Let's start familiarizing UiPath Studio interface and basic concepts.
Later in the lesson, we will create a simple desktop automation.
The way we setup the lessons is by working with examples.
We believe this will be an effective way of learning UiPath, just like any new software.
I know your time is important so this is the fastest way to learn it.
Workflow Designer UiPath uses a visual way of setting up automation.
You can use it to model processes of your business operations.
This is a great way to setup automation with few or no knowledge about programming.
The workflow is represented by flowcharts and diagrams.
You probably heard about these terms before.
UiPath provides you an easier way to setup your automation using boxes and shapes for
different purpose.
As you see in our example, our workflow is compose of these boxes and diagrams.
These boxes represent each activity.
The arrow indicates the order of the execution.
And this orange triangle, it let’s you branch the workflow depending on different inputs.
Activities On the left side pane, we have the Activities
box.
Activities are pieces of actions you can add in your workflow - like clicking the OK button
or typing a text in an input box.
Adding activities into the workflow is as easy as dragging and dropping into the designer
workspace.
An easier way to add activities into your workflow is by using this Record button.
This will automatically adds activities base on the actions you have taken on your desktop
applications during the recording.
There are also complex data wizard but let's talk about that in the later chapters.
OK enough of the talking.
Let's go and try to make an app demo that will display a message on the screen.
First App Demo
Let's start by clicking the Start menu, Go to "New" and click the blank workflow.
Let's give it a proper name.
Let's name it "Hello Browny".
Why did I chose that name?
Because ....that's my pet's name?
This will gives you this initial workflow and let's remove this default sequence.
Right click on it and select DELETE. or you can just select it and press delete on your
keyboard.
In the Activities box, let's find MessageBox.
Let's drag and drop it in our workflow.
As you can see.
This is one of many preconfigured Activities that you can use.
Let's double click on it so we can put our message.
"Arf arf"
This is what we call expression editor.
And everything we put inside the expression editor is called an "Expression".
Take note of that coz I'll be talking a lot about it from now on.
You notice that I am enclosing it inside a quotation?
That's because we are putting a string value to a variable.
Let's go back to our main workspace so I can explain it further.
Why do we need a variable?
When we assemble workflows there are many times that we need to pass data from one activity
to another.
In UiPath, this is accomplished by using variables.
Think of a variable like a box where you can put some stuff in it.
Only that we can put specific types in this box . Like I can only put shoes in it or just
oranges or just apples.
So we put label on these boxes, that label is what we call variable name.
That way we would be able to identify what's the value inside it.
A variable is a storage location for data that has an associated name and contains a
value.
A variable also has a type meaning that only certain kinds of values can be stored in it.
OK let's put it in an example, Let' create a variable named BrownieBarks.
And yes your variable should not include special characters.
So spaces between words are not allowed.
Let's select String as the type and let's give it a value "arf arf"
Now I can go back to my message box and change my original text into a variable called BrownieBarks.
UiPath automatically gives you suggestions base on the saved variables in your workflow.
Let's go ahead and run it.
From the Execute Tab, click Run.
So there.
It displays the string stored in the variable called BrownieBarks.
In the next video, we'll talk about passing data from one activity to another by using
variables.
Stay tuned.