Visual Business Objects (VBOs)

TRAINING GUIDE

Version 6.2

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 Contents
1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................................................. 4
2. Visual Business Objects........................................................................................................................................................................... 4
2.1. Visual Business Objects Availability ..................................................................................................................................... 4
3. Installing a Visual Business Object ..................................................................................................................................................... 5
4. Visual Business Objects List .................................................................................................................................................................. 7

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1. Introduction
This module is intended to supplement the Blue Prism Foundation Training course and is aimed at students who
have completed the course and are beginning to put their education into practice.

2. Visual Business Objects

A Visual Business Object is a set of coded functions which are usually written in VB.net or C#.net using Blue
Prism code stages. Blue Prism is shipped with a number of Visual Business Objects, or VBOs, which provide
feature rich extended capabilities to your automations, in addition to the standard Blue Prism drag and drop
features.

2.1. Visual Business Objects Availability

Blue Prism certified VBOs are available to import from the VBO folder within the Blue Prism install path. This is
generally one of the following:

• C:\Program Files (x86)\Blue Prism Limited\Blue Prism Automate\VBO

• C:\Program Files\Blue Prism Limited\Blue Prism Automate\VBO

There are additional Blue Prism VBOs available on the Blue Prism portal at;

https://portal.blueprism.com/products/vbos

Blue Prism VBOs are also available on the Digital exchange, along with VBOs developed by our partners and
customers. These can be accessed through the link below;

https://digitalexchange.blueprism.com/dx/

Note

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 • Any Visual Business Objects developed outside the standard product, such as those available on the
portal or Digital Exchange, may not have gone through the same level of testing as the ones which are
shipped with the product.

3. Installing a Visual Business Object

All Blue Prism Visual Business Objects are easy to install using the relevant *.xml file.

To install the VBO;

• Connect and sign into the relevant Blue Prism environment.

• Select ‘Import’ from the ‘File’ menu.

• Click ‘Browse’
• Navigate to the folder containing the VBO you want to import and select the .xml file.
• Click through the Blue Prism dialogs to complete the simple install.

Once installed, the features of VBO will be available through a standard Blue Prism Action stage.

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4. Visual Business Objects List

Calendars Functions for working with
calendars and dates.
• Get Working Days in Range Install folder
• Count Working Days in Range
• Is Working Day
• Add Working Days
• Is Weekend
• Is Public Holiday
• Get Public Holidays in Range
• Get Other Holidays in Range

Data – OLEDB A SQL interface for interacting • Set Connection Install folder
with OLEDB data sources. • Open
• Close
• Get Collection
• Execute

Data – SQL Server SQL Server interaction object. • Configure Install folder
• Set Connection
• Begin Transaction
• Commit Transaction
• Rollback Transaction
• Execute
• Get Records Affected
• Get Number
• Get Text
• Get Collection
• Get CSV File

Email - POP3/SMTP Retrieve email via POP3 protocol • Get Message Install folder
and send using SMTP protocol • Send Message
• Delete Message
• Configure
• List Messages
• Save Attachments

MS Excel VBO VBO for interacting with Microsoft • Create Instance Install folder
Excel. • Open Instance
• Attach
• Remove Blank Rows
• Attach to Workbook
• Close Instance
• Release Instance
• Exit
• Close All Instances
• Set Events Enabled

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 • Show
• Hide
• Create Workbook
• Open Workbook
• Activate Workbook
• Save Workbook
• Save Current Workbook
• Save Workbook As
• Save Current Workbook As
• Close Workbook
• Close Current Workbook
• Is Read Only
• Activate Worksheet
• Delete Worksheet
• Move Worksheet
• Copy and Paste Worksheet Range
• Get Worksheet As Collection
• Get Worksheet As Collection (Fast)
• Get Worksheet as Collection Offset
• Get Worksheet Range As Collection
• Split Worksheet
• Get Worksheet Names
• Get Worksheet Name
• Get Worksheet Position
• Worksheet Exists
• Get Number Of Rows
• Go To Cell
• Go To Next Cell
• Get Active Cell
• Find Next Empty Cell
• Go To Next Empty Cell Left
• Go To Next Empty Cell Right
• Go To Next Empty Cell Up
• Go To Next Empty Cell Down
• Set Cell Value
• Write Collection
• Get Cell Value
• Get Active Cell Value
• Get Formatted Cell Value
• Format Cell
• Format Current Cell
• Set Window Size
• Set Window Location
• Set Window State
• Select
• Delete
• Insert

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MS Outlook Email VBO for interacting with Microsoft
Outlook email functions.
MS Word VBO VBO for interacting with Microsoft
Word.
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• Copy
• Cut
• Paste
• Write To Clipboard
• Protect Workbook
• Hide Worksheet
• Hide Other Worksheets
• Import CSV
• Send Email Install folder
• Reply All to Email
• Reply to Email
• Forward Email
• Save Email As File
• Delete Email
• Mark Email As Read
• Mark Email As Unread
• Move Email to Inbox Sub Folder
• Save Attachments
• Save Attachment
• Get Sent Items (Basic)
• Get Sent Items (Advanced)
• Get Sent Items (Expert)
• Get Received Items (Basic)
• Get Received Items (Advanced)
• Get Received Items (Expert)
• Create Instance Install folder
• Attach Instance
• Delete Instance
• Add Table Row
• Set Table Cell Value
• Get Table Cell Value
• Get Highlighted Text
• Replace Highlighted Text
• Select All
• Copy to Clipboard
• Paste from Clipboard
• Find Text
• Select Next Cell
• Set Selected Cell Text
• Select Next Field
• Set Selected Combobox
• Get Footer Text
• Set Current Instance
• Open
• Close
• Show
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 • Hide
• Exit
• Create Document
• Save As
• ExportPDF
• Get Body
• Type Text
• Update Bookmark

System – Active Business Object for interacting
Directory with Active Directory using the
LDAP based API in .NET.
• Create User Install folder
• User Exists (Displayename)
• User Exists (UserPrincipalName)
• Object Exists (Dynamic)
• Add User to Group

Utility - Collection Utility functions for manipulating • Sort Collection Install folder
Manipulation collections. • Reverse Collection
• Merge Collection
• Split Collection
• Transpose Collection
• Filter Collection
• Get Collection Fields
• Field Exists
• Rename Collection Field
• Set Collection Field
• Collection Contains Field
• Collection Contains Value
• Copy Rows
• Append Rows to Collection
• Append Field (Text)
• Append Field (Number)
• Rename Field
• Delete Field
• Delete Column
• Remove Null Rows
• Set Column Names from First Row
• Set Column Names From Expected
Collection
• Fill Blanks
• Remove dots from headers
• Remove Empty Rows

Utility - Date and Utility functions for manipulating • Format Date Install folder
Time Manipulation dates and times. • DateAdd
• Get Time of Day
• Get Last Working Day
• Get Maximum Timespan
• UTC To Local

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 • Local to UTC
• Get Time Zones

Utility - Encryption Provides encryption and • Encrypt Install folder

decryption facilities. Use the
BPServer interface to generate a
key to use with these actions.
Utility - Utilities for interacting with the
Environment environment - read screen
resolution, determine OS type, etc.
• Decrypt
• Font Smoothing Enabled Install folder
• Get Clipboard
• Set Clipboard
• Clear Clipboard
• Get Screen Resolution
• Start Process Read Stderr and
Stdout
• Kill Process
• Read Memory Stats
• Read Process Working Set
• Start Process
• Run Process Until Ended
• Wait for Process
• Wait for Process Window
• Get User Name
• Get Machine Name

Utility - File Utility methods for interacting • Configure Install folder

Management with the file System. • Download File
• Get Files
• Get Folders
• File Exists
• Directory Exists
• Sub Directory Exists
• Split Path
• Combine Path
• Delete Files
• Delete File
• Copy File
• Move File
• Get File Size
• Append to Text File
• Read All Text from File
• Read Lines from File
• Write Text File
• Write Binary Data
• Get CSV Text As Collection
• Get Special Folder Path

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Utility - Foreground Controls access to foreground • Lock Foreground Window Install folder
Locker operations by providing a locking • Release Foreground Window
mechanism
Utility - General General utility functions which • Sleep Install folder
don't fit into specific categories • Process Exists
• Window Exists

Utility - HTTP Communicates with web services • Post Install folder

using the HTTP protocol. • Post JSON
• HTTP Request
• Load Certificate
• URL Encode

Utility - Image Utility methods for analysing and • Image is White Install folder
Manipulation manipulating images. • Image Contains Colour
• Image is Uniform Colour
• Get Sub Image Position
• Find First Pixel From Left
• Find First Pixel From Bottom

Utility - JSON An object for parsing JSON into a • Collection to JSON Install folder
collection and turning a collection • JSON to Collection
into JSON. • JSON to Collection (skipping
JArray)

Utility – Locking Manages locks on items. • Set Up Queue Item Install folder
• Lock Item
• Release Lock

Utility - Network A utility object with network • Ping Install folder

related actions.
Utility - Numeric Mathematical functions • Get Absolute Value Install folder
Operations • Calculate Rolling Average (fixed
denominator)
• Calculate Rolling Average (variable
denominator)

Utility - Strings Utility functions for manipulating • Remove Non-word Characters Install folder
text. • Generate New GUID
• Delete Characters
• Split Lines by Length
• Split Lines
• Join Text
• Join Lines
• Get Newline Character
• Extract Regex Values
• Test Regex Match
• Format Number
• PadLeft

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 • Get XML Elements
• Get XML Attribute
• Get Collection as CSV
• Get CSV As Collection
• Escape Sendkeys String
• Compare Font Text
• InStr
• InStrRev

Webservices - Business Object for authorization • Request Install folder

OAuth2.0 using OAuth2.0. o Request Token
o Request Resource
o Refresh Token
• Load Certificate

Webservices - REST Connects to REST based • Get Install folder

webservice API's. • Post
• Put
• Delete
• Setup OAuth

Utility - XML Utility functions for manipulating • Read File Blue Prism Portal
XML • Get Attribute
• Get Element
• Get Elements
• Get Elements by XPath
• Get Child Elements
• Strip Tags

Blue Prism MAPIEx VBO wrapper around the Blue • Configure Blue Prism Portal
Prism MAPIEx library. Note that • Send Mail
this will not work on a particular • Get Mail
resource if it does not have the • Reply To Email
MAPIEx library installed. • Move Mail
• Delete Mail
• List Mails Within DateTimes
• Get Contacts

Utility - Image Methods for finding an image • Find Image Blue Prism Portal
Search within a larger image. • Find Image (all instances)
• Find Image (by one color)
• Find Image (all instances, by one
color)

Login Agent VBO which enables access to the • Get Credential Name Blue Prism Portal
login / password management • Logged In Users
functionality of Windows Vista / 7 • Change Password
/ 10 • Log In
• Log Out

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 • Is Logged In
• Lock Screen
• Unlock Screen
• Is Locked

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