Release date: 11 May 2020

# What’s New

Studio Pro

Studio version 2020.4.1 introduces the new Studio Pro license which unlocks access to the whole Test Suite capabilities. Currently, Studio Pro is in Limited Availability.

Aside from creating mobile testing projects, a Studio Pro license grants you access to:

• Application Testing: specialized test cases for conducting automated application testing;
• RPA Testing: testing workflows directly and viewing the activity coverage during execution;
• API Test Automation: import Postman collections to use in testing projects.

## Governance 

A certain degree of governance is needed for deploying common best practices and code conventions around building scalable automation, especially in larger organizations. Studio introduces file-based governance for:

• Package feed management
• Workflow Analyzer rules
• Studio Backstage settings

Read about generating the Governance file and enforcing rules across multiple machines.

Execution Trail

The Execution Trail for debugging shows the exact execution path for activities. As the process is executed, each activity is highlighted and marked in the Designer panel, showing you the execution as it happens. Read more about this here.

Speed and Usability

Ease of use and speed play an important part when building automations. With speed in mind, we’ve introduced several features to jump start your automation experience:

• Splash Screen Source Control: choose the source control plugin to use and thus reduce Studio loading time.

• Package Upgrades: NuGet dependency resolution may result in downgrades when having two dependencies referencing different versions of the same package. To avoid any inconsistencies, you are now prompted to upgrade or downgrade the package version.
• Import Namespaces Manually: import namespaces from installed custom activities package thus having the types you need at hand when working with the Invoke Code activity, for example. Subsequently, we introduced the ability to remove namespaces via the context menu.
• Streamline Package Install: we’ve removed the Terms&Conditions prompt so you no longer have to click that Accept button for each UiPath package that you install.
• Run/Debug options are now configurable from Backstage view > Settings > Design. Set your method of choice and and have it available by default in the Studio ribbon.
• Drag and drop or copy and paste .xaml and other files from File Explorer directly to the Project panel.

• Drag and drop files from the Project panel into the Designer panel to invoke them in other workflows.

• Show and group activities for StudioX in the Activities panel to have them at hand in Studio when adding or editing projects created with StudioX.

• Edit activity display name on double click instead of single click.

# Improvements 

Workflow Analyzer

We’ve introduced two new Workflow Analyzer rules:

• Package Restrictions ST-USG-014: restrict the use of activity packages in a given project.
• SecureString Variable Usage ST-SEC-008: check the variable usage of SecureString type in the workflow.

Source Control

When checking out a project from under TFS the Repository Browser is displayed much sooner in the process, giving you full access to browse and pick the project to checkout. Read more about this here.

GIT authentication screen now comes with the option to authenticate using a User and Password, or a token.

The Manage Remote repositories window is now available when pushing commits, in case pushing to a particular repository is not possible.

Studio automatically detects proxy server details set at Windows level. Read more about GIT support here.

Unversioned files part of the project are taken into account as changes in the source control Status Bar.

Expression Editor

The Expression Editor has seen a number of improvements:

• Contextual menu option and Ctrl + Shift + E shortcut from any activity fields inside the Designer panel;
• Create variable or argument from selected text in expressions;
• Search and filter results for expressions, variables and more;
• Line formatting and numbering support.

Debugging

We have reintroduced the Continue on Exception feature. If enabled, it logs the exception in the Output panel and continues debugging. If disabled, it throws the execution error and stops the debugging, highlighting the activity which threw the exception. Read more about Debugging. 

Robotic Enterprise Framework

The Robotic Enterprise Framework template has received an update to accommodate checks made with the Workflow Analyzer:

• the display names of Log Message and Comment activities in the template’s files were updated;
• instead of using the RetryCurrentTransaction.xaml flowchart in a secondary layer in the SetTransactionStatus.xaml flowchart, it is now invoked;
• to comply with the Deeply Nested Activities rule, activities in the template are no longer nested in a layer higher than 7;
• the GetAppCredential.xaml file was removed because the SecureString type was misused and interfered with the SecureString Misusage rule;
• empty sequence ProcessTransaction and unused dependency package UiPath.Mail.Activities was removed;
• unused constants from the Config.xlsx file were removed: DelayLong, DelayShort, AccuracyLow. Use Activity Project Settings for setting Delay and Accuracy properties in your project;
• test workflows and exception names were updated: RunAllTests.xaml, RunAllTests_Logging.xaml and Tests.xlsx;
• the timeout from the Open application activity in RunAllTests.xaml file was removed.

Studio Activities SDK

Version 20.4.0 of the UiPath.Activities.API SDK package is available on the Official activities feed with a number of updates:

• Workflow Analyzer rules can be registered for a specific Studio version, read more about this here;
• a new property minimizes Studio before running the wizard, and restores it when done;
• a new property is used for the wizard to execute asynchronously, read more about these two properties here;
• set Studio to show activities that match the custom activity's scope at search, read more about this here.

# Breaking Changes 

• Studio's interpretation of .json files from web services has been slightly changed in regards to namespaces and types of activities generated from a web service inside a library. Backward compatibility issues may be generated for older Studio libraries with web services, if and only if an existing service is edited from the Edit Service context menu. Get more details about this here.

# Known Issues 

• Workflow Analyzer rule Package Restrictions does not identify restricted packages if a wildcard is used in a prelease version number, for example, UiPath.Excel.Activities = 2.8.2.beta10*. The rule also doesn't restrict packages when using a wildcard in a major version number, for example, UiPath.System.Activities = 1* does not identify UiPath.System.Activities = 19.10.1.
• When debugging with Execution Trail enabled, if the Check True and Check False activities are inside a Try Catch they are marked as partially executed.
• Publishing from Project Dependencies Mass Update Tool to a Personal Workspace in Orchestrator is not possible.
• When using the pull (rebase) GIT option, the source control Status Bar does not show a newly created branch in the remote repository, although it is available in the Manage Branches window.
• Trying to publish a project to a network drive results in the Directory has no writing permissions error even if the user has access to the directory, thus blocking the Publish action.

# Bug Fixes 

• Attempting to open a project which contains a folder without permissions for the current user no longer prompts the user to remove the project from the Recents list.
• Libraries containing either a folder or .xaml file with the same name as the library, and an Invoke Workflow File activity inside a .xaml file located in a subfolder, can now be published.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Studio from adding the Marketo Rest API service to a library project.
• Workflow Analyzer rule ST-USG-010 Unused Dependencies performs analysis of large projects faster.
• Open a Local Project and Open Recent options in Studio Backstage view were greyed out when closing an unsaved project with modifications to several xamlfiles.
• Fixed an issue that prevented the publishing of a package with command line arguments while the Robot is connected to Orchestrator, but not provisioned.
• Projects using the Retry Scope activity were incorrectly outlined when using the Export to Excel feature in Studio.
• Fixed a bug that prevented a signed dependency from being repaired in the first try if the project also contained an unsigned dependency package.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Universal Search from retrieving the default values of arguments and variables.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Invoked Workflow Arguments window part of the Invoke Workflow File activity to automatically resize after changes were made.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Studio from pulling (rebasing) a GIT project that had changes in a lower level process than the root folder, where the .git folder is present.
• The Orchestrator Resources panel didn’t fully expand to show Assets when connected to Orchestrator.
• Breakpoints applied to commented out activities were not ignored during debugging.
• Double-clicking on results in the Error List panel generated by the Variables Naming Convention, Arguments Naming Convention, Variable Length Exceeded, Prefix Datatable Arguments, Argument Default Values, and Argument Length Exceeded now opens the Variables or Arguments panels.
• The signature validation field in Studio’s offline license activation wizard was increased from 2,000 to 10,000 characters.