2.2. Create Actions Step-by-Step

An alternative way for robot creation is to create actions step by step. This allows you to have a finer control over the creation of robot actions and to better cope with bugs appearing in the robot recording process. The step-by-step creation is also optimized for better accuracy instead of recording speed by the recorder. We will describe instructions for each type of the action without much detailed examples. Readers may follow the instructions and re-create the example demonstrated in the previous robot recording section.

To create actions step-by-step, open the robot designer from menu: View à Design Mode, as:

You can design ten kinds of robot actions using robot designer: Go to URL, A Click, A List of Links, Take Data, Take Table, Submit a Form, Logon Form, Open a Frame, Sent Emails and A Schedule, as listed in the designer panel. Detailed instruction follows:

1) Go to URL

a) Navigate to an URL in the browser window;

b) Click on the ‘Go This URL’ radio button in the designer window;

c) Click the [Add to Task] button.

2) A Click

a) Show an example page in the browser window;

b) Mark the link to be clicked in the browser window (move your mouse above the link, press the left button, drag the link slightly, and release the left button);

c) Click on the ‘A Click’ radio button in the designer window;

d) Click the [Add to Task] button.

3) A List of Links

a) Show an example page in the browser window;

b) Mark one of the links to be followed in the browser window (move your mouse to above the link, press the left button, drag the link slightly, release the left button);

c) Click on the ‘A List of Links’ radio button in the designer window;

d) Click the [Add to Task] button.

4) Take Data

a) Show an example page in the browser window;

b) Mark the data to be extracted in the browser window;

c) Click on the ‘Take Data’ radio button in the designer window;

d) Click the [Add to Task] button.

5) Take Table

a) Show an example page in the browser window;

b) Mark a row of data to be extracted in the browser window;

c) Click on the ‘Take Table’ radio button in the designer window;

d) Click the [Add to Task] button.

6) Submit a Form

a) Show an example page with forms in the browser window;

b) Mark the button that can submit the form in the browser window (move your mouse to above the submit button, press the left button, drag the button slightly, release the left button);

c) Click on the ‘Submit a Form’ radio button in the designer window;

d) The designer window is switched to a form value window;

e) Enter a new name in the drop-down box under the ‘Form Values:’ (or you may select an existing name from the drop-down box);

f) Click on the [Replace Form] button in the form value window.

g) Press [OK] in the form value window;

h) The form value window is switched to the designer window;

i) Click the [Add to Task] button.

7) Logon Form

a) Show an example page with logon forms in the browser window;

b) Mark the button that can submit the form in the browser window (move your mouse to above the submit button, press the left button, drag the button slightly, release the left button);

c) Click on the ‘Logon Form’ radio button in the designer window;

d) The designer window is switched to a form value window;

e) Enter a new name in the drop-down box under the ‘Form Values:’ (or you may select an existing name from the drop-down box);

f) Click on the [Replace Form] button in the form value window, as in the above figure.

g) Press [OK] in the form value window;

h) The form value window is switched to the designer window;

i) Click the [Add to Task] button.

8) Open a Frame

a) Show an example page with multiple frames in the browser window;

b) Mark any text in the target frame in the browser window;

c) Click on the ‘Open a Frame’ radio button in the designer window;

d) Click [Add to Task] button.

9) Sent Emails

a) Disabled now.

10) A Schedule

a) Click on the ‘A Schedule’ radio button in the designer window;

b) Click the [Add to Task] button;

c) Double-click the new ‘Schedule tasks’ action in the action list box;

d) Press the [Insert] button on the page in the browser window;

e) Add new schedule tasks (to be explained later, example figure in below).