2022.10.3

It is now easier to reuse data globally within a project:

Find out how to create global variables and constants from the Data Manager.

Activities have a new design and an improved user experience. We've introduced new controls, editors, and builders for the most common data types, making it easier to configure activities without writing expressions. All activity properties are now available in the activity cards in the workflow designer, and you no longer need to use the Properties panel to configure advanced properties. This experience is available in cross-platform projects and for some activities in projects with the Windows compatibility. For more information, see Designing Automations.

In addition, all activities have a redesigned header that also includes a button for quick access to the activity context menu, and the borders have different colors depending on the source package, with a thicker left border for better visibility.

Studio now supports the addition of a manual, time-based, or event-based trigger to your projects, enabling you to configure when your automations will run at design time. A number of customizable trigger activities are available, and many more event-based triggers are on the way.

For more information, see Adding a trigger.

We strive to always offer the latest and greatest technologies, and one of the steps we've taken in this direction in recent releases has been the introduction of the Windows and cross-platform project compatibilities based on .NET 6. We've worked on expanding the support for the new frameworks and on improving the design experience, so much so that with 2022.10 it is time to start saying goodbye to the Windows - Legacy compatibility based on .NET 4.6.1. Even though you can still create Windows-legacy projects, Windows is now the default compatibility for new projects, and we recommend that you start using the Windows and cross-platform options. The 2023.4 release will support editing existing Windows - Legacy projects, but not the creation of new projects. You must now also select a project compatibility when creating projects in StudioX, where Windows - Legacy used to be the only option.

To make the transition easier, Studio now comes with a built-in conversion tool that enables you to easily convert any Windows - Legacy project to Windows. The conversion tool is available in both Studio and StudioX.

For more information, see . We recommend that you regularly check the deprecation timeline for any updates regarding features that will be deprecated and removed.

With the introduction of Studio Web, you can now design automations on-the-go, from a web browser on any device. If you use Studio and Studio Web, your cross-platform projects are always kept in sync and you can develop on both. Find out how to switch between Studio and Studio Web.

Keep the execution performance of your automation to optimal levels by profiling your workflows. The Profile Execution identifies performance bottlenecks when you execute your workflows by capturing the execution time of each activity alongside other descriptive stats.

You can now manage all the data in a project from a single location, the Data Manager. After making its debut in StudioX, the Data Manager is now available in Studio to help you manage variables, arguments, constants, namespaces, entities, resource activities, connections, processes, assets, and queues. The Resources panel has been retired, but you still have the option to continue using the old Variables, Arguments, and Namespaces panels.

You now have more control over the design of activities generated from libraries. You can set the order in which the arguments are displayed as properties, add a label, a tooltip, and select whether a property is required. For Windows and cross-platform libraries, you can also add an SVG icon and a highlight color for each activity, group properties under categories, or configure the input type for each property (for example, for a Boolean argument, you can set the input to toggle or Condition Builder).

For more information, see Configuring the Layout of an Activity.

You can now extract any process or test automation project as a library that you can publish on shared feeds. Through this capability, you can easily share workflows, test cases, execution templates, or activity packages to help others automate.

A quick tour is now available when you first open a project in Studio to get you familiarized with the various panels and the tools you can use to build an automation. Some of the highlights are:

Studio now has a built-in text editor with syntax highlighting. You can double-click TXT, CS, VB, JSON (excluding project.json), and XML files smaller than 10MB in the Project panel to edit them in Studio.

You can now search rules by name and code using the new search box at the top of the Workflow Analyzer window. Filtering by scope and action has also improved with the addition of a new filter dropdown with support for multiple select next to the search box.

You now have the option to declutter the project canvas by hiding unnecessary containers. Select the Hide sequences design setting to no longer display the main sequence and other containers that are added by default to your projects.

It is now easier to troubleshoot a missing or invalid activity and additional information is available to help you find a replacement:

Data-driven testing has become more convenient with test data queues as sources for test cases. You can use this option if you want to use dynamic test data from queues.

For more information, see Add test data queue as data source to a test case.

Orchestrator assets are now taken into consideration when you generate values for workflows that are using these asset types.

Test case and execution templates are supported in library projects, so you can share, reuse, and update testing assets. Test case templates should not include any references to assets within the library, as they are not being copied to the project where the library is being imported.

Create test cases through the Test with Timeout template for time-based exceptions, or to take screenshots of failed workflow verifications (see Test Case Templates).

Tests executed locally in Studio now show up in Test Manager if you select Upload test results to Test Manager in Test Explorer.

For more information, see Working with Test Explorer.