Map Databases

Robots may need to access databases through various database accessing steps (such as Store In Database). You must provide a reference to a named database for these steps. The named databases used by a robot must be accessible from RoboServers in order for the robot to be executed successfully on RoboServers.

While designing robots in Design Studio, it is convenient to use local databases that are not available from RoboServers. Rather than having to remember to change the named databases on the various database accessing steps before deploying a robot, Design Studio has an extra layer of abstraction to help overcome this problem: the database mapping. The mapping mechanism maps a named database in a database access step of a robot to a Design Studio database. As long as the robot is executed from within Design Studio, the named databases of the database accessing steps are mapped to the Design Studio databases specified by the mappings. The Design Studio user can use local databases while designing and testing robots without having to change the referenced named databases of the database accessing steps before deploying the robots.

Using database mappings also makes it easy for the Design Studio user to create the robot store values in a different database: it is a matter of reconfiguring the mapping to make it point to a different database.

A database mapping is a small configuration file defining which database to map to and whether Design Studio should display various warnings helping the user correctly configure the mapping and the referenced database. The name of the mapping is the file name of the configuration file. This means that if you create a mapping with the file name "objectdb," the database that the mapping points to will be accessible under the name "objectdb" in robots.

Note The databases may have the same names across different Management Consoles, to distinguish them when creating database mappings in Design Studio a database name in the list includes a Management Consoles name.

The following steps show several ways to create a database mapping in Design Studio.

  1. On the File menu, select New Database Mapping.

    A wizard appears.

  2. Select a database and a project and click Next.
  3. Enter a unique database mapping name and click Finish.

    When the wizard is finished, the mapping is created in the selected project and folder and is usable by robots.

Database View

  1. In the database view, right-click the database to associate with a project.
  2. Select Add to Project and select the project to add the database to.
  3. Enter a unique name to use for the database mapping. This is the mapping file name and the name the database is accessible under.

    Notice that a name is suggested. This is the default database name, and the name used to access this database in other Kofax RPA applications apart from Design Studio.

Unmapped Database

In Design Studio, when you open a robot using a database you do not have a mapping for, a warning is displayed.

  1. Open a robot using an unmapped database.

    A warning appears, recommending a mapping with the name of the database referenced in the robot. This allows you to quickly run robots sent to you from developers who have other databases defined - without modifying the robots.

  2. Complete the steps in the wizard.