Headless problem

riderc1

Member
Hello - I have a frustrating problem. I created a Blue Prism process over 6 months ago that was heavily used for some time, then we had to pause it as it completed its task. It was importing data from some software into a different version of the software (the software i'm automating does not have an import feature and no APIs). I populate the Blue Prism queue with information such as name, address, email, etc - basically it fills out a form.

The last change to the process was back in June. It did run in September without any problems. We are now using it again - but it seems to become "stuck" in a bad loop of sorts when it runs in headless mode. I schedule the import process so it can run overnight and most of the day.

It does seem to be running. The software I'm automating has a Search option to check for duplicate entries. If it finds the entry already exists, it marks the queue that the item was found and goes to the next entry. The problem is - it starts marking every entry as having a duplicate entry (except for the first 2-3 - these are working). I manually checked some of the entries it reports as being found - they do not exist in the system.

If I run the process in the Blue Prism IDE so I can observe it, it is working perfectly. I do not see any errors. I have tried this on my laptop and also on the production system that normally runs Blue Prism. When I switch over to running it "headless", this is when the problem occurs.

Any ideas on what I might check? It works fine when I run it and observe it. It works for a few times and then gets stuck when Blue Prism runs it without the IDE. I am using login agent for headless mode.
 

SERBEM

Member
Do you maybe set a flag or something on the first duplicate entry you found? And after the items is complete the flag or some other kind of value need to be reset before running the next item?
 

riderc1

Member
Do you maybe set a flag or something on the first duplicate entry you found? And after the items is complete the flag or some other kind of value need to be reset before running the next item?
I am not using a flag. In the Search box, it types in a name and clicks the search button. If there are results, there is a text box that is part of the Search window that would show results. It's possible there could be 0-N results.
In my process, I have a screenshot of what a blank search box looks like (it's a specific resolution and just white). The automation takes a screenshot of the search results part of the window and compares this image to the blank one. If they are equal, I know search did not find results.
If they are not equal, search found something. I have Blue Prism throw an exception that is handled in my main loop.

When I run this in the IDE, it is working fine. It also runs fine for a short time when I have Login Agent access the machine to run it. What is more baffling, this same process was used about 3 weeks ago. This made me suspect something changed with the application I'm automating or maybe something with Windows. However, since it works in the IDE, I'm not sure how valid my theory is.

Yesterday, I logged in to the Blue Prism server using Remote Desktop and kicked off the process from the Blue Prism IDE. It ran for about 6 hours straight with no issues. Sometime in the night, it encountered the same problem. Perhaps there is something starting up on this system that I'm not aware of.

I suppose I will need to add a screenshot capture when this problem occurs to help troubleshoot it. I observed it running yesterday for about 30 minutes and never saw anything that would cause a problem. It followed the process and was working properly.
 

SERBEM

Member
You cant spy that no result in another way? Or spy the result and make a wait stage - result <> anything than its no result and a business exception? I am just thinking loud ;-) Maybe some screenshots would help.
 

riderc1

Member
You cant spy that no result in another way? Or spy the result and make a wait stage - result <> anything than its no result and a business exception? I am just thinking loud ;-) Maybe some screenshots would help.
I could spy it a different way. I had originally started doing that but the image capture was easier/faster. (And it has worked fine for months - just this last week it ran into a problem.)
However, this process will probably not be used much longer. It is being used to import data from a company we acquired. The software we are using does not have an import feature.
I am currently using Remote Desktop to attach to my Blue Prism system. I then run the process from that screen and minimize remote desktop. I'm not able to use any of the scheduling capabilities but at least it is working on importing the data. (I do not have time to properly fix it right now - since we are not going to use it much longer, we do not want to spend more time on it.)
 
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