[PowerShell] Monitor active log files in Windows using type -wait command

Oh this is super handy. Say you have an active log file you want to monitor in real-time, simply run this command in Windows Powershell and see your logs update live on the terminal.

To demonstrate, in the screenshot above, I simply created a script that logs the current timestamp every two seconds on a logfile located at the Desktop. Then I used Powershell to monitor the updates on the terminal.

To do so, simply open Windows PowerShell on your machine and run the following command:

type -wait "logfile.txt"

:)

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[UiPath] How to setup config file and read variables

Updated December 2019
I just figured there's something wrong with my implementation of the config file, specifically its file location. The path needs to be absolute otherwise the robot package will refer to the config file inside the nupkg file and you would need to re-publish the workflow every time you update the config file.

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Setting up a config file for your workflows is an efficient way to configure the initial settings of your workflow environment. Variables that refer to path locations, URLs, and other config information that you need to setup when moving your workflow from one environment to another are better placed inside a config file. Think of it as not having to go inside UiPath studio to update your variables every now and then. Instead, you can just create a config file in Ms Excel, and read it in your workflow.

Here's how:

1. Create your config file

In this example, I named the config file as FileConfig.xlsx.
You can place it anywhere actually, just take note of its absolute path. It's the only path you'll put inside your workflow.

2. Set your variables using two columns

Variable names on Column A, then values on Column B.

3. Read your config file and store it in a DataTable

Use the Read Range (Workbook) activity to read the config file and store it in a DataTable.

4. Access your config variables using the DataTable.Select method

var config_var = DataTable.Select("[Column Name]='variable name'")(0)(1).ToString

Another example for creating log files where date and time is part of the filename

var logs = DataTable.Select("[Var]='filepath_logs'")(0)(1).ToString + Now.Date.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd-") + DateTime.Now.ToString("HHmmss") + ".txt"

Related: [UiPath] Helpful DataTable methods and queries for better sorting, filtering, extracting

Use the select method to return the row that matches the variable name in the Var column of your config file, and (0)(1) index to refer to the second column of the first matched row. 

That's it!

If you need to add more config variables on the excel file, you should likewise add another Assign activity in your workflow to fetch the new variable.

Hope this helps!

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[UIPath] How to use Regex String Matches Activity to extract capture groups

The Matches activity is a helpful way to extract parts of a string using regex patterns. If you're new to capture groups, it's essentially a regex pattern that allows you to get values in between specified characters.

For instance, this pattern "\[(.*?)\]" allows you to get all values in between square brackets.

This means that for this string example,

Email Assignment: [2574] The UK votes to leave [EU]. What's next?

there are two matches (highlighted). These two values are stored in a collection of matches with type IENumerable<Match> To get the first match, you can use: Matches(0).Value
This will get you [2574]

But if you only need the value inside the brackets, you still need to clean-up the string in order to remove the brackets.

Now, a much simpler way to extract the first match without the brackets is by using the Match.Groups method.

Using the same example above, if I use: Matches(0).Groups(1).Value
It will return just 2574

Matches(0) will return the first match: [2574]
And Groups(1) will return the first group in the match: 2574
Groups(0) on the other hand would return the whole matched string: [2574]

So essentially, Matches(0).Groups(1).Value will return the first group in the first match.
If you want to get EU instead, you should use Matches(1).Groups(1).Value

You may experiment with regex using UiPath's built in Regex Builder (Inside Matches activity, click Configure Regular Expression) or you can go to regexstorm.net/tester online.

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[UiPath] Append Line not working when run using Robot or Orchestrator

Problem:
My log file isn't being created when I'm running the workflow using the robot, even if the path I supplied is already its full path. But then it's working fine when it's being run using the Studio.

Solution/workaround:
Create the log file first before appending to it (using the Create File activity). Normally, UiPath would automatically create the file if it doesn't exist, and then append some line. But for some reason when it's UiPath Robot doing the activity, the file doesn't get created, so UiPath doesn't bother writing anything.

That's it, let me know if it helps! :)

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