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Types of HAT automation activities

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There are various types of Hosted Application Toolkit (HAT) automation activities that you can use to automate your hosted applications. To view and use the HAT automation activities, see Use HAT automation activities.

In This Topic

Application Integration Framework (AIF) action activities

AIF context activities

DDA activities

Application Integration Framework (AIF) action activities

Action activities provide functionality to access and manage UII actions. The following table describes the various action activities available.

Activity Description

DoAction

Executes an action either in the same application or in another hosted application. This action has the following properties:

  • ApplicationName: The application on which to execute the DoAction. Mandatory.

  • ActionData: Data required for performing the action. Optional.

  • ActionName Name of the action that is registered with the hosted application specified in the ApplicationName property. Mandatory.

GetActionData

Retrieves the data from the action that invoked the workflow or automation. The value will be returned in the ActionData property.

SetActionData

Adds data to the current action.

Specify the data that is required for the action in the ActionData parameter.

RegisterActionForEvent

Registers an action to be initiated every time an event occurs. This action has the following properties:

  • ActionApplication: Name of the application with which the UII action is registered. Mandatory.

  • ActionName: Name of the action for the application that will be executed when the event is initiated. Mandatory.

  • ApplicationName: Name of the application that initiates the event. Mandatory.

  • ControlName: Name of the control that initiates the event. Optional.

  • EventName: Name of the event initiated by the application/control.

UnRegisterActionForEvent

Unregisters an action that was previously registered using the RegisterActionForEvent activity. The unregistered event won’t be executed anymore. This action has the following properties:

  • ActionApplicationName: Name of the application with which the UII action is registered.

  • ActionName: Name of the action for the application that would have executed when the event was initiated.

  • ApplicationName: Name of the application that initiates the event.

  • ControlName: Name of the control that initiates the event.

  • EventName: Name of the event initiated by the application or control.

CloseDynamicApp

Closes a dynamic hosted application from within the automation. You can use this action to programmatically close a dynamic hosted application in Unified Service Desk.

Specify the name of the dynamic hosted application in the ApplicationName parameter that you want to close.

For more information about dynamic hosted applications, see Dynamic UII hosted applications.

StartDynamicApp

Starts a dynamic hosted application from within the automation.

Specify the name of the dynamic hosted application in the ApplicationName parameter that you want to start.

FocusApp

Sets focus on an application from within the automation.

Specify the name of the hosted application in the ApplicationName parameter that you want to set focus on.

AIF context activities

Context activities allow accessing the AIF context from the automation. The following table describes the various context activities available.

Activity Description

GetContext

Retrieves a value for the specified key from the context. The value is returned in the ContextValue property.

Specify the key of the context to be retrieved in the ContextKey property.

SetContext

Sets the value for the specified key in the context. This action has the following properties:

  • ContextKey: Key of the context to be set.

  • ContextData: Optionally, enter the data to be set to the context specified in ContextKey.

GetCredential

Retrieves user credentials from the context for the specified application. This action has the following properties:

  • ApplicationName: Name of the application.

  • UserName: User name.

  • Password: Password.

Note

To retrieve the credentials from a custom store, the developer needs to provide a class that implements the ISsoLookupService interface.

HostApplication

Hosts the UI of the application. It uses the Application Hosting configuration data specified while configuring the hosted control in Unified Service Desk on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM server to determine the hosting mode. For more information about specifying the hosting mode for an application in Unified Service Desk, see Create and manage UII hosted applications.

DDA activities

Data-driven adapter (DDA) activities provide access to controls specified in the bindings. The following table describes various DDA activities.

Activity Description

ControlFinder

Locates a control in the hosted application. The action returns True if the control is found in the ControlFound property; otherwise, returns False. You can set the ExceptionsMask property if you want to use the exception handler to execute depending activities. This action has the following properties:

  • ApplicationName: Name of the application that hosts the control. Mandatory.

  • ControlName: Name of the control in the application.

  • ExceptionsMask: Indicates whether you want to show an exception if the control isn’t found. The default setting is False.

Note

If a workflow that you configured is blocking the UI thread and you have specified SleepInterval and Timeout parameters for the ControlFinder activity, the action should be configured to run asynchronously.

ExecuteControlAction

Executes the default action of a control. For example, if the control is a button, the default action is click. This action has the following properties:

  • ApplicationName: Name of the application that hosts the control.

  • ControlName: Name of the control in the application.

GetControlValue

Retrieves a value from a control in the application. The value is returned in the ControlValue property. This action has the following properties:

  • ApplicationName: Name of the application that hosts the control.

  • ControlName: Name of the control in the application whose value has to be retrieved.

Note

When using the GetControlValue activity with a multi-line text control, all new line characters will be ignored and a single string is returned.

SetControlValue

Sets the value of a control in the application. This action has the following properties:

  • ApplicationName: Name of the application that hosts the control.

  • ControlName: Name of the control in the application whose value has to be set.

  • ControlValue: Enter the value to be set.

Note

When using the SetControlValue activity with a multi-line text control, all new line characters will be ignored and a single string is returned.

Navigate

Specifies a URL that a web application navigates to. For example, you can use the Navigate activity to force a web application to navigate to a specific URL when a user performs a task. This action has the following properties:

  • ApplicationName: Name of the application that hosts the control.

  • URL: Specify the URL along with the query string.

Note

  • The Navigate activity shouldn’t be called concurrently on the web browser. If it is, you’ll receive the following errors:

    AutomationAdapter (app=Contact,action=__SetControlValue__): Posted implicit action exception:  Microsoft.Uii.HostedApplicationToolkit.DataDrivenAdapter.DataDrivenAdapterException: DDA0301: Web browser is busy and cannot be stopped. 
     WF/Automation <GUID> exception: Microsoft.Uii.HostedApplicationToolkit.DataDrivenAdapter.DataDrivenAdapterException: DDA0301: Web browser is busy and cannot be stopped.

  • For the Navigate activity to work on the target application, you must configure the hosted application in Unified Service Desk to use Automation Adapter (HAT), and provide the following binding in the Automation XML field:

    <DataDrivenAdapterBindingsCollection>    <DataDrivenAdapterBindings>       <Type>Microsoft.Uii.HostedApplicationToolkit.DataDrivenAdapter.WebDataDrivenAdapter, Microsoft.Uii.HostedApplicationToolkit.DataDrivenAdapter</Type>       <Controls/>    </DataDrivenAdapterBindings> </DataDrivenAdapterBindingsCollection>

    For more information about configuring hosted controls in Unified Service Desk, see Create and manage UII hosted applications.

Audit

Creates audit entries from within the automation. This action has the following properties:

  • Audit Flag: Name of the audit flag.

  • Log data: Value of the audit flag value.

For information about various audit flags in Unified Service Desk, see Configure auditing in Unified Service Desk in the Unified Service Desk Administration Guide.

ConfigReader

Reads a configuration value from within the automation. This activity will either read configuration from the Option settings in Unified Service Desk or the application configuration file. This action has the following properties:

  • OptionKey as string: Used to read the Option setting from Unified Service Desk. For more information about various options, see Manage Options for Unified Service Desk.

  • XPath as string: Used to read the application configuration file.

  • QueryResult as string: Result of the search.

InitstringReader

Enables you to read the InitString content from within the automation. This action has the following properties:

  • XPath as string: Used to read the application configuration file.

  • QueryResult as string: Result of the search.

See Also

Concepts

Create HAT automation
UII Application Integration Framework
Use data driven adapters (DDAs)

Unified Service Desk
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