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Important!

Process and activities packages are installed per-user starting with v2018.2. This means that HD Robots now use their own version of activities and no longer share them with the other Robots on that machine.

To have a specific automation project run by a Robot, firstly you need to provide it with access to the automation package and to the activities that make it up. There are four default activity feeds: Local, Orchestrator, Official, and Go!. The Robot's interaction with a feed depends on the following:

• Availability and state of the feeds.
• Connection to Orchestrator.
• Package signature verification.
• Runtime rules set in Studio.

Depending on the connection to Orchestrator and feed installation choices, the following situations can occur:

• If you choose to install the local feed, the %ProgramFiles(x86)%\UiPath\Studio\Packages folder is created. It contains the activity packages that are officially supported by UiPath at install time. The feed is enabled by default.
• If you choose not to install the local feed, the %ProgramFiles(x86)%\UiPath\Studio\Packages folder is created, however it only contains the packs that are added as default dependencies to a new project: UiPath.UIAutomation.Activities, UiPath.System.Activities, UiPath.Excel.Activities and UiPath.Mail.Activities.
• When you connect the Robot to Orchestrator, a NuGet feed is provided by Orchestrator. It contains the activity packages that are officially supported by UiPath. The feed is enabled by default and is dependent on your storage settings as follows:
  • If NuGet.Repository.Type is set to Legacy, activities are saved in the ~/NuGetPackages/Activities location by default. This value is customizable and kept on the Orchestrator machine, in the NuGet.Activities.Path parameter of the web.config file.
  • If NuGet.Repository.Type is set to Composite, activities are saved in the location specified through the Storage.Type and Storage.Location parameters. More details about these parameters here.

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Note:

The use of copy-paste commands in the packages-dedicated folder is not supported if NuGet.Repository.Type is set to Composite.

• If the Robot is not connected to Orchestrator, nor does it find the required activities in the local feed, a MyGet feed, https://www.myget.org/F/workflow/, can be used. This is the official online UiPath feed from which the Package Manager in Studio also retrieves its activities. It contains the activity packages that are officially supported by UiPath. This feed is disabled by default. To enable it, go to Settings > Manage Sources in Studio, and select the corresponding check box. More details about managing activity packages in our Studio guide here.

When you give the execute command to the Robot (be it from the Robot Tray, Agent Desktop or Orchestrator), it looks for all its dependencies (activities, automation projects) in all available sources, and retrieves them from the one which responds first. Since activities packages can have multiple versions, the runtime rules selected for the packages in Studio are taken into account, as follows:

• If you selected Strict as a runtime rule, the Robot searches for the exact version specified for that package. For example, if you set the Version field to 2.5.0, and the Runtime Rule field to Strict, the Robot only searches for version 2.5.0 of that package. If the version is not found in any of the existing sources, an error is thrown.
• If you selected Lowest Applicable Version as a runtime rule, the Robot searches for the specified version or above. For example, if you set the Version field to 2.5.0, and the Runtime Rule field to Lowest Applicable Version, the Robot searches any version starting with 2.5.0, say 2.5.0, 2.5.1, 2.5.2 and so on. If none of the applicable versions are found in any of the existing sources, an error is thrown.
  You can find out more about project dependencies on this page.

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Note:

If you enforced the use of signed packages, you cannot retrieve activity packs which are not signed, regardless of whether or not they are found in your feeds. More details about signing packages in our Studio guide here.