What to do if i have to do a web/desktop application automation in background.Like browser will not open, all the ui activites are done through using simulate.
Hi
Welcome to UiPath forum
When you want to run a process in background with UI interaction then go for Unattended bots
Have a view on this for details
We can’t use background process as we won’t be able to interact with UI elements when background process template is used
Background processes must not make use of interactive activities, like Click or Type Into found in the UiPath.UIAutomation.Activitiespackage. Check out the Background Process Automation page to read more about how the Robot handles such processes
In short
if you can do with api and interact with the application without UI Interaction, then you can use BACKGROUND PROCESS template
Or
If it involves UI interaction and there is no api option then go for UnAttended bot
It can access the elements with simulate option
Cheers @vikash.poddar
3 Likes
@Palaniyappan I had implemented a process in which all the ui activities is in default setting let me change it all to simulate type and publish it on orchestrator as unattented and execute it then i will let you know.
Hi @vikash.poddar ,
i would like to infirm you that if you go with un attended automation and with simulate option to all your Ui activities it doesn’t mean that you are working on background automation. Simulate option is helpful when the browser is in minimized state while automating web applications.
Background automation is meant for the tasks which we can complete without opening or foreground mode. Eg: you could do some excel manipulations or api calls to automate application can work in back ground.
may i know what is the reason do you want to automate web application in background. thanks.
2 Likes
Hello @vikash.poddar
If you are running your process from the Orchestrator, i feel no need to change any of your UI activity properties into “Simulate”.
By default the process is meant to be Background process if it runs on any RDP machines through Orchestrator.
PS: Please don’t quote me on this, correct me if i have defined it wrong.
Hi @GouthamVijay ,
As per my knowledge wanted to share my thoughts on this.
Yes you are absolutely correct on the point we no need to enable simulate options for the ui activities we can leave it in normal mode if we running the process from orchestrator. For this we should install the robot in service mode while executing the process from orchestrator it will make one connection to the VM which we are running with the bot account.
if we running our automation through orchestrator by connecting VM via RDP it doesn’t mean that all the process are considered as background process. while running un attended mode also the application will be on foreground. you could test with the take screenshot activity so that you can capture the application screens. As mentioned in the above post back ground process are meant to be run in background mode eg: excel automations, APi automation etc. we can have simultaneously run multiple background process with one foreground process in same vm.
There are some scenarios application always get minimized in these cases we could use simulate options to automate those applications to avoid time out errors. thanks.
well explained,
If @vikash.poddar is running through the Orchestrator, automatically user session will going to an end, As he mentioned earlier changing the properties into Simulate then publishing won’t make any difference.
PS: Not sure he’s using community or Enterprise…
Yeah you are right @GouthamVijay .
No need enterprise version we can have community license but we should install bot / studio through msi installer so that it will help us to get bot in service mode by default.
If he is using enterprise by default we will get msi installer.
1 Like
Hello All, I’m getting same issue, i tried with both simulate and default input types for click and type into, but my problem is how long screen is not locked everything is running smooth, but once screen is locked, getting below errors “Timeout reached.”,“level”:“Error”,“logType”:“Default”, and “Could not find the UI element corresponding to this selector”
Any suggestion on it? @Palaniyappan @kirankumar.mahanthi1 @GouthamVijay
Any Suggestion is much appreciated 
@kirankumar.mahanthi1 I am automating a web application for downloading some files by doing some click activites to reach upto the location from where i can get the download file button , i don’t want that the browser will open and visible on the screen.I want to execute this automation totally in background.
@kirankumar.mahanthi1 This line of yours “Background automation is meant for the tasks which we can complete without opening or foreground mode” is what i want to do for my web application automation which is going to be unattendant.All the credentials are going to provided from assets and need to perform few click activities to download the files.
Hi @vikash.poddar ,
if you are running this process from un attended mode from orchestrator you could minimize the browser and do all the steps by using simulate option.
if you are using attended automation you could do the above steps but while running this automation it run minimized browser window but you cannot do any tasks in your machine it would effect your automation. we cannot do the web automation in background mode like excel operations. if you are doing excel operations in background you can do any other task in your VM that is the advantage in your background automation. this is the basic difference.
Could you please confirm which automation you are trying attended or un attended. thanks.
1 Like
@kirankumar.mahanthi1 The automation is going to be unattendant, for logging in to the web application i am using assests of orchestrator from there i get and put the credentials for logging in and then few click activities and then download the file and then log out that’s all i want to do.
I know that i can minimize the browser and with simulate type my whole process run without getting any error.
As you said like excel operation, we cannot do web automation in background mode, that’s the answer I am looking for. Are you sure with this statement?
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