How to structure your code

• Maintainability
  • DRY / reuse
  • Code stewardship
  • Readability
  • Clear intent

Don’t

Repeat

Yourself

(It’s a spectrum)

Why dry?

• Copy and paste duplicates code - and duplicates bugs
• More code to write
• More code to read
• More code to test
• More code to maintain

Example

Mouse.moveToField(Fields['firstName']);
Fields['firstName'].click();
Wait.forMilliseconds(150);
Fields['firstName'].input(firstName);

Mouse.moveToField(Fields['lastName']);
Fields['lastName'].click();
Wait.forMilliseconds(170);
Fields['lastName'].input(lastName);

Mouse.moveToField(Fields['userName']);
Fields['userName'].click();
Wait.forMilliseconds(200);
Fields['userName'].input(userName);

More dry

function fillInField(field, value) {
    Mouse.moveToField(field);
    field.click();
    Wait.forMilliseconds(200);
    field.input(value);
}

fillInField(Fields['firstName'], firstName);
fillInField(Fields['lastName'], lastName);
fillInField(Fields['userName'], userName);

More dry?

function fillInField(fieldName, value) {
    var field = Fields[fieldName];
    Mouse.moveToField(field);
    field.click();
    Wait.forMilliseconds(200);
    field.input(value);
}

fillInField('firstName', firstName);
fillInField('lastName', lastName);
fillInField('userName', userName);

Taking it too far

function fillInFields(fieldInputs) {
    for (var i = 0; fieldInputs && i < fieldInputs.length; i++) {
        var fieldName = fieldInputs[i][0];
        var value = fieldInputs[i][1];
        var field = Fields[fieldName];
        Mouse.moveToField(field);
        field.click();
        Wait.forMilliseconds(200);
        field.input(value);
    }
}

fillInFields([
    ['firstName', firstName],
    ['lastName', lastName],
    ['userName', userName],
]);

Promoting functions to flow modules

• Avoid duplication between flows

var inputFunctions = Flow.include('input-functions');

inputFunctions.fillInField('firstName', firstName);
inputFunctions.fillInField('lastName', lastName);
inputFunctions.fillInField('userName', userName);

• Who maintains the module?
• Procedure for changing the module
• Check usage under flow settings

Safe changes in shared functions

• Backwards compatible change

function formatDate(date) {
    return [date.getFullYear(), date.getMonth() + 1, date.getDate()].join('-');
}
exports = { formatDate: formatDate };

=>

function formatDate(date, includeTime) {
    var timeOfDay = includeTime ? ' ' + date.getHours() + ':' + date.getMinutes() : '';
    return [date.getFullYear(), date.getMonth() + 1, date.getDate()].join('-') + timeOfDay;
}
exports = { formatDate: formatDate };

Readability / Intent

• Well named flow modules, functions, variables

// Don't be lazy and do this!
function input(f, v) {
    var _f = Fields[f];
    // Loop over fields and input the text
    Mouse.moveToField(f);
        _f.click();
       Wait.forMilliseconds(200);
        _f.input(v);
}

• Get used to the auto-formatting and other agreed upon code formatting guidelines
• Comments only where you expect a reader (eg future you) may misunderstand or overlook hidden complexity

Using Fields

• Static vs dynamic Fields
• Finding fields with .find / .findAll
• Using the Field finder

Static vs. dynamic Fields

Static Fields

    const myButtonField = Fields['Button'];

Static vs. dynamic Fields

Static Fields

Pros

• Centralized overview
  • All fields for an application are listed in one place in Cuesta Application, making it easy to audit, rename, and manage them.
• Reusable across flows
  • Define once, reference by name with Fields[‘Name’] in any flow for that application. No duplication.
• Easier maintenance
  • If a UI element path changes, you update it in one place rather than searching through code.

Static vs. dynamic Fields

Static Fields

Cons

• Less flexible
  • If the path needs to be constructed dynamically at runtime (e.g. clicking row N in a table, or a path that depends on a variable), a static field can’t do that.
• Hard to prototype
  • You can’t quickly test a Field that requires extra logic. Every field needs to be created through Cuesta’s UI first.

Static vs. dynamic Fields

Dynamic Fields

    const myButtonField = new Field('**/path/to/button');

Static vs. dynamic Fields

Dynamic Fields

Pros

• Quick prototyping
  • Spin up the Debug.ger REPL or in a Flow to test some your logic.

      const buttonField = new Field('**/path/to/button')
      // I need focus or else I won't click!
      buttonField.focus();
      buttonField.click();
    

• Flexible and parameterized
  • You can build paths at runtime using variables, e.g. new Field('**/Table/**/Row#' + rowIndex + '/Edit').

Static vs. dynamic Fields

Dynamic Fields

Cons

• Scattered across code
  • Fields live inside flow scripts, so there’s no single place to see all the fields an application uses.
• Duplication risk
  • The same path might be written in multiple flows. If the UI changes, you need to find and fix every instance.

Finding Fields with .find / .findAll

What are they

• Convenience methods for searching inside a field’s structure.
  • think querySelector / querySelectorAll but for Manatee fields.

find → returns the first match

findAll → returns an array of ALL matches

Finding Fields with find / findAll

.find()

// Find the first button in the UI with a predicate

// match with string
new Field("**/Panel").find("OK").click();       
// match with regex
new Field("**/Panel").find(/OK(AY)?/).click();
// match with custom predicate
new Field("**/Panel").find(function(field) {
    return field["type"] === "button" && field["name"] === "OKAY";
}).click();

Finding Fields with find / findAll

.findAll()

Same with findAll

// Find ALL the buttons in the UI with a predicate

// match with string
new Field("**/Panel").findAll("OK").forEach(field => field.click());       
// match with regex
new Field("**/Panel").findAll(/OK(AY)?/).forEach(field => field.click());
// match with custom predicate
new Field("**/Panel").findAll(function(field) {
    return field["type"] === "button" && field["name"] === "OKAY";
}).forEach(field => field.click());

Finding Fields with find / findAll

DEMO

• What if I want to find all input fields with a certain labels?

const form = new Field('**/ui form');
const labels = ['Name', 'Billing Address', 'Card Number', 'Card Type', 'Country'];

const res = _.map(labels, function(label) {
    // I will return null if the label was not found
    return form.find({ byPath: '**/field/**/' + label + '<above>input' });
});

res.forEach(field => field.highlight());

Field Finder

How to use the Field Finder

Start the field finder
Click the green crosshair button — it will automatically focus the target application

↓

Point and click
Hover over the desired element and click to select it

↓

Inspect generated paths
Cuesta suggests multiple path alternatives — some may be more robust than the default

↓

Test the field
Use the toolbar to inspect, read, click — or run inline code directly

Field Finder

Neat tricks part 1

• Right-click path editing
  • Don’t manually edit path strings — right-click on any segment in the path editor to get a visual menu for editing. There are three editors:
    • 
    • 

Field Finder

Neat tricks part 2

• Ctrl to pause
  • Hold Ctrl during field finding to freeze it. Navigate freely, open menus, switch tabs — then release to resume. Useful for elements hidden behind interactions.
• Test with Highlight
  • Always click the Highlight button after defining a field. It highlights the matched element in the live app — if the wrong element lights up, your path needs tweaking.

Defensive programming

1. Enter data
2. Validate data
3. If possible—check data that has been transformed

• Consider making an alternative field definitions to read data for validation

Defensive programming

Defensive programming

Interacting with the user

• Dialogs
• Notifications
• Stickies
• Notifications
• Tips
• Progress

Plugin modules

Built-in modules
Flow-modules
Plugin modules

const PdfBuilder = Module.load('PdfBuilder', { version: "v2.2.0" } );

Examples of modules you have to “load”:
Audio, Compress, Image, Network, Ocr, OpenAI, Outlook, Pdf, PdfBuilder, Screens

Use Module.list() to see all the modules, and all versions that are available.

Audio module

Play sounds and synthesize speech from automation flows.

Key capabilities

• Speak text using built-in speech synthesis
• Play .wav audio files on the local machine
• Generate speech in multiple languages
• Select voices and audio output options

var audio = Module.load("Audio");
audio.say("Automation completed successfully");

Compress module

Compress and extract files within automation flows.

Key capabilities

• Compress one or multiple files
• Create archives in different formats
• Extract existing archives

Supported formats

• zip, tar, tar.gz, brotli

PdfBuilder module

Create and manipulate PDF documents in automation flows.

Key capabilities

• Generate PDF documents from HTML
• Fill out PDF forms programmatically
• Extract form fields from existing PDFs
• Flatten PDFs to make them non-editable

var pdfBuilder = Module.load("PdfBuilder");
var pdf = pdfBuilder.create("<h1>Hello World</h1>");
pdf.saveAs("invoice.pdf");

Image module

Process and manipulate images within automation flows.

Key capabilities

• Load and save image files
• Resize and crop images
• Convert between image formats
• Apply basic transformations

var imageModule = Module.load("Image");
var croppedImage = imageModule.crop(imageBytes, 10, 10, 100, 100);

Network module

Interact with external systems and services over HTTP.

Key capabilities

• Send HTTP requests (GET, POST, etc.)
• Upload and download files
• Handle request headers and parameters
• Parse responses from APIs

var network = Module.load("Network", { version: "v1.0.0" });
var result = network.ping("sirenia.eu");

OCR module

Extract text from images and scanned documents.

Key capabilities

• Recognize text from images
• Process screenshots and scanned files
• Support multiple languages
• Return recognized text for further processing

var ocr = Module.load("Ocr", {version: "vX.Y.Z"});
var result = ocr.readPdf("/Users/robot/Desktop/test.pdf", {lang: "Danish"});

Outlook module

Interact with Microsoft Outlook from automation flows.

Key capabilities

• Read emails from Outlook folders
• Send new emails
• Access attachments
• Manage folders and messages

const outlook = Module.load("Outlook", {version: "2.0.4"});
outlook.send({
    to: "john@doe.org",
    subject: "Hello",
    body: "Hello John!"
});

Screens module

Interact with the computer screen and capture screenshots.

Key capabilities

• Capture screenshots
• Capture specific screen regions
• Work with multiple displays
• Provide images for OCR or Image processing

var screens = Module.load("Screens", { version: "v1.0.0" });
var primaryScreen = screens.primary;
var bounds = primaryScreen.bounds;

Debugging and Logging with Analytics

• Why is it useful?
• How to use it?
• If you want to dig deeper

Debugging and Logging with Analytics

Why is it useful?

Lots of users

Lots of robots

Lots of executions

→

Lots of data!

→

Structure

Log

Debugging and Logging with Analytics

How to use it?

• Visualize
• Dashboard
• Discover ← This is the most important part

Debugging and Logging with Analytics

Visualize

↓

Debugging and Logging with Analytics

Dashboard

A bundle of visualizations!

Debugging and Logging with Analytics

Discover

• Inspect all the Logs
• Investigate
• Filters

Debugging and Logging with Analytics

If you want to dig deeper

• Kibana Guide

  • https://www.elastic.co/demo-gallery

• Training-how-to-series

  • https://www.elastic.co/docs/get-started/the-stack

Cosmic module

General Functions

Cosmic module

Cosmic module

Shared functions module (from Sussa migrations)

Cosmic module

Note module Java

Cosmic module

Note module html

Cosmic module

• Medication module
• Vaccination module

Cosmic module

• htmlLib (html journal anteckning)

Group expressions

Groups are used by Manatee to determine what application and flow are available in a specific instance of Manatee.

To make it easier to control this behavior we are now introducing Group expressions.

With Group expressions you can set up rules like:

• All of the conditions must be met (and condition)
• One of the conditions must be met (or condition)
• All of the conditions must not be met (not condition)

These conditions can be nested to create more complex rules.

Group expressions

Use cases

• Define a group and use it in several flows. Change the group in one place
• Define groups from different perspective and combine them
• Create a group that is a combination of several groups
• ‘Subtract’ a few users from a large AD-group

Group expressions

(AKM_MALMO OR AKM_LUND) AND (DOKTORER OR SYSTRAR)