Is there a way to do activities under a different user account

Help Studio
1

Hello,

I am trying to use UiPath to automate a two step process that requires downloading files from the internet and then organizing those files on a local machine. I’ve got the solution mostly mapped out but I’ve hit a snag.

The account I’m using to download files does not have permissions to manipulate the files at their destination. I have access to an account that will be able to do that, however the account that can manipulate files does not have access to the site being used to download the files.

Is there a way to have UiPath switch accounts mid job, or maybe run certain activities with a different account?

2

Hi @xwill13,

Are you downloading those files to local (the system/ server on which Bot runs) folders?
If so, you can login to the server with the credentials that can manipulate files and use other credentials (via credential asset) and login to the site that you’re downloading the files from.

Please let me know if my understanding is not correct.

3

@xwill13

Yes bot can do that…

For login for downloading files ypu can use different account details and while moving files if it is to network location or to sharepoint locations we can again use another account for those

Cheers

4

Hi @xwill13
please store both account as “Asset” in orchestrator.
Make to sub workflow:
First sub process will get first account and download files, organize all files in local.
Second sub process get second account from orchestrator and by using second you will manipulate all files.

5

Why not just grant the correct permissions to the robot so it can get the files, or change the download destination to somewhere the robot can access?

These are better solutions that unnecessarily complicating the process.

6

First, thank you for taking the time to answer.

There are two machines.

The first computer is technically a user machine and because we don’t have orchestrator set up in our environment, this is where I’m running UiPath for the time being. This machine is technically a desktop, but is being used as a server for UiPath for reasons that have not been made clear to me (i’m realtively new and this initiative was dropped in my lap).

The second machine is a windows server that runs a totally different service, and requires the files I mentioned in order to do so. Since it is not designed for users to access directly, only admin accounts have the rights to make any changes of any kind.

The files themselves are acquired from the internet and can only be accessed via a user account, this is the same account that I use to log in to machine #1. The site uses some kind of single sign on that reads whatever account you are logged into the machine with, meaning i don’t get to manually enter any information there.

Once those files are downloaded to the user machine, they are manually moved over to the server and placed in specific locations, where the service that runs there will use them whenever it needs to. This process happens weekly.

I apologize if this doesn’t clear things up enough.

What is credential asset? Looking it up it seems like that’s a feature only orchestrator provides.

7

I haven’t granted the robot permissions because I’m not sure how to do that, and I’m also not sure if the rules we have in the organization would allow it.

Currently we only have UiPath studio installed standalone, with no orchestrator. When I look up information about granting the robot permissions I only get information using orchestrator. Is this an orchestrator specific feature?

As for changing the destination, unfortunately that isn’t possible. The files need to end up on a server so that the server can run a scheduled script that was written long before I joined this team. I don’t understand enough about it yet to be comfortable modifying it, and even if I did, I’m fairly sure I wouldn’t be allowed to do so anyway.

8

@xwill13

Try using the browser in incognito mode for downloading files…then sso will not take effect and it will ask you to enter the useretails…then you can enter any user details as you need

For the crendential asset…it is kind of a place holder in orchestrator to store your credentials…if you do not want to use that yhen you can store the crendtials in windows credential vault as well or directly as variables in your process also…which can be used to login to the web application when opening in incognito mode

Hope this helps

Cheers

9

Is there an activity for this or is this a feature of orchestrator?

10

@xwill13

As mentioned previously you can open the browser in incognito mode…in open browser or use application/browser activity under options you can see the option to open in incognito…

When you open in incognito then credentials are to be provided by default as sso is not considered…so you have the ability to use a different set of username and password to login to the web application

Hope this is clear

Cheers

11

Hi @xwill13, I echo with Anil and Paul. You need to use the credentials that have access to machine2, with which you may access from machine1.

I believe you’re good with downloading the files from website from machine1.

You can do that through Bot by mapping machine2 as a drive or with providing full network path (which can be obtained from your Admin/ IT team) but for that, you need to have the admin credentials stored in Windows credential manager (for now, as you mentioned you don’t have Orchestrator setup) which you can acquire through Bot and do the necessary operations.

12

You’d have your identity management team do it. You’re going to need to know how this process of managing permissions works in your organization, because it’s an important part of RPA. You need to be granting the robots the permissions they need. If it’s not allowed in your organization then they didn’t properly understand the needs of RPA when they decided to do it.