Smart.Credential.Retriever 1.0.4

Why Do We Need the Smart.Credential.Retriever ?

The Smart.Credential.Retriever workflow is essential in environments where multiple robots access the same application but cannot share the same credentials simultaneously. In many enterprise applications, attempting to use the same credentials for concurrent sessions can result in one or more robots being logged out automatically. This often leads to process failures, as the application detects multiple logins from the same account and terminates conflicting sessions.

Without a solution like this, a credential being used by one robot could unintentionally be assigned to another robot, causing the first robot's session to be forcibly logged out. This creates critical issues, such as:

• Failed automations due to unexpected logouts.
• Inconsistent behavior where robots cannot complete their tasks.
• Increased downtime as processes need to be restarted.

The Smart.Credential.Retriever dynamically manages credential allocation, ensuring that only unused credentials are assigned to robots. By checking the Credential Manager, it prevents the assignment of credentials that are already in use. This guarantees that:

• Each robot operates with a unique and free credential.
• Application session conflicts are avoided.
• Automation processes run smoothly without interruption.

This solution is indispensable for ensuring reliable and uninterrupted robotic process automation (RPA), especially when dealing with applications that enforce strict login policies.

How it Works:

The program entry starts from the GetAvailableCredential workflow is designed to identify and retrieve an available credential asset from a specified Orchestrator folder. It accomplishes this by comparing a list of predefined asset credential names against those currently stored in the Credential Manager, which serves as a cache for the credentials in use.

The Credential Manager is essentially an asset that temporarily stores used credential asset names and job IDs in JSON text format as the value of the asset. Job IDs uniquely identify a running process and can be retrieved using the Get Job activity.

To find an available credential, the workflow iterates through the list of asset names and checks each one to determine if it is currently in use. It selects the first asset name that is absent from the Credential Manager, ensuring that it is not being utilized by any other processes.

Once an available credential asset name is identified, the workflow retrieves the corresponding username and password using a UiPath Get Credential activity. Following this, the job ID and the name of the used credential asset are registered in the Credential Manager. This registration process prevents other robots that reference this program from using the same credential, thereby ensuring that only free and unused assets are selected for operations.

Workflow Steps

This workflow serves as the entry point for the program, where the following actions occur:

1. Determining the Required Parameters:

   • If the variable sharedOrchestratorFolderName is not declared, the program defaults to "Shared."
   • Similarly, if topLevelOrchestratorFolderName is not declared, it defaults to "/", representing the top-level tenant folder.
   • The CredentialManager asset is utilized to cache the credentials that are currently in use.

2. If a listOfCredentialAssetNamesInSharedFolder is provided, the program validates the given list in (3). Otherwise, it retrieves the list of credentials from the Orchestrator's shared folder by searching through available assets (4).

3. ValidateListOfCredentialAssetNamesProvided:

   • when a listOfCredentialAssetNamesInSharedFolder is provided this verifies that each asset name in the list exist in the sharedOrchestratorFolderName of the ochestrator as a credential.

4. GetListOfCredentials:

   • when a listOfCredentialAssetNamesInSharedFolder is NOT provideded this retrievs all credentials asset names from the sharedOrchestratorFolderName of the Orchestrator that match a given tagToIdentifyTargetCredentialsWith and puts them into the 'listOfCredentialAssetNamesInSharedFolder. Alternatively, if no tagToIdentifyTargetCredentialsWith was provided its takes all credential assets on the shared ochestrator and puts them into the 'listOfCredentialAssetNamesInSharedFolder.

5. CreateCredentialManagerAssetIfNotExisting:

   • This creates a text value asset named CredentialManager in the sharedOrchestratorFolderName of the ochestrator if it does not already exist.
   • Upon its initial creation, the asset's default value will be a JSON string: {"CredentialName":"JobId"}. This format indicates that it will store a JSON object containing the properties CredentialName and JobId.

6. ReadAndUpdateCredentialManager:

   • This generates a credentialLogConfig by reading and deserializing the JSON text in the CredentialManager asset. The generated config is a dictionary (of String, String), where the CredentialName is stored as a string against its corresponding JobId as a string.
   • Next, it uses the Orchestrator API to find all jobs that are currently running or pending (active jobs). The active jobs are placed in a list of JobId.
   • Only jobs in the credentialLogConfig with JobId present in the list of active JobId are preserved in the credentialLogConfig.
   • The credentialLogConfig is serialized back to text and updated as JSON, then saved back to the CredentialManager asset.
   • The credentialLogConfig is also returned for use in the next steps.

7. Iterate Asset Names:

   • The program iterates through listOfCredentialAssetNamesInSharedFolder, checking for its absence in the credentialLogConfig.
   • Upon finding an asset name in listOfCredentialAssetNamesInSharedFolder that is not currently in use (i.e., not present in credentialLogConfig), the program captures its name and exits the loop.
   • This asset name is stored in assetNameOfAvailableCredential.

If step (7) successfully returns a credential asset name, then steps (8) and (9) are executed:

8. GetCredential Activity:

   • The GetCredential activity is used to retrieve the username and password of assetNameOfAvailableCredential from sharedOrchestratorFolderName.

9. AddCurrentJobIdToCredentialManager:

   • This workflow registers the JobId of the current process with the asset name in the credentialLogConfig and updates the JSON text in the CredentialManager asset.
   • It updates the associated value in the JSON text format. For example, if the job ID is 56sg672628-67126gh1jj2, the JSON text will be updated to {"CredentialName":"JobId","Credential1":"56sg672628-67126gh1jj2"}.
   • This ensures that any subsequent programs accessing this library cannot use Credential1 while the job ID 56sg672628-67126gh1jj2 is still running or pending.

10. Error Handling:

• If step (7) does not return a credential asset name, the program throws an error.

How To Use In Uipath

After downloading package into your project from the Manage Depencies on your uipath studio

Key Arguments You Need to Supply:

1. topLevelOchestratorFolderName

   • What it is: The name of the top-level folder in Orchestrator.
   • Example: "Company"
   • Optional If not declared, it defaults to /, representing the top-level tenant folder.

2. sharedOchestratorFolderName

   • What it is: The specific folder inside the top-level folder where the credentials are stored.
   • Example: "IT_Credentials"
   • Optional If not declared, the program defaults to "Shared"

3. listOfCredentialAssetNamesInSharedFolder

   • What it is: A list of the names of the credentials you want to retrieve from that folder.
   • Example: {"AppCredentials1", "AppCredentials2", "AppCredentials3"}
   • Optional If not declared, the program defaults to "Shared"

4. sharedOchestratorFolderName

   • What it is: The specific folder inside the top-level folder where the credentials are stored.
   • Example: "IT_Credentials"
   • Optional If not declared, the program defaults to "Shared."

5. tagToIdentifyTargetCredentialsWith

   • What it is: is a phrase within credential names that helps filter and retrieve all credentials containing that phrase. If left blank, the program will select all available credentials without filtering by name. Only use when you have not declared listOfCredentialAssetNamesInSharedFolder.
   • Example: "WhatsAppCredential"
   • Optional Can be left blank If is you are going to let the program determine all credentials asset names from the sharedOrchestratorFolderName of the Orchestrator.

How to Use These:

• If your folder structure in Orchestrator looks like this:
  • Top-level folder: "Company"
  • Shared folder: "General"
  • Credential assets you want to always choose from: "WhatsAppCredential1", "WhatsAppCredential2", "WhatsAppCredential3"

You would pass these values as arguments like this:

• topLevelOchestratorFolderName: "Company"
• sharedOchestratorFolderName: "General"
• listOfCredentialAssetNamesInSharedFolder: {"WhatsAppCredential1", "WhatsAppCredential2", "WhatsAppCredential3"} This is all you need, and the library would return the credentials which are not in use by another process or robot.