External Activity

This section includes the following:

 

Prerequisite

  • Visual Studio 2019 installed on machine

Activity Creation

  1. Copy ExternalActivityTemplate.zip file from AddOns (WinScp and go to path ae/text/out/build/AddOns/) folder which is available in build.
  2. Paste above copied zip file to C:\Users\yourUsername\Documents\Visual Studio 2019\Templates\ProjectTemplates.
  3. Open Visual Studio 2019 and click Create a new project and search for template External Activity Template.
  4. It prompts to create a new project with External Activity Template. Provide name for solution and location and click on Create.
  5. After project gets created, update the activity design as per requirement in ActivityDesigner.xaml file and you can update Localization related from en-us folder file if you require Resource.
  6. In Resource folder, you will get Toolbox.xml file wherein you can update category in which your activity is shown and also you can change the image for category.
  7. You need to write execution for your activity inside ActivityRuntime File. If you need to show CView or output value then you need to implement IAutomationActivity Interface which is having ApplicationID field, and your activity must be inside Application Activity only.
  8. After all the changes are performed and build your project then, it will create PublishOutput folder in your solution file location. That folder contains patch metadata and PatchFiles.zip. It is used for the distribution of your activity inside studio and other client component.

Activity Distribution

  1. Start Vanguard component
  2. Create a folder 19.0 GA Patch#1 in deployed build “patch-upload\patch\” path and paste above files and wait for 5 minutes
  3. Check zip folder from “patch-upload/zip” is updated and it contains folder with above folder name. For example, “19.0 GA Patch#1” and it will contain one upload.txt file which shows patch is uploaded successfully or not.
  4. Start any client component at startup it will ask for patch is available and if you click patch will be downloaded in your component list.

Usage

  1. Once your patch applied successfully please add following key in client component config file.

     

    <add key="IsExternalActivitiesEnabled" value="True"></add>

     
  2. In AutomationStudio.exe.config, Engage.exe.config and EnterprisePersonalAssistant.exe.config and the required RoboSE.exe.config file in “<PrimarySettings><Parameters>” section
  3. Once you update key your activity will be visible in canvas tool, and you can use the same in process.

Troubleshooting

  • You can debug your activity code when you attach running application to visual studio project