This could support simple screen navigation flows. The command string can be static or a variable and represents a sequence of comma-separated keyboard actions (such as keys, data typed into input fields, or capture of the areas of output screens). The connector supports the in-line command string and external macros. The connection can be reused between the calls to improve overall performance, as user login is a rather expensive operation. The connection configuration includes the positions for the user ID and password and supports both open text and TLS connections, and an initial set of commands that can be executed each time a new connection is established ( i.e. The connector is intended to be very straightforward and does not require any special knowledge of the IBM i internals. We will leverage Infoview IBM i RPA connector to simulate the user actions we went through above, map the input and output data into script variables, and implement basic flow controls such as loops and conditional processing. Once all order lines are completed, the user presses F10 to s ubmit the order.The user must press F6 to create new Sales order, then enter multiple order line items.Upon entering a customer number to be created or updated, we are directed to the Customer Orders screen.We will return back to this point after each order is created via the RPA script. This will be a starting point for our order entry flow. We call the ERP order maintenance program and need to provide or look up a customer ID.The first user needs to log into IBM i terminal emulator and add the required libraries to the library list (in most cases this is done automatically as part of the login script and default library list associated with each ERP user ID).The real-world ERP screen flow will likely be different but it gives you an idea of how the infoRPA connector works: Below are sample screenshots for a test ERP we used for this demo. When a user works with the back-end ERP, they first select or create a new customer, then create new order for that customer. Below is an example of API request and response: Request Response: IBM i green screen flow This is a simple typical REST API that takes the order details as input, creates an order, and returns back the newly generated order ID. We just want to “call” the green screen apps directly from our Mule app, pass the data into it, and get the results back. We don’t want to introduce another system, operate additional infrastructure or invest heavily into specialized RPA tools. We decided to create a REST API that the external systems could call with order data, and pass that information to the green screen ERP. As our business scales, we are looking to automate the order entry and status update based on the external events originating in CRM, eCommerce, or other sales channel applications. Most order entry and fulfillment operations require some sort of manual data entry via terminal emulators or specialized scanners. Suppose we are a distribution company and our Warehouse Management System is a commercial off the shelf IBM i based application. I am confident our readers have the sufficient mental capacity to extrapolate the scenario we discuss here to their respective industries and contexts without trying to list them all here. In this article we will walk through just one use case, entering or updating the sales order. If you operate a hospital and have to key in the same chart data into three different systems, RPA could help. If you are in the insurance domain and manually create or update claims, automating it would improve the process. If you enter your dealer requests in both CRM and legacy applications, automating it would be much better. I’ve seen quite a few articles lately listing various underlying scenarios in different verticals, repeating the same point that manual steps are error-prone and automating them is generally a good idea. We developed IBM i infoRPA connector as a lightweight and easy-to-implement alternative or a supplemental tool that customers can leverage to, for example, quickly develop an API that interacts with IBM i (formerly known as AS/400, iSeries) green screen application directly from within Mulesoft app. At the same time, these RPA platforms and surrounding services do take some time to launch and scale, and tend to be rather expensive. It started as a set of basic screen scrapers and script execution tools back in the 80s and 90s, and gradually grew into robust modern platforms offering rich process engineering tools, often complimented with image recognition and AI-based just-in-time decision support. Robotic Process Automation ( RPA) is a fancy new buzzword for well-established approaches and tools aimed at improving operational efficiency for simple data entry tasks.
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