Blue Prism Tutorial for Beginners: Begin Your RPA Journey

The significant demand for RPA developers, especially those with Blue Prism expertise, is stated clearly in a number of publications. This is a result of automation being used more and more in a variety of industries to increase accuracy, decrease prices, and increase efficiency. This Blue Prism Tutorial for Beginners will be helpful for RPA aspirants. Explore our Blue Prism Course Syllabus to get started.

Introduction to Blue Prism

One of the top Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software platforms is Blue Prism, which helps companies automate repetitive, rule-based operations that replicate how people use software. It offers a virtual workforce of digital workers, or software robots, who can collaborate with human workers to increase productivity, accuracy, and speed in a range of corporate operations.

Key Concepts of Blue Prism

Here are the important concepts of Blue Prism:

• Digital Workforce: Task-automating software robots from Blue Prism.
• Processes: Step-by-step plans created in Blue Prism to automate particular business operations.
• Objects: Objects are building blocks (such as buttons, fields, and menus) that communicate with application interfaces.
• Process Studio: A visual design and development environment for automation processes.
• Object Studio: The workspace in which you design and set up objects to communicate with apps.
• Control Room: Your digital workforce’s core management interface for scheduling, tracking, and managing. 

Benefits of Blue Prism

Here are the advantages of Blue Prism:

• Enhanced Productivity and Efficiency: Robots are more productive than humans because they can operate around the clock without breaks.
• Increased Accuracy: Human error is less likely when automation is used.
• Cost Reduction: Businesses may be able to lower operating expenses and free up human personnel for more strategic work by automating repetitive processes.
• Scalability: Easily increase or decrease your automation capabilities in accordance with business requirements.
• Non-Intrusive: Blue Prism robots frequently do not require modifications to the underlying systems to communicate with current programs via the user interface.
• Security and Compliance: Helps maintain compliance standards by offering centralized control and audit trails. 

Through scalable, secure, and dependable process automation, Blue Prism assists businesses in achieving digital transformation. 

Recommended: Blue Prism Online Training Program.

Blue Prism Architecture

A number of essential elements make up the Blue Prism architecture, which cooperates to facilitate automation:

Control Room: 

The Blue Prism environment’s main administration center is called the Control Room. It gives administrators a real-time picture of the digital workforce, enabling them to:

• Schedule and monitor the execution of automated processes.
• Manage work queues.
• Allocate resources (digital workers).
• View session logs and audit trails.

Runtime Resources (Digital Worker):

The automated processes are carried out by these software robots. Every runtime resource can be scaled up or down according to demand and functions independently. The processes created in the Process Studio are executed by them.

Blue Prism Studio:

The development platform used to visually design and construct automation processes is called Blue Prism Studio. Because of its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, developers can construct workflows without having to know a lot of code. It includes:

• Process Studio: This tool is used to create flowchart-like end-to-end automated workflows.
• Object Studio: It is used to create and manage Business Objects, which are reusable components that work with particular applications.

Database: 

Blue Prism normally stores all configuration data, process definitions, execution logs, audit trails, and task queue information in an encrypted SQL database. In addition to providing a historical record of all activities, this guarantees data integrity.

Application Server: 

This part serves as a conduit for information between the runtime resources, the Control Room, and the Studio. It guarantees safe, seamless communication throughout the Blue Prism environment. Several application servers can be set up in some architectures for high availability and load balancing.

The Blue Prism architecture, which is designed to be scalable, secure, and robust, provides a solid basis for enterprise-wide automation. It divides automated process design, control, and implementation into discrete but related parts.

Related: RPA Training Course in Chennai.

Key Components of Blue Prism

The following lists the main elements of Blue Prism, along with a brief description of Process Studio, Object Studio, and Control Room.

Process Studio

This is the environment for process design and development. Here, you may design and test your automated workflows (processes) visually.

Features of Process Studio:

• It uses a drag-and-drop interface that is graphical and resembles a flowchart.
• It offers a number of steps (such as Action, Decision, Loop, and Calculation) to develop the automation’s logic.
• It enables the definition of data elements, variables, and control flow.
• It is utilized for internal logic, business object coordination, and end-to-end process design.
• It provides a debugging mode for testing and troubleshooting the processes that have been designed.
• Business Objects made in Object Studio can be called by processes designed here.

Object Studio

This is where you develop and oversee Business Objects, which are reusable parts that communicate with particular applications.

Features of Object Studio:

• It employs an interface that resembles a flowchart as well.
• It emphasizes specifying how to use an application’s user interface (e.g., clicking buttons, reading text, entering data).
• It uses Application Modeller to “spy” and discover target applications’ components.
• It offers action stages that make use of the application elements specified in the Application Modeller, such as Navigate, Read, and Write.
• In Process Studio, business objects expose particular actions that processes can call.
• It encourages automation that is modular and reusable.

Control Room

This serves as your Blue Prism environment’s main management and monitoring center.

Features of Control Room: 

• It offers a glimpse of your digital workforce in real time (Runtime Resources).
• It enables you to initiate, halt, and track the operation of processes.
• It distributes jobs to available digital workers by managing work queues.
• It enables scheduling so that operations can be carried out at predetermined times or intervals.
• It provides audit trails and session logs for monitoring automation operations.
• It shows the condition and health of your digital employees.

In short,

• Process Studio is used to design the automation logic.
• In Object Studio, you create reusable building elements to communicate with applications.
• The Control Room is where you monitor and supervise how these automations are being carried out.

Related Training: Automation Anywhere Course in Chennai.

Blue Prism Development Environment

Blue Prism Studio is referred to as the Blue Prism Development Environment. Here, programmers create and evaluate the reusable parts that communicate with apps as well as the automated procedures.

Below is an overview of the features that the Blue Prism Studio provides:

• Visual Design: It offers an intuitive, flowchart-like graphical user interface. This enables developers to drag and drop different steps to create automation workflows.
• Process Studio: This section of the studio is dedicated to creating fully automated end-to-end processes.
  • To specify the logical flow of your automation, you employ many stages, such as Action, Decision, Loop, and Calculation. Here, you may also define data objects and variables.
• Object Studio: You can develop and manage Business Objects with it.
  • These items are reusable parts made to work with particular programs (such a desktop program, Excel, or a web browser). 
  • You may “spy” the buttons, text fields, and other UI components of an application using Object Studio’s Application Modeller. 
  • Then, you can utilize action stages (such as Navigate, Read, and Write) to specify how the Business Object will interact with these elements.
• Testing and Debugging: As developers create their Business Objects and processes, Studio enables them to test them. Debugging tools are included to assist in locating and fixing any problems.
• Modular Design: Blue Prism promotes a modular and reusable approach to automation development by isolating application interaction (in Object Studio) from process logic (in Process Studio). This facilitates scaling and maintaining your automations.

With the use of reusable application interface components and process workflows, you can visually design, construct, and test your RPA solutions in Blue Prism Studio, an integrated development environment.

Navigating the Blue Prism Interface

You create and test your automation in Blue Prism Studio. It usually looks like this when you open a Process or Object in Studio:

Menu Bar: File, Edit, View, Run, Debug, and Help choices are accessible through the menu bar, which is at the top.

Toolbar: Usually located beneath the menu bar, it provides easy access to frequently used functions like save, run, step, and so on.

Navigation Pane (Left): The navigation pane on the left shows a tree representation of your objects and processes arranged into groups.

• It enables you to view and launch pre-existing automation elements.
• It offers choices for generating new objects and processes.

Process/Object Canvas (Center): Using an interface similar to a flowchart, this is the primary area where you graphically construct your automation.

• The workflow is created by dragging and dropping stages from the toolbox.

Toolbox (Left or Right): You can design your automation logic using the Toolbox (Left or Right), which has different stages (e.g., Action, Decision, Loop, Calculation in Process Studio; Navigate, Read, Write in Object Studio).

Properties Pane (Bottom or Right): You can adjust a stage’s behavior by selecting it on the canvas and seeing its properties here.

To Navigate:

• Use the Navigation Pane to find and open processes or objects.
• To create your process, drag and drop stages from the Toolbox onto the Canvas.
• To examine and change a stage’s properties, choose it on the canvas.
• To execute, move through, and test your automation, use the Toolbar.

Navigating the Control Room

Your main location for overseeing and directing your digital workforce is the Control Room. Typically, the interface consists of:

Menu Bar/Navigation Pane (Left): Access to the various areas of the Control Room is made possible by the Menu Bar/Navigation Pane (left), which includes:

• Dashboard: A summary of the surroundings in Blue Prism.
• Procedures: Administration of accessible automated procedures.
• Resources: Runtime Resources: Keeping an eye on and managing your digital employees.
• Queues: The administration of work queues.
• Schedules: Establishing and keeping track of process timetables.
• Sessions: Seeing the logs and current state of ongoing or finished automation sessions.
• System: (Administration rights may be needed) setting up roles, users, etc.

Main View (Center): It shows the data pertinent to the navigation pane area you have chosen. For instance:

• A list of accessible processes can be found under Processes.
• You can view the status of your digital workforce under Resources.
• A list of automated runs along with their status may be found in Sessions.

Toolbar/Action Buttons: Buttons for activities like launching a process, halting a resource, examining queue data, etc., are located according to the section.

To navigate:

• Choose the area you wish to deal with (Processes, Resources, etc.) using the menu on the left.
• The details of that section will be updated in the main view.
• For administration tasks, utilize the action buttons or toolbar.
• For context-sensitive options, you can frequently right-click on things (such as a process or resource).

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Process Studio Basics

Let’s explore the fundamentals of Blue Prism’s Process Studio. This is where you create your automated processes’ end-to-end logic. You will see a canvas where you may construct your workflow utilizing different stages when you open a process in Process Studio. Consider these phases to be the fundamental components of your automation.

The following are some basic ideas and typical phases you’ll experience:

Start and End Stages:

• There is just one Start stage at the start of every process. This is where your automation starts.
• One or more End stages might be present in a process, signifying the successful or failure completion of a process path.

Action Stage:

This is an important step where you can work with the Business Objects you made in Object Studio.

• Selecting a particular Business Object and then selecting one of its exposed actions, the activities that a Business Object is capable of doing with an application, such as “Launch,” “Login,” “Click,” and “Read”, occurs at an Action stage.
• You will save any output data and map the input parameters that the action requires.

Decision Stage:

• It enables condition-based decision-making in your workflow.
• Usually consisting of two or more output links labeled with a condition (e.g., “Is Order Amount > 100?”), it includes one input link.
• The output connection whose condition evaluates to True will be followed by the process flow.

Calculation Stage:

• It is utilized for data computations.
• You can build your own expressions with variables and operators, or you can utilize the built-in functions.
• A data item can include the computation’s outcome.

Data Item:

• Consider these variables to be data storage in your workflow.
• Their name, initial value, and data type (such as Text, Number, Date, or Flag) can all be defined.
• Data items are used to store the outcomes of calculations and operations as well as to transfer information across phases.

Loop Stage:

• It enables you to go through a series of steps more than once.
• The loop’s beginning and ending conditions can be specified (for example, loop a predetermined number of times or while a predetermined condition is true).

Exception Handling Stages (e.g., Recover, Resume, Throw Exception):

It is used to handle unforeseen problems or exceptions that may arise during execution, strengthening the robustness of your automations.

The Process Flow:

To specify the order in which these steps are carried out, you use links to connect them. Usually, the flow begins at the “Start” stage and progresses through the links’ different stages until it reaches the “End” stage.

Within Process Studio, you:

• Use stages to visually design the automation flow.
• Business Objects can be used to communicate with applications through Action steps.
• Use the decision, calculation, and loop steps to put logic into practice.
• Use Data Items to manage data.
• Use exception handling to deal with errors.

Related: Automation Anywhere Tutorial for Beginners.

Data Items in Blue Prism

What are Data Items?

Data Items are variables in your Business Objects and Blue Prism operations. They serve as containers for various kinds of data that your system requires. This data may include:

• Text (e.g., a customer name, a file path)
• Numbers (e.g., an order quantity, a calculation result)
• Dates (e.g., a transaction date)
• Flags/Booleans (True/False values, e.g., whether a file exists)
• Collections (Tables of data)
• Credentials (Securely stored login details)
• Objects (References to Business Objects)

Key Characteristics of Data Items:

Here are the key features of Data Items:

• Name: Within its scope (either within a business object or a process), every data item has a distinct name.
• Data Type: You specify the kind of information that the object will store. This aids in data validation and management for Blue Prism.
• Value: The real data that is kept in the data item. This value may be dynamic (modified while the procedure is being carried out) or static (specified during design).
• Scope: Although this is less usual for regular data items and more pertinent for environment variables, data items can have a global scope, which allows access across several processes, or a local scope, which allows access just within a particular process.
• Initial Value (Optional): When creating a data item, you have the option to define its default value.

How are Data Items Used?

Data Items play an important role in your Blue Prism automations:

• Storing Input and Output: Data items are frequently used to store the input that an Action stage needs to process when interacting with an application, and data items are frequently used to store the output that an Action stage generates.
• Performing Calculations: During a calculation step, you formulate expressions using data items, and the outcome is usually saved in a different data item.
• Making Decisions: To decide which course the process should follow, decision stages frequently assess the value of a data item.
• Controlling Loops: Data elements are frequently used as counters or to monitor the loop’s condition in order to continue.
• Passing Data: Data items enable you to transfer information between a process’s various stages as well as between a process and the Business Objects it invokes.

Creating and Managing Data Items:

In either Object Studio or Process Studio:

• Usually, there is a part where you may generate new data items, which is either on the left-hand side or accessible by a button.
• You will be asked to choose the data type and give the data item a name when you create it.
• Setting a starting value is optional.

Example:

Consider automating a task related to order processing. You may have information such as:

• CustomerName (Text)
• OrderAmount (Number)
• OrderDate (Date)
• IsPriorityOrder (Flag/Boolean)
• OrderID (Text, which might be an output from a system)

The information pertaining to each order would be stored and altered using these data items throughout the process.

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Collections in Blue Prism

In Blue Prism, collections are just data tables. Imagine them as rows and columns on a spreadsheet. They enable your automation to handle structured data. Every compilation includes:

• Fields: The columns in your table are called fields, and each one has a unique name and data type.
• Records: The rows in your table that contain a set of values for the designated fields are called records.

Purpose of Collections:

In situations where you need to work with several pieces of connected data, collections are quite helpful. Examples of these situations include:

• Reading information from a CSV or spreadsheet file.
• Taking some records out of an application.
• Processing a list of elements in an iterative manner.
• Use your automation to store and modify structured data.

How to Work with Collections in Process Studio:

• Create a Collection Data Item: As with other data types, you must first establish a Data Item and choose “Collection” as its data type.
• Define Fields: Following the creation of a Collection data item, you must describe the names and data types of the fields (columns) that it will contain. The characteristics of the Data Item can be used for this.
• Populate the Collection: You can read from a file or use steps like “Add Row to Collection” to add data to the collection.
• Process the Collection: Next, you can iterate through each record and take actions depending on the information in each row by using the “Loop Through Collection” stage. Additional collection modification steps like “Filter” or “Sort” are also available.

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Conclusion

You now have a basic grasp of how Blue Prism can be used to automate business processes and have taken your first steps into the fascinating field of robotic process automation in this Blue Prism Tutorial for Beginners. Since practice makes perfect, keep exploring the platform, try creating your own automations, and learn more about the more sophisticated capabilities that Blue Prism has to offer with our Blue Prism training in Chennai.