Help Centre › Building Processes
Many processes repeat the same few steps, such as logging in to a system or opening a report. Instead of building those steps again, you can reuse them. There are three ways, all on the process map's right-click menu:
| Choose | What you get | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Split out… | The steps move into a new sub-process, and this process calls it. | One place to change: every process that calls the sub-process gets the fix. |
| Save as Snippet… | A copy of the steps you can drop into any bot process. | A quick start you will then change in each process. |
| Save as App Skill… | A copy of the steps, linked to an application, with the values that change each time turned into inputs. | The same steps against one system, with different data each time. |
To use any of them, right-click a step, or select several steps first and right-click one of them.
1. Split out into a sub-process
- Select the steps and choose Split out….
- Fill in New process name, for example Login Sub-process.
- Click Split.
Every step from the first to the last you selected moves to the new process, and a sub-process step that calls it takes their place. A locked process cannot be split. Because the steps now live in one place, a change to the sub-process reaches every process that uses it.
2. Snippets
Save a snippet
- Select the steps and choose Save as Snippet….
- Fill in a Name, such as Login Sequence. A Description (optional) and a Category (optional), such as Authentication, help others find it.
- Click Save.
Use a snippet
Open the Add step tab on a bot process. Your company's snippets are under Snippets, grouped by category, with the number of steps beside each. Drag one onto the map.
The steps are copied in. Changing them later does not change the snippet, and changing the snippet does not change processes that already use it. Snippets are not offered in cloud processes.
3. App Skills
An App Skill is a snippet that knows which application it is for, and which of its values change each time. For example, "Find an invoice in Sage" where the invoice number is an input.
Save an App Skill
- Select the steps and choose Save as App Skill….
- Fill in a Name and choose the Application the steps work in (or — No app —).
- Under Parameters, tick the fields that change each time the skill is used. Each one becomes an input you fill in when you insert it. If none are found, the skill is saved as it is.
- Click Save skill.
Insert an App Skill
- Right-click an empty part of the map and choose Insert App Skill….
- Choose the Skill.
- Fill in its Parameters.
- Click Insert. The steps land on the map with your values filled in.
Because each skill was lifted from a process that ran, its selectors are already known to work on that system. That saves picking every button and field again.
Skills Automize finds for you
Automize also looks for steps that repeat across your processes on the same application: two or more steps in a row that appear in at least two places. It shows them on the application's page under Suggested skills, Found in recurring step sequences, with the values that differ already proposed as parameters.
- Promote keeps a suggestion as a skill.
- Dismiss drops it. It is not suggested again.
- Find skills, on the application's menu, looks again now.
The application's Skills section lists the skills you have for that system. Remove deletes one.