Integrate Live HCL Domino Data into Blue Prism for Intelligent Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Blue Prism is a robotic process automation (RPA) tool that helps businesses automate repetitive tasks, allowing employees to focus on more complex, value-added activities. Blue Prism's platform enables users to automate workflows using configurable "processes" and "objects." Its reusable Visual Business Objects (VBOs) offer templates and presets that simplify connections to applications, files, and services.

Some VBOs can connect to databases via ODBC, and when combined with the CData ODBC driver, they allow seamless integration with various data sources supported by CData. This article demonstrates how easily you can integrate HCL Domino with Blue Prism using the VBO for ODBC and the CData ODBC Driver for HCL Domino to create automated business workflows as needed.

Create an ODBC Data Source for HCL Domino

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

Connecting to Domino

To connect to Domino data, set the following properties:

• URL: The host name or IP of the server hosting the Domino database. Include the port of the server hosting the Domino database. For example: http://sampleserver:1234/
• DatabaseScope: The name of a scope in the Domino Web UI. The driver exposes forms and views for the schema governed by the specified scope. In the Domino Admin UI, select the Scopes menu in the sidebar. Set this property to the name of an existing scope.

Authenticating with Domino

Domino supports authenticating via login credentials or an Azure Active Directory OAuth application:

Login Credentials

To authenticate with login credentials, set the following properties:

• AuthScheme: Set this to "OAuthPassword"
• User: The username of the authenticating Domino user
• Password: The password associated with the authenticating Domino user

The driver uses the login credentials to automatically perform an OAuth token exchange.

AzureAD

This authentication method uses Azure Active Directory as an IdP to obtain a JWT token. You need to create a custom OAuth application in Azure Active Directory and configure it as an IdP. To do so, follow the instructions in the Help documentation. Then set the following properties:

• AuthScheme: Set this to "AzureAD"
• InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
• OAuthClientId: The Client ID obtained when setting up the custom OAuth application.
• OAuthClientSecret: The Client secret obtained when setting up the custom OAuth application.
• CallbackURL: The redirect URI defined when you registered your app. For example: https://localhost:33333
• AzureTenant: The Microsoft Online tenant being used to access data. Supply either a value in the form companyname.microsoft.com or the tenant ID.

  The tenant ID is the same as the directory ID shown in the Azure Portal's Azure Active Directory > Properties page.

When you configure the DSN, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

Connect with HCL Domino data and create an automation flow in Blue Prism

In this section, we'll go through the steps to connect live HCL Domino data and create an automation flow in Blue Prism to load the HCL Domino data into an Excel sheet.

Add VBOs for ODBC

To get started, download, and add the VBO for ODBC to Blue Prism by following these steps:

1. Download the Connector for ODBC Utility Blue Prism file from the provided URL.
2. A file named "Data - ODBC vx.x.x" with a ".bprelease" extension will be downloaded. Rename the file as "Data - ODBC". Make the necessary modifications and save the file with a ".bpobject" extension.
3. Open Blue Prism and navigate to File > Import > Process/Object. Click Browse, select the modified file as an object, and then click Next.
4. Click on Next in the Process Logging Overview screen. The import is now successful. Click on Next again to complete the process.
5. Once the import is complete, "Data - ODBC" will be added to the object list as shown below.

Now, you can easily connect to the CData ODBC Driver for HCL Domino from Blue Prism and create the necessary automation workflows.

Create a new automation process

After configuring the CData ODBC driver and adding the VBO for ODBC to Blue Prism, we can create a new automation process or flow using the following steps:

1. Go to File > New. Select Process from the New Process or Business Object window and click Next.
2. Enter a new process name in the New Process window.
3. Specify a process description if you want and click Finish.
4. This will launch a process initialized as follows:

Add ODBC to the process

Processing the ODBC connection involves three main stages. While the middle stage handles the actual data operations, preparatory and concluding steps are also necessary to create a complete flow in Blue Prism.

• Open process: Establishes a new connection.
• Execute process (ExecuteNonQuery): Executes SQL commands or INSERT statements.
• Close process: Terminates the connection.

Add a process to open ODBC

First, add an open process for ODBC to use the connection already made on CData ODBC Driver for HCL Domino.

1. Place Action decision block on the Blue Prism canvas from the left panel and double-click on it to open the settings screen.
2. From the list of business objects, select the "Data - ODBC" object you just imported, then choose "Open" from the list of actions. The Open action requires a Connection String as an input parameter in the Inputs tab. Enter the DSN name of the CData ODBC driver you configured, using the format: "DSN=CData Domino Source".

   Note: Click the Expression Editor button on the right, then click Validate to check if the added expression is correct. Use the same method to check all the expressions used in this article.

3. Click on the Outputs tab and edit the output message as "ODBC Connection". Click OK to save the process.

Add a process to retrieve data via ODBC

Next, let's add a process to retrieve data from HCL Domino.

1. Place another Action block on the canvas below the previous one.
2. Select "Data - ODBC" from the list of business objects, then choose "Execute" from the list of actions. By selecting "Execute", you can specify SQL commands to retrieve data.
3. In the Inputs tab, enter a SQL query within double quotes in the Query String section to retrieve data from HCL Domino. For example: SELECT * FROM [Domino].[ByName]

   NOTE: The information about the tables and columns used in the SELECT statement can be found in the "Tables" tab of the ODBC DSN.

4. Additionally, the processing results are stored in variables to effectively manage the outcomes in Blue Prism. To create an output variable, click the Results variable icon in the Output tab and then click OK.

Add a process to close ODBC

Finally, add a close routine to terminate the ODBC processing and release the connection.

1. Place an Action block on the canvas again.
2. Select "Data - ODBC" from the list of business objects and "Close" from the list of actions. There are no specific parameters to configure for Close.
3. Finally, connect the "links" from the left panel to create a process like this:

Add a process to save live HCL Domino data to Excel

The processes demonstrated above do not retrieve the data independently, so let's proceed to write it into an Excel file. We will use the Excel VBO to create the next flow.

1. Download and add an Excel VBO object in Blue Prism by following a process similar to the one described in the article's Add VBOs for ODBC section.
2. In this process, place six Action blocks one after the other to complete all the follow-up steps for creating the MS Excel process flow.
3. In the first Action block, select "MS Excel VBO" from the list of business objects and "Create Instance" from the list of actions. This step is used to create a new instance of Microsoft Excel.

   In the Outputs tab, add a handle name.

4. In the next block, select "MS Excel VBO" from the list of business objects and "Show" from the list of actions. This action makes the Excel application visible on the screen.

   In the Inputs tab, add "[handle]" as the handle value.

5. Again, select "MS Excel VBO" from the list of business objects and "Create Workbook" from the list of actions for the consecutive block. This creates a new workbook to store the incoming HCL Domino data.

   In the Inputs tab, enter handle value as "[handle]" and in the Outputs tab, set a new Workbook Name.

6. For the next action, select "MS Excel VBO" from the list of business objects and "Write Collection" from the list of actions. It writes the "Results" obtained via ODBC to the input parameter "Collection". Enter the following parameters in the Input tab:
   • handle: [handle]
   • Workbook Name: [Workbook Name]
   • Collection: [Results]
   • Worksheet Name: "Sheet1"
   • Cell Reference: "A1"
   • Include Column Names: True
7. Next, select "MS Excel VBO" from the list of business objects and "Save Workbook" from the list of actions to save the workbook. In the Inputs tab, assign the following values:
   • handle: [handle]
   • Workbook Name: [Workbook Name]
8. In the final action, select "MS Excel VBO" from the list of business objects and "Exit" from the list of actions. This action will finally close the workbook.
9. Connect the action blocks with the "links" to get the final Excel process flow.

Run the process to check the operations

Once the process is complete, click the Run button to see it in action.

1. Click the Run button at the top left of the screen (as shown).
2. If the HCL Domino data is finally written to an Excel file like the one below, consider the entire process to be working successfully.

Get Started Today

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData ODBC Driver for HCL Domino and integrate HCL Domino data into Blue Prism to create automated business workflows.

Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.