Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Rapise is the ultimate tool for automating your routine UI tasks for legacy applications. Rapise has broad support for automating many different classes of application, including AS400 terminals, desktop client/server, web, and mobile. In addition, Rapise's API automation tools let you mix RPA and API styles of automation in one process.

What is Robotic Process Automation

Robotic process automation (RPA) software is designed to quickly automate business tasks in applications such as Microsoft Office, Web application, Microsoft Windows client/server applications, or even Legacy AS400 applications without coding or programming. Unlike API automation tools, RPA tools connect to the user interface of the applications, simulating the user actions to complete the business tasks.

How is it different to Test Automation?

With classic test automation, you are writing test scripts that aim to validate that the application is working as designed. With test automation, you are testing various layers of the application, unit testing modules, system testing APIs, and then testing a subset of the User Interface (UI), focusing on the highest risk areas, and those areas that are most stable and repeatable. Your scripts not only automate some of the tasks but have to verify that the application is working correctly.

With RPA the objectives are different. You are automating routine, mindless tasks that a human currently has to perform. With test automation you are primarily looking at test and feature coverage, with RPA you are focusing on business process coverage. You need to automate x% of your business processes. The automation design is different, with a focus on discrete tasks rather than a multi-layer test framework.

Why Use Rapise to Automate Your Processes?

Rapise is a world leader in automating complex business applications. It has out of the box support for various different applications and can even have integrated processes that span multiple application types in the same business scenario. For example, Rapise can automate a web-based CRM application (e.g. Salesforce) that downloads an MS-Excel sheet, that opens the spreadsheet in Excel, makes changes to the file, and then uses it in another desktop application (e.g. Dynamics AX).

Rapise offers built-in support for large numbers of common business applications, such as Microsoft Dynamics, Office, Salesforce, SharePoint as well as the ability for customers to expand its rich library of components to handle bespoke and custom applications.

Rapise has a unique codeless methodology called Rapise Visual Language (RVL) that simplifies the task of recording and maintaining automation processes using an integrated drag and drop object library and task editor:

Further, you can use the built-in IDE to create custom functions in JavaScript to perform business calculations and other task logic, that can then be included into your task editor just as easily as the recorded actions:

When you use Rapise with our powerful SpiraTeam lifecycle management platform, you have an enterprise business management toolset that lets you run distributed, global automation tasks in real-time, with dashboards showing you up to the minute progress:

Analog and Simulated Objects

Sometimes you have to automate applications that have controls or elements that are purely visual, for example automating the drawing of a signature on a business approval form. For those situations, Rapise has the built-in support for analog (coordinate-based) task recording and playback:

Rapise also has support for synthetic “Simulated Objects” that let you record actions that get associated with a simulated object, that maps specific actions to mouse clicks or other action at specific coordinates relative to the application:

This gives you the best of both analog and object-based recording.

Data-Driven Automation

One of the major benefits of RPA is the ability to perform complex tasks with large volumes of transaction data that would overwhelm a human. Rapise lets you playback your recorded tasks using data sets from a spreadsheet, SQL database, or from our SpiraTest test management system:

Automating Desktop Applications

Rapise has a variety of different available automation libraries for dealing with different types of desktop client/server application. Rapise will analyze the application and determine which libraries will be the most suitable for your application.

Rapise has pre-built support for many common business applications such as Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Office, Axapta, and Navision, as well as support for all key desktop technologies such as .NET, WPF, Java, Swing, AWT, SWT, ActiveX, and Win32.

Automating Web Applications

When it comes to automating web applications, Rapise simplifies the process. It has a web recorder than lets you record in your choice of web browser (Chrome, IE, and Firefox), and playback in all the major browser families (Chrome, IE, Firefox, Safari, Edge, Opera).

For complex applications, Rapise has SPY tools that simplify the automation process, plus pre-build libraries for common applications such as Microsoft Dynamics 365, Sharepoint, Office 365, and Salesforce.com.

Automating Mobile Apps

Many critical business applications have mobile components for field-service, end user data capture, and remote working. Rapise brings the power of RPA to the mobile platform.

Rapise gives you the same easy to use interface for creating automated process tasks for mobile applications, regardless of whether you are working with Apple iOS or Android (or both):

If you don’t yet have a mobile device environment in-house, don’t worry, as Rapise integrates with the majority of device cloud networks, including SauceLabs, BrowserStack, and Kobiton.

Automating Legacy Terminal Applications

Many critical business applications still rely on traditional “green screen” running VT100 or AS400 style terminal applications.

Rapise can connect to a variety of terminal emulators, both Java Swing or Windows native, to automate text-based terminal applications. Rapise can connect to the terminal window, extract text from the screen, and send terminal commands to the application as part of an integrated business process.