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by xeonoex 2435 days ago
Disclaimer: I work for UiPath.

This is a problem with almost any type of automation. I wouldn't say our software (I am only familiar with UiPath) is finicky. GUIs are finicky, but there are ways to deal with them. That's the stuff a good RPA dev can handle.

I was automating before I started at UiPath, and GUI interaction adds a new layer to automation, of course. But it is still maintainable when you implement them using best practices and CI/CD. I didn't have UiPath at my previous job but it would have made a lot of our automations more reliable and more maintainable. We're also making strides to address these types of problems easier.

I strongly believe that UiPath should a tool in any automation developer's toolbox, as well as GUI testing. UiPath is also pretty easy to use, so business users can automate simpler tasks on their own after going through the academy.

The industry is exploding, and good devs are in high demand. Salaries are high, and you can download Community edition and get certified for free.
1 comments
hugs 2435 days ago
How is UiPath different than open source tools like Selenium?
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xeonoex 2435 days ago
It's developer friendly and easy to use. It has an IDE for creating automations. I know a lot of devs might think they don't really care about an IDE, but when you're automating interfaces it makes it _way_ easier. It also is not limited to web browsers.

Check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B4Y_aUBWTM

It's a very simple automation. It just gets text from a browser and inserts it into notepad. But it's a 3 minute video that does something. Check out Selenium tutorials and compare how much you would learn from a 3 minute video. You don't have to dive into the HTML, you just click on what you want to click/type into/scrape and it knows what you want.

But it still has all the power a developer would want. You can create custom activities using C# and VB. The product itself is not open source, but it is very extensible and flexible. The workflows it generates are text files, which work well in source control. It has source control integration built in, which a custom diff tool. It enables code sharing and encourages code reuse.

The only downside I would point out is that it only runs on Windows for now, which might be a problem for linux only shops.

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