Standalone robot not working

[jsatta (Joan Manuel Satta)]

Hi, community!

I developed a robot that must interact with a web application using Google Chrome. On my dev machine (where I have Uipath Studio community edition) it works perfectly.

The thing is that when I installed the robot (only the robot, through command line UiPathPlatform.msi CODE={activationCode} ADDLOCAL=DesktopFeature,Robot,RegisterService) on a test enviroment and tried to run the project, I got “System error at initialization: Cannot communicate with the browser, please check the UiPath extension”.

The extension on the test enviroment is installed (Is my Chrome account, so is the very same Uipath extension I used on the dev enviroment).

So, I want to know if maybe I’m missing something regarding robot standalone installation.

[Rammohan91 (Rammohan Banda)]

By any chance, Are you killing chrome process at the start of the workflow?. Have seen some issues around dealing with chrome when the previous instance of chrome process was killed. UiPath extenstion doesn’t work in some of those cases (browser had to be restarted without killing for the extension to work again). Just checking in case you did so.

Thanks,
Rammohan B.

[jsatta (Joan Manuel Satta)]

Hi @Rammohan91!
Thank you for your reply. I’m using the Uipath Master Framework Template, so by default it calls a Workflow named KillAllProcessess and it logs “Killing precesses…”, but no, I didn’t actually kill chrome. Is just an empty wf with that log.

[Rammohan91 (Rammohan Banda)]

Have a look at this and see if the troubleshooting helps,

Studio - Troubleshooting

Thanks,
Rammohan B.

[jsatta (Joan Manuel Satta)]

It gave me a clue. I don’t have Native Messaging running.

As I mentioned before, I don’t have Uipath Studio installed on the test enviroment, so I installed the Chrome extension by copying and pasting the following link: UiPath - Chrome Web Store

I got that link by pressing on this button

On my dev enviroment.

Is it possible that the problem is the way I installed the extension?
Do I need Uipath Studio installed on the testing enviroment if I want to do a complete installation of the extension?

PS: many thanks for your reply!!!

[Rammohan91 (Rammohan Banda)]

@jsatta

Is it possible that the problem is the way I installed the extension?

May be.

@jsatta

Do I need UiPath Studio installed on the testing enviroment if I want to do a complete installation of the extension?

I believe you don’t have to. It doesn’t make sense to install studio just for chrome extension if the system need to be FOR or BOR.

Check if you see this SetupExtensions.exe somewhere under the installation path of the robot.

Chrome Extension Install Issues on VM with just UiRobot

I am running into an issue installing the Chrome extension on a virtual machine that just has UiRobot installed. Since Studio is not installed, I attempt to install the Chrome extension through the command prompt using the SetupExtensions.exe. Basically I CD into the folder containing the .exe and execute the command SetupExtensions.exe/chrome. This part works and brings me to the UiPath extension page in Chrome. When I click add to Chrome, I run into an issue where it doesn’t install the ex…

Thanks,
Rammohan B.

[jsatta (Joan Manuel Satta)]

Hi @Rammohan91!
I’m sorry I keep taking up your time, but I’m still unable to fix this. That last post was about people not being able to install the extension. I can install it, but it doesn’t work.

The second post you suggested talked about a Chrome Native Messaging extension.

My dev task manager (working, extension installed through Uipath Studio) looks like this:

My test task manager (not working, extension installed by copying and pasting the link) looks like this:

I cant get Chrome Native Messaging host to run on my test enviroment. As the second post you provided suggested, I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled both Chrome and the uipath extension several times by now. If I go to the installation folder, I can see a file named ChromeNativeMessaging.exe, that I assume is what should be running. I tried running it on my own, but nothing happens.

[jsatta (Joan Manuel Satta)]

Hi @Rammohan91!
I want to tell you that I finally solved it.

What I did was reproduce the configuration I found on the dev enviroment regarding the Native Messaging Host.

I created a register called com.uipath.chromenativemsg.

I setted that register to poing to a manifest.json

That manifest.json looks like this:

As you can see, it points to the ChromeNativeMessaging.exe I’ve been mentioning so often.

It worked! I assume Uipath Studio does all those things for you and that’s why I didn’t have to do any of those things on the dev enviroment.

[Rammohan91 (Rammohan Banda)]

That’s Great I remember reading this solution somewhere in the forum before, just don’t know where

Thanks,
Rammohan B.