Getting Started with UiPath | Automate Web Browser

In this post, we are going to Automate the Web Browser and get the details from the websites using UiPath Studio. We are going to build the basic Web Automation that will search for the current time in a city and print it in the Studio.

UiPath Web Automation uses a built-in recorder that can read and enact web-based activities. It identifies web elements by their attributes and accurately manipulates them while keeping up with website changes.

Pre-requisites

UiPath Studio

If you have not installed yet, check out my last post on Installing UiPath Studio.

Create a New Process

Launch UiPath Studio and under New Project – > Click on Process.

Give a name for the process, select a location and provide a description. The description tells us that, what this process is all about and what it does.

This will create a new process and below is the project structure you will see.

Click on Open Main Workflow to start adding activities.

Currently there are no activities in the Main Workflow.

In this project, we will start recording our actions on the web to get the current time in the city. To do that, click on Recording and select Web.

A Web Recording window will open to perform certain actions.

Web Automation

First thing, we need to open a browser and provide a link to the landing page. For that Open any browser on your desktop and click on Open Browser from the Web Recording dialog. Next, you need to select the URL window where you give the URL.

For the first time users, you will see additional Info dialog asking you to install UiPath browser extension.

When you click on OK, it will open up documentation on how to install the extension. You can follow it or otherwise read below where we will be performing the same action.

Click on Home -> Tools.

Select the extension for the browser you use and click on Install.

You might have to close all your browsers before installing and also, enable the extension when you open up the browser after installation.

Now come back to the web automation. Click on Recording -> Web. In your browser open up google.com.

From the Web Recording click on Open Browser and point to URL. This will automatically be captured. Click on OK. This adds a new activity to your workflow. You will be able to see when you click on Save & Exit. But for now, we are going to continue Recording.

Our browser is opened and we have reached google.com as well. Click on Record. Here we will record our actions –

Type in Search Bar – “time in Mumbai”
Click on Search
Copy Text

When you click enter, this value will be transferred to the Search bar. Click on Search. This action will get recorded. You will see a similar search result.

Click on the Esc key on the keyboard to get the Web Recording dialog back to the screen. Select Copy -> Copy Text and point to the time on the screen. This will save the text. Now, start recording again and close the browser. Once done, click on Save & Exit.

This will create a series of activities on the Main Workflow.

Select the Get Text activity which will open up a properties window on the right hand side.

On the value field, some dummy values will be written. Here, we will create a variable and save our text from the browser to this variable. To create a variable, click Cntrl + K on the value field and give a name.

Make sure you change the scope and type of the variable to Web and String respectively. Scope values will be different for you. It will be the name of the initial activity.