UiPath Custom Activity

Custom Activity

                  UiPath provides all the necessary activities to perform the required operations for automating any task. But there are scenarios where you want to add your custom code or want to use the existing .dll files. To perform these operations UiPath provides flexibility to add custom activity where you may add the required code that suits your requirement.

Please follow the below steps to create a custom activity for UiPath,

Create a .dll file

o   Open visual studio>Create new project>Workflow>Activity Library

o   Once project is created you can drag and drop existing activities to design custom activities. You can also write a code directly by adding a class file in Solution Explorer which will recognize as an activity.

o   In the solution explorer delete the Activity1.xaml and add new class file to it

o   In the newly added class file add the required code, for this demo let’s consider adding 2 numbers. Add the following code. Also please take care of points specified below –

§  Add a reference to System.Activities in the code.

§  Class should be sealed and must extend CodeActivity in order to recognize this code as an activity.

§  The return type must be specified with CodeActivity and the return type of Execute method must be same. For example, here return type is int which is same in CodeActivity and Execute method.

§  InArgument is used so that you can pass the value to the activity in properties window.

o   Build this project which will create the .dll file in the debug folder.

   Creating a NuGet Package

• Open Nuget package explorer
• Select create a new package
• Right click on Package Content area -> Add Lib Folder
• Right click on Lib Folder - > Add Existing File
• Select the .dll file in bin folder under MyCustomActivity project folder.
• Once the DLL’s are added, click on Edit -> Edit Metadata
• IMP: It is necessary that package name must have Activities term in its name. Else it will not be recognized by UiPath. Here we have added .Activities
• Save the changes. Now go to File -> Save As, You will see the package Name, Extention (.nupkg) of the package and Path.

Integrating Package with UiPath

•          Copy NuGet package and paste it into the C:\Program Files\UiPath Studio\Packages.
•          Open UiPath, click on the Manage Packages.
•          Click on Available -> Local -> MyCustomActivity.Activity -> Install
•          The Activity will be available in Activities Tab. Now it’s ready to use In UiPath.