Hello, not sure what is the correct category for my question. But I’ve started with OpenRPA and I really like the tool, but not sure if this is doable:
We have a really old tool that runs in .aspx on a local machine. That tool is basically an interface for a database, that allows us to perform searches and find entries in the database. (Long short story is we can’t run external quering to that DB, what would solve us the problem…)
So:
My goal is to send an API request via HTTP or nodejs to invoke the openRPA automation where will send a PARAMETER, an ID: ID83481873 (example)
openRPA will start the “recorded” workflow, where it will press this and that and then “paste” the sent ID. Then, it will click a button, wait for 5-10 seconds, and select the first entry in the result. Open it and scroll down to linkID. Copy that and RETURN it to the requested caller (HTTP or nodejs, whatever).
Is that doable? Any guides? I also have my own N8N instance where I can run HTTP requests or nodejs scripts with axiom, run npm libraries etc.
Without actually access to confirm everything, but my best guess is
yes
If all you are doing is lookups ( so read only ) what would be the harm in just querying the database directly then ?
You can talk to both access/excel/mssql and many other directly from openrpa, or an agent running locally, with custom code or a NodeRED instance
It’s a bit hard to explain @Allan_Zimmermann, that would be the best thing and easiest thing to do. I have been trying that for months but no luck, so using OpenIAP seems my only solution. (Long short story the local machine that runs the .aspx tool is made by an external company that doesn’t exist anymore; that database is connected to some critical services and basically we were told that we can’t query this database) (We already started to move data to a new database, but this database has existed since 2001, so you can imagine how much data it contains)
So, is it possible to send a parameter via HTTP and start the workflow in the machine that returns a parameter in response to that HTTP request?
Any guides or advice on where to start? Videos? I’ve been watching your videos since yesterday hehe.
You could try going with the OpenFlow route - expose an endpoint from NodeRed, call that from your existing stack. Inside NodeRed, call the OpenRPA to do the UI-based extraction, and return the data to NodeRed. NodeRed then callbacks your stack.
I have to agree with @AndrewK … that would be my first suggestion too.
But it all depends on the “thing” that neds activate the robot.
Does the robot have to be triggered by a HTTP endpoint, or are the other options ?
You might also consider the experimental OpenAPI endpoint RunOpenRPAWorkflow