Botflows

Botflows are automated steps that you can design for a Nintex Bot Historically named Nintex RPA Foxtrot. The Nintex Bot application is where you design a botflow consisting of steps that the bot will automate. to run. You can create a botflow in Nintex RPA Central and design the botflow steps in Nintex Bot. After you design the botflow steps, you can configure the botflow start event and publish the botflow in Nintex RPA Central. The botflow will run automatically (for scheduled start events) or you can run it manually.

Based on your role, you can configure, manage, and run botflows as described in the following sections:

• Best practices for deploying a botflow
• View botflow details
• Configure a botflow
• Run the botflow manually in Nintex RPA Central
• Edit a botflow in Nintex RPA Central
• Botflow field and button descriptions

Best practices for deploying a botflow

Nintex recommends following this process to successfully deploy a botflow:

1. Conduct a data analysis to determine the data the bot will need to access and retrieve.

2. If necessary, map the data.

3. Review your process workflow to ensure that it is optimized. If desired, use Process Manager to document your workflow. You do not want to automate a poorly designed workflow.

4. Configure a botflow. If desired, add notes about special instructions or functionality to the botflow. When designing your botflow, ensure that all known possible conditions are handled by your botflow to prevent it from stopping unexpectedly due to an unhandled condition in your workflow or target application.

5. Conduct unit testing on the botflow.

6. Conduct user acceptance testing on the botflow.

7. Deploy the botflow to your staging environment.

8. Deploy the botflow to your production environment. Nintex recommends that you slowly deploy the botflow, make sure that it is functioning properly, and then increase the botflow's speed. Carefully review the script to ensure that all actions are functioning correctly and the workflow process is accurate. Also, run the botflow script at one click less than the maximum speed in a GUI environment. If you run the botflow script at maximum speed in the Nintex Bot designer, the action pointer will not be updated in the UI and it will not display the currently running Task while the botflow is running.

9. Conduct time tests for large botflow runs. Based on the desired end time, these tests can identify how long it will take the botflow to run in a live environment and the number of bots needed.

View botflow details

On the top navigation bar, click Dashboard and then click Botflows in the side navigation menu. The Botflows page displays the following details for the botflows for which the logged in user has permission.

Column	Description
Name	Botflow name that was specified when the botflow was created.
Start events	Configured start events for the botflow: Manual: Indicates a botflow will run when manually started. Scheduled: Indicates a botflow has a preset schedule for when it will be run.
Status	Published or draft status of the botflow.
Last edited	Date and time that the botflow was last edited or published.
Edited by	Name of the user who saved or published the botflow.
(More options)	Permissions: Assigns botflow permissions to individuals or groups of users (all designers, all participants). Users interact with the botflow based on their role. Only administrators can assign botflow permissions. Designers who save botflows are automatically given permission to the saved botflows. Run: Manually runs the published botflow. Delete: Deletes the botflow. Only administrators and designers can delete botflows.

Configure a botflow

Configure botflows using Nintex RPA Central and Nintex Bot Historically named Nintex RPA Foxtrot. The Nintex Bot application is where you design a botflow consisting of steps that the bot will automate.. Only administrators and designers can configure botflows.

1. Create a botflow in Nintex RPA Central

1. On the top navigation bar, click Dashboard.
2. Click Create botflow in the side navigation menu.

   The Botflow configuration panel displays on the right.

3. Type a Name for the botflow.
4. (Optional) Type a Description for the botflow.

2. Design the botflow in Nintex Bot

1. Open Nintex Bot.

2. Click Open Botflow.
3. Select the botflow that you created in Nintex RPA Central.
4. Click Open.
5. Design the botflow steps and save the botflow. For more information, go to Botflows.

   Tip: While you are designing your botflow, run it directly from the Nintex Bot designer and save it frequently. Later, run your botflow from Nintex RPA Central to retest it. This process will prevent you from constantly publishing and unpublishing your botflow when you are running it from Nintex RPA Central to test it. You also will not need to keep modifying your botflow while it is still being designed. Note that if you are configuring a botflow that is designed to run a dataset from Nintex RPA Central, run it directly from the Nintex Bot designer to run through all of the records and then retest it in Nintex RPA Central where it will send individual records to each bot for a Nintex RPA Central dataset botflow job.

6. Open Nintex RPA Central.

3. Assign the Nintex Bot to the botflow in Nintex RPA Central

1. On the top navigation bar, click Dashboard.
2. Click Botflows in the side navigation menu.
3. Click on the botflow name.

   The Botflow configuration panel displays on the right. The Botflow steps field displays the text, "Botflow steps defined."

4. In the Botflow run details section, select the Nintex Bot that you want to assign to this botflow from the Assign Nintex Bots drop-down list. For more information about how to add and manage a Nintex Bot, go to Bots.

4. Schedule the botflow start event in Nintex RPA Central

By default, Manual start is assigned as the start event for the botflow. If you schedule a start date and time, it will be adjusted automatically for Daylight Saving Time.

1. Click Add start event if you want to configure a scheduled start event for the botflow

   The Scheduled start section is added to your configuration panel.

2. In the Start date and time field, schedule the time and date to start the botflow run.

3. Select the Time zone where the botflow will run. The default time zone is the same time zone as the Nintex RPA Central server.

   Note: The botflow will start at the same time even during Daylight Saving Time.

4. Chose the botflow run frequency:

   • Run once: Toggle to schedule the botflow to run once on the specified date and time.

   • Repeat: Toggle to indicate the number of times and time when the botflow should repeat.
     • Value: Type the number of times that the botflow run repeats.
     • Time unit: Select the unit of time when the botflow run repeats.

5. Publish the botflow in Nintex RPA Central

Administrator A user who can use all functionality in both Nintex RPA Central and Nintex Bot. role required.

To schedule a botflow to run automatically or to manually run a botflow, you must first publish the botflow in Nintex RPA Central. Publishing a botflow will change the botflow status from Draft to Published and you can run the botflow manually or automatically if you have configured a scheduled start event.

Note: Once published, you cannot make changes to the botflow. If you want to edit the botflow after publishing, you must first unpublish it.

1. Click Publish.

   The botflow is published and the Unpublish and Run buttons are displayed.

6. Assign user permissions to the botflow in Nintex RPA Central

Administrator A user who can use all functionality in both Nintex RPA Central and Nintex Bot. role required.

Note: This feature is only available in Nintex RPA Central 2.4.0 and Nintex Bot 17.4.0 and above.

1. Next to the botflow name, click .

2. Select Permissions.

3. Select up to 25 individuals or groups (all designers, all participants) to have access to the botflow. Selected users can interact with the botflow based on their role.

4. Click OK.

Run the botflow manually in Nintex RPA Central

After you have created and configured your botflow steps, if you want to run the botflow, you must publish it. Once the botflow is published, follow these steps to manually run a botflow once in Nintex RPA Central. You must have permission to run the botflow.

Note: Do not use the machine that a Nintex Bot is running on while the Nintex Bot is running.

Tip: If you want to run the botflow automatically, you must configure a scheduled start event for the botflow in Nintex RPA Central.

1. On the top navigation bar, click Dashboard.
2. Click Botflows in the side navigation menu.
3. Click on the botflow name or click next to the botflow name.
4. Click or select Run.

   Nintex Bot opens and the botflow steps are executed as designed. If the botflow contains Before/After Tasks, but does not contain datasets, the Before/After Tasks will be executed. After the botflow completes, you are redirected to Nintex RPA Central to run additional botflows or view the details on the Instances page.

Edit a botflow in Nintex RPA Central

You can only edit draft botflows. If you want to edit a published botflow, you must first unpublish it in Nintex RPA Central. Only administrators can unpublish botflows.

1. On the top navigation bar, click Dashboard.
2. Click Botflows in the side navigation menu.
3. Click on the botflow name.

   The Botflow configuration panel displays on the right.

4. Click Unpublish.