing connection.

  3. Make sure all BP steps use valid data from the previous tasks:

    • Column headers from the input data file
    • Answer codes or variables from Manual Tasks
    • Variable values from published recordings

  4. Validate and save your BP by clicking the corresponding buttons. In case you have any error messages, click them one by one, and appropriate steps or connections are highlighted in red.

Add decision rule​

Using decision rules, you can define several alternative flows for a BP, depending on certain conditions.

To add rules to a BP, use the following methods:

  • Add a new rule from the toolbar or using the context menu.
  • Add an existing rule from the Reusable components sidebar.

To define a new rule or edit an existing one, double-click the element's icon. Perform the following actions in the Rule Editor:

  1. Enter the rule name.

  2. Click Add Outcome. Outcomes define different BP workflows based on certain conditions.

  3. Click Add Condition to add one or more conditions to the outcome. If the Outcome has no conditions, it means for all other records.

  4. Click Save.

The logic of rule elements is as follows:

  • OR between Outcomes
  • AND between Conditions

Each condition contains three fields:

  • Variable (Answer code from a Manual Task, column header from the input data, variable from a Bot Task)
  • Logical operator (for instance, equals, less than)
  • Value or regular expression, if required

Outcomes are connected to respective elements in the BP.

Validate the BP to check that the workflow is valid.

Add Manual Task to BP​

To add an existing Manual Task to a BP workflow, drag it from the Reusable components side panel. If you need to create a Manual Task from scratch, follow the steps:

  1. Drag the respective element from the toolbar or right-click the canvas and choose the element from the context menu.

  2. Design the Manual Task form. The recommended option is to use the Task Designer Operation as described in the guide. For designing forms for legacy Manual Tasks created from other Operations, use the instructions.

    If you create the Manual Task from scratch, you can upload input data in the appropriate format on the Data tab. If the Manual Task receives data from previous BP steps, no input data is required.

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