Can you read, write, and move .txt and .xlsx files while using the VMware Horizon extension?

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Hello, I’m currently trying to figure out if using the VMware Horizon extension that UiPath studio has would work for an automation project I am working on.

I know I can automate clicks and navigation of a web browser using the VMware extension, but I haven’t found anything on if you can read or move files that are stored in the VM you are automating. A part of the automation will be done using the web browser in the VM and navigating through websites. But before that the bot will also need to work with some folders and files inside the VM. It will have to read the list of files in a folder, then read a .txt file, move it to another folder, and then write data to a .xlsx or possibly a .csv file.

I have tried using a read range inside of a Use Application Browser that has the Horizon VM configured, but read range says the file does not exist. I know that my VMware extension is working because I have tested automating a chrome browser in the VM (I have the remote runtime installer working in the VM as well).

So I’m just wondering if anybody knows if reading, writing, and manipulating files that are inside of a VM that your are communicating with from your local via the VMware Extension is possible? Or can you mainly just automate the UI with this VMware Extension?

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Hi @Anderson_Mitchell

To use these activities, you will need to make sure that the Horizon extension is properly configured and that the UiPath service has the necessary permissions to access the files. You can do this by setting the VMware.Horizon.Activities.Connection property of the activities to the connection to the Horizon server, and by providing the necessary credentials and file paths.

Here is an example of how you can use the Read Range activity to read data from an Excel file on a Horizon server:

  1. Drag the Read Range activity onto the designer canvas and set the VMware.Horizon.Activities.Connection property to the connection to the Horizon server.
  2. Set the FilePath property to the path of the Excel file on the Horizon server.
  3. Set the Range property to the range of cells that you want to read.
  4. Set the Output property to a variable that will store the data that is read from the Excel file.
  5. Run the workflow.

This will read the specified range of cells from the Excel file and store the data in the output variable. You can then use the data in your workflow as needed.

I hope this helps!

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Thank you @Kaviyarasu_N,

So I am pretty sure the extension is properly configured because studio is able to communicate and do simple automations on the web browser on the Horizon server. But I set up what you described, and still got an error saying “The workbook does not exist”. Here is a screenshot of what I have set up in studio, am I using the wrong VMware.Horizon activity? I used the VM scope and passed it my credentials, and the server name, and put the read range inside of that, and gave it the full path of an .xlsx file that’s in my Horizon Server. So is there something I’m missing?

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