Robot File System

The Robot File System section lists file systems configured to share and store data used and/or produced by robots. You can add a configuration for a file system by providing the required credentials and defining a list of robots and users to access this file system.

The file system can be a local Windows folder, Windows file share, SFTP, and FTP server. For FTP, FTPS is supported. The maximum size of the file that can be uploaded to the Robot File System is 100 MB.

For information on how to configure a server for the Robot File System, see "Set up Robot File System server" in the Kofax RPA Administrator's Guide. The guide also contains an example of general configuration and usage steps.

Important By default, only users with the admin, RPA Administrators, Project Administrator role can manage robot file systems. See Users & groups for more information on user roles.

At the top of the Robot File System section, in the Projects drop-down list, you can select the project with file systems to display. You can change the way the information for each configure file system is presented as follows:

  • Filter the list of file systems in the table by applying filters in the Filter text field. See Filtering for more information.
  • Select the table columns to display for a file system using the menu icon on the right.
  • Refresh the displayed information by clicking the refresh icon on the right.

By default, the following information is displayed for each configured file system.

Column Description
Name Name of the file system configured to store and share robot data.
Project name Project that the file system is associated with.
Path Path to the file system.
User name User that has access to the file system.
Project scope If selected, the file system is accessible to all robots of the project. Otherwise, the file system is only accessible to particular robots selected during configuration.
Optional Columns
ID ID of the file system configured to store and share robot data.

Configure New Robot File System

  1. To add a new file system, click the plus sign in the upper left corner.

    Several new tabs open.

  2. On the General information tab, specify the following information:

    • Project: Specify a project to contain the file system.

    • Project scope: Select this option to make the file system accessible to all robots of the project. Alternatively, you can make the file system accessible only to particular robots as shown in Step 3.

    • File system name: Type the name for the new file system configuration.

      Example: RFS1

    • Path: Specify the path to the file system.

      • For Windows, the path must be similar to the following:

        Folder\Subfolder1\Subfolder2

      • For a Windows file share, the path must be similar to the following:

        \\WindowsServer\FileShareFolder

        This file share is mapped to the Robot File System as specified in the Name field. Subfolders cannot be used.

      • For an SFTP, FTP, or FTPS server, the path must start with sftp://, ftp://, or ftps://, respectively, and be similar to the following:

        sftp://website.com:9551/guest

    • User name and Password: Type the credentials to access the file system.

      For Windows, the user name must conform to: username@domain

      The credentials are only used by a secure service to allow robots to read and/or write to the file system.

    • Save the changes.

  3. To make the file system accessible to particular robots within the project, you can map them by names or add access tokens for those robots. This method works as long as the robot name remains unchanged. Click to open the context menu for the file system you are working on and click Edit.

    • Use the robot name to ensure that all versions of the robot (current and future) have access to the file system.

      On the Robot mapping tab, select which robots have access to the file system. The robots must be synchronized with the Management Console to appear on this tab. Save the changes.

    • Use the robot access token to ensure that only the current version of the robot has access to the file system and that no changes made to the robot are written into the file system. As the token corresponds to the particular version of a robot, if the robot changes, it will no longer be allowed to the file system.

      1. In the Management Console navigation menu, in the Robots section, click to open the context menu for the required robot and then click Get resource access token.

        A new dialog box appears.

      2. Copy the token and close the dialog box.

      3. Return to the Robot File System section, click to edit the file system, and on the Authorized access tokens tab, add the copied access token.

      4. Save the changes.

  4. Additionally, you can configure Design Studio instances that are allowed to the file system, so that users can design a robot to read and/or write to the file system.

    To make the file system accessible to a particular Design Studio instance, on the Authorized access tokens tab, add an access token for that instance.

    The token must copied from the Help > About window in Design Studio and shared with the administrator.

  5. Save the changes.

To delete a file system, select it in the table and click the bin icon in the upper left corner. You are prompted to confirm the deletion.