Mulesoft RPA automation basics

Automating applications can revolutionize business operations by saving time and enhancing accuracy, as it eliminates repetitive manual tasks. MuleSoft RPA's App Automation allows you to interact directly with application elements through their XPaths, ensuring that changes in their appearance or position on the desktop do not impact the automation process.

What is Application Automation?

Application automation differs from Mouse Action and Pattern Search Action Steps in that it does not depend on specific coordinates or design elements. This means that even if an application's position or layout changes, App Automation continues to function effectively.

Simplifying Workflow Creation

App Automation makes workflow creation easier by recording clicks and keyboard inputs, then automatically generating the corresponding Action Steps. For example, consider a use case where you need to generate a PDF document from a Word document.

App Session

The App Session Action Step is a key element of App Automation. It encapsulates all other App Automation Action Steps and is essential for their operation. Other Action Steps can also be included within the App Session.

It's important to mention that you can also initiate screen capture to automatically generate steps for the App Session. However, for this explanation, we will manually add the Action Steps to the App Session.

Click App Element

The Click App Element Action Step allows you to perform various click and invoke actions on an App Element. By directly invoking the Microsoft API, the element function is executed without needing any mouse action.

The XPath for the element can be captured by hovering over the element and pressing F2. We will use this action to open the LibreOffice shortcut from the desktop. Next, let's add a KeyStrokes (Control) Element to the workflow. As mentioned earlier, we can also include non-App Elements within the App Session to add the text "This is a PDF" to the Word document.

Keystrokes to App Element

The Keystrokes to App Element feature enables you to simulate keyboard inputs and send them to an App Element. Unlike the “Set Text to App Element” function, this feature allows you to send control keys such as "Alt," "Ctrl," and "Shift" to the element. In our case, we will use the keyboard shortcut {F12} to export the document as a PDF.

Finally, we will add the Click App Element Action step to the workflow to save the PDF.

App Automation Use Case in Action

We have now created a straightforward use case to export a Word document using the App Automation toolbox.

Conclusion

App Automation enables you to capture keystrokes and mouse actions on Windows desktop applications and easily convert them into repeatable automations, saving valuable time and costs. Want to learn more? Explore the other RPA-centric articles in this series to discover more exciting use cases for MuleSoft RPA.